Fake Bill Gates Quotes More Boring Than The Real Thing

from the he-didn't-say-what-now? dept

Wed, Aug 2nd 2006 4:24pm — Mike Masnick

In the Jayson Blair era it's not so surprising to hear about some ethically challenged reporters completely making up stories, but generally when you do that you try to avoid quoting someone who might actually notice you didn't really quote them. That's why it's somewhat surprising to see that a reporter in Norway apparently faked an entire interview with Bill Gates. Of course, the interview sounds pretty mundane: "Google have been smart," Gates supposedly said in response to a question about the big search engine -- apparently showing how the fake Bill Gates is now affecting English speech patterns, using the British "have" rather than the American "has." There's also some random fake anecdote about he doesn't carry cash. If you're going to fake an interview, you'd think you'd have the guy come up with something interesting to say -- though, perhaps the fabricator figured the more quoteworthy the interview, the more likely he'd get caught. Either way, it's hard to believe he didn't figure sooner or later someone might notice that Bill Gates had nothing to do with the actual interview.

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30 Comments

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nonuser, 2 Aug 2006 @ 4:49pm

a much better interview with Gates
was published by Upside magazine awhile back.

http://users.rosenet.net/handy/notebooks/incoming/ChewFatBill.html
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ijakings, 2 Aug 2006 @ 5:20pm

English
'apparently showing how the fake Bill Gates is now affecting English speech patterns, using the British "have" rather than the American "has."'

I belive you mean, "using the correct, British, "have" rather than the American "has""
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awhite, 2 Aug 2006 @ 5:23pm

He did say one of those things
He did an interview with Donny Deutsch, where Deutsch asked him what's in his wallet and what he's listening to on his iPod. He didn't take the bait on the iPod (said he didn't have one) and said he didn't carry money.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2006 @ 5:29pm

Fourth!
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2006 @ 5:45pm

Re: English
That's the most asinine thing I've ever heard... neither the British way nor the American way is wrong. Bill gates is an American and therefore he would be using "has" rather than "have". Perhaps the author should have said "Bill Gates is now affecting American English speech patterns", or perhaps you should pull your head out of that tight fixture you call your ass.
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nonuser, 2 Aug 2006 @ 5:52pm

Re: Re: English
As an American, I have (has?) to admit that people from England not infrequently display a sense of humor (humour?) which may seem quite advanced.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2006 @ 6:26pm

Heh. subject/verb agreement: something optional in that quaint but warlike country across the pond.
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Whatever he said, 2 Aug 2006 @ 6:38pm

$$$
And RICH, don't forget RICH -- our money is good almost everywhere.

Warlike? We can't say the sun never set on our empire (yet).
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MIke, 2 Aug 2006 @ 6:57pm

English Lesson
The subject and verb agree perfectly.

Google is a company... a single entity. It's singular therefore you use has. If it were the people at google then you would use have because people is plural. A team is singular though it has many players (plural). Teams would be the plural of team. The team has.. the players have... the teams have.

Notice I used "If it were" and not "If it was" This has nothing to do with singular or plural but it is the subjunctive form.
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nonuser, 2 Aug 2006 @ 7:06pm

Re: $$$
Actually AC #7 was annoyingly ambiguous in his post. I think that was intentional and we should contact his ISP.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2006 @ 7:07pm

Re: English Lesson
Looks like someone payed attention in engligh class.
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john, 2 Aug 2006 @ 8:01pm

Inferiority complex?
I've always wondered why people have such an inferiority complex that what is correct in one country is therefore the only correct version.
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Haywood360, 2 Aug 2006 @ 8:31pm

Re: English
idiot
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nycpepe, 2 Aug 2006 @ 8:51pm

Re: Re: English Lesson
"payed" ??? take a deep breath, and then another one, before you attempt sarcasm..
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2006 @ 9:18pm

Re: English
British is no more 'correct' than American. The languages are similar, and mutually understandable, by and large, but are -not- the same, and neither one is more correct than the other, certainly not in Norway.
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Protoplasm, 2 Aug 2006 @ 10:18pm

Bill Gates is the Anti-Christ, so naturally he is going to deny this interview since he is manipulating the media in order to ruin a good reporters life!
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Effeminem, 2 Aug 2006 @ 10:20pm

Post #11 was the funniest thing I've read this week, unless you count subtitles on Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu.

"That laugh was less evil than usual.." - flatmate
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Paulus Maximus, 2 Aug 2006 @ 11:26pm

So now 'American' is a language?,now I've heard everything. I wonder how many words used in the 'American' language aren't in the English' one.

Haywood360: nice.
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pudro, 2 Aug 2006 @ 11:58pm

Re: English
No offense, but there was this war over a couple hundred years ago, and ever since then Americans couldn't care less about "The Queen's English".

