Best Free Video Conference Call Software – Windows Live Messenger

Although I seldom give credits to Microsoft but this one I can’t deny it because I’m an independent honest reviewer. :DHonestly, Microsoft really screws up in branding. At first, it is called “Windows Messenger” (now still available). Later, it is called MSN Messenger and now it is called “Windows Live Messenger”. What the heck? I think the MSN branding is the most successful branding name. Who the hell people want to call “Windows Live Messenger” instead of MSN? *Sign*I have been testing Skype, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger and it turns out that Windows Live Messeger is the best. At first, I thought Skype is the best among these 3 as it used to be an industry leader in VOIP technology but it doesn’t seem so. I tried Yahoo Messenger too and surprisingly it is not as smooth as I expected. At last, Windows Live Messenger is the smoothest in both voice and video. Perhaps you have different experiences?I recommended to use Windows Live Messenger for video or voice chat. In fact, I'm thinking if I should totally remove Yahoo Messenger since now we can link to Yahoo Messenger's friends from Windows Live Messenger. This probably saves up some of the resources.

Windows Movie Maker is Not Available in Windows 7

Very funny that Windows 7 has removed this Windows Movie Maker by default. I guess the reason is MS now package this fella as part of the Windows Live Essentials. Therefore, it is now called Windows “Live” Movie Maker. As usual, Microsoft likes to change their products name….To check whether you have already installed Windows live Movie Maker in Windows 7, just go to the Start Button and key-in “Movie Maker” . If the “Windows Live Movie Maker” program appears, then you already have that installed in your Windows 7. If no, you will need to download and install it from here: Windows Live Movie Maker.See one of my creations here! Of course this is the simple form of movie making but it is good enough for me. Enjoy!

Use PageRank to Detect Fraud Website - Secure Web Browsing

One of the very useful ways to check whether a web site is reliable (such as is this website a fraud website?), I always use the page rank to determine them. PageRank is the Google’s view of the importance of the page and it gives the ranking from 0 to 10.Those fraud websites are usually new and have no PageRank (i.e. grey out) or have PageRank “0”. So, what I usually do is I check the PageRank of those website whenever I have doubts (such as bank website and etc.) If you go to any bank website that has no PageRank or PageRank “0”, you may need to be be careful as those website are usually fraud.
You can see the PageRank of each website using the “Google Toolbar”. Check out my previous post on how to use and install the Google Toolbar in your browser. Most famous website (such as bank or large corporation) usually have PageRank > 5. Just move your mouse cursor over to the PageRank bar (in green color), it shows you the PageRank of the current page. Of course, please wait until the web page is finished loading.This is what I call secure web browsing using PageRank. Good luck & happy browsing!

9 Free Utilities To Delete Files Permanently From Your Computer

Hitting the delete button or cleaning up the recycle bin doesn’t actually delete the files from your Computer, it only removes the reference of the file from the file system table. They can be easily recovered using any recovery program. This can sometimes pose serious privacy issues if you are selling your hard drive or your Computer. Here are a list of some freeware that you can use to permanently delete files from your Computer so they cannot be recovered again.
1) Eraser
Eraser is advanced security tool for Windows which can completely remove sensitive data from your Computer by overwriting it several times with selected patterns. You can create a Data Erase task and have it run at defined times. You can even choose the file as well as free space erasure methods. It has got a simple interface.
2) Freeraser
Freeraser is another great program that can be used to erase the data permanently. It functions on three levels to delete the data.
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3) File Shredder
File Shredder allows you to choose between 5 different shredding algorithms for erasing the data. It also contains an integrated Disk Wiper which can wipe unused disk space. It has got a simple interface where you can add files and folders that you want to erase.
4) Disk Redactor
Disk Redactor enables you to wipe away the free space on your hard drive thereby overwriting any previously deleted files. The program doesn’t delete any existing files, it only wipes away the data that has already been deleted. It also supports single or double overwrite for additional security. It has got a simple interface where you just have to select the drive and hit the button.
5) RightDelete
RightDelete is a small application that can be used to securely delete data. It can even integrate with the right click context menu so you just have to right click on a file and select ‘Securely Delete this File’. The program uses seven pass method to erase the data beyond recovery.
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6) CyberShredder
CyberShredder is a small and handy utility for permanently removing the data. It has got a simple interface where you can drag and drop the folders that you want to delete permanently. It deletes data using three different shredding methods including the NSA approved seven pass file deletion method.
7) Secure Delete
Secure Delete is another free and small file shredder that can delete the file permanently and can even encrypt it so that when the file is recovered, it is impossible to decipher it contents. It has a simple interface where you can just select the directory that you wish to delete and the number of times that you wish to overwrite the file contents.
Ultra Shredder
Ultra Shredder is a small portable file shredding program that can delete files and overwrite the space with random characters. It has got a simple interface where you just have to drag and drop the files or folders and select the number of times you want it to be shred.
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9) Hard Drive Eraser
Hard Drive Eraser is another file shredder that can be used to securely delete data from hard drives. Instead of selecting files/folders, this one is used to clean up the entire hard drive or partition. Just run the program and select the drive that you want to erase along with the shredding scheme.

