Microsoft is one of those companies everyone loves to hate. Many valid arguments can be made about the way in which the largest software corporation in the world conducts its business.It gained dominance by sheer ruthlessness, and now continues to bully, threaten and assimilate to maintain its position in the industry. Microsoft is the 900-pound gorilla the overwhelming majority of people depend on to breathe functionality into their computers, check Hotmail and surf MSN.During the past week, several Microsoft servers ran into a little trouble. At 6:30 p.m., Tuesday a technician’s configuration error rendered Microsoft’s domain name servers inoperable until 2 p.m. Wednesday.As it turned out, the reason the glitch had such far-reaching effect was because all of Microsoft’s DNSs were linked on one network. Once services were restored, hackers targeted Microsoft’s routers with denial of service (DoS) attacks from Thursday into Friday, preventing access to the sites for several brief periods and decreasing the reliability of access to Microsoft’s sites. This new variant of attack does not flood the host site with packets, but halts traffic at the router level with fewer, less conspicuous packets.The company’s security commitment has been lackluster and has only recently reached acceptable levels. Looking into Microsoft’s future, I’m saddened to see I may have little to gripe about.With last week’s embarrassment, certainly Microsoft can only care more about security than they do now. Human error will be reduced, and preventive measures will make denial of service attacks less effective. Plus, DoS attacks are plain mean. I hope the law cracks down on those prepubescent hooligans who think they are so cool for making me and countless other busy individuals wait several additional minutes to play “Bejeweled.”If the thought of Microsoft one day producing secure software doesn’t put a smile on your face, perhaps the contributions of their former chairman will. Saturday, Bill Gates pledged $100 million toward the search for an AIDS vaccine. To learn more about what he’s doing, I visited the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and saw all the good things funded by Microsoft billions. The Foundation’s main goals are to improve global health and close the digital divide. To those ends, $1.22 billion was spent to combat disease, $214 million towards reproductive and child health and over two billion in all in 1999. Its sister cause, the Gates Learning Foundation, awarded $111.3 million with their library programs and public access to information projects.By utilitarian analysis of Microsoft Corporation’s business practices and its co-founder’s generous contributions, I’ve come to the conclusion that whatever ill Microsoft has done to its industry is insignificant compared to the good Bill Gates is doing around the world.Take his $100 million AIDS pledge for example. To make that kind of money, it would take twenty-five of me, making $60,000 annually, fifty five and a half years, assuming me and my clones gave all the money away and were exempt from paying taxes. Dear God, that’s a lot of money.As nice as $100 million sounds, Gate’s foundation pledged even more, $750 million, to the Global Fund for Vaccines and Immunization in 1999. It doesn’t take much number crunching to realize that the universal good this man is doing is beyond the means of any other person on the planet. He’s saving lives.This is not to say that the rest of us can’t make a difference. There are numerous ways to help others, even if you’re a starving college student. One example is the www.thehungersite.com and its sister sites. By clicking a button, you can donate food to a hungry person, 20 hours of nursing care to children with AIDS, 1400 capsules of Vitamin A to the protect children from blindness and death, 37 mammograms to underprivileged women and 232 minutes of outreach to land mine victims — all paid for by advertisers. It doesn’t cost you anything, and you don’t have to divulge any personal information, either.Everyone should be doing something. Although I don’t consider Microsoft products, policies or security the epitome of greatness, I do admire the astronomically high contributions their richest employee has donated towards making the world a better place. The ends overwhelmingly justify the means. Those of us not sitting on an 11-figure nest egg still have a responsibility to do our part and contribute as best we can, too. So let’s all get out there and get something done! Right after a quick game of “Bejeweled.”Sam Wong is a sophomore in electrical engineering from Ames.