Besides, it has always been my view that "British" and "American" are the respective dialects of English spoken in Britain and America. Any time someone gives me crap about using improper English, I tell them that it is because I speak "American".
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pudro, 3 Aug 2006 @ 12:08am

Re: English Lesson
And the word for that is "collective noun". As far as what might be considered "correct", the usage in the fake interview would be wrong in both British and American English. The "rule" for both is the same as in the above "English Lesson".

Go ahead and look it up if you don't believe me.
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Geoff, 3 Aug 2006 @ 6:27am

English
Actually, language can never be considered wrong or improper. Languages were created for one reason and one reason only: communication. Languages change and evolve on a near daily basis. As long as you can say something to someone and they can still understand it, you've spoken correctly in that language.

Look at old English. We certainly don't speak like that anymore, do we?

In the grand scheme of things, languages are man-made and as long as your fellow man can understand you, things like subject/verb agreement and who/whom are trivial.

Isn't there a war or something on which we can focus our attention?
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Unfair comment caller, 3 Aug 2006 @ 7:11am

Re:
What makes him the anti-christ? That he was able to use his programming skills to make an operating system and then use his business skills to market and sell it and since it was good people actually bought it and it sold so well over numerous versions that he is now the richest person in the world. Sounds like someone is jealous. Sure, Microsoft (the company that Bill Gates works for, not the other way around) is known for abusing their market power from time to time and knowingly releasing buggy software, but don't fault Gates (you know, the guy who has been helping to fight diseases, hunger, and support school systems in under-developed countries for years, so much so that he started his own foundation a few years back) for being smart.
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Neal, 3 Aug 2006 @ 7:20am

Re:
Heh. subject/verb agreement: something optional in that quaint but warlike country across the pond. Bush and Blair have been holding hands throughout the entire war.
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Neal, 3 Aug 2006 @ 7:25am

Re: Re: Sorry
That should read
Heh. subject/verb agreement: something optional in that quaint but warlike country across the pond.
Bush and Blair have been holding hands throughout the entire war.
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cookie, 3 Aug 2006 @ 11:31am

Funny :)
what a guy!
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Aug 2006 @ 11:35am

Re: English
The American "has" is correct. British English, being the origin of American English, is unevolved and thus drab and should be abolished.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Aug 2006 @ 3:40pm

Re: English
Right-O good chap!
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Peet McKimmie (profile), 10 Aug 2006 @ 3:17am

Re: Re:
What makes him the anti-christ? That he was able to use his programming skills to make an operating system and then use his business skills to market and sell it and since it was good people actually bought it and it sold so well over numerous versions that he is now the richest person in the world.

Actually, Bill's personal programming skills were limited to the creation of Microsoft BASIC on various 8-bit platforms. He used the money he made from that to buy in an OS, then sheer dumb luck to sell it to IBM for inclusion with their new PC range. If Gary Kildall had shown up for his appointment they would have gone with CP/M-86.

And as for Microsoft BASIC, it followed much of the specification of BASIC as laid down by Kemnay(sp?) and Kurtz, except he omitted the "MAT()" command because he didn't understand it. This omission meant that "proper" 3D graphics took ten years longer to emerge than would otherwise have been the case. That's why I hate Bill Gates.
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Ian Taylor, 5 Dec 2006 @ 7:15am

Re: American Language
So now 'American' is a language?,now I've heard everything. I wonder how many words used in the 'American' language aren't in the English' one.

American and English are distinct languages each with it's own lexicon and grammar rules.
not only are a huge percentage of the "common" words spelled and pronounced completely differently, phonetically and with different syllable emphasis, but a distinctly different set of words are also used, these differences have all the features that define a language.

English as spoken in England is refered to as "Received English", and very many americans (apparently) have some difficulty understanding this language, and are virtually incapable of speaking it, since they do not know the words, specific grammar rules, and the phonetics also elude them.
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Ian Taylor, 5 Dec 2006 @ 8:04am

Re: American Language
definition of language according to Encyclopædea Britanica

*note spelling of Encyclopædea (English) compaired to Encyclopedia (American)

language

System of conventional spoken or written symbols used by people in a shared culture to communicate with each other. A language both reflects and affects a culture's way of thinking, and changes in a culture influence the development of its language. Related languages become more differentiated when their speakers are isolated from each other. When speech communities come into contact (e.g., through trade or conquest), their languages influence each other. Most existing languages are grouped with other languages descended “genetically” from a common ancestral language (see historical linguistics).

Americans and Britons do not share a common culture - not even remotely
and much more than the Atlantic separates the two cultures
as reflected by our distinctly different languages, world views, and ways of thinking

English is the language of England
American is the language of America
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