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Saturday, September 8, 2007

Could He be the Next Bill Gates Microsoft?...


Growing up in an Asian country, I had dreamt about being a doctor when I grew up. My father is a dentist; two of my uncles are dentists and so is my grandfather. Naturally I thought I would follow the footstep and go a step further into the medical field. Unlike other Asian parents, my parents actually didn't push me to become a doctor. They didn't put much pressure on my academics. I suspect it is because they didn't want to put more stress on me since I was always sick when i was a child. They wanted me to finish college, get a job, get married and live a stable quiet life. I on the other hand had very different thoughts. I loved reading about great people such as Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, Issac Newton, Galileo and my all time favorite Christopher Columbus. I had aspirations to do great things, a great inventor, a great writer, a politician, a lawyer and etc. My dreams were big, bold and borderline unrealistic hence it was only a dream. Sadly having grown almost half of my life already on earth, those goals remain a distant dream. Well..maybe I still have a shot at being a great writer.




I didn't grow up in the age of computers. The closest electronic box I had was playing with my neighbor's Atari console. The first computer language I learned was Basic and I was already in the United States. I believe if my readers are under the age of 30, they may not even have heard of BASIC. What a contrast it is today for my son. We are in the age of super information technology. We saw the rise of the dot.coms in the 90's where overnight millionaires became broke the next year. In this digital world, we could waste so much space by taking unlimited pictures on digital cameras, and harddrives have gone from a normal 40 gig hardrives to terabyte drives. The common catch words are Ipods, Iphones, Wii, BlackBerry, VOIP, Myspace, Facebook, MSN, Windows XP, Vista, Youtubes, Yahoo.... I just can't believe "google" is actually a dictionary word!

My son actually watches youtubes more than TV and uses MSN Messnger to communicate with his grandparents in Hong Kong instead of dialing it up the traditional way. On Youtube.com, he is able to watch Chinese programs for free. I came home the other day, my son was watching his favorite program on youtube.com, my wife was watching her favorite chinese series on another tube tech which is 56.com and I turn on the TV to watch sports. It's like having three TVs in one household.

I often thought about what my son's future and pondered what would he become when he grows up. At the age of four, he is already telling me "daddy, I want to check my email" even though he doesn't even know how to spell his name yet. He spends a lot of time on online computer games. He thinks he is working or doing homework everytime when he opens up Microsoft Excel since he sees daddy working on his Excel reports so much. He would type randomly and pretend he is doing work. We even have a name for all our computers at home as a way of personalfying them in order for him to treat them gently. We name our laptop "Lappy" and our destops "daddy desky" and "mommy desky." He is always interested when I try to fix the computers and would play the role of a tech support. The funny thing is he would always grab his doctor's kit because he thinks lappy is sick. He is also fascinated with anything that has buttons. Since he has seen us using ATM machines with the touch of buttons, he thinks any machine with buttons would spit out money when he presses one.

I am not sure what would he be when he grows up but he sure does show a great affinity toward computers and perhaps who knows, he may become the next Bill Gates and create his software empire..., but we would let nature take it's course. (mommy's comment after reading this post--"dream on Dad!")

Stay tuned for more.

29 comments:

Becky C. said...

Do you anticipate that your son will turn out to be a mean and ruthless little geek? If so, perhaps he will be the next Bill Gates.

~Becky

Anonymous said...

We all have dreams and I admired you as a dad for dreaming big yourself and for your son. What's wrong with dreaming right!

Anonymous said...

Wow! the new technology at microsoft is so cool! I can't wait to see the surface technology

Anonymous said...

What an impact Microsoft office and it's operating system have impacted the world. It has become part of our daily life.

Anonymous said...

Hey Mommy! Ben Franklin was a big dreamer too. Nothing wrong with dreaming especially for our hope of the future children. The world will be a better place

Anonymous said...

Microsoft microsoft..what can we do without it! I really wonder..Hurry up and get your son in gear for some competition with microsoft!! Office and vista are way too expensive!!

Anonymous said...

OMG! Google is in the dictionary..what's next..

Anonymous said...

How funny! Lappy's We are going to named our toilet, toipy since our son abuse it. Just don't ask how he abused it and let's just say something exploded. BOYS!

Anonymous said...

Why do they make the new Microsoft office so hard to use! I don't really like the interface and it's makes my computer crawl. I am old and too slow to move already! My computer seems to age along with me after I install office.

Anonymous said...

I am a grandmother to 5 beautiful grandchilds. They are all tech savvy and one of them just said to me yesterday the same thing your son have said, I need to check my email pls. They are all growing up so fast.

Anonymous said...

Interesting and readable post. I wonder if the world need another Bill Gates - what about a new Open Source hero? :-)

Anonymous said...

First came Lotus then came MS Excel..I wonder what's next. Open source is hopefully the way to go to level the playing field a bit more.

Anonymous said...

Bring on the next Bill DAD!
The more Bills in the world the better.

Anonymous said...

That's a funny I-Phone commercial clip. Thanks for sharing and wish your son success.

Anonymous said...

We all should dream! Especially our our future. Great post

Anonymous said...

Kids nowadays are so tech savvy. I have a 3 year old that won't leave his computer alone. He is learning how ABC's on computer. I didn't even learn to type until I was 18 years old!

Anonymous said...

With the speed of how fast technology is moving along, who knows what will we all become one day. Everything could be virtual
Good luck to your son in his quest to conquer the world.

Anonymous said...

You got a bright kid there. Keep him up with techs since that is the future.

Anonymous said...

I remember the Atari consoles. They were fun and I was hooked on pacman. Nowadays the games are so complicated but my teens seem to enjoy them tremendously.

Anonymous said...

Wow! That surface technology by Microsoft sure looks cool. Looks like we might be surfing and eating at the same time in the future.

burja said...

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htttp://www.buryya.blogspot.com

cheers

burja said...

He he for sure he will come he is great player but anyway he was weak against our Smodiš :) I still celebrate our win :) yuhuuuu

thanks for a link, I link you already on my site

See you. keep bloging

Anonymous said...

Hey, if your son grows up to be the next Bill Gates, mine may become the next Paul Allen!

Anonymous said...

Long live the dream. Keep going and don't stop..your blogs tells me you have potential to be a great writer.

Anonymous said...

Yup..time is moving just as fast. My son is watching his favorite show on Ipods.

Anonymous said...

It is safe to say that information is spreading at a faster pace than every before. We can INSTANTLY know just about anything thanks to the world wide web. Not since the invention of the printing press in the 1400s have people been so driven by the flow of information at such a rapid pace. Truly exciting times!

As for the little one good luck! You can only imagine how empowered they will be!

Anonymous said...

Best bet is let your son grow up to be exactly who he is meant to be...himself. Love him for simply that and he will outshine the like of Bill Gates or anyone else for that matter.
:)

Peter said...

I think being a great dad and a great writer, like you are, is a excellent achievement. You should be proud of yourself! Hope you and your family are doing well!

Xerendipity said...

These are thoughts in the eyes of kids! Hehehehe... Yeah, parents just wants the best for their kids! But only a few can be named rich and famous. Not all!

www.writinerary.com