US Ambassador meets Madrassah students

http://www.thedailystar.net/campus/2008/07/04/feature_usenvoy.htm

Mahdin Mahboob & Sarah Z H

The American Center known to many of us for its library and student counseling facilities had come up with a very noble program of providing micro-scholarships to madrassah students for learning English language. The Access program was launched in Fall 2004 and since then the US State Department has funded English Language Training programs for 215 students in four batches aged between 14 to 18 years. Language Proficiency Center (LPC) along with the local partner PA is giving the best there can be to these access students for learning English. The students are divided into small groups and are expected to meet three times a week for a period of 18 months at the LPC.

On the occasion of the first two batches graduating from the program the American Center had arranged for a little ceremony, which was presided over by the US Ambassador to Bangladesh HE James F Moriarty himself. The newly appointed Director of the American Center, Amy Hart Vrampas spoke a few words on the occasion and congratulated the students who successfully graduated from the program. The ambassador arrived shortly after the commencement and exchanged greetings with the proud students. He said learning a language is a beautiful experience. It is a sign of wanting to communicate and wanting to know about other people who are very different from us. Moriarty also stressed the fact that young people of today will determine the future of the country and thus the access students were given a fair idea about the significance of their achievements.

One of the Madrassa Access Students Towfiq Ahmad Khan from the first batch was selected for the Student Leaders Institute (SLI) program, an undergraduate leadership program through which Bangladeshi students visit the US. Towfiq talked about his experiences as part of an exchange program and expressed his gratitude to the organizers for enabling him to explore his abilities at a higher level. Afterwards, there was a question answer session for the students and they did make absolute good use of the opportunity. Many important issues like poverty and illiteracy were raised in the session. One student wanted to know what could be done to make Bangladesh a better country in terms of poverty alleviation reducing the sufferings of the mass. In reply, the ambassador dragged the examples of Taiwan and China and how they developed enormously in a short span of time. He believed Bangladesh could learn a lot from these real life examples. The constitution of Taiwan says education is must for everyone. As a result, the literacy rate of the country is effectively high. China on the other hand tied into the Global economy and used their exports to the world for rising against poverty. Plugging into global economy would be the answer to overall development said the ambassador. The exports of Bangladesh are increasing which is sign of hope for its people. Garment workers, particularly women are trying to make their lives better.

A young female student from the current batch of the access program wanted to know about scholarships to the US. And there were issues like global warming and climate change that were discussed in the session. Another student asked the ambassador about the American education system. American education he said has a lot to offer. There are community colleges that go on for two years for people who face interruptions in their studies and hence cannot attend regular colleges and universities. One student drew the attention of the audience by proposing to have similar programs on the development of the IT sector. He also pointed out that other organizations should initiate such programs for the advancement of neglected students.

Sabreen Rahman, program development advisor of the American center, assured the students that necessary assistance will be made available to them but they have to the embrace the chances and ask for help. Harvey W. Sernovitj, Deputy Director of the center gave the last words and the ceremony ended as the graduate students took a group photograph with the ambassador.

Tech Wise [27th July 2008]

http://www.thedailystar.net/campus/2008/07/04/tech.htm

A Toast-Dropping Toaster!!!

It so turns out that there’s actually a real toast-dropping versus toast-popping machine. The Trapdoor Toaster does exactly what it sounds like it does. It’s a 1400W device, with auto-adjusting guide racks so it can do toast, bagels or pop-tart-style food. You simply slide in your food, and when it’s done it slips out the bottom, and elegantly onto your plate. Out in US markets now for $79.95 (approx. 5,600 BDT).

Purdue University Breakthrough Could Lead to Low-Cost, Mass-Produced LEDs

The researchers at Purdue University are just full of bright ideas these days, and this time, it was no exception. Thanks to a major breakthrough, they may have overcome a major obstacle for “solid state lighting,” which laymen like to call LED (light emitting diode). That obstacle? Cost. LEDs are expensive, mostly because their innards are created on a substrate of sapphire. That means only a few gadgets and luxury cars headlights have benefited from the tech so far. Purdue researchers solved the conundrum with a technique that creates the LEDs on low-cost, metal-coated silicon wafers. This is great news for energy conservation, because while LEDs are much more efficient than their incandescent brethren, they are also 20 times more expensive to produce.

