Cheer Up !

Bill, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett
have something special for the day !!

 The Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation Since it's inception in 2000 has committed nearly $300 million from its $30 billion corpus in the fight against AIDS. malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases in India. For AIDS alone, the Foundation allotted $200 million in 2003, more than the $146 million budgeted by the government at that time.  Gates's concern about India's health goes back to his deep regard for the country's human resource and its contribution to Microsoft's development. when asked why he had chosen to focus on India, Gates had this to say: "India has contributed an amazing amount to software industry as a whole and to Microsoft in particular. A high percent of our great people come from India, a lot of our key partners are based in India. So there is a desire to give back because of that."
Another reason Gates said he is focused on India is that it had both advanced medical science capabilities of the developed world and medical problems of the developing world, and it provided opportunity to study the diseases and develop cures. "So we want to make what we are doing in AIDS prevention a model for the world.

Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates - World's Richest Person, Preceded by : Warren Buffett, Succeeded by : None grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.
Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.
In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.
In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.
Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $6.2 billion on research and development in the 2005 fiscal year.
In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks.
William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$39.79 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2005, and employs more than 61,000 people in 102 countries and regions.
On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008 Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects. The two-year transition process is to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates’ daily responsibilities. Effective June 2006, Ray Ozzie has assumed Gates’ previous title as chief software architect and is working side by side with Gates on all technical architecture and product oversight responsibilities at Microsoft. Craig Mundie has assumed the new title of chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft and is working closely with Gates to assume his responsibility for the company’s research and incubation efforts.
Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.
In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information - a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe.
Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns.
Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.
By marketing MS-DOS aggressively to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft went from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry. Microsoft continued to develop operating systems as well as software applications.
By continuing to ensure, by various means, that most computers came with Microsoft software pre-installed, the Microsoft corporation eventually became the largest software company in the world, earning Gates enough money that Forbes Magazine named him the wealthiest person in the world for several years.
Althought a phony Internal legend says some 32% of Microsoft staffers are Indians, Gates estimated that it was more in the region of 20% in just the engineering departments. But he was full of praise for them, saying: "Our employees from India are making stronger and stronger contributions, its quite amazing."
Among the first Indians to work for Microsoft when it was still a newbie company was Remala Rao, who joined as its 39th employee and worked on Windows 1.0 which was released in 1985. By 2001, Microsoft had half a dozen Indian vice-presidents and scores of top executives performing crucial functions in both engineering and marketing Windows, Excel, Powerpoint and other MS products.
Gates is widely considered one of the world's most influential people  & is often characterized as the quintessential example of a super-intelligent "nerd" with immense power and wealth.


Warren Buffett, the world's second-richest person, is donating about $ 37 billion -more than 80% of his fortune - to foundations
run by his friends Bill Gates and by the Buffett family. The move is the biggest -ever single act of charitable giving in US.
The announcement by Buffett, 75, on Sunday comes just days after Microsoft chairman Gates  said he would move away from his day-to-day role at the software giant to focus more on charity work, and highlights the close friendship of the world's two richest men.
The total amount for the Foundation comes to about $30 billion.
That is the largest commitment to a philanthropic cause ever made by one person in US.
Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, is worth an estimated $44 billion, according to Forbes magazine. That makes him the world's  second richest man behind Gates, who is worth about $50  billion. Buffett took over Berkshire in 1965, and has investments in undervalued securities and purchases of well-managed easy-to-understand businesses.
Warren Edward Buffett was born on August 30, 1930 to his father Howard, a stockbroker-turned-Congressman. The only boy, he was the second of three children, and displayed an amazing aptitude for both money and business at a very early age. Acquaintances recount his uncanny ability to calculate columns of numbers off the top of his head - a feat Warren still amazes business colleagues with today.
At only six years,  Buffett purchased 6-packs of Coca Cola from his grandfather's grocery store for twenty five cents and resold each of the bottles for a nickel, pocketing a five cent profit. While other children his age were playing hopscotch and jacks, Warren was making money. Five years later, Buffett took his step into the world of high finance.
When he was 13 years old, Buffett filed his first income tax return, deducting his bicycle as a work expense. At the age of 15 In his senior year of high school, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in a barber shop. Within months, they owned three machines in different locations. At the age of  20, Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business School after learning that Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, two well-known securities analysts, taught there. During this time, Buffett also pledged to the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He is still active today, donating every year to the fraternity.
Buffett graduated and wanted to work on Wall Street. He worked as a stockbroker. During that time, Buffett also took a Dale Carnegie public speaking course. Using what he learned, he felt confident enough to teach a night class at the University of Nebraska, "Investment Principles." The average age of the students he taught was more than twice his own.
At the age of 32, Buffett discovered a textile manufacturing firm, Berkshire Hathaway, that was selling for under $8 per share. Through his partnership, Buffett eventually purchased 49% of the outstanding shares. He took control of Berkshire Hathaway at the board meeting.
Berkshire began to acquire stock in ABC. Trading at $290 per share, Buffett's net worth neared $140 million. However, he lives solely on his salary of $ 1,00,000 per year.
Buffett entered in $11 billion worth of forward contracts to deliver US dollars against other currencies. By April 2006, his total gain on these contracts was over $2 billion.
At  76, Buffett announced in June that he would give away more than 80%, or about $37 billion, of his $44 billion fortune to five foundations in annual gifts of stock, starting in July 2006. The largest contribution will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.