Whether you are preparing to reuse a hard disk for another operating system, clear off your junk shelves by passing along outdated drives to a friend or relative, donate an old PC to a charity or school, discard a too-small USB drive or flash memory card, or repurpose an SSD, you don’t want to leave any information on the storage device. With stories abounding of identity theft aided by information lifted from discarded storage devices, you want devices you no longer plan to use to have no usable information when they head out the door.
Why Erasing Files Is Not Enough
Sure, you could erase the contents of the drive, but keep this in mind: the act of erasing a file does not remove it from a storage device.
When you erase/delete a file from your computer, it’s not really gone until the areas of the disk it used are overwritten by new information. If you use the normal Windows delete function, the “deleted” file is sent to the Recycle Bin until the space it uses is required by other files. If you use Shift-Delete to bypass the Recycle Bin, the space occupied by the file is marked as available for other files. However, the file could be recovered days or even weeks later with third-party data recovery software. As long as the operating system does not reuse the space occupied by a file with another file, the “deleted” file can be recovered.
With SSDs, the erased file situation is even more complex. SSDs store data in blocks rather than in sectors as with magnetic storage. Overwriting a block was previously used involves copying the contents of the block to cache, wiping the block’s contents, delete the block to be overwritten from cache, writing the new data to cache, and rewriting the block with the new data. As an SSD is used with files that are deleted or changed frequently, the performance can drop unless the drive (and operating system) support a technology called TRIM that wipes out deleted data blocks as soon as the file using the blocks is deleted. TRIM is supported by Windows 7 and by some late model SSDs, but not by older Windows versions. So, disk wiping can be both a security feature and a performance improvement strategy.
Data Wiping Versus File Erasure
While erasing files simply marks file space as available for reuse, data wiping overwrites all data space on a storage device, replacing useful data with garbage data. Depending upon the method used, the overwrite data could be zeros (also known as “zero-fill”) or could be various random patterns.
Products that can be used for wiping hard disks might not be suitable for wiping other types of drives. In this article, we will look at methods for securely wiping hard disks, USB flash memory devices, flash memory cards, and SSDs.
Zero-Fill a Hard Disk
Time Needed: several hours (varies with size and speed of drive)
Software: Hard disk utility software from your drive vendor
Media: blank CD or floppy disk
Although writing zeroes across the entire hard disk surface (aka “zero-filling”) is not sufficient to meet government data sanitation (disk wiping) standards such as DoD 5220.22-M or the more comprehensive Standards and Technologies (NIST) Special Publication 800-88, overwriting the entire hard disk prevents most types of data recovery from being successful.
Here’s where to get zero-fill software from hard disk vendors:
1. Determine the brand and model of hard disk you want to overwrite.
2. Download a CD ISO image or a floppy disk image (depending upon your equipment) and use the image to create bootable media. The floppy disk image is self-contained: run it, insert a blank floppy disk when prompted, and the image is created on the disk. You will need to use a CD burning program that works with ISO images to convert the ISO image into a bootable CD.
3. Restart your computer with the bootable media you created in Step 2.
4. Select the hard disk to zero-fill when prompted.
5. Choose the option to zero-fill the hard disk.
6. When the program is finished, follow the on-screen instructions to shut down or restart your computer.
7. Remove the wiped hard disk; you can now reuse or recycle the hard disk.
Secure Wiping a Hard Disk
Secure wiping goes beyond zero-fill operations, and provides an extra level of security. Most secure wiping programs are designed to meet DoD 5220 standards, which require three passes of overwriting with a special numeric pattern and verification. More information about this and other secure standards are available from the DataErasure website.
Stanford University’s Disk and Data Sanitization Policy and Guidelines, a must-read for understanding data wiping issues, recommends Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) for secure hard disk wiping.