Hi-Tech Shoes For Ladies Have Heel Height Extenders

Thankfully just a concept for now, the Goodie 2 Shoe is an idea in function, and definitely not in form. They’re ugly, sure, but they have a neat trick: the heel is adjustable with magnets and hidden hinges, so a 1.5-inch heel suitable for work gets extended to a come-hither 3.5-inch for going out. Other parts can be customized too. This is truly designed for the tech savvy women of today!

Osram Push White LEDS to World-Record Brightness, Super Efficiency

It’s an interesting week in the world of LEDs; you read about the ultra-cheap ones, and now Osram have news that they’ve pushed white LEDs to world-record brightness. By optimising the diode, light converter and the package, their lab test squeezed 500 lumens out of a single LED at 1.4A. That’s bright enough for projector tech, and certainly makes the single unit good for car lighting and even interior lights. At a lower, more optimal, current the 1mm-square white LED had an efficiency of 136 lumens/W that makes it about twice as efficient as standard fluorescent lamps and 10 times a normal bulb.

Spotlight : ICECC 2008 – State of the Art in ICT

Link to Cover Picture

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/07/02/camspotlight.htm

ICECC 2008
State of the Art in ICT

Set in the plush green campus of Rajshahi University, the International Conference on Electronics, Computer and Communication ( ICECC 2008 ) had the perfect backdrop for 400 researchers academics, teachers and students from different universities and research institutes in Bangladesh and abroad to come and present more than 200 papers in a span of three days. In between 27-29th June, the 753 acres (3 square kilometres) campus of the second largest university in Bangladesh became host to professionals from industry and academia with papers being presented, invited lectures, cultural programmes and gala dinners.

On 1st May of this year, I received an email titled ‘Notification of Acceptance’ from the Convener of the conference, Dr. Md. Mozaffor Hossain notifying me of my paper being accepted for publication at the conference. It was titled A Study on Different Models for the Analysis of Rayleigh Fading Channels, based on my undergraduate thesis work at BRAC University. It was my first accepted paper, and naturally enough, I felt extremely delighted at the news. I started looking forward to the day when I would be presenting my paper in the conference. This would be my first trip to Rajshahi, a place widely known for its succulent mangoes and the serene beauty beside the river Padma. Soon enough, I submitted the camera-ready copy of my paper and registered myself for attending the conference.

On the early hours of 27th June, I arrived at the city of Rajshahi, after a long and tiring train journey. But I had little time to relax since the conference registration was due to start at eight sharp, and the inauguration session at nine. At 9 am, the three-day extravaganza started off in great style with dignitaries and specialists in the field arriving for the inaugural session. Bangladesh Electronic Society, Rajshahi organized this conference, and 400 researchers, including 40 eminent specialists and scientists from India, USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Nepal and South Korea had come to Rajshahi, a city of 727,000 in north-western Bangladesh to attend the conference.

‘This international conference will be considered as a milestone for this country and its relevant sector to prepare national ICT Principles. It will also aid the government to prepare national ICT policies because the research papers which are being presented here are of a very high quality,’ said Professor Nazrul Islam, Chairman of the University Grants Commission, Bangladesh in his speech as the Chief Guest in the inauguration programme at the Senate Bhaban of Rajshahi University (RU). He also mentioned that the present government is keen to invest on research related to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Prof. Bozlul Mobin Chawdhury, Vice Chancellor of Independent University of Bangladesh was present as the special guest while Chairman of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Dr. Shafiqul Islam Bhuiyan and Treasurer of RU Professor M. Mozammel Hoque were present as the guest of honour at the inaugural session. RU Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Mamnunul Keramat was present as the chief patron of the programme.
Convener of Bangladesh Electronics Society, Rajshahi, Professor Md. Mozaffor Hossain presided over the program.

Prof. Bozlul Mobin Chawdhury said that in the fast globalizing world, we as a nation, are getting more recognized as end-users of new inventions. But it is high time that we start inventing new technologies ourselves, and for that to happen, we have to work hard and would also need aid from the government and industries.

