By Groshan Fabiola
In Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s memoir called “Idea Man”, he reveals some crazy stories about his friend, Bill Gates.
Story 1: Bill Gates got source code in a dumpster in high school
In high school, Gates and Allen had a chance to practice their programming skills on a DEC computer owned by a local company, C-Cubed. However, not being allowed to access as much information as the company’s officials made them frustrated. One night, the smaller Gates was boosted up to the top of the company's dumpsters by Allen to find out some interesting stuffs. Fortunately, he got a printout of the TOPS-10 source code that helped two boys unlock a lot of secrets.
This story proves that the best can be found in the worst
Story 2: Bill Gates and Paul Allen hacked a company's accounting file to get free computing time
Gates and Allen started finding out a way to access one of the free accounts at C-Cubed when the charges for their borrowed computer time in high school increased. Unfortunately, they got caught and were booted by the company after the pair got access to an administrator password, and used it to steal the company's internal accounting file
Story 3: Gates wrote his high school's scheduling program to book him into an all-girl-English class
One summer, Gates accepted to write a class scheduling program for his high school to make sure that he could be sent into an English class with a dozen girls and no other boys
Story 4: Gates went water skiing with a broken leg
While Gates and Allen were working on a temporary programming contract in southern Washington State and sharing an apartment, Gate broke his leg but still went water skiing
Story 5: He ate a roast chicken with a spoon
One time, after Allen's girlfriend Rita cooked Gates a roast chicken, he ate the entire thing with a spoon
Story 6: He lost thousands of dollars when playing poker at Harvard
Gates used to be a regular gamer in his residence hall at Harvard and often lost thousands of dollars. However, this game taught him how to trick, which became beneficial later on
Story 7: He would work for huge missions without sleep
Gates liked staying up all night to work. One time, a new secretary found him laid on the floor and though he was unconscious when she came in on Monday morning. Actually, the man just wanted a quick catnap after working all weekend
Story 8: He did chest slides down a bannister at a Halloween party
In a crazy Halloween party at Allen’s house when Microsoft began to get some achievements, Gates got a kick out of sliding on the banister and glided toward the kitchen
Story 9: He drove like a maniac
Gates received so many speeding tickets that he had to hire the best traffic attorney in Washington State to get him out of trouble. One day, he borrowed a friend's Porsche 928 and caused an accident. Consequently, the repairs of this car took a year to complete
Story 10: He hijacked the control panel at an airport gate and got the plane to come back
In the early 1980s, Gates and Allen missed a flight at San Francisco International Airport. However, when the plane pulled away, he ran up to the control panel next to the jetway and began pushing buttons, hoping to move the jetway back out to the plane. Fortunately, the plane was called back by someone from the airline
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Articles Source: Top Ten Crazy Stories About Bill Gates
