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Taking the heat off Gates for a moment, we used to call it the Bob Geldof problem. Even though he always denied that Live-Aid money ended up buying weapons in Ethiopia at least Geldof himself had the humility to admit later that the unforeseen political side effects of Live Aid were depressing and thought provoking.

Philanthropy looked good in less complex times. Wealthy reformists intervening in social problems worked in the 18th and 19th centuries, in a single city. Today maybe it's just hubris for small groups or individuals to fund pet projects with potentially huge side effects.

Bringing it back to Gates. A lot of people like the man, but I sincerely believe he set back computing by at least 20 years. He could use his enormous wealth to fund real social computing projects, free open source etc.. to put right what he messed up on the path to wealth. But I expect Bill Gates is too ideologically invested and much too proud to ever do that.