Bill Gates with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico. Gates never returned to Harvard to complete his studies. Microsoft's Altair BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy had leaked into the community and was being widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, Gates wrote an Open Letter to Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter in which he asserted that more than 90 percent of the users of Microsoft Altair BASIC had not paid Microsoft for it and by doing so the Altair "hobby market" was in danger of eliminating the incentive for
US-Taiwan Business Council two organizations co-hosted conferences – called "Annual Joint Business Conferences" – which were held on alternate years in either Taiwan or the US. The conferences served as opportunities for high-level bilateral dialogue, and often brought United States Cabinet officers to Taiwan. This tradition ended in 2004. US-Taiwan Business Council The US-Taiwan Business Council (Traditional Chinese: 美台商業協會; Pinyin: "Měi Tái Shāngyè Xíehùi") is a membership-based, non-profit organization founded in 1976 to foster trade and business relations between the United States and Taiwan. Council members consist of private companies with business interests in Taiwan, and range in size from one-person consulting firms