The Weekly Round-Up: 27.06.08

Bill Gates is many things to many people. Brilliant technologist, ruthless businessman, chino-trousered philanthropist, founder of the most influential technology company of all time and purveyor of operating systems we love to hate.

This week, after 30-odd years at the helm of the company he founded with Paul Allen, Gates formally left Microsoft, driving back home like any other retiring office worker. Albeit an office worker who lives in a high-tech mansion that cost $140m. But a retiring worker who has done his best, nonetheless.

After a life at the grindstone of technology, he is now dedicating his life to philanthropic goals and (presumably) disposing of some of his considerable disposable income - heady times indeed for plaid shirt retailers in the Seattle area.

So the big question now is: what's next for Microsoft? Good question, what indeed? Another question is - how Microsoft will replace its iconic, departing leader?

Fortunately, you don't need to tax yourself with such questions as silicon.com can tell you exactly what to think.

First, who can step into Bill Gates' shoes? The answer, surprisingly, is not one person - but 24. This isn't to suggest that Gates has a shoe size to rival Sideshow Bob but rather that the great man's wide range of duties are likely to fall not on the shoulders of one person but a veritable riot of Microsoft executives, including Ray Ozzie, Craig Mundie and 22 other people you've probably never heard of.

You can find out who the key players are and what they've done to justify being described as one-twenty-fourth the man that Gates is.

Of course, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer now has the chance to put his own stamp of authority on the company (once he stops having a laugh, mind ). Gates was the techie, Ballmer is a sales guy, so the cultural make-up of the management of the vast company could become more sales-driven rather than tech-focused - and we can all agree that what the industry needs more than anything right now is another IBM.

Where the company goes from here is the subject of another report on the site this week. In recent years the company's diversification into a vast range of markets has left many scratching their heads as to the company's real business strategy.

Gates' departure might also lead to the company's focus to return to its more traditional markets. But whether you love or loathe him, Gates has left an indelible mark on technology and business. He's been a programmer, a visionary, a populist and a target for custard pie throwers both real and metaphorical.

But don't take the Round-Up's word for it, take Bill's. Check out this jolly collection of quotes offered as homage to an iconic multibillionaire who helped forge an industry but simply didn't believe in paying more than seven dollars for a haircut.

Bye Bill...

Still with Microsoft, there was another high-profile departure at Microsoft this week. Wave goodbye to Windows XP and say hello to Vista. Of course, you can still run XP on new PCs you just need to buy Vista and downgrade it.

It's all so wrong. Bill's better off out of it.

Slightly better news for Windows fans, the BBC has taken the wraps off the new version of the splendid iPlayer. Is there equally good news for Mac and Linux users?

Hell no.

"People underestimate how difficult it is to do this," said BBC tech boffin Erik Huggers. Bah. If Auntie can get it to work on an iPhone and a Wii, how hard can it be?

The Round-Up is a raving fan of Information Commissioner Richard Thomas. Twelve months ago, he was generally felt to be weak and toothless, barely a contender.

A year later, having taken his chances and possessing, as he does, the eye of the tiger, he's the civil service version of Rocky Balboa. Go Rock... Richard!

His elevation to the A-list is serendipitous and thanks, in part, to the spectacular levels of administrative and management incompetence displayed in various Whitehall departments over the mishandling of personal data.

This week the Poynter Report published its review of the HMRC missing CDs debacle. The report found "two major institutional deficiencies", namely that "information security simply wasn't a management priority as it should have been" and that "HMRC had an organisational design that was unnecessarily complex and crucially, did not clearly focus on management accountability" something which would have been entirely evident to anyone who has completed a tax return online.

The report can be summarised with a nice little bit of understatement that describes the worst breach of personal data in UK history as "entirely avoidable".

Meanwhile, HMRC has agreed it's been remiss and has promised to get its house in order, or at the very least appear as if it's trying to get its house in order.

That's not good enough for Richard. You'll never guess what he's done... No... No... No... No, the Round-Up's going to have to tell you.

He's only gone and taken enforcement action against HMRC and the Ministry of Defence over breaches of the Data Protection Act.

Thanks to the 'Personal Data Terminator', both departments face the threat of legal action if they fail to comply with the enforcement notice requirements.

Go on, Richard, belt them with your left hook, too...

If you ask the average student if they'd consider a career in technology they'd probably look at you with a glazed expression - although that might have as much to do with their recreational proclivities as with questions about careers in IT.

The sad fact is that, according to a report by Crac (Career Development Organisation), more than 60 per cent of non-computing students cited "boring work" as the primary tautological reason they'd avoid joining the sector.

Yet the vast majority of the nearly 2,000 students surveyed conceded the industry offers good career prospects and highly paid jobs. This is good news as it means students can be won over, according to the charity.

"Boring work"? Are they mad? If you'd managed just a cursory glance at the news this week you'd have learned that IT opens up exciting careers in espionage, high-tech crime and the lifestyle of an international playboy.

Essentially, you either can either choose to be James Bond or the crazed criminal mastermind he's chasing. And you get to use all your air miles.

Meanwhile, A-level and university students who are interested in careers in IT are preparing themselves in the most appropriate way - by outsourcing all their homework to India.

UK IT students are hiring coders in India to complete their coursework for them. Prices range from as little as £5 for simple undergraduate coursework, to £100 for postgraduate dissertations. There have been instances of whole final-year dissertations being contracted out and supplied in stages throughout the year.

The majority of these students are studying on an IT-related course and about one-third are from the UK. The shame.

Now, technically this is called cheating but you can't but think it indicates a certain grim acceptance of reality and reflects what they'd end up doing in IT management anyway - it's a vocational rather than academic education.

The grimmer picture is that increasingly a large section of our IT graduates will have no real tech skills when they enter gainful employment thereby increasing the amount of work outsourced abroad.

Lecturers are calling for the government to set up a national database of university assignments so they can be matched against contract requests on coding websites and traced back to students.

Academics are also being called on to test whether students have detailed knowledge about their work by questioning them about work they have handed in.

This simply opens up another opportunity for the cleverer coders to offer a completed undergraduate paper for, say, £20, and a special offer for a 'show your workings' paper for just a fiver. They could consider setting up loyalty schemes. The possibilities are endless.

Anyway, in the Round-Up's day these 'tests' were called 'exams'.

Not a popular concept in educational circles these days but certainly worth thinking about...

And if you simply can't get enough of Bill Gates here's some more words and pictures, including THAT photo.

Or say goodbye to Bill in the only way we know how - by having a go at this week's silicon.com caption competition.