Norris spoke Monday in person, Gates via satellite
Gates pledges fight against spam
Jay Kirschenmann
Argus Leader
published: 5/25/2004
There's help coming for computer users suffering from the barrage of viruses and the dreaded e-mail spam, Microsoft founder Bill Gates promised the crowd at the Fourth Annual Technology Summit in Sioux Falls on Monday.
"They are a huge drain on the benefit we get from PCs," Gates said in an address broadcast live by satellite from Washington state. "We'll spend about one-third of our research and development budget on these issues."
Also on the horizon are new versions of Windows, he said, following research into what causes programs to "hang" or crash.
Other summit speakers appearing in person at the Sioux Falls Convention Center included E-Trade CEO Mitch Caplan, Recording Industry of America Vice President David Sutphen, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and Symantec Chairman and CEO John Thompson.
Technology is responding to all kinds of challenges in the world but there's still a lot of inventing to do, said Woody Norris, chairman of American Technology Corporation.
"You might pray that gasoline goes to $10 or $20 bucks a gallon, you know why? Because the stress it would cause society would also cause invention," Norris said.
"We'll figure out a way not to have to buy their stinking oil. That's how we're going to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. We'll take away all their money, put it all in foreign aid, and then they'll be nice," Norris said, getting a big laugh out of the approximately 1,000 people in the audience.
Norris holds 43 U.S. patents, and more than 100 pending patents worldwide.
"Invention technology is so cool because right now it's exploding," he said. Norris demonstrated his "hypersonic sound" invention,which projected sound to parts of the room without use of speakers.
U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle said the summit keeps South Dakota in the world technology loop.
"When I started the annual Summit in 2001, my hope was to stimulate a broader discussion about the extraordinary role that technology and research could play in our state's future," Daschle said.
"Four years later, we are making great progress. New businesses are creating quality job opportunities that will enable our young people to find rewarding work right here in South Dakota."
Daschle, the leader of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, is running for re-election against former U.S. Rep. John Thune, a Republican, in the November election.
The summit was the point of a minor political controversy recently because the Thune campaign contended that mailings for the event violated campaign laws. Daschle says the summit is not political.
Guest speakers at the summit may learn more about the state during their visit, said Larry Toll, Qwest's president for South Dakota.
"Without the summit we wouldn't have these speakers exposed to South Dakota, and also South Dakotans exposed first hand to the technology they're talking about," Toll said. "It goes both ways. The speakers might now look at South
Dakota in a different light."
Al Kurtenbach, co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of video-display maker Daktronics in Brookings, said the meeting helps people share ideas.
"This is a way to get people in the state to focus on their future," Kurtenbach said between sessions. "We need to develop new economies for the state, and technology is in my opinion is the future of the state. It's also a way to keep our greatest asset - our young people."
During Gates' talk , he was projected on a huge screen in the Convention Center's main hall.
"Getting the wireless connection out to every home is a tough problem, especially in rural areas in the Dakotas," he said. "Today, 46 percent of South Dakota homes have Internet connectivity. We'll explore new approaches that will help bring more more connectivity to rural areas."
Gates said Microsoft will continue
dealing with problems PC users run into daily.
"Software crashes or hangs, and we get feedback every time that happens on a PC so we can improve," Gates said.
"This year we'll spend $6.8 billion in research and development," he said. "Our role is to provide the tools for development and productivity, new versions of Windows itself, new X-boxes, and all the underlining platform pieces to take full advantage of the hardware, and take software to an entirely new level."
Reach business reporter Jay Kirschenmann at 331-2312.
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