On October 28, 1955, shortly after 9:00 p.m., William Henry Gates III was born. He was born into a family with a rich history in business, politics, and community service. His great-grandfather had been a state legislator and mayor, his grandfather was the vice president of a national bank, and his father was a prominent lawyer. Earlier on in life, it was apparent that Bill Gates inherited the ambition, intelligence, and competitive spirit that had helped his progenitors rise to the top in their chosen professions. In elementary school he quickly surpassed all of his peer's abilities in nearly all subjects, especially math and science. His parents recognized his intelligence and decided to enroll him in Lakeside, a private school known for its intense academic environment. This decision had far reaching effects on Bill Gate's life. For at Lakeside, Bill Gates was first introduced to computers.
[...] In the fall of 1973, Bill Gates left home for Harvard University. He had no idea what he wanted to study, so he enrolled as prelaw. Gates took the standard freshman courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard's toughest math courses. He did well but just as in high school, his heart was not in his studies. After locating the school's computer center, he lost himself in the world of computers once again. Gates would spend many long nights in front of the school's computer and the next days asleep in class. [...]
[...] Within a year, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed. B. History Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell software for the Altair 8800, a computer. In the mid-1980's, Microsoft, thanks to a contract from IBM, dominated the home computer operating system market with MS DOS. The company later released an initial public offering in the Stock market. The price of the Stock continued its rise into the early 2000s. [...]
[...] The code for the program was left mostly up to Bill Gates while Paul Allen began working on a way to simulate the Altair with the schools PDP-10. Eight weeks later, the two felt their program was ready. Allen was to fly to MITS and show off their creation. The day after Allen arrived at MITS, it was time to test their BASIC. Entering the program into the company's Altair was the first time Allen had ever touched one. If the Altair simulation he designed or any of Gate's code was faulty, the demonstration would most likely have ended in failure. [...]
[...] Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a few other Lakeside students (many of whom were the first programmers hired at Microsoft) immediately became inseparable from the computer. They would stay in the computer room all day and night, writing programs, reading computer literature and anything else they could to learn about computing. Soon Gates and the others started running into problems with the faculty. Their homework was being turned in late, they were skipping classes to be in the computer room and worst of all, they had used up all of the schools computer time in just a few weeks. [...]
[...] It was here that Gates and Allen really began to develop the talents that would lead to the formation of Microsoft seven years later. C. Roots of Business Career Computer Center Corporation began to experience financial problems late in 1969. The company finally went out of business in March of 1970. The Lakeside Programmers Group had to find a new way to get computer time. Eventually they found a few computers on the University of Washington's campus where Allen's dad worked. [...]
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