IN a land far, far away, there lives a man called Bill Gates. People say that he is the richest person in the world who has made his fortune in computer software. One day, Bill and his partner, Paul Allen, founders of Microsoft, visit a new restaurant in city and order their favourite dish — apple pie.

"Finish this apple fast Bill, you are eating it too slowly," says Paul. "It is not as easy as you think, I have been trying to finish Apple for the past decade or so, but Steve Jobs always comes up with a better computer and an even better operating system," says Bill. "I was talking about the apple pie, not Steve’s computer company," says Paul.

Bill says, "I am sorry, but anyway, let us ask for the bill," "Why? Aren’t you the Bill?" "I meant the cheque Paul," says Bill. "Pardon me. Anyway, the bill says we’ll have to pay 288 dollars," says Paul. The expression on Bill’s face changes to that of disgust and he says, "Please don’t mention the number 288." "Why?" says Paul. "It is too gross." "I don’t see how." "288 is 2 times 144 and 144, as you know, is gross." "I see, now sign the bill," "I am the Bill." "I mean the cheque."

Bill writes on the cheque — 01000010 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01000111 01100001 01110100 01100101 01110011. "Sir, I can’t read your signature, It’s not in English," says the waiter. "Yes, you can’t, but maybe your computer can, it is in binary," says Bill. "I have never heard of a language called binary, Sir," says the waiter.

Bill says, "Binary, my dear fellow, is what is sustaining the world driven by computers. Everything that you enter into a computer is converted in binary, which is somewhat like a morse code. The binary signals are sent to the central processing unit of a computer in a series of electronic pulses. The high-voltage pulses are read as 1s and the low-voltage pulses are regarded as 0s. Binary means a system of two — a one and a zero — and a 1 or a 0 is one bit, eight of which make a byte, which is why each letter of the alphabet comprises eight bits."

The waiter says, "The mention of bite reminds me that I am hungry for more information, Sir." Bill says, "Even the principle of a CD-ROM is based on binary, as the laser sensor reads whether or not a hole or a micropit is present on the CD-ROM or not. John Atanasoff was the first person who thought that the binary code can be used in computer applications. Electronic circuits use binary in making logic decisions involving conditions of true and false etc. A 1.44 mb disk holds over 1 million letters or eight million 1s and 0s." "Only a millionaire could have said so," says the waiter. "I am a billionarie, does that make any difference?" says Bill. The waiter takes time to recover and says, "However Sir, could you decode for me what you have written on the cheque?" "I have written my name on it — Bill Gates — with a space to separate two words."

"Oh Sir! So, if I say 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100, does it mean that you were great?" "Of course, it does," says Bill, "but, I believe that I am still great," "Sir, you were great only till the Apple season had not arrived," "I don’t see new apples in the market," "You soon will, Sir." "How did you learn the binary code so fast?" "Sir, what one man can invent, the other man can discover."

Bill says, "You are a smart fellow, what is your name?" "Steve, Sir," "Ah! I know a person called Steve. If I have to give you a tip, what would you like, a pound of $ 10 gold coins or half a pound of $ 20 gold coins?" "Sir, a pound $ 10 gold coins has twice the amount of gold than half a pound of $ 20 gold coins." "That’s smart Steve, tell me more about you, how many children do you have?" "Sir, I have five children and half of them are male." "How is it possible?" "Sir, the other half are male, too." The joke makes Bill and Paul laugh.

Bill says, "How could you be so funny?" "I think differently," says the waiter and walks away. "Think differently...," says Bill to Paul, "Isn’t that the adline of Apple. What did he say was his name?" "Steve," yells Paul, "the CEO of Apple, and you were telling him about 1s and 0s. Do you know what is zero?" "What?" says Bill. "It is the difference between a stupid person’s ears," says Paul.

— Aditya Rishi