8 Utilities to Help Keep PC Software Updated

To keep our PC secure, we install Antivirus software and other spyware terminators. But installing the latest software updates is also essential from Security point of view. Not only will it improve its functionality but it also gets rid of any bugs that may have been present in the older version. Such bugs can sometimes make the system vulnerable to hackers so it is essential to keep your software updated. On an average, a user has around 20 + software installed on the computer. Manually checking for updates can take a lot of time. Here is a list of utilities that can help you in such condition.
1) UpdateStar
UpdateStar is a freeware which can scan your system for installed software and will produce a list along with available updates along with the download link and additional information. You can also configure it to check for Software daily, weekly or monthly. It has a huge database which supports a lot of software. A premium version is available which adds support for more software.
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2) FileHippo.com Update Checker
The update Checker will scan your Computer for installed software, will check its version and will send the information to FileHippo.com to check if there is any update available. The whole process is quite fast and takes only a few seconds.
3) Update Notifier
Update Notifier is a small utility which will scan your Computer for installed software and will display a list of updates.You can also monitor a few software using the Watch list.
4) Secunia PSI
Secunia Personal Software Inspector can automate the task of searching for updates. It will quietly run in the background and will display a list of critical updates along with the download links. It can recognize a lot of products as it also gathers information from online sources. You can also schedule it to check for timely updates.
5) SUMo – Software Update Monitor
SUMo is another free program that will scan your Computer and will display what updates are available for your favourite software. It mainly relies on social networking. If many SUMo users have a new version of software that you use, the new version will be proposed to you.
6) AppSnap
AppSnap is an application that simplifies the installation of software on your Computer. It automatically finds the latest version, downloads the installer and installs the software in one step.
7) AppFresh
AppFresh helps you keep all your applications, widgets, preferences pane and plugins installaed on your Mac up to date. It is Mac only.
8 ) Ketarin
Ketarin is a small application that can be used to keep Software Packages up to date. Unlike other utlities, it does not keep the system up to date, it maintains a compilation of the important setup packages which can then be burned or copied to a Disk.