Prof. Mamnunul Keramat said that the time has come to create a revolution in the ICT sector; if we don’t do that, our nation will fall behind others in the technology sector. The speaker also urged the government to make national strategy and plan according to the suggestion and papers of the conference.

Over the next few days, the researchers presented a range of papers in the field of electronics, computer science, telecommunications, ICT, VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated circuits) and other related topics. I personally attended all of the invited talks and special sessions and the majority of the conference presentations.

To me, some of the papers seemed really interesting and plausible, if not necessary, in the context of Bangladesh.

Applications of Publicly Available Satellite Imagery for Planning Roads, and Monitoring Rivers, Deforestation, and Drainage, authored by Shahriar Khan, Associate Professor of the School of Engineering and Computer Science, Independent University, Bangladesh talks about how freely accessible satellite imagery available in websites such as Google Earth can help the government take important decisions about road planning and river monitoring and other similar purposes. In his presentation, Dr. Khan stated that compared to the usual practice of using a political map to make such decisions, publicly available interwoven satellite images would give the decision makers a better alternative with more precise and updated information. In the Q&A session, I asked him about how Google Earth’s images maybe so useful, specially in context to Bangladesh, where the images are not quite so ‘updated’. In reply to that, Dr. Khan explained that for the majority of the purposes, the layout of roads in urban areas, paths of river flow, and forests, do not change significantly over a period of a few years. So these interwoven satellite images are indeed quite useful and helpful.

There were also papers for efficient and automated license plate recognition, development of E-universities in Bangladesh and E-governance in the existing ones. There were also papers on digital encoding, Wi-Fi Network in Bangladesh, and various other topics.

On Day 2 of the Conference, I presented my paper A Study on Different Models for the Analysis of Rayleigh Fading Channels, which is an important aspect for electrical engineers involved in the planning and implementation of wireless communication services including, cell phone operators, satellite and terrestrial television channels, radio stations and wireless broadband internet service providers. The paper had been co-authored by me, my thesis partner Sajidul Alam and Dr. M A Matin, our thesis supervisor.

On 29th June, the last day of the conference, it was officially brought to an end at the Physics Gallery of Rajshahi University. Dean of Social Science of RU, Professor Abul Hashem was present as the chief guest. Director of Institute for Radio Science, India Professor O.P.N. Calla, Senior Deputy Director of National Physical Laboratory, India Professor Dr. P. Banarjee, Professor of Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics Professor Animesh Maitra, Professor B.C. Ray Scientist of National Physical Laboratory, India, Professor S. C. Garg and others also spoke in the occasion. The program was presided over by Professor Md. Mozaffor Hossain, Convener of Bangladesh Electronics Society, Rajshahi.

I also took the opportunity to visit the famous Varendra Museum, the shrine of Shah Mokhdum and the river Padma, which flows right beside the city of Rajshahi in the little free time I had during my short trip to this beautiful city. Soon enough though, it was time to return back to the busy and hectic life in Dhaka, and bidding goodbye to ICECC 2008 and Rajshahi.

The writer can be reached at mahdin.mahboob@gmail.com

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Feedback

This is how some of the international and local participants expressed their feelings about, Rajshahi, the conference and about their visit to Bangladesh.

Animesh Maitra
Professor, Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics
Director, S. K. Mitra Centre for Research in Space Environment
University of Calcutta
ICECC 2008 has been well organized as an international conference. Important topics in the areas of computer and communications were covered. There was the presence of quite a few international participants and I was quite impressed with the large number of young participants from different universities in Bangladesh. They presented their research papers with confidence at the conference.

University of Rajshahi has a beautiful sprawling campus with greenery all around. What impressed me most was the maintenance of the campus which I found quite clean. Not many universities in the Indian subcontinent have such a beautiful campus.

We were overwhelmed at the hospitality extended to us. Particularly, by the young faculty members who worked hard towards organizing the conference successfully. It was my first visit to Bangladesh. I also took this opportunity to visit my ancestral home in Jamirata Village in Sirajganj District. My wife accompanied me in this visit. We reached the village from Shahjadpur by van rickshaw and were charmed to see the countryside of Bangladesh. It was raining during our trip and we crossed a number of rivers and fields on the two sides of the road were under water. The surroundings were so scenic and serene. We were moved by the cordiality of the people of the Jamirata village who knew about our father’s family (Maitras) and their involvement with the village. We went to the place where our father’s family had their house, on a boat since the place is now under water. It was a wonderful experience to move through the water way. We were touched by the warm behaviour of the village people who were very happy to see us. I had a feeling of being back to my roots. I have found the peoples of Bangladesh are very cordial and friendly. It was a memorable experience for my wife and myself. I would like to come back to Bangladesh to see more places and spend some more time in my father’s ancestral home.

