Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates “wants to reinvent the toilet,” Scott Olson reports for TIME Magazine.
“This next big idea for the good of mankind will now also be getting help from German taxpayers after Development Minister Dirk Niebel earmarked $10 million for a joint project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” Olson reports. “Gates says it’s time to move on from the era of the classic toilet. He points out that, despite all the recent achievements, 40% of the world’s population, or some 2.5 billion people, still lives without proper means of flushing away excrement. But just giving them Western-style toilets isn’t possible because of the world’s limited water resources.”
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Olson reports, “Dutch engineer Frank Rijsberman… heads the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene department at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and he is presently working on two projects. With one project, the foundation supports the construction of pit latrines in rural areas and slums without sanitation facilities. With the other, it supports research projects, giving grants to scientists who come up with new ideas for using human excrement.”
“In April, Gates met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff in Berlin,” Olson reports. “In a press conference he told journalists that they didn’t talk politics, but discussed the idea of the ‘ultimate toilet.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t laugh, the old thief’s an expert: For decades he’s been churning out shit and getting suckers to pay for the privilege of dealing with it.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “NuBee” for the heads up.]
Paul Allen: Working with Bill Gates like being in hell – April 18, 2011
Microsoft co-founder Allen: Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer schemed to rip me off after I got cancer – March 30, 2011
Still no room for Apple products in Bill Gates’ house – October 25, 2010
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invests in Monsanto – August 26, 2010
Bill Gates’ other company fined millions for intellectual property theft – July 22, 2010
Bill Gates: ‘iPad is not quite there yet… because it has no input’ – June 4, 2010
Bill Gates wants to build nuclear reactors – March 23, 2010
Bill Gates: ‘There’s nothing on iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it’’ – February 10, 2010
Bill Gates has lost his mind: calls Apple liars, copiers; slams Mac OS X security vs. Windows
TIME Magazine: Microsoft’s Windows Vista ‘an embarassment to the good name of American innovation’ – February 02, 2007
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: Five years for a chrome-plated turd – January 30, 2007
Bill Gates’ sarcasm regarding Apple iPod: ‘Oh, wow, I don’t think we can do that’ – September 07, 2004
Um… Wow. I can see it, but… man, that’s… wow.
Control-Alt-Delete. There…done.
😀
Best post on MDN in a long time!
+3
You’re shitting me, right?
No way. I read somewhere that from here on out, Microsoft keyboards will have a shit key instead of a shift key.
Control-alt-toilet
; )
OK, OK… now can we just let the matter drop?
With a splash or without?
After Windows will be long gone into oblivion, Bill Gates will be remembered for reinventing the toilet.
And spreading viruses all over the planet.
Fitting. Gates is a commie and next they will be forcing this garbage on the American population. We have to keep government out of our hair and shrink it massively. Sick people these supposed masterminds.
Commie? What is this, the 50’s? Grow up.
Gates is up to no good. He’s been a regular attendee at Bilderberg, including this June, accompanied by Craig Mundie, Bezos of Amazon, Eric Schidt [sic], and the non-Zuckerberg guy from Facebook.
Bill Gates’ a communist? Okaaaaaay *calls mental hospital*
The cold war’s over son… we won…
Hardly PukeSkyIdiot. You liberals never stop until you get us to communism. What the hell makes you freaks such all knowing wizards of life. Stay the hell out of our hair.
Nick,
May I respectfully suggest that you drive over to Best Buy and see if you can get a clue.
By “us”, do you mean the United States? Just checking, because the article blurb above discusses a program with the German government. Maybe it is the ultimate end-around to make the US a communist country.
I’m still trying to figure out how you are making the leap from a private foundation putting some of their own money in and getting some government assistance is communism.
You realize that if an American company developed and sold such a toilet they would make tons of money and create many jobs, right?
I guess if you are not cutting taxes, shutting down the government, and banning gay marriage you are a communist.
Did we? Haven’t your heard, China just purchased the American economy, so who really won?
I believe Todd is referencing how the U.S. government mommy/daddy/nanny state is mandating which light bulbs its so-called “free” citizens are allowed to use.
Government isn’t a panacea. It is a necessary evil. Keep it as small as possible.
I believe Turd and Vote Nutters in 2012 are one in the same. Apologists for idiocy.
The US government has 300 million people working for it. Just 90% of them don’t know it. Did you vote in the last election? Then you’re part of the government. It is odd that so many people forget their civics class in school. They don’t call it the So’n’so Administration because they are “commies” or whatever. They *administer* the laws and that which our *representatives* have generated. Seriously, if you don’t understand those words and that *you are* the government, then you’re not much of an American. You can complain about the government but you, if you voted, put them in office. If they aren’t doing a good job, vote them out. The government is this country only does what we, the people, want. It is so obvious that most people can’t see the forest for the trees.
