gate

Gates Foundation offers $100k for 'next-gen condom'

We're not quite sure what a next-generation condom would look like (gesture control? a tiny touch screen?), but we may find out sooner rather than later if the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation succeeds in its new quest.

The foundation is seeking new ideas that improve on condom design, which it describes as having seen "very little technological improvement in the last 50 years." The winning proposal gets a cool $100,000, and could potentially earn more in additional funding.

The foundation suggests that if a redesigned condom could enhance a sexual experience and not detract from it, more men would use one, therefore reducing disease transmission, unwanted pregnancies, and so on. The request also seeks ideas "that increase ease-of-use for male and female condoms, for example better packaging or designs that are easier to properly apply. In addition, attributes that address and overcome cultural barriers are also desired." … Read more

The 404 1,233: Where we stick a fork in it (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Bill Gates will grant you $100,000 to invent a next-gen condom.

- "Now That's What I Call Music" documentary coming soon.

- Dongle jokes and a tweet lead to firings, threats, DDoS attacks.

- And of course, a silver lining: http://forkmydongle.com.

Bathroom break video: NHL celebrates 20-year anniversary of NHL '94 in awesome throwback fashion.… Read more

With a drop of liquid, IBM develops a new microchip switch

IBM has come up with a new technique for making the tiny switches and memory cells at the heart of computer chips: a drop of ionic liquid.

The technique converts a metal oxide on a computer chip from a conducting to an insulating state and back again, a transition that, using a different approach, is at the heart of conventional semiconductor chips today. Insulators don't conduct electricity and conductors do, so changing a material's state is instrumental to how it performs the logical operations of computer processing.

Today's semiconductor chips work by applying electrical voltage to a &… Read more

Bill Gates: I wish Obama had more power

One of the many lovely things about engineers is that they like to get things done.

Bill Gates is an excellent example. You might not always like how he gets things done -- or even what gets done -- but done it gets.

The lack of ability to get things done is one of the Microsoft chairman's greatest frustrations.

He expressed this quite eloquently yesterday when being interviewed at Politico's "Playbook Cocktails" event.

Indeed, as the Daily Caller reports, he said he sympathized with President Obama for having to work with some of the halfwits in … Read more

'Pintsized' malware bypassed GateKeeper to affect tech companies

New findings show the recent malware attack that affected employees of Facebook, Apple, and Twitter was able to do so in part by bypassing Apple's GateKeeper security system in OS X.

Gatekeeper is a new technology in OS X Mountain Lion that allows programs to only execute if they are properly signed or if they only come from the Mac App Store. This works by the system blocking all execution and then settings up group-based rules to allow specific program types to run. For example, the default rule sets are for signed applications and those from the Mac App … Read more

Bill Gates still world's second richest person

Bill Gates is now worth $67 billion. But he's still only No. 2 among the world's wealthiest people.

Released today, Forbes' ranking of the richest people on the planet found Gates' fortune up $6 billion this year. The increase came not so much from Microsoft stock, which has shown little sign of life recently, but from other financial holdings and private investments.

More importantly, Forbes dubbed Gates the world's most generous person. Microsoft's chairman continues to devote a large amount of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of wiping out … Read more

Zuckerberg and Gates join the learn-to-code movement

Hey, kids: coding is cool -- so cool that everyone from Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to NBA baller Chris Bosh wants you to do it.

The celebrities are using their star power to draw attention to Code.org, a nascent nonprofit foundation that seeks to cultivate computer programming education in schools and direct people to online coding tools.

Zuckerberg and Bosh join hip-hop artist Will.i.am, Microsoft legend Bill Gates, Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, and others in a new YouTube video designed to get students, and their teachers by association, excited about coding. The video is directed by … Read more

Bill Gates 'not satisfied' with Microsoft's innovations

Although Bill Gates stepped away from his day-to-day role at Microsoft nearly five years ago, he still keeps a close eye on the company he co-founded -- and he isn't always happy with what he sees.

During an interview broadcast this morning on CBS This Morning, the Microsoft chairman was asked by Charlie Rose whether he was happy with Steve Ballmer's performance as chief executive. Noting that there have been "many amazing things" accomplished under Ballmer's leadership in the past couple of years, Gates said he was not satisfied with the company's innovations.

"… Read more

Bill Gates bullish on robots and speech, has WinFS regrets

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is doing his first-ever Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit today.

Gates started posting answers to questions promptly at 10:45 a.m. PT, as planned. From the introduction, it seemed clear Gates intended to focus the AMA on his job heading the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ("Many of you know me from my Microsoft days. The company remains very important to me and I'm still chairman. But today my full time work is with the foundation.")

But one of the first questions Gates answered was about Microsoft. Here's the exchange:… Read more

Bill Gates defends Bing and Windows 8

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told Reddit users today that Bing is a "better product" than Google and that Windows 8 is a "huge advance."

A Redditor asked the ridiculously wealthy philanthropist during a Reddit Q&A event, dubbed an an "ask me anything" session, "Do you guys really use Bing? I mean seriously..."

Gates referenced Bing's campaign to prove that it produces results faster than Google search: "Seriously Bing is the better product at this point. Try the challenge. I am biased but the work to make Bing better … Read more