Prof.O.P.N.Calla
Director of Institute for Radio Science, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
It was my first visit to Bangladesh and I would say that the best part of the ICECC 2008 was the Technical Sessions and the papers that were received for this conference. The Technical standard of the papers was very high. I think this ICECC was a very well organized conference. The overall Coordination between different aspects of the conference was excellent and the Technical contents were very good.

Regarding Rajshahi University all I can say is that it is one of the rare universities which has such a fine campus with greenery all over. The Campus gives a healthy atmosphere for the student community. The education standard is very high and the coeducation environment provides healthy growth for both boys and girls in the campus.

Dr. Rajat K. Pal
University of Calcutta
This was the first time I visited Bangladesh. I was invited as an Invited Speaker to deliver my speech in the conference. First of all I was just charmed to see the greens here in Rajshahi (charidike shudhu shobuj aar shobuj). The Rajshahi University campus is just excellent. It’s very big and wonderful. The conference was nicely organized by Prof. Md. Mozaffor Hossain and his group, but a higher number of foreign participants were expected since it was an international conference. There was another drawback in the form of a relatively lower number of female / women researchers participating in the conference. Otherwise, the hospitality was very good from every corner of the organizers. They were very cordial and tha must be remembered.

Prof.Md.Mozaffor Hossain
Rajshahi University
Convener, ICECC-2008
On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to thank every body, specially the journalists who have given coverage to the conference. The organizing committee have given their full effort to achieve success in ICECC2008. This ICT conference has given us an unique opportunity to share our scientific knowledge with each other from developed and developing countries. We hope that ICECC will again be organized in 2010 with the help of our friends from home and abroad. We thank all the guests, participants, delegates, journalists and invitees from home and abroad for coming to attend ICECC 2008.

Inauguration of the IEEE Student Branch @ BRAC University

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/07/02/feature_BRAC.htm

Many thanks to Sahar for the report

Inauguration of the IEEE Student Branch @ BRAC University

Sahar Noor Abdal

THE Inaugural Session of the IEEE (Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers) Student Branch at BRAC University was held on the 6th of July at the Indoor Games room of BRAC University. The whole session turned out to be more interesting and informative than I had expected it to be. Members and non-members alike found the event to be educational and yet enjoyable with the range of different topics that came up in the speeches from the distinguished guests.

The event started with a warm welcome and a brief presentation by the President of the IEEE Student Branch at BRAC University, Mahdin Mahboob. Towards, the end of his presentation, he showed ‘IEEE Evolution’, a two-minute promotional video of IEEE showing the history of engineering, which, to budding engineers like me, proved to be a great source of inspiration!

Following that, the student branch was officially inaugurated amidst rounds of applause when Professor Saifur Rahman, Chief Guest of the event, launched the student branch website. Prof. Rahman is the Director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech and is also the former Vice President of the IEEE Publications Board. The Special Guest on the occasion was Professor Aynal Haque from BUET who is currently the Chair of IEEE Bangladesh Section. Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, the Vice Chancellor of BRAC University was also present in the event. Professor Sayeed Salam, Chairperson of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Professor Mumit Khan, and Associate Professor Dr. Akm Azad from the same department, were also present in the occasion and spoke about the importance of an IEEE membership and expressed their feelings about the new student branch at BRACU. Mr. Mahmood Hasan, Registrar of BRACU and faculty members from different departments of the university were also present in the occasion.

Afterwards, Prof. Aynal Haque gave a detailed lecture about IEEE and its background, which was followed by a power point presentation. His lecture had been very informative and the concept of IEEE was made clear to the audience. The next speech was delivered by Prof. Saifur Rahman and with his charming presence and interactive speech, the entire hall literally went into ‘pin drop silence’ mode. His speech was very interesting and informative to say the least. He caught everyone’s attention with his beautiful examples of why students should become members of IEEE and how they will be benefited from it and the important aspects of networking through such a large organization. He mentioned that IEEE is not only for nerds alone, but it also had businessmen, lawyers and even dancers as its members!

