Timeline for Was Bill Gates' mugshot photo used in 2010 as a template for Outlook contacts?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 28, 2020 at 16:23 | comment | added | corsiKa | @BmyGuest Yes, actually- but as active as he is on social media, your best bet is to wait for a Reddit AMA or something. | |
| Sep 28, 2020 at 10:02 | comment | added | Laurel | @BmyGuest I searched Google Books and all I could find there was that the mugshot was used in a 1998 speech by Gates and then republished by the “media watchdog publication” Brill’s Content (which apparently couldn’t figure out how to get the image off PowerPoint files on Microsoft’s webpage and had to get it directly from the police). This seemed worthy of being in the answer, though it’s more of a characterization of MS than direct proof. | |
| Sep 28, 2020 at 9:50 | history | edited | Laurel | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Sep 28, 2020 at 8:54 | comment | added | BmyGuest | @corsiKa Yes, this was my thought of it. A story like that should have made it into some public presentation, interview or biography book by now. The lack of this is what strikes me as odd. I know, we will never be able to proof the negative claim of this not being true, but I really hoped there would be any form of confirmation for the positive claim by now. hmm, might just email Bill for a comment - anyone knows his email? ;c) | |
| Sep 26, 2020 at 22:27 | comment | added | corsiKa | @MarkRansom Maybe, but I mean, he was arrested for traffic violations, and doesn't seem to be particularly ashamed of it. And what are they gonna do now? | |
| Sep 26, 2020 at 8:06 | comment | added | nanoman | My intuition from visual inspection of the last comparison image is that the evidence is very strong, because the Outlook silhouette closely matches many specific shapes that would vary from one portrait to another: the width and slope of the shoulders, the right shoulder being slightly higher than the left shoulder, the extra-wide collar, and about a dozen protrusions/indentations in how the hair falls around the head. There are only 3 free parameters in the match (scale, x and y offset -- looks no rotation is needed). | |
| Sep 26, 2020 at 7:55 | comment | added | nanoman | A statistical analysis of the geometric closeness of the silhouettes could quantify the evidence that they are associated. If they were both available at an arbitrarily high resolution and they continued to match perfectly, that would make it asymptotically certain that the similarity is not coincidental. As it is, given that they match within some finite error, one could determine that the Outlook silhouette is more similar to this mug shot than to X% of frontal head-and-shoulders portraits from a large photo library. If say X% = 99.99%, this would be very strong circumstantial evidence. | |
| Sep 26, 2020 at 6:40 | comment | added | fraxinus | @MarkRansom the use of the photo may as well be unauthorized by Bill Gates. Graphical designers behave sometimes like this. | |
| Sep 25, 2020 at 21:13 | history | edited | Laurel | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Sep 25, 2020 at 20:51 | comment | added | Mark Ransom | @BmyGuest perhaps that one person is Bill Gates himself, and he's disinclined to admit it? | |
| Sep 25, 2020 at 18:02 | comment | added | BmyGuest | Well, certainly +1 for verifying the authenticity of the images. It doesn't do much for adding addtional proof, but maybe it is the only that can be done. I was just hoping that such a fun-story would create or leave some sort of trace in history over time. After all, if it is true, there is at least one person that could confirm it. | |
| Sep 25, 2020 at 15:01 | history | answered | Laurel | CC BY-SA 4.0 |