Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 24, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Monday

A few weeks ago for our Microsoft Monday feature, we posted an article titled “Little Known Facts about Bill Gates.” While we all know Bill Gates as the King of Microsoft, there were still some things many people didn’t know – like his SAT score was 1590 and the top score for the test is 1600. Continuing on the same theme of Bill Gates, today we’re going to take a look inside his house with some photos and facts.

First, for starters, Bill Gates’ house is in Medina, Washington on a 5.12 acre lot and overlooks Lake Washington. According to Wikipedia, Bill originally bought the land back in 1988 for a measly $2 million, and the mansion was built over seven years. By 1995 it was complete.  As you can imagine, this is one wired house filled with new technology.

View of the house from the air:

One of the most interesting things you’d experience if you lived in this house is that you wear a pin containing a microchip which acts as your ID.  When you walk into a room, lighting, sound, and temp controls are customized for you. Any high resolution display that you walk by will know that you’re there, and your favorite art is displayed. And if you’re getting a phone call, only the phone nearest to you will ring. This is all thanks to the pin with the microchip.

Now we’ll take a look at some of the rooms in this house:

Library

If you were to peek inside the domed library, you’d find two “secret” bookcases with one of them containing a bar. Here you could sit in front of the fireplace and admire the Codex Leicester belonging to Leonardo da Vinci. Gates paid $30.8 million for it back in 1994.

Pool House

The pool building is 3,900 square feet and has a 17 foot by 60 foot swimming pool. While you’re swimming, you can listen to your favorite music underwater with the underwater music system.

Reception Hall

This is where Gates plays hosts to VIP’s and other social events.  The room features a large video wall made up of 24 individual screens measuring 40 inches each. At 2,300 feet, this room is capable of holding up to 200 people for a cocktail party, or 150 people for a sit-down dinner.

–Random Facts–

• The house is 50,000 square feet
• In 2005, the house and land were assessed at $200 million
• Annually, Gates pays nearly $1 million dollars in taxes for the property
• Over 64 km of optical fiber was used in the house
• 300 workers at one time were working on the house – 104 of them were electricians
• Every door handle in the house was custom made and cost $2,000 each
• There are no visible electric outlets in the house

Additional rooms in the house:

• Trampoline Room
  I’m not quite sure why you’d need a trampoline room, but I suppose when you’re Bill Gates and you’re the richest man in the world, you can have nearly anything you want.  Part of his exercise facilities includes a trampoline room with a 20 foot ceiling.
• Formal Dining Room
  Should Bill have 24 of his closest friends coming over for dinner, they can dine in his formal dining room in front of the fireplace. It’s on the third floor and has plenty of windows so that guests can enjoy the view. It’s 1,000 square feet.
• Underground Garage
  Apparently Gates likes to park his cars underground.  Part of this mansion is a 6,300 square foot underground garage. This is only one of three garages that are on the property, and it’s got room for 10+ cars.

–Random Facts–

• Hidden cameras are all over the property
• Floor sensors can track you – up to 6 inches
• As Gates is on his way home from work, he can fill his tub with water to his desired temp so it’s ready when he gets home
• Woodwork in this house (which is abundant) is flawless
• There are glass windows galore, and 7 varieties of stone were used to build the house
• The actual “living” space is modest
• All flooring is heated including the driveway and sidewalks
• Much of the house is built underground into a hill so it looks smaller than it is

–Additional Pictures–

–Virtual Video Tour–

–Wrapping it up–

So there you have it, a look inside the mansion of Bill Gates. Anybody want to swap houses with Bill? If you want more information about some of the rooms in the house, this virtual tour from U.S. News (while old) is an excellent source. Just click on the part of the house you’re wanting to learn more about.

Sources: Download Squad, U.S. News, and itmweb

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

When you have led a company like Microsoft for so many years to great heights, while being the richest dude on earth for so many years, it would surely take far more brains than dumb luck to be in such a unique position. That’s Bill Gates for you, but it also shows that there are different kinds of “smart” – especially when chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen managed to beat Bill Gates in a chess match in slightly more than a minute, as you can check it out in the video above.

(more…)

Bill Gates Loses Chess Match To Magnus Carlsen In A Minute original content from Ubergizmo.

When you have the undivided attention of one of the richest man in the world, who also happens to be an outstanding philanthropist as well as the co-founder of a company called Microsoft, the last thing you want to do is commit a faux pas. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon did. Gates was on the show to talk about his various philanthropic activities, notably the global campaign against polio, the show started off nicely with Fallon even branding Gates as “cool.” Things got a little awkward when Fallon noticed Gates eyeing his laptop, which if you have ever seen the show, has always been a MacBook, with an Apple mouse and keyboard on the side.

(more…)

Jimmy Fallon Awkwardly Hides MacBook While Interviewing Bill Gates original content from Ubergizmo.

This article was written on January 04, 2008 by CyberNet.

One of my favorite events of the year is the Bill Gates Keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). That’s typically where he shows off gadgets that many of us know are like 20+ years away, but it’s cool to watch nonetheless. One such example is the technologically advanced bedroom that Gates demonstrated at CES 2007, which is pictured above.

Bill Gates’ CES 2008 Keynote will take place on Sunday, January 6th at 6:30PM Pacific Time. Like always Microsoft streams the event over the Internet so that those of us unable to attend are still able to watch it live. You need to have Windows Media Player to watch it, and here are the streams sorted with the best quality (a.k.a. most bandwidth intensive) first:

• 750K Stream
• 300K Stream
• 100K Stream

Since we’re still a few days away you can take some time to watch the Bill Gates CES Keynote from last year, which also requires Windows Media Player. The really cool stuff doesn’t come until the end, so skip forward about an hour if you want to jump right in on the gadgets you’ll never be able to afford. 🙂

What do you think we’ll see at the keynote this year? I’m guessing there will definitely be some mention of Vista SP1, Xbox 360, new Zunes, and Windows Home Server. We’ll recap what happened first thing Monday morning.

Thanks for the tip Josh!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

Ever since Steve Ballmer announced last year that he will be stepping down as CEO within the next 12 months, there has been a lot of speculation about who is going to become the new Microsoft CEO. It would certainly be a tough job heading a company that has only ever had two CEOs, co-founder Bill Gates and his successor Steve Ballmer. It was initially rumored that Ballmer’s successor will be announced by the end of 2013, but that didn’t happen. Then it was said that an announcement will be made in January. While the month has just started, a new report claims the announcement is off the cards until February at the very least.

(more…)

New Microsoft CEO Might Not Be Announced Until February original content from Ubergizmo.