| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : MAY 17, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| COVER STORY
The Five Facets of Bill Gates's Tech Vision FINALLY, A SIMPLE WAY TO FIND STUFF Can't find that word processing file you're sure you created last month? You're not alone. Today, Microsoft's applications store data in a host of different places. But Gates's engineers are working on technology that will allow people to search in one way for key words in E-mail, databases, spreadsheets, and word processing files. INTERACTIVE WEB PAGES Most Web pages are created with technology called HTML (hypertext markup language). It makes for static pages. Now comes eXtensible markup language (XML), which allows software writers to easily embed calculator programs and other interactive features into Web pages. Microsoft plans on including it in all its programs. DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY Picture-taking is going digital. Today, it's complicated to use your PC to capture and edit digital photos. Gates wants to make it much simpler. Microsoft's upcoming Windows 2000 operating system will let people transfer photos from their digital cameras to their PCs just by pressing a button on the camera and pointing at the PC. 3-D IMAGES Digital images are becoming commonplace in PC games and other consumer programs. Now, Gates wants to go a giant step further, creating technology that will allow game players to swing baseball bats or golf clubs, record their swings with a video camera, and see the effects as 3-D images in PC games. For the duffer, that will be much more satisfying than making a bunch of mouse clicks to play virtual golf. JUST TELL THE PC WHAT TO DO The keyboard and mouse are fine for most computing tasks, but the latest ways to input and manipulate information in your computer are much more natural--voice commands and handwriting recognition. You can expect to see Microsoft make use of the gee-whiz technologies in everything from tablet computers to interactive games. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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 Remaking Microsoft COVER IMAGE: Remaking Microsoft TABLE: Building Microsoft 2.0 ``I'm Trying to Let Other People Dive in before I Do'' RESUME: Steven Anthony Ballmer The Five Facets of Bill Gates's Tech Vision Q&A with the Visionary-In-Chief ONLINE ORIGINAL: Why Microsoft Shareholders Should Cheer the AT&T Deal INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
