I really can't think of another person that I've had to reevaluate my opinion of as drastically as Gates.

In the 90s he was widely seen as the face of the evil empire of Microsoft by the technorati, completely cutthroat and unfairly crushing anyone that stood in his way.

But over the past decade, he's arguably been one of the single greatest contributors to good in the world. He's been a staunch and consistent advocate for the overall betterment of humanity. He's put his wealth and influence to use in beneficial, high-impact ways. He's directed his ruthlessness away from business and toward hunger, poverty, and disease. And it's making a very real difference in the lives of people around the world.

He's gone from somebody I viewed as a reviled caricature of a man to one I can't help but profoundly respect.

Yeah, people are complicated. In the Mr. Gates' case, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

The contest limitations rule out most of the likely attack vectors for breaking the protocol in the real world. It's like saying "Our bank vans are 100% secure. Just try stealing money from them without puncturing our tires or bribing one of our employees."

I never realized just how bad the situation was until I got involved more seriously in activism. Two and a half years into being politically active enough to never go more than a week or two without some form of protest (which could take the form of a march or rally, or an Overpass Light Brigade, or helping organize a cryptoparty, hosting documentary movie nights, helping with direct action training, etc.), I now have literally dozens of friends who have been charged with felonies.

These are among the sweetest, and gentlest, people I know. Some are barely older than children (the youngest person I know charged with a felony was 19 when she was charged with "Use of a criminal instrument" for locking her arm to a fellow protesters arm using a device suggested and made for them by a team of undercover Austin Police Department officers).

It is completely transparent, to me, that these laws and these tactics, are tools of oppression. They are not "to keep us safe", and never were. They are designed to make dissent as dangerous as possible through every means they can get away with. It includes violent, or at least threatening, police presence at any protest of significance (which means many populations cannot safely express dissent; anyone with warrants, regardless of what they are for, has no free speech because they will be snatched from a protest, anyone who is an undocumented immigrant has no free speech because they will be snatched, etc.). It includes violent arrest tactics; police are trained in "pain compliance" techniques, which include spraying pepper spray into protesters eyes, and forcing their eyes open to do so. It includes widespread spying at the local, state, and federal level, as well as spying by corporations like Stratfor. It includes charging activists with laws intended for violent terrorists, so that arrest is no longer a minor inconvenience, but a life-altering event. When non-violent activists are facing years in prison, for causing nothing more than minor temporary inconvenience, something is horribly broken.

I suspect most Americans would be disgusted by all of this, if they were really aware of it. But, it's not very frequently reported in mainstream media. I only know about it because I know some of the people involved and follow activist-oriented news sources.

Things like this are neat because they remind folks that tech titans, billionaires, celebrities, and the like are, at the end of the day, people too -- not that dissimilar from everyone else. It's so easy to forget that.