101 More Great Computer Quotes

Computing
“I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them.”– Isaac Asimov
“A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.”– Emo Philips
“Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”– Edsger W. Dijkstra
“The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before.”– Bill Gates
“Software is like entropy: It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the Second Law of Thermodynamics; i.e., it always increases.”– Norman Augustine
“Software is a gas; it expands to fill its container.”– Nathan Myhrvold
“All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can’t get them together again, there must be a reason. By all means, do not use a hammer.”– IBM Manual, 1925
“Standards are always out of date. That’s what makes them standards.”– Alan Bennett
“Physics is the universe’s operating system.”– Steven R Garman
“It’s hardware that makes a machine fast. It’s software that makes a fast machine slow.”– Craig Bruce
Knowledge
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”– Albert Einstein
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”– Stephen Hawking
“The more you know, the more you realize you know nothing.”– Socrates
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”– Benjamin Franklin
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”– Confucius
“If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.”– Ludwig Wittgenstein
“Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.”– Mitchell Kapor
Users
“If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it.”– Linus Torvalds
“From a programmer’s point of view, the user is a peripheral that types when you issue a read request.”– P. Williams
“Where is the ‘any’ key?”– Homer Simpson, in response to the message, “Press any key”
“Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.”– Donald Knuth
“There is only one problem with common sense; it’s not very common.”– Milt Bryce
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”– Bill Gates
“Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs: Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.”– Donald E. Knuth
Internet
“The Internet? We are not interested in it.”– Bill Gates, 1993
“The best way to get accurate information on Usenet is to post something wrong and wait for corrections.”– Matthew Austern
Professionals
“The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That’s where we come in; we’re computer professionals. We cause accidents.”– Nathaniel Borenstein
“Pessimists, we’re told, look at a glass containing 50% air and 50% water and see it as half empty. Optimists, in contrast, see it as half full. Engineers, of course, understand the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.”– Bob Lewis
“In a room full of top software designers, if two agree on the same thing, that’s a majority.”– Bill Curtis
“It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter.”– Nathaniel S. Borenstein
“Mostly, when you see programmers, they aren’t doing anything. One of the attractive things about programmers is that you cannot tell whether or not they are working simply by looking at them. Very often they’re sitting there seemingly drinking coffee and gossiping, or just staring into space. What the programmer is trying to do is get a handle on all the individual and unrelated ideas that are scampering around in his head.”– Charles M. Strauss
“If you think you are worth what you know, you are very wrong. Your knowledge today does not have much value beyond a couple of years. Your value is what you can learn and how easily you can adapt to the changes this profession brings so often.”– Jose M. Aguilar
Programming
“Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.”– Abelson and Sussman
“Commenting your code is like cleaning your bathroom — you never want to do it, but it really does create a more pleasant experience for you and your guests.”– Ryan Campbell
“We have to stop optimizing for programmers and start optimizing for users.”– Jeff Atwood
“Low-level programming is good for the programmer’s soul.”– John Carmack
“It’s OK to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn’t need to figure out code. You should be able to read it.”– Steve McConnell
“If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as ‘lines produced’ but as ‘lines spent.’”– Edsger Dijkstra
“Programming can be fun, so can cryptography; however they should not be combined.”– Kreitzberg and Shneiderman
“Before software should be reusable, it should be usable.”– Ralph Johnson
“If you automate a mess, you get an automated mess.”– Rod Michael
“Looking at code you wrote more than two weeks ago is like looking at code you are seeing for the first time.”– Dan Hurvitz
“It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.”– Alan Perlis
“Less than 10% of the code has to do with the ostensible purpose of the system; the rest deals with input-output, data validation, data structure maintenance, and other housekeeping.”– Mary Shaw
“If you have a procedure with ten parameters, you probably missed some.”– Alan Perlis
“How rare it is that maintaining someone else’s code is akin to entering a beautifully designed building, which you admire as you walk around and plan how to add a wing or do some redecorating. More often, maintaining someone else’s code is like being thrown headlong into a big pile of slimy, smelly garbage.”– Bill Venners
“Code generation, like drinking alcohol, is good in moderation.”– Alex Lowe
Development
“Simplicity, carried to the extreme, becomes elegance.”– Jon Franklin
“A program is never less than 90% complete, and never more than 95% complete.”– Terry Baker
“When you are stuck in a traffic jam with a Porsche, all you do is burn more gas in idle. Scalability is about building wider roads, not about building faster cars.”– Steve Swartz
“Everyone by now presumably knows about the danger of premature optimization. I think we should be just as worried about premature design — designing too early what a program should do.”– Paul Graham
