异类之不一样的成功启示录 第36期:盖茨慷慨大方的原因

 　　C-cubed eventually went bankrupt¹, so Gates and his friends began hanging around the computer center at the University of Washington.

　　但电脑中心公司最终破产，盖茨和他的同伴开始到华盛顿大学的计算机中心转悠。

　　Before long, they latched² onto another outfit³ called ISI,

　　不久，他们受到另外一家名为ISI公司(信息科学有限公司）的委托，

　　which agreed to let them have free computer time in exchange for working on a piece of software

　　为公司编写工资单程序，

　　that could be used to automate⁴ company payrolls⁵.

　　从而换取自由上机的时间。

　　In one seven-month period in 1971, Gates and his cohorts ran up 1,575 hours of computer time on the ISI mainframe,

　　在1971年的7个月间，盖茨和他的同伴得到了ISI主机1575个小时的上机时间，

　　which averages out to eight hours a day, seven days a week.

　　一星期7天，每天平均8个小时。

　　"It was my obsession," Gates says of his early high school years.

　　“那是最令我执迷的时间，”盖茨说起他在中学的早期岁月，

　　"I skipped athletics⁶. I went up there at night. We were programming on weekends.

　　“我们上机的地方总是换来换去。我们常常晚上去上机，几乎每个周末都在编程，

　　It would be a rare week that we wouldn't get twenty or thirty hours in.

　　很少有哪个星期不是超过20或者30个小时的。

　　There was a period where Paul Allen and I got in trouble for stealing a bunch of passwords in crashing the system.

　　整个一段时间，我和保罗.艾伦都挖空心思去盗窃计算机密码，冲击计算机系统。

　　We got kicked out. I didn't get to use the computer the whole summer. This is when I was fifteen and sixteen.

　　最终我们被开除，整个夏天都不能使用电脑，这时候我是15岁至16岁。

　　Then I found out that Paul had found a computer that was free at the University of Washington.

　　后来，我发现保罗已经在华盛顿大学找到了一台能够免费使用的电脑，

　　They had these machines in the medical center and the physics department.

　　这些免费的电脑一般安置在医药中心和物理系。

　　They were on a twenty-four-hour schedule, but with this big slack⁷ period,

　　这些电脑一般24小时都可以上机，但有一段时间却比较空闲，

　　so that between three and six in the morning they never scheduled anything." Gates laughed.

　　在凌晨3点至6点这段时间鲜有任何安排。”盖茨笑着说，

　　"I'd leave at night, after my bedtime. I could walk up to the University of Washington from my house.

　　就寝时间过后，我就开始动身到华盛顿大学，要么走过去，要么坐公交车。”

　　Or I'd take the bus. That's why I am always so generous to the University of Washington,

　　“为什么我对华盛顿大学总是那样慷慨大方，

　　because it let me steal so much computer time."

　　就是因为他们被我窃取了不少上机时间。

　　Years later, Gates's mother said, "we always wondered why it was so hard for him to get up in the morning."

　　多年之后，盖茨的母亲说：“我们常常觉得奇怪，为什么他每天早上很晚才起床。”

　　One of the founders⁸ of ISI, Bud⁹ Pembroke, then got a call from the technology company TRW,

　　ISI的一位创始人，巴德.彭布罗克，被汤普森-拉莫-伍尔德里奇科技公司（TRW)雇用。

　　which had just signed a contract to set up a computer system at the huge Bonneville Power station in Southern Washington state.

　　当时，TRW刚刚签订一项合同，为华盛顿州南部庞大的博纳维尔电站建立计算机系统。

　　TRW desperately¹⁰ needed programmers familiar with the particular software the power station used.

　　TRW急需熟悉电站运作专业软件的程序员，

　　In these early days of the computer revolution, programmers with that kind of specialized¹¹ experience were hard to find.

　　但在计算机革命的早期，要找到一个熟悉专业领域的程序员并非易事。

　　But Pembroke knew exactly who to call:

　　不过彭布罗克知道找谁最为合适：

　　those high school kids from Lakeside who had been running up thousands of hours of computer time on the ISI mainframe.

　　那些湖边学校的中学生，他们已经在ISI的电脑系统操作数千个小时。

1 bankrupt   

n.破产者；adj.破产的；vt.使...破产

参考例句：

• That factory has gone bankrupt.那家工厂倒了。
• The enemy's scheme went bankrupt.敌人的计谋破产了。

2 latched   

v.理解( latch的过去式和过去分词 )；纠缠；用碰锁锁上（门等）；附着（在某物上）

参考例句：

• The government have latched onto environmental issues to win votes. 政府已开始大谈环境问题以争取选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He latched onto us and we couldn't get rid of him. 他缠着我们，甩也甩不掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

4 automate   

v.自动化；使自动化

参考例句：

• Many banks have begun to automate.许多银行已开始采用自动化技术。
• To automate the control process of the lathes has become very easy today.使机床的控制过程自动化现已变得很容易了。

5 payrolls   

n.（公司员工的）工资名单( payroll的名词复数 )；（公司的）工资总支出，工薪总额

参考例句：

• Indices of employment, payrolls, and production steadied in February 1931931年2月，就业、工资额和生产指数稳定。 来自辞典例句
• Wall Street responded to the payrolls figures with gusto. 华尔街对就业数据作出了积极的反应。 来自互联网

6 athletics   

n.运动，体育，田径运动

参考例句：

• When I was at school I was always hopeless at athletics.我上学的时候体育十分糟糕。
• Our team tied with theirs in athletics.在田径比赛中，我们队与他们队旗鼓相当。

7 slack   

adj.松弛的，萧条的，懈怠的；vt.使松弛

参考例句：

• Slack off those ropes there,there's a storm coming!把那里的绳索放松，暴风雨就要来了！
• Some are hard at work and some are slack in work.有的勤奋工作，有的则消极怠工。

8 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

9 bud   

vi.发芽，萌芽；n.芽，花蕾

参考例句：

• Some flowers bud their leaves very early in spring.有些花在春季里很早发出叶来。
• A bad habit in a child should be nipped in the bud.应该尽早把孩子的坏习惯改过来。

10 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

11 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。