As a side note, society is defined as people living together in an ordered community. Government is part of that and is not a necessary evil. It is a function of civilization; how civilizations have functioned for thousands and thousands of years. Some forms have been better, perhaps, than other but government exists even in the smallest groups of people. It is just how our civilizations work. Small or big is irrelevant.
Are you a complete fuckwit? Typical American with no grasp of history outside of the borders of the US. Here’s a clue: Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung. They are Communists, Mao alone was responsible for 60 million of his own people starving to death. That’s
60 MILLION! Retards like you have zero comprehension about what real communism has inflicted on tens of millions of people worldwide. Gates is at least trying to help the poor, assholes like you would let them die, just like Mao, which makes you no better than him.
You wrongly assume he has a grasp of US history.
Fascism has caused millions of deaths, so has Capitalism, Catholicism, Fanaticism, etc. The problem with any “ism” is the exclusivity.
Actually this is huge for mankind. Good for you Bill Gates.
Yeah I like this, except for the part where Bill Gates is inventing stuff… it sounds like a good plan.
Right- no credit needed to Gates here- in fact, ideas about improving toilets have been around for decades. Kind of like most things we get used to, toilet design is moribund due to habit. Better toilets are possible. More efficient toilets are possible. Even toilets better designed for our anatomy are possible.
When will we get it through our heads – Bill Gates has never invented anything. What he did was convince a few key players that they could not live without the stuff that he bought and stole from others, and called his own. That’s a fact.
Nothing different happening here, he’s paying other people to come up with executible ideas that make him look important.
I don’t resent Bill for being successful, it’s the hucksterism by which he’s come by it.
To paraphrase an earlier post: From shit he came to shit he will return.
It’s OK. Don’t worry. He’s not inventing stuff. Buckminster Fuller was talking about this decades ago.
“Actually this is huge for mankind. Good for you Bill Gates.”
This is the first sensible post on this subject. The world needs a better toilet and I am tired of these idiotic water well projects in developing nations. When they build a well without putting in some kind of sewage system, the local water table becomes polluted within 5 years and spreads disease to the locals.
Bill is going to have a hard time developing this toilet though because Apple hasn’t invented it yet and there is no pattern to follow.
I’m glad Gates is throwing money at this. Anything that extends our global freshwater supply is worth the effort. Oil shortages = long lines at gas stations. Water shortages = torches and pitch forks.
Irony. Thick. [Win 7 😉 ]
It’s a good idea. Most toilets waste a lot of clean drinking water anyway.
Good one Bill
(that’s the first and probably last time I’ll say that)
Bill Gates doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Go to Singapore where they recycle toilet water into pristine natural water. Singapore is a tiny island with limited natural resources but they have the people resources that transformed the island state into a world beating 1st world economy. Its neighbor which abounds with natural resources is approaching a failed Zimbabwean-style corrupt state.
Talk about government intervention that produces a positive outcome.
There is definitely a need for a better toilet. But what is the good idea exactly? The problem is clearly defined:
– 40% of people are in need of toilets capable of flushing excrement.
– Deploying western style toilets everywhere is impractical because of the world’s limited water supply.
But what is the solution exactly? How do you flush a toilet without using water? That’s too important a detail to be left unknown before pumping millions into a project.
You can’t solve engineering problems just by throwing obscene amounts of money at it. You need to have a well thought out and technically achievable idea, and the leadership to refine and follow through on it. I don’t think they have either.
As I began to read this posting I thought there is such an obvious snarky response available, but surely MDN won’t be that lazy. Nope. I was wrong, the grade school humor prevailed. Impressive.
yeah, just what I thought.
I have to admit, MDN used to be a good place to come and read some funny comments. Now it’s full of time-wasters.
The only reason I still have it in my browser, is that MDN’s articles are sometimes different to the other Mac sites.
Irony much?
I can’t resist…
As Microsoft Corporation heads for the toilet, it seems so appropriate that BG wants to reinvent the toilet. However, Balmer seems better suited to dealing with toilets.
Yes Ballmer’s talents seem to be better suited to cleaning toilets. “Janitor! Janitor! Janitor! Janitor! Janitor!” etc., etc., etc. (sung to the tune of “Developer!”).
The whole post was just to make a poop joke starring Bill Gates. Really IGN?
Guess I’m way too much used to reading IGN flamebait piece of crap “news”. What I really meant is:
Really MDN?