“Programming without an overall architecture or design in mind is like exploring a cave with only a flashlight: You don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going, and you don’t know quite where you are.”– Danny Thorpe
“The best way to predict the future is to implement it.”– David Heinemeier Hansson
“We need above all to know about changes; no one wants or needs to be reminded 16 hours a day that his shoes are on.”– David Hubel
“On two occasions I have been asked, ‘If you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’ I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”– Charles Babbage
“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”– Albert Einstein
“Today, most software exists, not to solve a problem, but to interface with other software.”– IO Angell
“Good specifications will always improve programmer productivity far better than any programming tool or technique.”– Milt Bryce
“The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.”– Richard Moore
Quality
“Don’t document the problem, fix it.”– Atli Björgvin Oddsson
“As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.”– Dave Parnas
“If the code and the comments do not match, possibly both are incorrect.”– Norm Schryer
“I think it’s a new feature. Don’t tell anyone it was an accident.”– Larry Wall
“If you don’t handle [exceptions], we shut your application down. That dramatically increases the reliability of the system.”– Anders Hejlsberg
“When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code.”– Richard Pattis
“In a software project team of 10, there are probably 3 people who produce enough defects to make them net negative producers.”– Gordon Schulmeyer
“I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.”– Alan Perlis
“Program testing can be a very effective way to show the presence of bugs, but is hopelessly inadequate for showing their absence.”– Edsger Dijkstra
Programming Languages
“Manually managing blocks of memory in C is like juggling bars of soap in a prison shower: It’s all fun and games until you forget about one of them.”– anonymous Usenet user
“There’s no obfuscated Perl contest because it’s pointless.”– Jeff Polk
“Java is the most distressing thing to hit computing since MS-DOS.”– Alan Kay
“There are only two things wrong with C++: The initial concept and the implementation.”– Bertrand Meyer
“It was a joke, okay? If we thought it would actually be used, we wouldn’t have written it!”– Mark Andreesen, speaking of the HTML tag BLINK
“Web Services are like teenage sex. Everyone is talking about doing it, and those who are actually doing it are doing it badly.”– Michelle Bustamante
“Perl: The only language that looks the same before and after RSA encryption.”– Keith Bostic
“I didn’t work hard to make Ruby perfect for everyone, because you feel differently from me. No language can be perfect for everyone. I tried to make Ruby perfect for me, but maybe it’s not perfect for you. The perfect language for Guido van Rossum is probably Python.”– Yukihiro Matsumoto, aka “Matz”, creator of Ruby
“XML is not a language in the sense of a programming language any more than sketches on a napkin are a language.”– Charles Simonyi
“BASIC is to computer programming as QWERTY is to typing.”– Seymour Papert
“It has been discovered that C++ provides a remarkable facility for concealing the trivial details of a program — such as where its bugs are.”– David Keppel
“UNIX is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity.”– Dennis Ritchie
“Some people, when confronted with a problem, think ‘I know, I’ll use regular expressions.’ Now they have two problems.”– Jamie Zawinski
Security
“I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.”– Stephen Hawking
“The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards.”– Gene Spafford
“Being able to break security doesn’t make you a hacker anymore than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer.”– Eric Raymond
“Companies spend millions of dollars on firewalls, encryption and secure access devices, and it’s money wasted, because none of these measures address the weakest link in the security chain.”– Kevin Mitnick
“If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology.”– Bruce Schneier
“Hoaxes use weaknesses in human behavior to ensure they are replicated and distributed. In other words, hoaxes prey on the Human Operating System.”– Stewart Kirkpatrick
“Passwords are like underwear: you don’t let people see it, you should change it very often, and you shouldn’t share it with strangers.”– Chris Pirillo
Companies
“I am not out to destroy Microsoft, that would be a completely unintended side effect.”– Linus Torvalds
“Yes, we have a dress code. You have to dress.”– Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems
“In an information economy, the most valuable company assets drive themselves home every night. If they are not treated well, they do not return the next morning.”– Peter Chang
“It’s better to wait for a productive programmer to become available than it is to wait for the first available programmer to become productive.”– Steve McConnell
“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an interpreter.”– Nicholas Petreley
Predictions
“Two years from now, spam will be solved.”– Bill Gates, 2004
“The problem of viruses is temporary and will be solved in two years.”– John McAfee, 1988
“Computer viruses are an urban legend.”– Peter Norton, 1988
“In 2031, lawyers will be commonly a part of most development teams.”– Grady Booch
“I don’t know what the language of the year 2000 will look like, but I know it will be called Fortran.”– CA Hoare, 1982
“In the future, computers may weigh no more than 1.5 tonnes.”– Popular mechanics, 1949
“I see little commercial potential for the Internet for at least ten years.”– Bill Gates, 1994
“Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia.”– Arthur Summerfield, 1959, United States Post

