Reading comprehension please.

MS first used the XMLHttp object to make asynchornous server calls for an Outlook browser based application well before Asp .Net was even around.  Anything else?

The XMLHttp object was something MS put in Internet Explorer and no other browser had it at the beginning. Actualy before that MS had a little invisible Java Applet that was created to allow server calls to get data and change the HTML on the fly.

You've both been sucked into the MS PR comment about X-box and 360 that MS always spout. The original comment was made on how 'Dick’s assertion that Xbox is “at best an equal contender in the game console business.”'

Forget the details you 2 are arguing about, as MS PR has gone completely off topic spouting features and apps when the original comment was about business. Fact is they've invested billions into the console market and made very small gains relative to that investment. They're improving now business-wise but it's still very small gains in market share and profit compared to the orginal investment. If any other company tried to pull what MS did when entering the console market, they'd have gone bust.

Are you serious? DC had console online first, but Live (created on Xbox, not 360) has revolutionized the entire way people look at console gaming. They did it the right way, and popularized it. The Sega.net system and PSN up until recently were crap compared to what Live is. Live is still the standard to beat.

As with everything, the landmark isn't normally who did it first, but who did it in the right way as to make it hugely popular. And that was Live.

Actually it's MS eitherway as didn't MS help Sega a lot on the software side with DC? And a lot of the ex-Sega guys ended up at MS anyway.

Indeed, they were the first to propose the concept of the async requests. And that led them to develop a rich showcase of never-possible-before web applications taking advantage of it, and wooing the world of web developers... oh, wait, that was gmail and Google maps :) But they updated their browser to optimize its use in complex JS... woops, in the JS race among v8/squirrelfish/tangerine IE is basically sitting on the bench :)

Seriously, AJAX is an example of what I meant when I said that they clearly have people coming up with great ideas, but they often seem unable to dogfood and bring them all the way through to the next steps.

Google/Apple/Mozilla were the real force in pushing AJAX and more generally heavy-duty webapps: they optimized the relative JS engines, designed APIs, proposed new open standards. Google and others created some amazing, rich content. Meanwhile the original XMLHttp object was left aging in the ghetto of ActiveX, probably because by then MS' focus was shifting to Silverlight and they were aiming their guns at Flash.

(Ironically today the future looks brighter for HTML5+JS+canvas/SVG+new file APIs+new persistence layer APIs than for Flash. I wonder how long will it take for IE to catch up, and how will the Windows Phone 7 devices cope with it...)

Either way, AJAX is a MS innovation that other companies took and enhanced.

And MS added the XMLHttpRequest object to its IE scripting library soon after the initial draft specification for a standard was made.  It wasn't left in ActiveX.  This is a MS innovation that was standardized.  How the standard was used afterwards has nothing to do with MS.

And you do realized that before GMail, there was Outlook Web Access right?  Only people needing offsite access to their coorporation's Exchange servers needed use it.  Much like most of MS's software, it was aimed at business usage and not the populous.

The truth is always somewhere in the middle. I'm sure Mr. Brass has very valid issues with things, but his side is only from his perspective. I've always been torn on my feelings for Microsoft. I preferred Netware over NT4, but liked Office over the Lotus suite. I do not care for ASP.NET, but love MSSQL. I don't care much for Hotmail, but use Live Messenger everyday. I'd love to put IE's icon on a pike for making me create so many CSS hacks all the time, but I hope Courier is the real deal. It's just kind of weird really.

I thought that was the only way to comb your hair??? Perhaps that's what I am doing wrong.

@AJAX discussion: Microsoft create the predecessor to the XMLHttpRequest and used it in early versions of OWA. Once the other browsers implemented this feature, Google made it mainstream with Gmail. But Microsoft did create the original tech.

And what kind of software do you think they are going to use to do that research?  I'll give you one guess what company made it.  Keep in mind this is a charitable donation of cash by Bill Gates, not a charitable donation of software by MS, but these people still need the software and need to be trained to use it.  This also goes for the eventual distribution network that will spring up if they develop something useful.  Guess what software will be used for shipping orders.  Guess what software is done to handle inventory.  Payroll.  These aren't things MS is donating, but there's no they are going to buy non-MS products to do a project funded by Bill Gates.  And as for Warren Buffet, you don't think he'd invested in the pharmacutical company that is being given the money?  He's not going to own stock in one drug company and pay another to do research for him no matter how charitable he is.

Both of these men use their foundation in a way that continues to benefit them.  Yes, people are helped by their activities, but when you get down to it people were helped by the invention of Windows and that was a purely capitalistic move.  Helping someone, even if that's what you're claiming as your goal, isn't mutually exclusive of helping yourself.  If you're helping yourself, it's not charity, and just in convincing you he's a good guy for helping people he's helping himself.

I understand that some people don't get the idea of spheres of influence.  It requires complex, high-level thinking and attention to minute details, and if it were easy for everyone people like Bill Gates wouldn't have nearly the advantage over the common person that he does.  But what you have to keep in mind is that Bill gates doesn't think in terms of dollar amounts like the regular person does.  4.5 Billion doesn't mean a fat stack of cash like it would to you, it means he has the ability to direct the way thousands of people go about their daily lives - what jobs they do, how they do them, how they will impact other people.  Really this money is going to shape the way not just thousands by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, view Gates and the company he made, and the fact that helping others is part of the deal does not detract from what is really going on.

Yes, people will be helped by the Foundation, no doubt, but you can absolutely count on Bill Gates and Warren Buffet being helped more than anyone else.