Secure Wiping a Hard Disk with DBAN
Time Needed: several hours (varies with size and speed of drive)
Software: Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN); available from http://www.dban.org/
Media: blank CD (all versions) or floppy disk (version 1.0.7 and older versions)
1. Download the DBAN boot image ZIP file (we used version 1.0.7 and beta version 2.0 for this article); we downloaded the ISO image for CD burning, but a floppy disk builder is also available
2. Extract the contents of the compressed file.
3. Burn the ISO image file extracted in Step 2 to CD; see our article on how to do this, or use the built-in ISO CD image burning support in Windows 7. If you downloaded the floppy image builder, run the program to create a bootable floppy disk.
4. Restart the computer using the CD or floppy disk created in Step 3.
5. Press Enter to run DBAN in interactive mode.
6. Use up and down arrow keys to highlight the drive to wipe.
7. Press the space bar to select the drive.
8. Press M to select the wiping method.
9. Press F10 to begin the wipe process.
10. At the end of the process, shut down the system. You can reuse or recycle the wiped hard disk.
Note: if DBAN is unable to recognize your SATA hard disks, configure your system BIOS to use IDE mode rather than AHCI mode.
Wiping Flash Memory Cards and USB Drives
Programs such as DBAN or vendor-supplied hard disk utilities are limited in the devices they support: they are designed to work with internal ATA/IDE or SATA hard disks only. Programs that work with flash memory cards and USB flash drives often support hard disks as well, enabling you to use a single program for all disk wiping processes. Roadkil’s DataWipe can be used with any hard disk, floppy disk, or flash drive that has a drive letter.
Wiping Flash Memory Cards with Roadkil’s DiskWipe
Time Needed: Varies; from a few minutes to several hours, depending upon size and speed of drive and computer
Software: Roadkil’s DiskWipe, available from http://www.roadkil.net/
Media: Can be run from Windows desktop
1. Download Roadkil’s DiskWipe.
2. Extract the contents of the compressed file.
3. Open DiskWipe. If you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, right-click the program icon and select Run as Administrator.
4. Select the drive to wipe.
5. Select the type of wipe to perform; DiskWipe can zero-fill the disk or write random data.
6. Enter the number of passes.
7. Click Erase to start the process.
8. At the end of the process, close the program. You can reuse the wiped disk.
Wiping SSDs
To solve write performance problems on drives that don’t support TRIM (check with your drive vendor for firmware upgrades) is to use wiper.exe (included with some SSDs) or to run the Secure Erase feature supported in most recent ATA/IDE and SATA drives. The Secure Erase feature can be activated on many systems by running Secure Erase 4.0 (HDDerase.exe), available from http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml. Version 4.0 works with most recent ATA/IDE and SATA hard disks and SSDs, but if you use an Intel X-25M, X-25E, or X-18M SSD, follow this link to download Secure Erase 3.3 http://www.iishacks.com/index.php/2009/06/30/how-to-secure-erase-reset-an-intel-solid-state-drive-ssd/. Note that it is no longer being developed, and we were unable to use it on a system running an AMD 690 chipset.
Wiping Drives and Free Space with SDelete
SDelete is a free program from Microsoft’s TechNet Sysinternals collection. It runs from the command line, and can be used to wipe drives, wipe files, or wipe free space.
Time Needed: Varies; from a few minutes to several hours, depending upon size and speed of drive and computer
Software: TechNet Sysinternal’s SDelete, available from http://technet.microsoft.com
Media: Can be run from Windows desktop
1. Download SDelete.
2. Extract the contents of the compressed file.
3. Copy sdelete.exe to c:windowssystem32 (this will enable you to run it from any location)
4. Open a command prompt session with Administrator rights.
5. To wipe all files on drive X: and its subdirectories and to wipe free space, enter Sdelete -p 2 –s -z X:*.* (to see all command-line switches, enter Sdelete with no options)
6. Wait; the program displays status messages as it runs. When the program is finished, you can reuse or dispose of the drive.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Disk Wiping Programs
We used demo versions of two popular data recovery programs to evaluate some of the disk wiping programs discussed in this article. To determine whether a typical data recovery program could recover files on a SD card wipe with Roadkil’s DiskWipe, we first of all formatted the card using a card reader. Ontrack’s EasyRecovery Data Recovery (available from http://www.ontrack.com) had no difficulty finding folders and files to retrieve.
