湖畔中学允许学生们按自己兴趣自由发挥，去通达他们希望的极致。令校方骄傲的是他们所创造的环境及设施使学生们能充分发挥各自的潜能。这是像比尔·盖茨这样学生的理想环境。
In 1968，the school made a decision that would change thirteen-year-old Bill Gates’s life—and that of many of others，too.
1968年，学校做出的一项决定改变了13岁的比尔·盖茨的生活——同时也改变了许多其他的人。
Funds were raised，mainly by parents，that enabled the school to gain access to a computer—a Program Data processor（PDP）—through a teletype machine.Type in a few instructions on the teletype machine and a few seconds later the PDP would type back its response.Bill Gates was immediately hooked—so was his best friend at the time，Kent Evans，and another student，Paul Allen，who was two years older than Bill.
学校主要靠家长提供的资金通过一种电传打字机进入电脑——即程序数据处理机。在电传打字机上键入几条指令，几秒钟后程序数据处理机即会反馈回信息。比尔·盖茨当即就着了迷——他最要好的朋友肯特·埃文斯和另一名长他两岁的学生保罗·艾伦也是如此。
Whenever they had free time，and sometimes when they didn’t，they would dash over to the computer room to use the machine.The students became so single-minded that they soon overtook their teachers in knowledge about computing and got into a lot of trouble because of their obsession.They were neglecting their other studies—every piece of word was handed in late.Classes were cut.Computer time was also proving to be very expensive.Within months，the whole budget that had been set aside for the year had been used up.
他们不管有没有空，都要赶到电脑室去用用那台机器。这些学生非常专注，以致于在电脑方面的知识都超过了老师，同时因为他们的执著也带来了不少麻烦。他们忽略了其他的课程——每项作业都迟迟才交，有时还旷课。上机时间也很昂贵。几个月后，当初留做一年用的预算就已经消耗殆尽了。
At fourteen，Bill was already writing short programs for the computer to perform.Early games programs such as Tic-Tac-Toe，or Noughts and Crosses，and Lunar Landing were written in what was to become Bill’s second language，BASIC.
比尔十四岁时，就已开始编写简短的运行电脑的程序了。早期的游戏程序如“三棋杀三子”，或“画圈打叉游戏”，及“登月”就是用后来成为比尔的第二种语言BASIC来写的。
One of the reasons Bill was so good at programming is because it is mathematical and logical.During his time at Lakeside，Bill scored a perfect eight hundred on a mathematics test.It was extremely important to him to get this grade—he had to take the test more than once in order to do it.
比尔善于编程的其中一个原因就是它蕴含的运算性与逻辑性。他在湖畔中学的那段时间，比尔在一次数学测验中取得了满分800分，取得这样的成绩对他来说是至关重要的——为了这个成绩他不得不参加几次测验。
If Bill Gates was going to be good at something，It was essential to be the best.
倘若比尔·盖茨决定要做好某件事，他必定会做得最为出色。
Bill’s and Paul’s fascination with computers and the business world meant that they read a great deal.Paul enjoyed magazines like Popular Electronics.Computer time was expensive and，because both boys were desperate to get more time and because Bill already had an insight into what they could achieve financially，the two of them decided to set themselves up as a company：The Lakeside Programmers Group.“Let’s call the real world and try to sell something to it！”Bill announced.
