Charles Simonyi and Mitch Kapor invented the software that helped kick-start the PC revolution. Now they're at it again, investing their fortunes in ventures aimed at finally creating programs that do what you want them to and never crash. In a future envisioned by these iconoclasts and a growing body of companies, including IBM and Sun Microsystems, programs repair themselves, and the desktop metaphor is replaced by computer interfaces that put information at your fingertips depending on what job needs doing, not what application you're running.

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