Afterwards, the Vice Chancellor’s encouraging speech also added up to the enthusiasm and he promised to provide the branch with financial help whenever it becomes necessary. It is also worth mentioning that without his support from the very beginning, establishing the student branch would not have been possible.

The event concluded with the ‘Vote of Thanks’ by the Secretary of IEEE student branch, BRAC University, Nabila Naushin. She specially thanked the Chief Guest and the Special Guest for making time from their busy schedules and being present at the event and thanked all others who helped establish the student branch. Finally, she called for refreshments and soon after that, a documentary titled ‘Future World’, was shown, thus bringing the event to an end.

The current Executive Body consists of Dr. Azad Akm, Faculty Advisor, Mahdin Mahboob, President, Sunjib Kumar Singha, Vice-President, Annajiat Alim Rasel, Treasurer and Nabila Naushin the Secretary of the branch. All of them, together with the help of a number of volunteers, worked day and night to make this event a total success. The IEEE Student Branch plans to arrange a host of events in the near future including industrial tours and seminars.

Tech Wise [6th July 2008]

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/07/01/tech.htm

Twist and Squeeze Remote Concept Requires Two Hands

Jason Kline’s gesture-based remote looks cool, but might not be practical for everyday usage! You have to adjust the volume with the left knob and the channel with the right, but there’s no place to enter in buttons. It does allow you to keep going with the knob turning concept of old time TVs while still allowing you to be lazy on the couch. Not that we’d ever use it, but it might be a decent concept for people who still miss the old days!

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Democratic Ecology!

Famous designer Philippe Starck recently revealed he felt a certain shame that all the things he’d designed were not essential for living. This turbine which he designed with the help of generator company Pramac, can theoretically provide a single home with 20-60% of all the electricity it needs. The name, which needs the prefix “turbo” in front of it, is “Democratic Ecology.” If the performance is indeed true, at $633 (approx. BDT 44,310) it’s actually a good buy indeed! Currently, its available in the US markets only.

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Eclair Car with a Fiber Silicon Exterior

The aim of this concept car, designed by Alexander Kotlyarevsky is wide usage of alternative and experimental materials for the interior and exterior design. The body of the prototype is made of fiber silicon so it cannot be deformed in case of an accident and also it can change shape, modifying the configuration of the vehicle to the more spacious or more compact, depending on the preferences of use.

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Eco & Ego Car Comes With A Free Plant

This peculiar looking single occupancy vehicle is called the Eco & Ego. With a quirky name like that, you can expect a lot more wackiness inside.

The idea behind this “EE” car is pets, yes pets. Not a dog or cat, but a plant. The plant sits above the engine bay in clear sight of the driver. It’s hooked up to some futuristic electronics and can tell you how “polluted” you were that day. There’s also an extension to the idea in that you take your plant out every time you drive, sort of like walking your dog.

This concept car, designed by Slava Saakyan, has not yet been implemented.

Goodbye Bill Gates….

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/07/01/feature_gates.htm

Goodbye Bill Gates….

Compiled by Mahdin Mahboob

WILLIAM Henry Gates III, popularly known as Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, the man who had brought to us the world’s most popular Operating System, ‘Windows’, and several times ranked as the ‘richest man in the world’, has retired from service. The Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has sighted reasons of concentrating harder on charity work as the cause of his retirement. Relating to Spider-man’s most popular dialogue known to all of us, Gates has been quoted as saying, “Great wealth brings with it great responsibility.”

Sensing the start of a personal computer revolution, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975 to start Microsoft Corporation and pursue a vision of a computer on every desk and in every home. Three decades later, Gates stepped down from what is now the world’s largest software company to work full-time at the charitable organisation – the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – built by his vast fortune.

The 52-year-old, whose boyish looks seem at odds with his greying hair, leaves behind a life’s work developing software to devote energy to finding new vaccines or to micro-finance projects in the developing world. However, as Microsoft’s biggest shareholder, Gates remains chairman and will work on special technology projects. His 8.7% stake in Microsoft is worth about 23 billion US Dollars!