Top 10 Software Innovators of All Time

It’s not easy choosing the best innovators in an industry defined by innovation. The nature of software is such that the technologies, systems and products completely refresh every decade or so. The triumphant invention of just 10 years ago is now considered “legacy” or even obsolete. So making a lasting impression in the software business is a tough task indeed.
Following is my list of the top 10 software innovators of all time. Inclusion on this list doesn’t mean the person came up with every idea or wrote every byte of code. Rather, these are the people whose leadership, ideas, designs and products propelled the software industry forward by leaps and bounds. Their innovations affect us greatly even today.
10. Dan Bricklin – VisiCalc
Dan Bricklin was co-creator of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet software available for personal computers. He received the Grace Hopper Award in 1981 for VisiCalc. He also founded Trellix, a website software company now owned by Web.com, and is founder and president of Software Garden.
VisiCalc was the first serious, mainstream business program for the IBM personal computer. It signaled the coming shift from large mainframes to small PCs, proving these personal computers could indeed be used for business. Many of the first IBM PCs were purchased just to run VisiCalc. Eventually Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel squashed VisiCalc, and unfortunately Bricklin never profited greatly from his invention.
9. Larry Ellison – Oracle
Larry Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 with $2000 of his own money. Oracle published the first commercially-available relational database and essentially launched the database market. Today, Oracle is the world’s leading supplier of database software and the second largest independent software company with nearly $10 billion in annual revenue. Oracle recently acquired PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems and Hyperion.
Ellison is living proof that business sense is an innate gift, not something to be gleaned from academic textbooks. A college dropout, Ellison is now a multi-billionaire renowned for his business sense, drive and ambition.
8. Shawn Fanning – Napster
In 1998, Shawn Fanning created Napster, the first massively popular peer-to-peer file sharing system. Fanning appeared on the cover of Wired magazine and quickly rose to fame. Napster peaked in 2001 with 26 million users worldwide. However, Napster also became the target of several music industry lawsuits, which ultimately killed the service. Since 2002, Roxio has owned the Napster name, which it used to rebrand its PressPlay music service.
Napster forever changed the entertainment business. By providing an enormous selection of free music to download, it enabled people to obtain just the music hits, effectively demoting the album. Napster also made it easy for music enthusiasts to download songs that were otherwise difficult to obtain, such as older music, unreleased recordings, and concert bootlegs. The music industry is still struggling to recover from the impact of Napster and peer-to-peer file sharing.
7. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen – YouTube
Chad Hurley and Steve Chen founded YouTube, a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. Google purchased YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion in Google stock. In January 2008, nearly 79 million users watched over 3 billion videos on YouTube. Currently YouTube hosts about 83.4 million unique videos and 3.75 million user channels. YouTube consumes more Internet bandwidth today than was used by the entire Internet in 2000.
YouTube has become a global hub of self-expression. It was one of the main factors for Time magazine’s declaration of “you” as the “Person of the Year” in 2006. It allows you to “wrest power from the few and help one another for nothing.” This will “not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.” You are no longer just receiving the news produced by media, but you are creating your own news and becoming the hero in your own movies.
6. Linus Torvalds – Linux
Linus Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer who initiated development of the Linux kernel. At the time, the GNU Project had created many of the components necessary for a free software operating system but lacked a solid kernel. The result is Linux, the world’s most popular operating system that’s not Windows.
Torvalds wrote about 2% of the Linux kernel himself, which is significant, given there are thousands of contributors to the open source operating system. Today Torvalds is the ultimate authority on what new code is incorporated into the standard Linux kernel. Torvalds owns the “Linux” trademark and manages the non-profit organization Linux International.