However, when we used DiskWipe to wipe the drive using a one-pass blank disk (zero fill) operation, EasyRecovery DataRecovery was unable to find the file system, let alone any files or folders.
After reformatting the card, taking a few photos, and deleting the photos, EasyRecovery Data Recovery was able to find the new photos, but the contents of the card before running WipeDisk were unrecoverable.
To evaluate SDelete, we used SDelete to wipe all of the files on a hard disk, but omitted the –z switch; when –z is not used, SDelete deletes files and renames them, but does not clear free space. To determine what might be visible, we used a demo version of Disk Doctors NTFS Data Recovery software, available from http://www.diskdoctors.net.
Disk Doctors were able to locate the deleted folder and Outlook Express message folders, but SDelete had renamed them from their original names and DBX extensions (Outlook Express message folders). If you use SDelete, it’s very important that you take time to use the –z switch to clear free space on the disk (once a file is deleted, the space it occupies is free space).
We also used Disk Doctors to evaluate the effectiveness of a freeware program called Eraser, which can delete and overwrite files and folders from the right-click menu. We created a documents folder with a subfolder called Figures and used Eraser to overwrite the folder and subfolder using its default settings.
Disk Doctors was able to locate the folders, but the contents are files with garbage names and are zero bytes in size – except for leftover word processing temporary files (files that begin with $). These filenames were not changed, which could enable a snooper to figure out the names of the files in the folder – although the files themselves were destroyed. By using more overwrites or different methods available with Eraser, a more thorough wiping may be possible
Conclusion
We’ve highlighted a variety of free ways to protect data on castoff drives from being retrieved. As you can see, your best bet is to overwrite data directly, but you also might want to consider using a program such as SDelete to scramble filenames first and then use a disk wiper such as Eraser or WipeDisk to finish the job.
Use demo versions of data recovery programs such as Ontrack Easy Recovery Data Recovery, Disk Doctors Data Recovery (various editions for NTFS, FAT, and flash media), and others to evaluate the effectiveness of your data wiping procedures. Remember, the full versions of these and other data recovery programs can save your data if you accidentally format or partition a disk because, until the data is overwritten, it’s still there.
Your OS drives your whole PC experience, so it’s your job as an enthusiast to keep it in a high state of tune
Twist cap carefully. Only pour into Maximum PC-approved computer tanks.
After installing a new OS, most people just jump right in and start driving it through all their favorite applications and games. Makes sense, right? The operating system, after all, should be a background player in the computing experience—a means to an end, with the end being web surfing, content editing, and wanton destruction in the first-person shooter of one’s choice.
The problem, however, is that most people, even a lot of self-described power users, never take the time to really tune the new OS, exploring its menus and setting up the interface for the fastest, most convenient operation based on personal preferences. And as operating systems offer more and more user controls, it’s the curious, performance-minded enthusiast who has the most to gain from tuning an OS to his or her liking.
It’s been about six months since Windows 7 hit the market, so we figure most of our readers have made their upgrades. For those who’ve made that jump, we present a bottle of our favorite Windows 7 tips, each designed to help you extract the very last bits of convenience and GUI-navigating performance from your own personal dream machine. And if you haven’t yet upgraded to Win7, we trust you will after reading this article, as its core features—let alone its actual Lab-benchmarked performance—kicks Vista and XP ass.
We close out our tuning session with a tip designed to supercharge the process of installing the OS. By loading Windows 7 onto a USB key, and making that key a bootable drive, you can do an end-run around slow optical-drive technology and install your OS in (pardon the pun) a flash.
