Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

You may – or may not – know that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have donated £20bn since it was launched in back in 2000.

If you don’t know that now, the chances are that people will be very aware of the charity in the next few years; it is already the biggest private foundation in the world today. When Warren Buffett promised back in 2006 to donate most of his fortune to the foundation, its wealth has almost doubled.

Let’s not forget that Bill Gates has also pledged to give away 95 per cent of his wealth – if he makes it his mission to make charity work as successful as Microsoft, who knows how this could go.

Disease and Poverty

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation concentrates on disease and poverty across the globe. Bill Gates wants to invest for large returns (coined by Gates as catalytic philanthropy).

Huge sums of money have been invested to eradicate polio along with malaria. The foundation also partners with governments, other charities and non-government organisations to maximise their strategies’ effectiveness.

Funding research into new vaccines and drugs, and providing seed funding for various ideas also comes into play.

Gates said;

“We think an essential role of philanthropy is to make bets on promising solutions that governments and businesses can’t afford to make. As we learn which bets pay off, we have to adjust our strategies and share the results so everyone can benefit.”

The foundation has also pledged £31m in September this year to help tackle the Ebola virus.

Microsoft Windows Update Glitch

Across the world, thousands of Windows customers have had problems with their latest Windows Update.

The error accuses the user of having a pirated version of Windows on their computer instead of the legitimate one. Users have then experienced problems when logging on, with demands to activate Windows – these requests have also been occurring when the computer is in general use.

As well as Windows Activation requests, the glitch also caused plug-in problems and stopped the Windows Defender firewall from installing. Some users experienced problems with the AMD Catalyst Omega driver and Security Essentials anti-virus was also stopped from installing.

In addition, it made it impossible for further Windows Updates from being installed.

There is little to report about the actual cause of the problem in the Windows Update KB 3004394, given Microsoft’s lack of information. However, the problematic Update was replaced by a new Windows Update patch, KB 3024777 - Microsoft is advising that users install it to correct the problem.

In an article on the subject, Microsoft advised users;

"The ability to remove Windows Updates through Control Panel may no longer function on some Windows 7 SP1-based and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1-based computers after KB 3004394 is installed."

Although Microsoft withdrew the patch a couple of days after its release, many are still reporting problems. Windows Activation Technologies was originally established in 2009 to tighten Windows 7 anti-piracy measures; however, hackers have been known to remove it.

Are you having problems with any of your updates? Are any plug-ins driving you to distraction? If so, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team on 01902 375304 or contact us – ACE Computer Solutions provide reliable and cost-effective computer repairs and are here to help. 

Computing’s IT Leaders Top 100 List unveiled

Computing’s IT Leaders Top 100 List unveilied

On 10^th December, respected online magazine www.computing.co.uk revealed their highly anticipated IT Leaders 100 list.

The announcement was made at its very first annual IT Leaders Summit.

Computing's editor, Stuart Sumner, opened the event and explained;

"We decided to call this the IT Leaders 100, because you could be in charge of technology strategy and direction at a multinational firm, with hundreds of IT staff, tens of thousands of users and a multimillion pound budget, and you might not necessarily have the CIO title.

"You could be the CTO, or the COO. You might even be the CMO, as that role is increasingly responsible for areas of IT. Or you might be the head of IT, or IT director. So we decided that the phrase 'IT Leader' was appropriate as it encompasses such a wide variety of roles."

“Many factors were taken into account formulating this list, such as size of organisation, number of IT staff, number of users, size of technology budget and level of transformation achieved.”

To get to their Top 100, Computing took a look at the IT leaders - CIO, CTO, IT director, chief architect or any whatever title their job may carry. Hundreds of leaders were spoken to over the past year and even prior to this to make sure that their rankings were as definitive as possible.  

Factors like the size of the company, department, budget, role duration and level of transformation achieved by the individual were also taken note of.

The final result is below – what do you think? Do you feel that you should be in the running for the next Top 100? Let us know @AceComputerSup - we would love to hear your thoughts, and we are sure that the editorial team at @Computing_News would, too!

To view the full list click here.