It is a good idea. Lots of clean water wasted.
Actually that water is not wasted. It goes to a treatment plant and is filtered and re-used for our drinking water. Now you want a glass of tap water? 😉
Every molecule of water on the planet will have been through something’s digestive system by now. If you don’t like that idea feel free to give drinking up entirely. Let us know how that goes.
Yep, and before that it was ALL dino piss.
Isn’t water treatment pretty simple? I mean, much less expensive than munitions that tin pot dictators and Europeans (who still haven’t discovered modern toilets) spend to keep their serfs in line?
One would think they’d get the crapper tech sorted in France, before they built that useless, faulty Large Hadron Collider. No wonder those idiot quantum theories are so obsessed with mythical dark matter… running water, toilet paper and classical physics will solve most of their problems.
Europeans with serfs and without modern plumbing? Thanks for showing us all just how completely ignorant you wingnuts are.
I could go for a big glass of Angelina Jolie’s pee right now!
Oh, this is rich. He’ll spend millions of dollars and in the end give us a brown paper bag with Microsoft’s logo on it. Potty on the Cloud anyone?
At last, Gates contributes a product that will actually be beneficial to mankind. Windoze sure wasn’t.
Regardless of how BG made his money, let’s give the man kudo’s for the great work he is doing with the Gates Foundation. They are spearheading third world health initiatives in an unprecedented manner. The development of a toilet for use in many countries is of tremendous humanitarian value. These import of these activities far outweigh the issues any of us could have with MS. Gates ability to get other mega-wealthy people, like Warren Buffet, to contribute to these causes is laudable. History won’t remember Bill Gates for Microsoft. History will remember Bill and Melinda Gates for helping hmanity fix many of it’s most pressing issues. I hate MS, but BMGF have my utmost respect. Time for Steve Jobs to step up to the plate now.
TRYING TO BUY HIS WAY INTO HEAVEN AFTER RIPPING OFF APPLE AND BECOMING THE WORLD”S RICHEST THIEF.
But, they couldn’t keep the real innovator down and now we’re seeing Apple achieve its rightful place – Microsoft and BILL GATES’ PERSONAL GREED delayed world productivity for decades!
Jim-
This might change your mind:
I was tempted at first to try some toilet humour, which I hate.
But full marks to Bill. I’m so privileged to live in a clean, wealthy state, whereas millions suffer diseases and shortened lives from the problem Bill is addressing. Good on you, Bill, and good luck to the project.
Still, I wonder is the plan to test it using unsold Zunes?
why he did already.. It was called Windows ME
Just throw it in a box and label it the new version of Windows!
Don’t be confused.
People can just hang it out of the Windows & bomb away.
This is a no brainer.
With such a vast experience of packaging crap (ALL MS products ever made), this MUST be the company best suited for the task.
As a matter of fact, what´s changed here? Isn´t it just business as usual?
Hats off to Bill Waste
I can hear the annual Ballmer-led MS Conference now to announce Windows Pista. Queue sweaty, forcibly excited Ballmer… and… “Defecators, defecators, defecators, defecators!”
Relax
He is just retrofitting a filter in an effort to recoup Microsoft’s profits…(while allowing Zunes to pass…)
I love it !!! Toilet …a new and ultimate version of Windows !
After spending millions on vaccines the have come to terms that the biggest gains are to be made in basic sanitation. They are working to develop systems and technology that do not require large amounts of fresh water and sewage treatment, energy, expense, etc. A low tech answer to one of the biggest problems of civilization. Three cheers for Melinda Gates (and Bill too).
Thank you for a great reply. MDN, I usually like you guys and I adore Apple, but this was uncalled for. I may not like the products Gates’ company makes, but his philanthropical work is amazing and he helps save countless lives.
Bill Gates…toilets…Bill Gates…toilets…Steve Ballmer…toilets…Steve Ballmer…toilets…Microsoft…turd…toilet…flush…sewer pipes…gone…
See what I did there…Bill Gates just invented the toilet brush called Windows…
Hope he doesn’t use Windows as a model for it. Otherwise it will give ‘backup’ a different meaning.
(1) What happen if the toilet’s embedded OS has gone BSOD?
(2) How often the toilet require update?
(3) When “shit” happens… Can I still flush shit down or do I let shit burst it out?
(4) Will any Microsoft Store carry the newly invented toilet?
🙂
Just guessing here… A toilet with a stylus? A toilet with a special edition brown Zune?
A place to start would be Buckminster Fuller’s composting toilet and perhaps his entire Dymaxion bathroom.