It’s time to get started. Park your computer, but don’t shut down. This is one PC tune-up that can only be done with your engine running.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Committed Mouse Abolitionists
Let’s kick off this power-user party with keyboard shortcuts—tricks every enthusiast should memorize when mastering a new OS. We’re confident the following time-saving keystrokes will save you precious neural processing cycles, and make your mouse jealous with neglect.
Alt + P
In Windows Explorer, this shortcut activates a preview pane of your selected file, be it an image, sound, or video document. This panel is great for previewing images in your photos directory, obviating the need for fancier third-party software.
Windows + Up and Windows + Down
If a window isn’t maximized, pressing the Windows + Up arrow key will make it fill your entire screen. Windows + Down arrow will minimize that active window.
Windows + Shift + Up and Windows + Shift + Down
Hitting these three keys will vertically stretch an active window to the maximum desktop height (the width of the window, however, will stay the same). Pressing Windows + Shift+ Down will restore the window to its previous dimensions.
Windows + + and Windows + -
Pressing the Windows button with either the plus or minus key activates the Magnifier, letting you zoom in on the entire desktop or open a rectangular magnifying lens to zoom in on (and out of) parts of your screen. You can also customize the Magnifier to follow your mouse pointer or keyboard cursor.
Windows + Left and Windows + Right
These two shortcuts will make your active window fill up exactly one half of your screen—depending on which arrow key you use. And once a window is fixed to one side of the screen, you can repeat the shortcut with the same arrow key to flip it to the other side.
Windows + Home
This shortcut minimizes every open window on your desktop except the active window. Pressing this shortcut again restores all the minimized windows.
Windows + T
Like Alt + Tab (still our all-time-favorite Windows shortcut), Windows + T cycles through thumbnails of your open programs via the Taskbar’s peek menu.
Windows + E
Automatically opens up a new Explorer window to show your Libraries folder.
Windows + P
Manage your multiple-monitor setup more efficiently with this handy shortcut. Windows + P opens a small overlay that lets you configure a second display or projector. You can switch from a single monitor to dual-display in either mirror or extend-desktop mode.
Windows + Shift + Left and Windows + Shift + Right
If you’re using two or more displays—and you are, aren’t you?—memorize this shortcut to easily move a window from one screen to the other. The window retains its size and relative position on the new screen, which is useful when working with multiple documents.
Windows + [Number]
Programs (and new instances) pinned to your Taskbar can be launched by hitting Windows and the appropriate number key. Windows + 1, for example, launches the first application in the taskbar, while Windows + 4 will launch the fourth.
Windows + Space
This combo performs the same function as moving your mouse to the bottom right of the Taskbar: It makes every active window transparent (save faint outlines) so you can view the desktop underneath.
Track Your Actions with Problem Step Recorder
To aid their development of Windows 7 beta versions, the Microsoft engineers built in a diagnostic tool called Problem Steps Recorder that combines screen captures with mouse tracking to record your actions. You can launch this program from the Start Menu by typing psr.exe in the search field. Hit the Record button and the applet tracks your mouse and keyboard input while taking screenshots that correspond with each new action. When you stop recording, your session is saved to an HTML slide show recreating your steps, to which you can add comments and annotations. This tool is insanely useful if you need to create a tutorial for a computer-illiterate relative. Hi Mom, hi Dad!
Master Your New Font Manager
Font management is much improved in Windows 7. The Add Fonts dialog is history, and in its place is new functionality within the Fonts folder itself. First, the folder now shows font previews via each font file’s icon (visible with Large or Extra Large icon views). Second, fonts from a single set will no longer show up as different fonts; they’re now combined as a single family, which can be expanded by double-clicking the icon. Third, you can now toggle fonts on and off by right-clicking a font icon and selecting the Hide option. This prevents applications from loading the font (thus saving memory), but still keeps the file retained in the Font folder. Finally, Windows 7 includes a new fancy, free-flowing font called Gabriola that shows off the advanced antialiasing, text rendering, and “stylistic alternate” font flourishes afforded by DirectWrite (Microsoft’s API for 2D text rendering) and OpenType.
