The personification of the Great Computer Satan is fleeing Seattle for Rollover! That #%2(+~! little pipsqueak chicken$#!+ !!

REPORT: BILL GATES SHUNS USA FOR Y2K

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1999 21:44:08 ET XXXXX

REPORT: BILL GATES SHUNS USA FOR Y2K

Bill Gates, the world's richest man, is planning to spend New Year's Eve far away from America's shores.

According to published reports in Australia, Gates is planning to be on pal Kerry Packer's $40 million boat, Arctic P, for New Year's Eve. The converted Navy ship will be moored off Garden Island, the Navy base in Sydney Harbor, according to the DAILY TELEGRAPH.

One Australian newscast suggested on Sunday that Gates was leaving the United States in fear of Y2K computer fallout -- a charge one MICROSOFT executive called "ridiculous".

Gates' friendship with media mogul Packer, and a chance to be in the right time zone when the clock explodes zero are said to be the factors.

Gates has not publicly revealed his Y2K plans.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 20, 1999

Answers

Maybe Gates bought Australia, and it's his new home. How much could it cost, anyway?

Ed

P.S. ALK: The Peruvian government has closed Macchu Pichu (sp?) for the New Year's holiday period, fearing that revelers would wreck the ruins. So you can tell your wife that it's not your fault.

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), December 21, 1999.

Seattle fortress not enough, eh? Hawaii island too isolated? Need a Navy ship to bugout, eh?

Australians, stock up on rope!

Macs will RULE the world! Even more than the Squirrel King!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 20, 1999.

Australia, is that where they can't have guns?

-- torch him (spears@blades.darts), December 20, 1999.

Gates could get stomped by a roo.

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), December 20, 1999.

Screamin Demon: please please come up with a new/better one-liner. You have used that one ALL over this forum, and on many different days. C'mon, surely you can think of something else. I didn't even grin the first time I saw that.

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), December 20, 1999.

Lady Logic,

How about the Carribean instead. Wanna go Dutch ??? (***wink***)LOL

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 20, 1999.

If I had 80 BILLION dollars and knew that not everything was going to be finished I'd be on that ship too!! Seriously, if money really was NO object can you think of a better place to be?

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), December 20, 1999.

No where to run. No where to hide. Mister Gates will soon be Public Enemy # 1.

-- Mr. Adequate (mr@adequate.com), December 20, 1999.

Bill Gates first in lynch line.

-- weasel (git@him.gitcha), December 21, 1999.

I'm no Gates fan, but really, folks, isn't it possible that he wants a vacation for the turnover? My wife wanted me to take her to Machu Picchu (again), but we're too chicken to be in Latin America at this time. Maybe Bill's braver than we are. (Course, if we had his bucks, I guess we could have a 10,000 soldier escort.

Maybe he thinks everything's going to be ok.

Maybe?

ALK

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), December 21, 1999.

uh, duh, but, MS still issuing patches and band-aids and they know how many millions of homes and businesses have not applied them

-- they know (they're@toast.fry), December 21, 1999.

Yea right. The world's richest man is expecting major Y2K problems, so he chooses to travel half-way around the world and spend it in a lesser prepared part of the world- away from his compound and company. You people make toilet-slime seem like a PhD candidate.

-- for real (for@real.com), December 21, 1999.

Al K. has a point. But I still think Mr. Bill is expecting problems. I'm sure he feels Seatown is a prime nuke target. And certainly he knows his own software is absolute trash. Y2K may be the perfect wakeup call for the U.S. to stop buying software solely because its company markets it well.

-- Mori-Nu (silkenet@yahoo.com), December 21, 1999.

Gates is reported to have an island compound in the South Pacific. Sydney (eastern Australia) is much closer to that than Seattle.

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 21, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

FOR REAL SAID: ...spend it in a lesser prepared part of the world...

Australia is a better prepared part of the world and is also an unlikely nuke target.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), December 21, 1999.

Sleazy lil' bastard, ain't he tho?

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasan101st@Aol.com), December 21, 1999.

Dancr is correct.

In addition there are few *IF ANY* nuclear plants in southern hemisphere= no fallout due to northern trade winds....

