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General discussion

If you could have lunch with anyone ...

Nov 15, 2005 3:29AM PST

Ok, not really lunch. But if you could hear anyone in the tech industry interviewed, who would it be? Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Forget about the guys from Google, they're not talking. We're taking suggestions, though, for our next lunchtime conversations!

Discussion is locked

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Pete Ashdown
Nov 15, 2005 4:28AM PST

I think you should try Pete Ashdown. He is the CEO of XMission and running for the U.S. Senate against Orrin Hatch. His company is providing service on a municipalluy owned wi-fi network as well. As his website at www.pashdown.org, he posts his stand on issues such as technology, copywrite law, and patent reform. Just from a technological issue standpoint it would be good to hear some of his opinions.

P.S.

I am not a campaign worker for him, nor have I decided whether or not to support him in the election. But he would be a good interview.

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BT technologists
Nov 15, 2005 5:07AM PST

Would have to be a virtual lunch, unless you could come to the UK?

Someone from British Telecom (BT) and the research and development guys based at Adastral Park. This is a 99-acre site near Ipswich in England. This site houses one of the highest concentrations of technologists in Europe!

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Sony!
Nov 15, 2005 5:27AM PST

Let's bring in head sony guys and ask them what the hell they were thinking with the root kit and this whole DRM issue.

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Second that
Nov 16, 2005 2:41AM PST

I second that I would love to here Sony's take on this whole root kit thing

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(NT) (NT) Maybe we could slap some sense into them!
Nov 20, 2005 9:14AM PST
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Shigeru Miyamoto
Nov 15, 2005 5:52AM PST

To find out if he really is as nuts as his games suggest Happy

Or Jeff Minter, to find out what makes him Trip... i mean Tick....

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game makers
Nov 15, 2005 5:59AM PST

try and get more people from game companies, with the new multicore consoles coming out and the xbox 360 next, i'm sure they have all kinds of cool stuff to talk about

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definitely
Nov 18, 2005 12:40AM PST

more game makers need to checked out. i know gamespot does this already but i'd love to hear the cnet crew interview these guys more

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Open Source Leaders
Nov 15, 2005 6:50AM PST

If you could talk with people in the open source community, I think that would be totally awesome. Developers of Linux distributions, OpenOffice.org developers and people who are involved & work with open source technology on a daily basis.

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besides molly?
Nov 15, 2005 7:18AM PST

Linus Torvalds

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Linus
Nov 15, 2005 8:13AM PST

I would like to hear from Linus, someone from the patent office that could talk about what is going on there. I would like to hear from Google people (not necessarily the big guys). Maybe from people at google maps about how they have made it open for people to use for their own purposes (fraper, risk, etc.)

The MIT guys with the $100 laptop.

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(NT) (NT) Second Linus
Nov 17, 2005 4:30AM PST
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P&G executives
Nov 15, 2005 8:27AM PST

I know they're not techies, but they recently announced that they are finally upgrading the company to the 21st century (we're already 5 years in). It may not seem important, but maybe America would like to hear about what executives from Procter & Gamble, the nation's largest health and food company, think about technology's role in running a business.

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I would have to say....
Nov 15, 2005 10:19AM PST

Jobs or Woz

I would only have lunch with Bill Gates to punch him in the face, but that's just me. Silly

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i'm not endorsing

i'm just chuckling inwardly.

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Negroponte, Kawasaki, Craig, Bezos
Nov 15, 2005 12:20PM PST

Nicholas Negroponte. Former Mac man, Guy Kawasaki. Craig, of craigslist. Jeff Bezos.

Prescient and revolutionary in their own, different ways.

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BUNGIE!
Nov 15, 2005 12:29PM PST

It would be unbelievably cool to have an interview with some of the Bungie staff and get some insider updates on the progress of Halo 3.

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CNET CEO
Nov 15, 2005 4:21PM PST

Where is CNET heading...and how you balance commercial responsibilities with your journalistic integrity? Will CNET go the way of Sony, Google etc and look for world domination?


Paul
Oxford, England

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Not Just a Person
Nov 15, 2005 8:14PM PST

Truthfuly, I would love to sit down with the crew of researchers who took Steve Jobs for a tour of Zerox's PARC centre. These guys were responsible for planting the seed of the Machintosh GUI as we have come to know today. Not only that but they already had Voice Recognition enabled systems and the Laser Printer. And get this, this was all in the 60's and early 70's.
Talk about innovation before our time. I would love to know what they are working on now and to be a fly on the wall in those labs.

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J Allard
Nov 15, 2005 11:05PM PST

Might be interesting to hear him.

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Declan
Nov 16, 2005 12:26AM PST

Declan McCullagh, CNet's chief political correspondent.

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You Guys!
Nov 16, 2005 2:06AM PST

I would really like to know more about the Buzz Out Loud crew. How did each of you get to where you are? Where did you go to school? Stuff like that.

P.S.

Veronica is a cutie patootie.

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Ballmer, Moore, Rollins, Buffington
Nov 16, 2005 2:54AM PST

I would like to hear and interview with Steve Ballmer. Man that guy is a piece of work (anyone seen the Ballmer music video: developers, developers, developers). Steve reminds me of a Bull in a china shop. Although with all the good things that M$ has been doing lately (M$ anitspyware killing the Sony root kit, working towards limited open source) maybe he got some Paxil.

Also I'm a HUGE Battlestar Galatica fan, I would like to hear Ronald D. Moore Executive Director of BSG. Not really tech related but hey we are all geeks and prob like the same things. His podcast are really cool and he seems like he would be a neat guy to interview.

Kevin Rollins- CEO Dell,

Or even the CEO or someone from the company I work for NSI www.nsisoftware.com , (real-time data replication/ Disaster recovery software.) I would suggest our director of business continiuity Jason Buffington since he is a great speaker and very funny to talk with.

Rob,

(p.s. Sorry about creating a new thread clicked the wrong button)

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Google Guy
Nov 16, 2005 2:33PM PST

I know you said no Google guys, but there's no one on the planet I'd love to hear from more. I'm a huge Google fan, even own some of their stock. The share prices make me an even bigger Google fan!
- Andrew

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Ray Kurzweil
Nov 16, 2005 6:51PM PST

He's the guy who thinks a lot about 20 years or more in the future and where computers might be (and humans!).

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Jonathan IVE - British born designer of iPod, iMac etc
Nov 17, 2005 2:26AM PST
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Open Source Open Source Open Source
Nov 17, 2005 3:24AM PST

Representatives from the Open Source community, Mozilla, Open Office.org etc, etc.

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Peter Rojas and Ryan Block, from Engadget (no pun)
Nov 17, 2005 11:18PM PST

It'd be really nice to have the four of you chatting about future developments of technologies, internet and gadgetry.
Jorge.

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Plasma/LCD/OLED Display Makers
Nov 17, 2005 11:25PM PST

I'm not sure who would be the best, but someone to talk about the future (or near future) of flat screen display technology - what's the next big thing?

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MIT Techonology review
Nov 17, 2005 11:38PM PST

I used to get MIT technology review (free subscription) it was a great magazine and I would like to hear from editors about the next big thing. I know that you guys probably could do some of this, but if you are doing an interview you have to interview someone.

One of the most intersting articles I read was about a PDA based projector to change the interface of how we use mobile computers.