Thursday, August 03, 2006

An Open Letter to Bill Gates

Dear Bill Kor,

Before I get to the point of this letter, please let me congratulate you for making it to your 11th year as the Number One on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People".


Your unique talent and foresight has truly played its part well in building your business empire that spans all around the world.
Today you can sleep at night with the comfort that 75% (or more) of the people in the Developed World have used Windows at least once and 100% of the people in the financial world have heard of "Microsoft".

The most admirable part of you is that you have the chance to be the Richest Man in the World by far but you turn it away by donating over USD29 billion to charity (since 2000) knowing that you love your money but there are some people in the world who need it more than you do.
That is truly very admirable.

But speaking of charity, let me bring you to the reason why I'm writing this letter. You've never heard of me but my name is Tim and I'm a little small town boy from Southeast Asia trying his luck at dotcom glory.


I've been using computers all my life but I never really knew how much a licensed copy of your software costs since I always buy my computers in packages.

But when it comes to running a dotcom startup, I've come to terms with the fact that dotcoms have no money. So we buy and assemble our own PCs to save some money.
One thing we never could not save money by assembling ourselves though... is Microsoft Windows.

Each copy costs AT LEAST RM300. In the past 2 weeks I have bought altogether 5 copies of Windows XP causing my family to go without food for 2 days. As you can see Bill Kor, it hurts.

Or as Eric Cartman from Southpark would say...
"
You're breaking my balls"... I understand you've gone through much hard work in creating Windows for all of us to use but please allow the amateur Economist in myself present an argument to you.

Today, after all your research & development, the Marginal Cost of producing each copy of Windows is very very low to you. With Google coming in with their own spreadsheet, it won't be long before they come out with Google OS.

So it won't be so painful (and a potentially strategic move) for you to consider giving discounts especially to small little dotcoms right?


Please Bill Kor...
Please handle 'my balls' with care...


And if you still don't care about 'my balls'... please think of the other people who depend on 'my balls' (or specifically: ME)

Like my beautiful girlfriend that I call Baby
... Or my pet dog Ah Bop. Ah Bop is 5 months old and has yet to really see the world.

So please Bill Kor, please don't 'break his balls' too.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

u can always not use windows!
but then again...

u cant.

Anonymous said...

err.. use linux?
lots of 'balls' involved in this post lol

Boss Stewie said...

dt... it's just... well u just can't NOT use windows... short of you going through all the trouble...

jamie: my team mates have never in their lives seen linux before

Anonymous said...

bosssss!!!!!
haha remember me?
i dunno why, but errr i somehow need to say this.
seriously and honestly, i have no idea why, but i have a shittily strong feeling that u and ur dotcom company will go far...
maybe not microsoft big, or the biggest in the world, but somehow i feel u'll go far.
so keep at it man!
im also a penang lang tho i cant speak a word of hakka to save my life haha
good luck man!
when u make it big, don forget smaller ppl okie?
by then ill have started the 'feed andrew fund' to take over urs so please donate! haha

Anonymous said...

hahahaha..... let's hope someone will forward this to bill kor

but like andrew said, i too have a strong feeling you'll make it big.

humble beginnings, my friends..it's always the humble beginnings...

Boss Stewie said...

andrew: aiyoo...nice of you to have confidence in my little dotcom at a time when it needs it most.. but i guess we'll all just have to see huh.. :P and no.. i won't forget you even if i made a little bit of money.

jolene: maybe joan can help me fwd it to bill kor... she works at microsoft right?

Anonymous said...

Linux is good, but windows saves you the trouble (or rather your balls) of getting used to it. =)

Rebel said...

I think Bill Kor ain't gona giver mercy to Ah Bop..

nooooo..cannot..his so cute..his balls cannot break so fast > <

Anonymous said...

fuiyoh..nowadays youngsters getting more & more advance d....

nowadays, young couples will buy a house first & den get married but after they are married oni they will announce they owned house d...

but Boss Stewie, go a step further, he setup his own company 1st...married or not i dunno ler dun ask me...who knows maybe they registered d....but announce later jus like the house above...

this is wat i observe abt the youngsters nowadays lor..very very good planning~~~

Boss Stewie said...

lance: plus i don't know what compatibility issues we will have

cheryl: now let's not jump to conclusions here... bill kor is a kind kind man

celia: alright celia.. i shall get married first before i even buy a house... jump first look later

Anonymous said...

There is such as thing as volume licensing. :)

Boss Stewie said...

yes yes.. but stewie's little dotcom has no volume :(

Boss Stewie said...

yes yes.. but stewie's little dotcom has no volume :(

WMD: Wife, Mother, Daughter said...

guess you got it right there,,, with R&D/network products, MC is almost negligible.

Like the way you find humour in everything/seeing the lighter side of things - an essential ingredient in becoming a successful & happy person.

Anonymous said...

scratch his balls to save ur balls !
kakaka

Good luck boss.. congrats boss...

Boss Stewie said...

do i really find humour in everything? heh that's something i never really noticed.. but thanks for pointing that out wmd

Boss Stewie said...

cely.. i think scratching won't do.. might have to consider massaging them

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha, poor thing.
Not you, the dog! ;)
Good luck with the new company, yeah!

Boss Stewie said...

eh... u should poor thing me first alynna

Anonymous said...

You said

Each copy costs AT LEAST RM300. In the past 2 weeks I have bought altogether 5 copies of Windows XP causing my family to go without food for 2 days.

It means that Boss Stewie's family spend AT LEAST RM1500 just for meal in 2 days. That's not poor Boss.

Hehe. Good luck in your company.

Anonymous said...

Boss Stewie..i dun think so..u are the family man at heart type....while every guys ur age will be enjoying first, ur come back from UK, havnt warm the seats at ur own home, u strait go find ur gf d....so u are famly-man type lor...ur not the playing type...even if u wanna be..kakaka

Boss Stewie said...

ricadoe: ok.. i never looked at it that way... alright fine u caught me there.. i was exaggerating.. i obviously don't spend RM1500 every two days on food

celia: aww... my baby would be so happy to hear that

こうゆうけん said...

I'm definitely playing type!

Boss Stewie different coz he is BOSS what!!!!!

Boss Stewie said...

no lar.. koyuuken is the commitment type