Showing posts with label Bill Gates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Gates. Show all posts

Mar 13, 2015

Five Company Name Origins

Etsy, The online crafts marketplace tried to use a “complicated name-generating script” that never worked. Rather than fix the kinks, they ran with the program’s codename, Etsy, and told the media it was an interpretation of the Italian (“oh yes”) and Latin (“and if”) sayings.

Microsoft, Paul Allen not Bill Gates, came up with the name for their billion-dollar PC dynasty. He found inspiration from the creation of MICROprocessors and saw the future of computers in SOFTware, leading to the blend of terms.

Instagram, Seeking a title that personified the belief of “right here, right now,” the folks behind Instagram merged the terms “instant camera” and “telegram” to play off the app’s speedy interaction. It took them a week and half to think of something that could be recognized and “spellable” for bar crowds.

Sony, Combine the Latin term for sound ‘sonus’ with the American slang for bright youngster ‘sonny’ and you have the name for a billion-dollar electronics business. Founder Akio Morita believed ‘Sony’ was a way of letting the public know they “were sonny boys working in sound and vision” in the industry at the time. It is also an easy pronunciation in all languages.

Twitter, The social network considered Twitch. Former CEO Jack Dorsey was not sold on it, so he had the team pick a name from a hat and ‘Twitter’ became its dual-meaning of bird chirping and chattering to describe the service.

Mar 6, 2015

Random Interesting Facts

There are over two hundred corpses on Mt. Everest and some are used as way markers for climbers.

The tallness of a mountain refers to its length from base to summit. The height refers to the length from sea level to summit. Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, but it is not the tallest. At 33,465 ft (10,200 m) Mauna Kea in Hawaii is taller than Everest, which is only 29,029 ft (8,848 m). However, almost two thirds of Mauna Kea is underwater.

The US Supreme Court's basketball court is on the fifth floor of the United States Supreme Court Building, higher than the second floor courtroom, so it has been dubbed the highest court in the land.

Almost twenty five percent of Los Angeles is covered by automobiles and there are also more cars than people in Los Angeles.

John D. Rockefeller's wealth, when adjusted for inflation was ten times greater than Bill Gates.

There are over seventy various spacecrafts on the Moon, as well as a few flags, some golf balls, some TV cameras, empty packages and, human waste containers. All total over 400,000 pounds.

Nov 5, 2011

Really Rich People

Who are the wealthiest people in the US and where did they get their money? Half of the top 20 are from the computer industry and 9 of the top 25 are family heirs.

Four Waltons (stores) $80B, Gates (Microsoft) $59B, two Kochs (energy) $50B, three Mars (candy) $41B, Buffett (conglomerate) $39B, Ellison (Oracle) $33B

These few distort the numbers so greatly because their wealth is so great. Over a quarter trillion dollars with just that handful of people. Add the next bunch and there is another quarter trillion dollars. The top 25 added together are worth over half a trillion dollars.

The technology folks make up half of the top twenty and are all new wealth, made from working for a living. Their hard work and ideas created hundreds of thousands of jobs. Jeff Bezos $19B, Sergey Brinn $16.7B, Mark Zuckerberg $17.5B, Larry Page $16.7B, Michael Dell $15B, Steve Balmer $13.9B, Paul Allen $13.2B. Steve Jobs is way down the list with only $7B. Facebook produced 5 billionaires, Microsoft at least three and hundreds of millionaires. Apple also produced at least 300 millionaires.

Only 4 of the top 25 richest people in America made it from investing - Buffett companies and stocks, Soros and Paulson hedge funds, and Icann leveraged buyouts. Buffett and Soros are in their 80s, Kochs are 75, Mars are in their 70s and 80s.

It is difficult to estimate how many millions of people are employed by these few and how many lives have been made better by them. Difficult to fault them for being wealthy when we buy their stock, which accounts for the vast majority of their wealth.
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Dec 31, 2010

Bee Gees

The Gibb brothers were born on the Isle of Mann (by Ireland and Scotland) and moved to Australia in 1958, when Barry was 12. They were introduced to radio DJ Bill Gates by racetrack promoter Bill Goode, who saw them perform at Brisbane's Speedway Circuit. Gates renamed them the "Bee Gees" in 1959, after his and Goode's initials, so the name is not a reference to 'Brothers Gibb', despite popular belief. Andy was born in Manchester, England, shortly before the family moved. Their sister, Lesley appeared with them for a short period in the 60s.