$ cat ./records/teenage-gates-is-banned-from-a-computer-center-for-exploiting-its-1970.txt
Teenage Gates Is Banned From a Computer Center for Exploiting Its Bugs
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As a teenager at Seattle's Lakeside School around 1968–1970, Bill Gates and his friends — including Paul Allen — got their first serious computer time from the Computer Center Corporation (C-Cubed). They were caught exploiting bugs in the system to grab extra free time and were banned for a period. The episode ended productively: C-Cubed hired the teenagers to hunt for flaws in its software in exchange for computer access — an early 'ethical hacking' arrangement that gave Gates formative programming experience and, he later said, led to his first real partnership with Allen.
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Wrote his first software program at age 13 at Lakeside School
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Related Accomplishments
1990s
Gates keeps a collection of rare and classic cars
Despite his reputation for frugality in some areas, Bill Gates has long indulged a passion for cars, assembling a collection that has included several Porsches — among them the 911 he has owned for decades and the storied 959 — as well as other classics. His automotive tastes, and the saga of importing the then-illegal 959, are among the more colorful footnotes of his personal life.
1990s
Gates retreats for solitary, twice-yearly 'Think Weeks'
For years Bill Gates retreated twice a year to a secluded cabin for a solitary 'Think Week,' during which he read stacks of papers, books, and employee proposals with no interruptions, emerging with strategic memos that shaped Microsoft's direction. The ritual became famous as a model of deep, focused thinking by a busy executive, and was credited with helping spark major pivots — including Microsoft's embrace of the internet. Gates carried the habit of voracious, deliberate reading into his philanthropy.
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