-- RH (LtPita@aol.com), December 21, 1999.

IF his boat is remediated, it's a good place to be for a while.

IF his boat/ship is not remediated, or needs fuel oil or spare parts - which might be/might not be available, it a bad decision.

BUT - a few billion dollars tends to make even bad decisions turn out right......overall, this could be an important step "Bll Gates flees Y2K Disruptions!" is an important "awareness" headline to somebody who thinks he'll still fix it magically - but the news media will either present it as "rich partying" class envy to justify the Clintons' MicroSoft trial, or as an example of "no problem, let's party..."

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 21, 1999.

He's taken your money and now he's running. And people wonder why I use Linux !!!

-- a programmer (a@programmer.com), December 21, 1999.

Bill Gates..............

Who never had an original idea of his own. What a slimy, greasy, useless little toad of a man.

-- (Here@today.com), December 21, 1999.

Run Bill Run

-- silver bullet (slay@myth.nofix), December 21, 1999.

What!?! He's backing out on Bill's invite to the Millennial Bash???

But, but, Hawk said...

-- Jeane Dixon (@ .), December 21, 1999.

Remember that Bill's minions are working the rollover, and they have a whole stack of known outstanding non-compliances.

Let's not kid ourselves that Bill thinks there's no problem. He's making a conscious choice.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 21, 1999.

Let's see, a fantastically wealthy man chooses to jet around the world and hang out with his fantastically wealthy friends on board on ostentatious display of that wealth (a.k.a. a former Navy vessel turned into a pleasure yacht). Yes, this must be a sign that he's worried about something, because God knows this sort of thing has never happened before. I mean, we all know that the billionairs of the world are bound by honor to work in soupl kitchens and hospitals atending to the needy on New Year's Day.

Let's keep a level head about us here. Perhaps the guy wants to hang out with his buds on a holiday, just as millions of others will be doing. The only difference is the absolute cost of "hanging out" and the relative opulence of the hang out site. To Gates, the relative cost to him is probably equivelent to (or even less) than my fiscal outlay for the 20 mile drive to the friend's house where I will be spending New Year's Eve.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), December 21, 1999.

A Encounter with Bill Gates---Here on the big Island,my friend worked the Hilton Microsoft bash serving the visitors, Two days after the convention ended my friend noticed two persons wearing microsoft shirts and commented ,"So you stayed over huh'? Do you work for microsoft? The taller of the two exclamed NO,I OWN THE COMPANY! of course It was the nerd in chief himself,and without another word he turned and walked away. My friends comment,With all that money you would have thought he could have done something about his face or at least his personality!----A Question? Who's guarding the Lake front cottage in Seattle ,seems it would be a real target for the hungry minions.

-- Billdo Sucks (Billdo@moneycan'tbuyeverything.com), December 21, 1999.

Aw, darn! And here I was with lovely visions of him being stuck in the dark in the john with his little arsonal of remote controls that didn't work anymore! (He can't open or close any door of his house without a remote control...)

-- Titania Baildon (tbaildon@yahoo.com), December 21, 1999.

Bill Gates safe anywhere? With about thirty bodyguards, he was still successfully pie'd about a year ago.

-- StanTheMan (heidrich@presys.com), December 22, 1999.

OT: Software glitches leave Navy Smart Ship dead in the water

" ... The converted Navy ship ... " Billy Goat is not too bright. His crapolla s/w Windows NT 4.0 disabled the Yorktown dead in the water; it had to be towed several times because of "systems failures."

What a marooned ...

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 22, 1999.

Yeah, while we're bashing Bill, I'm bout had it seeing his ugly mug on 1/3 of the threads, the pic at the bottom.................

Make 'em ALL labradors.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), December 22, 1999.

Seriously, do you think Gates would announce to the world where he will be during the roll-over? My guess he is making a show down there and will mysteriously disapear from sight the day before or so to go to his real hideout - where ever that is.

-- K Taylor (KTaylorOre@webtv.net), December 22, 1999.

He's bought "premium" tickets for the Sydney Olympics too, maybe he's going to move here!

RonD

-- Ron Davis (rdavis@ozemail.com.au), December 22, 1999.