Talk:Bill Gates' house

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[edit] Six Inch Tree Move

"An existing cedar tree was determined by Gates to be in the wrong location and moved six inches." This doesn't have citation, and it seems petty and not notable. I suggest that it be removed.

[edit] Punctuation

The title should be "Bill Gates's House", the 's' after the apostrophe is dropped only when dealing with plurals, e.g. "the lions' manes".

• actually you're wrong it should not have the second s.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.87.119.154 (talk • contribs).

Yes, some of us still care!

I'd change it but editing titles confuses me.

It's alright, I changed it Ydam 18:12, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree it shouldn't have the second s. I should be Bill Gates' House.

I checked, Shrunk & White's Elements of style: "Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write, "Charles's friend," "Burns's poems," "the witch's malice."[1] So I would support Bill Gates's Home. --Trödel 14:35, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I guess there is more controversy Apostrophe says "If the word ends in an s but is singular, practice varies as to whether to add ’s or only an apostrophe. (For discussion on this and the following points, see below.)"

Below it says: "Prominent sources require that almost all singular nouns, including those ending in an s, a z, or an x, have possessive forms with an extra s after the apostrophe." However, there are no prominent sources listed supporting s' always, so I think it is a colloquialism or an improper but common usage. However, every style guide I've been exposed to has the rule for singular posessives has always been "s's."

Personally, I think that since the rule is different for forming plural possessives - since plurals already end in "s" so the practice is to just add an apostrophe - that is the source of the confusion. --Trödel 14:46, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I donno...

I supose i might live here...

[edit] Ventilation

• The ventilation system also conditions the air for health and comfort.

Wow, Gates even has air conditioning! -Will Beback 05:13, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Address

• Is it really necessary to publish his address? Publish celebrity addresses seems a bit creepy and unethical to me.

[edit]  !

How rich is this guy? Can't he give the rest of us some money

He does. Bill Gates gives away tons of money. This just emphasizes how much he really does have.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced that it will give $500 million to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the next five years.

[edit] Other houses

This article could somehow compare Gates' house and other similarly lavish houses. Gates' house is considered one of the "most intelligent", while the Biltmore Estate/Istana Nurul Iman is the largest in the US/world, etc. Eg. there's a Comparisons section in the Istana Nurul Iman article. Shawnc 03:45, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

I assume you've posted this in relation to the see also link to Istana Nurul Iman. While I can see how comparisons of Gate's house with other well known houses might useful to a reader when relevant, I'm not sure how comparing the Gate's house with INI is useful (What do we say, "look, Gate's house is a lot smaller than the largest house in the world"?). I'm not clear why INI would want to link to Gates house either, it seems like they're better off with a whole host of other comparisons, it's not like many readers have had the chance to look around Gate's house and get the feel for it.

Just adding wikilinks to other famous houses doesn't seem particularly useful. A portal or category might do that well, but from an individual article links should be focused on articles that are more than tangentially related.

The idea of Gate's house being the most intelligent is an interesting one, but the source you have doesn't seem very reliable and provides little detail. Have you seen any other articles that discuss this from better sources? --Siobhan Hansa 14:58, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] CNC-machined Doorhandles

Does anybody know WHY the house is equipped with $2000 CNC-machined doorhandles? Do they serve some special purpose? Do they have some unusual design to them? Does each room have a different doorhandle style? Are they just made to be the perfect size to fit Bill's hand? It's the sort of fact that seems very bizarre out of context. JDS2005 09:28, 7 January, 2007 (UTC)

I suspect that increasing wealth tends to expose those pecularities we tend to hide (because when you're richer than everyone else, who cares what they think, eh?). In my own experience, the year I crossed the $36,000 per annum line, I became pretty much addicted to Cross pens because they write so well. As to why Bill's home has $2,000 doorknobs ... if you were building a $100MUS home, would you want common old door knobs from Home Depot like everyone elses? I think not. I wonder what they look like? Maybe that will be "Believe It Or Not!" topic some time. :-)

Seriously, it is really a beautiful home (at least from BCJ's pics). A really cool garage and a great reception (?) room with the "broken" wall. I like all the wood and open space. I have always thought that building a home into the environment was a lot more efficient; glad to see that Bill agreed. ;-) Over that the USNews site there is a description of a really cool library. I have always wanted a library to put out all the books and documents I've collected over 40+ years ... fat chance now ... sigh. JimScott 00:27, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I think you kinda missed the point of my question here...You use Cross pens because they work so well. I wear a Breitling Aerospace watch because it keeps perfect time and has more functions than I can count. What's special about Bill's $2000 doorhandles? JDS2005 04:16, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Xanadu 2.0??

The opening header says the nickname refers to "the Xanadu Houses", without a citation. I think it more refers to the mansion in Citizen Kane, which was called Xanadu, which in turn, was modeled after the Hearst Castle. Anyway, there needs to be a citation here, or it needs to be removed. --rogerd 01:29, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Why was the reference to the Medina county's switch to Linux removed?