While the entire country continues to struggle due to the various negative effects of the economic recession, even the nation’s most wealthy individuals have had their share of financial loss. The collective worth of the country’s 400 wealthiest people has fallen by $300 billion to $1.27 trillion, according to Forbes magazine.
 
This loss of wealth among the super rich has also lowered the threshold for the “super rich” designation to $950 million from $1.3 billion in assets. Forbes has reported that most of the financial loss comes from tumultuous capital markets and plunging real estate values, but a fair share of …read more

Microsoft’s top executives earned less in annual pay and awards throughout the fiscal year 2009, the first year ever for Microsoft to have posted a decline in annual revenue. Despite the usual strength of Microsoft, the technology giant has found itself struggling under the weight of the sagging economy.
 
According to Microsoft, the fiscal year ended in June saw sales fall 3 percent to $58.4 billion, the company’s first-ever drop in revenue. In response to this, Microsoft has announced that it will reduce spending by $3 billion compared to its original fiscal 2009 spending plan, highlighting that Microsoft will take the …read more

In an attempt to highlight the success of the United States government’s work to improve health in countries around the planet, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is launching the “Living Proof Project: U.S. Investments in Global Health are Working”. At LivingProofProject.org, you can learn more about people around the world whose lives have been saved by U.S. health programs.
Melinda Gates hopes that this program will convince Americans to keep up the good work despite the harsh economic realities the country is facing.
Said Gates: “Bill and I are convinced that American funding for global health is working, because we have …read more

Since 2001, James Cash has been on the Microsoft Board of Directors. On Friday, Microsoft announced that he won’t be seeking re-election at this year’s shareholder meeting. Cash says he is making them move to make time for commitments, both personal and professional.
Said Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft: “Jim has brought tremendous wisdom and judgment to our board, as well as keen insights into our enterprise business efforts based on his academic work at Harvard. We appreciate all of his contributions and we will certainly miss his leadership and perspective.”
Cash is currently a professor at the Harvard Business School. …read more

The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development was given to Bill Gates on Saturday. Gates, who co-founded Microsoft and is one of the richest people in the world, was given the prize by Pratibha Devisingh Patil, the president of India.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was recognized for helping eliminate polio and prevent AIDS in the country of India. To date, the foundation has given more than $1 billion to health related projects and efforts in India.
Bill Gates gave a speech at the ceremony and commented about how India has encountered numerous health concerns but also pointed out …read more

I’ve always loved the slogan, Insanity is contagious; we get it from our children.
Well, I want to add another: Software makes you crazy!
My current gripe is when I’m writing along quite nicely thank you very much, and some weird set of mis-typed keystrokes changes the display, or hides a menu bar, or dumps the file altogether.
Or the fact that because, a couple of months ago, I traded my three year old computer for a new one, with the same operating system and the same programs, but for reasons that are totally unclear to me, the type size on everything …read more