比尔和保罗对电脑和商务的痴迷意味着他们要博览群书。保罗喜爱像《大众电子》之类的刊物，而比尔则翻阅商业杂志。上机时间的昂贵，以及因为这两个孩子迫切需要更多的上机时间，还有比尔早已洞察到他们在经济上会有所收益，于是他们俩决定自己组建公司：湖畔程序设计者集团。比尔宣布道：“让我们唤醒这个世界并给它推销点东西吧！”
Bill Gates’Key to Success比尔·盖茨的成功秘诀
Question：What has been your key to success？
问：你成功的秘诀是什么？
Bill Gates：Well，coming up with a simple explanation for the kind of success，that ah，I’ve，I’ve been privileged to be part of working at Microsoft，It is very difficult.Certainly there’s many elements to it.The vision of the company coming right，when the micro-processor was coming into it’s own，the focus on software，and working with partners who could bring in the other elements，the focus on the long term，hiring great people，really working with customers，knowing that we’d be there working with them ten years later and twenty years later.All of those have come together to build a great success story，that’s been incredibly fun to be part of it.I think，the people is probably the thing I’d put at the top.Vision has got to be a big part of it，but so many of these things，you know，really come down to day-to-day execution.If we’d slacked off at any point，then you know there would have been plenty of people to come in and take our place，and there’s certainly the case as we look forward，that we have to continue to obsolete the products，continue to stay in close touch with the customers，continue to hire in great people and stand on top of the technology，or else，the phenomenon will continue，but we won’t have the role in it，that we have today.
比尔·盖茨：哦，我荣幸能在微软公司工作，然而要简单地解释成功的原因却是不容易的，其中包括了许多因素。比如，当微处理器渐成气候的时候，公司的方向应该明确，应把重点放在软件设计上，和其他人合作，带进新东西，还有，要有长远计划，聘用贤才，注意与顾客的合作，要知道十年或二十年后我们还是要和他们合作。所有这一切构成一个成功的故事，能成为这故事的一部分真是十分快乐。我觉得，我把人看作最重要的因素，洞察力当然也很重要。但所有这些都需要日复一日地把持，哪怕在任何一点上稍有疏忽，那就意味着将会有许多人取代我们的位置。这当然是我们所期待的，所以我们必须完善我们的产品，与顾客保持密切的联系，继续招贤纳才，并保持技术的领先地位，否则周围世界在变化，我们便不再有今天这样的领先地位。
Bill Gates—Most Spammed Person 比尔·盖茨——在垃圾邮件的海洋中“游刃有余”
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is inundated with up to four million e-mails a day—most of them junk.
微软总裁比尔·盖茨现在每天都被淹没在多达四百万封电子邮件中，其中绝大多数都是垃圾邮件。
However，the software magnate has almost an entire department working to filter out unwanted mails.
然而，这位软件业巨富拥有一个基本完备的部门，专门负责为他过滤那些无用或有害的邮件。
The company’s chief executive，Steve Ballmer，said Mr.Gates was probably the most “spammed”person in the world.
微软公司首席执行官史蒂夫·鲍尔默说，盖茨先生很可能是世界上“收到垃圾邮件最多的人”。
Spam，or junk e-mails，are unsolicited messages often sent indiscriminately，usually trying to sell goods and services from aphrodisiacs to loans.
垃圾邮件是（某些机构或个人）主动提供给收件人的信息，发送者通常采取不加选择的群发方式，试图向收件人推销从催欲剂到贷款等各色商品和服务。
Speaking at a Microsoft event in Singapore，Mr Ballmer said：“Bill Gates （is first）because he is Bill Gates.Bill literally receives four million pieces of e-mail per day，most of it spam.”
在新加坡举行的一次微软年会上，鲍尔默先生说：“比尔·盖茨之所以拿第一，就因为他是比尔·盖茨，确切地说，比尔每天都能收到四百万封电子邮件，大多数是垃圾邮件。”
“Literally there’s a whole department almost that takes care of it，”he said.
“微软公司中真的有一个部门，几乎就是专门处理这些垃圾邮件的。”他说。
Mr.Ballmer said he was “probably also amongst the most spammed people in the world”，because he gives out his email address whenever he makes a speech.
鲍尔默还说他可能也是世界上“收到垃圾邮件最多的人之一”，因为他每次做演讲时，都会公开自己的电邮地址。
But he said only about 10e-mails a day made it through to his inbox，because of anti-spam technology that filters the messages.
但是鲍尔默表示，每天只有大约10封邮件能够进入他的收件箱，因为反垃圾邮件技术过滤了垃圾信息。