Keynote Speech at Microsoft Professional Developers Conference
Bill Gates
11 December 1997 Beijing,China
Good morning. It's a great pleasure to be here. Today is a major milestone [1] for Microsoft as our first Professional Developers Conference here in China. The key partnerships we build with software developers around the world are central not only to the success of Windows but also to realize the possibility that PC technology provides. It's through applications of every variety that businesses will be using the personal computer as the tool of the Information Age.
It's rather amazing how fast this innovation [2] is moving. Even to keep the like of myself who are deeply involved in the industry to go and see the improvement and every element that are taking place on a yearly basis is quite fantastic. Of course one of the driving factors of this business is the exponential increase in processor performance. There is no doubt that the magic of chip capability has delivered through the advance in microprocessor allows us to think of application which never would have been possible before.
The PC industry is one of the few industries that can deliver lower price equipment at the same time as improving the capabilities. The storage systems are now delivering Gigabyte of storage as the standard capability. Over 80 million of PCs are being sold a year. And the server market, the higher performance machines that these PCs networked with, are the fastest growing part of this business. The performance of those servers is increasing not only because the individual processors are faster, but also because we are using multiple-processor machines, so called SMP designs and clustering nodes together.……
Great chips, systems developers, partners who are sponsoring [3] this event, making this all possible. There is an incredible opportunity for developers. The applications that are written today will sell to an even larger base of machines out in the market. There is a lot that we're doing to increase the work of good developers-make sure they understand where the PC is going and how tools can help them now, more and more marketing type of activities making sure they got in with the customers. This is something that we are going to increase year after year.
注释:
1. Milestone:“里程碑”的意思,常用做比喻义,如:a milestone in one's life(生命的里程碑),常常是一些改变一个人生活的重要事件,有意义的事件。
3. Sponsor:“资助”、“赞助”的意思,当名词将就是“赞助人”、“担保人”的意思,If I'm going to go and live in the US, I must get an American sponsor.(如果我打算去美国生活,我必须得到一个美国担保人)。
4. Overall:“包括一切的”、“综合的”等意思,one's overall impression of sb.(对某人的总体印象)。另外再告诉大家overall作名词讲时的一个很有意思的用法,“工装裤”(美国用法)、“紧身军裤”(英国用法),这是overall 常用复数overalls,没办法,谁叫裤子都是两条腿呢?
The overall [4] DNS message is one about helping developers seize that opportunity by bringing together the different architectures, making things automatic and allowing this to be done in an evolutionary fashion. I think it's a fantastic time to be developer and we appreciate being here and look forward to the opportunity to work with you more.Thank you.