Bill Gates is officially redeemed from presentation purgatory

[mcormier]

Whoever did the slides did a great job.

[seldo]

I was fully expecting this whole article to be a snarky exposé that he was using Keynote instead of Powerpoint.

[conover]

While the pictures are cool, I feel that using them as the background for some of the slides distracting. For instance, on the slide that says "26 billion tons of CO2" with the sun peaking around the earth, does the background picture really add much?

[tsally]

Lawrence Lessig does presentations like this [1]; I've always been a fan.

A great example of this type of presentation done well is Cal Handerson's keynote at Djangocon in 2008 [2], "Why I Hate Django". Previous discussion on this presentation here [3].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig#Lessig_Method

[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Fr65PFqfk

[3] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=305630

[aresant]

His presentation asthetic reminds me of the Bing.com interface which in turn reminds me of Corbis - which Gates privately owns.

He's always had a passion for imaging, interesting to see it just appearing in his presentations and in modern Microsoft products . . .

[joezydeco]

I thought he created Corbis because he wanted to corner the digital art market for picture frames and wall displays.

The technology didn't catch up so Corbis became a stock photography house.

[acg]

Looks great.

I heard in an interview once that Gates would like to win a Nobel prize. This looks like the vice president's route.

[ghshephard]

Unfortunately, his basic premise is incorrect. Key to every Carbon Management program I've ever read about involves Carbon Sequestration - I.E. Net Negative Carbon reduction. (Think about Planting Trees, growing carbon hungry algae, etc..)

Still, a really great presentation.

[roc]

Sequestration without first bringing production to zero is a Sisyphean endeavor.

[psycandrew]

Gates Favorite statistics is Childhood Deaths... Guess all that thrash metal never leaves the blood. (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/bill_gates_unplugged.html)

[philwelch]

I don't understand the thrash metal reference but I'm curious. Google only leads me back here.

[mrshoe]

I don't know what exactly was lacking from Bill's software presentations, but I really don't think it was passion about the subject matter.

[FraaJad]

He has come a long way since this: http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/11/it_...

[rbanffy]

More like "Bill Gates no longer makes his own PPTs"

[brown9-2]

You think he made them himself when he was presenting Microsoft corporate stuff?

If anything, the difference is now he can have a small team of professionals helping him, compared with a bureaucratic army of Microsoft's marketing department.

[mrcharles]

Is there video of this presentation online?

[MikeCapone]

No yet afaik.

When there is, it will be at http://www.ted.com/talks

[vladimiroane]

Amazing slides indeed!