It seems that every time Bill Gates hops up on a stage to promote a new operating system, nothing goes according to plan.



At the launch of the Windows XP Operating System, servers shut down, printers didn’t work and access was denied.



Six years on, Gates has tried his luck again to no avail at the ‘Get Ready’ tour in New York. This time, it was with the gesture movement system and the new Vista platform.

Just recently released on the Scoble show, Microsoft engineer Andy Wilson has been responsible for building the gesture recognition software, which allows you to make a gesture with your hand, have it captured with a $30 webcam and then translated into a command of your choosing.

This software was integrated into the live demonstration that Gates was to provide the audience of an estimated 15,000. During the live demonstration, audience members had access via videoscreens to Gates’ hand gestures and the desktop he was using.

In a move of humour that can only be described as ‘harshly backfiring’, Gates made an unscripted and unrehearsed ‘birdy’ gesture to the machine, sparking a roar of laughter from the crowd.

The response was less than expected, with the system retorting with “yeah and my other ride is your mother dude” flashing across the video screens before locking up and not restoring.

An obviously angered Gates tried to contain his frustration with the system, providing the crowd of onlookers with nothing but a nervous smile.

Andy Wilson’s reaction to the issue regardless was forthright “it’s a windows program – everyone knows you don’t mess with a windows program in front of a large audience. You’re always going to come off second best if you don’t follow the script”.