Gates first programmed a computer at 13, creating a class scheduling system for his Seattle high school. As he gained more experience, he realised the potential that software held to change how humans worked, played and communicated. He realised at an early stage of the PC revolution that software would gradually become more important than hardware. Working with boyhood friend Paul Allen, Gates founded Microsoft, naming the company for its mission of providing microcomputer software.

Gates was born October 28, 1955, the second of three children in a prominent Seattle family. His father, William Henry Gates Jr, was a partner at one of the city’s most powerful law firms, while his late mother, Mary, was an active charity fundraiser and University of Washington.

He was introduced to computers at the exclusive Lakeside Preparatory School, where the teen prodigy began programming in BASIC computer language on a primitive ASR-33 Teletype unit.

It was at Lakeside that Gates met Allen, a student two years his senior who shared his fascination with computers.

During his two years at Harvard, Gates devoted much of his time to programming marathons and all-night poker sessions before dropping out to work on software for the Altair, a clunky desktop computer.

Also at Harvard, Gates became friends with an ebullient Detroit native who shared his love of maths and cynical humour.

Gates eventually talked that classmate, current CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, into leaving business school to join Microsoft.

Gates dropped out of Harvard and relocated with Allen to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they established Microsoft.

Their big break came in 1980 when Gates and his carelessly dressed young colleagues signed an agreement to build the operating system that became known as MS-DOS for IBM (International Business Machines) Corp’s new personal computer.

In a critical blunder by IBM, Microsoft was allowed to license the operating system to others, spawning an industry of ‘IBM-compatible’ machines dependent on Microsoft software.

Microsoft went public in 1986 in one of the most celebrated offerings of its time.

By the next year, the soaring stock made Gates, at age 31, the youngest self-made billionaire.

Microsoft grew to dominate its industry and became the target of a landmark anti-trust case, which it fought every step of the way before eventually settling with US prosecutors.

Lance Ulanoff, Editor-in-Chief of PC Magazine said Gates will be remembered as someone who had a huge impact on people’s lives.

“I think Bill Gates will grow in stature over time. He’s had tremendous impact, not just on technology but really on our lives.

If you think about the way we lived our lives in the 70s and the early 80s and how we do now and how we are constantly sitting in front of a computer, we are typing on a keyboard, we have technology with us all the time, and a lot of that has to do with what he envisioned way back when.

And people will understand that while there were things that weren’t so great about what Microsoft has done and even what Bill Gates did, by and large what he did was very good and very valuable to society,” he said.

[News Room] ICECC held at RU

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/07/01/newsroom.htm

ICECC held at RU

The International Conference on Electronics, Computer and Communication was recently held in Rajshahi University. The three-day long international conference (27-29 June) brought over 400 researchers from different parts of the country and 40 eminent scientists from India, the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Nepal and South Korea. Students, academics and researchers presented over 200 papers in this conference.

Chairman of the University Grants Commission Professor Nazrul Islam was the chief guest in the inauguration programme. Prof. Bozlul Mobin Chawdhury, Vice Chancellor of the Independent University of Bangladesh was present as the special guest while Chairman of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Dr. Shafiqul Islam Bhuiyan and Treasurer of RU Professor M. Mozammel Hoque was present as the guest of honour at the session. RU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Mamnunul Keramat was present as the chief patron of the programme. Professor Md. Mozaffor Hossain of Rajshahi University was the convener of the conference and Bangladesh Electronic Society, Rajshahi organized it.

Star Campus will publish a Cover Story (Spotlight) on this event on its next issue.

[StarTech] PhotoGates – Bye Bye Bill..

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=44081

William Henry Gates III, popularly known as Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, the man who had brought to us the world’s most popular Operating System, ‘Windows’, and several times ranked as the ‘richest man in the world’, has retired from service last Friday. The Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has sighted reasons of concentrating harder on charity work as the cause of his retirement. Relating to Spider-man’s most popular dialogue known to all of us, Gates has been quoted as saying, “Great wealth brings with it great responsibility.” Today, in StarTech we try to reflect through some pictures on the illustrious life of this great software developer, business entrepreneur and above all, a foreseer, who saw much ahead of his time.