5. Marc Andreessen – Netscape
Marc Andreessen was the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and co-founder of Netscape Communications. AOL acquired Netscape in 1999 for $4.2 billion and made Andreessen its Chief Technology Officer. Andreessen was also the co-founder and chairman of software company Opsware (originally Loudcloud) when it was acquired by Hewlett-Packard. Currently he is co-founder of Ning, a company that provides a platform for social-networking websites.
Andreessen was 23 years old when he built the browser that launched the World Wide Web. The Netscape $2 billion IPO in 1995 propelled Andreessen into the spotlight and on the cover of Time magazine. Andreessen became the “poster-boy wunderkind of the Internet bubble generation: young, twenty-something, high-tech, ambitious, and worth millions (or billions) of dollars practically overnight.”
4. Larry Page and Sergey Brin – Google
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Ph.D. students at Stanford, invented Google in 1996 as a research project. The Google website launched in 1997, and by the end of 1998 it had indexed about 60 million web pages. In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords and launched the pay-per-click model, until then a rarity in advertising. Google launched its IPO in 2004, raising $1.67 billion and giving it a market capitalization of $23 billion, making Page and Brin instant billionaires.
Today Google has a market cap of $180 billion and owns 70% of web searches. Google performs nearly 6 billion web searches each month. Google has also become a verb in popular lexicon. If there’s anything you need to know, you “Google it.”
3. Steve Jobs – Apple, Pixar
Steve Jobs is the CEO, chairman and co-founder of Apple Inc., and is the founder and former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. In fiscal 2007, Apple had worldwide sales of $24 billion. Apple’s iPod and iTunes dominate the portable and online music markets with nearly 80% market share. The Apple Macintosh owns 8% of the personal computer market and provides an effective counter-weight to the dominance of Microsoft Windows. Pixar led the surge of software-animated feature films, including Toy Story and Finding Nemo, resulting in eight academy awards. The Walt Disney Company purchased Pixar from Jobs in 2006 for $7.4 billion.
Jobs “contributed greatly to the myths of the quirky, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design while understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.”
2. Tim Berners-Lee – World Wide Web
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is an English developer who invented the World Wide Web in March 1989. Berners-Lee published the first website on August 6, 1991. The site provided an explanation about what the World Wide Web was, how to use a web browser, and how to set up a web server. Berners-Lee made his idea freely available, with no patent or royalties due. In 1994, Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The W3C declared their standards must be based on royalty-free technology so they can be easily adopted by anyone.
Berners-Lee once said: “I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the Transmission Control Protocol and domain name system ideas and — ta-da! — the World Wide Web.” The World Wide Web is one of the most important communication inventions in history, providing a standard platform for global communications and commerce. Today there are over 100 million websites and 45 billion web pages.
1. Bill Gates – Microsoft
Bill Gates is co-founder and chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest software company with 79,000 employees in 102 countries and $51 billion in annual sales. More than 90% of personal computers use the Microsoft Windows operating system, and nearly 50% of web servers run Microsoft software. Microsoft also dabbles in cable TV, Internet portals, computer hardware, and gaming with the XBox. Microsoft is currently in process to acquire Yahoo.
Gates, the world’s third richest man, is leaving Microsoft in July to become a full-time philanthropist. His Gates Foundation is the largest in the world with an endowment of $38 billion.
Say what you will about Microsoft, but kudos to the man whose company delivered a world-dominant computing platform, offering software entrepreneurs a market 600 million strong and expected to hit a billion by 2010. When there is that much attention and opportunity focused in one place, we will continue to see incredible advances in software and hardware that fuel Moore’s Law and drive our information society.