One of our biggest annoyances with Windows Vista was the Games Folder, aka the Gaming Grotto, aka the Gaming Ghetto. In Vista, Games for Windows titles and other game shortcuts automatically install to this directory, which you can only access with a Start Menu shortcut. This scheme prevents you from starting a game from the Start Menu search bar (aka the power user, keyboard-only method). Indeed, while you can launch any other application by mashing the Windows key, and typing its name in the Start Menu field, this isn’t the case for games installed to Vista’s Games Folder. Well, this oversight is fixed in Windows 7, and the universe is now home to slightly less evil.
Burn a Spittin’ Image
You can quit messing around with ostensibly free, malware-infected burning software, because Windows 7 comes loaded with a DVD and CD ISO burning application. Just double-click your image file and Windows will start a tiny program window to help burn your disc. It’s a bare-bones app, but it works!
Become More Wordly with Hidden Wallpapers
Besides its default desktop wallpaper, Win7 includes desktop backgrounds catered to your region (which is identified when you first install the OS). We Americans, for example, get six 1900×1200 images showing off National Parks and beaches. However, if your tastes run more international—don’t worry, we won’t hold that against you—you can grab wallpapers for other regions from a hidden folder. Type globalization in a search of your C: drive. The only result should be a folder located in the main Windows directory, and you should only be able to see ELS and Sorting folders nested here. Now search for MCT in the top-right search bar. This will display five new unindexed folders, each corresponding to a different global region. Browse these folders for some extra themes and wallpapers specific to Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Canada.
Take Control of UAC
Despite good intentions, User Account Control pop-ups were one of the most annoying aspects of Vista, and thus UAC became a feature that most of us immediately disabled after a clean install. UAC in Windows 7 displays fewer warnings, but you can also fine-tune its notification habits by launching the UAC Settings dialog from the Start Menu. Just type UAC in the Start Menu search field and click the result. We find that setting the bar to just one tick above “Never notify” provides a comfortable balance between mindful security and incessant, Alice Kramden–caliber nagging.
Calculate Your Mortgage and Other Math Tricks
The reliable Calculator applet has been beefed up to do more than just basic arithmetic. You can now toggle between Standard, Scientific, Programmer, and even Statistics modes. In addition, the Options menu lets you pull out many new automated conversation tools, such as Unit Conversion (e.g., Angles, Temperature, Velocity, and Volume) and Date Calculation (e.g., calculate the difference between two dates). More templates give you the ability to crunch gas mileage, lease tipping points, and even mortgage estimates (yeah, right!) based on any variables you input.
Reveal All of Your Drives
If you use built-in memory-card readers in a 3.5-inch drive bay or on your desktop display, empty memory card slots will not show up as drives in My Computer. But that doesn’t mean they’re not still there. To reveal hidden memory card slots, open My Computer. Press Alt to show the toolbar at the top of the screen, and go to Folder Options under Tools. Hit the View tab and uncheck the “Hide empty drives in the Computer folder” option.
Use Devices and Printers to Quickly Dig into Hardware
Tired of switching between Device Manager, Properties menus for your devices, and the Start Menu to manage and use printers, digital cameras, mice, and other peripherals? Windows 7 comes to your rescue with its Devices and Printers dialog. Open Control Panel and select View Devices and Printers from the Hardware and Sound category. Right-click a device icon in Devices and Printers to configure the hardware, create shortcuts, troubleshoot, view properties, and run programs. Devices and Printers can save you a lot of effort. For example, when you use it to manage your computer, you have one-touch access to 12 different Control Panel and Explorer interfaces. And when you use a Windows 7–specific driver that supports Device Stage, Devices and Printers uses thumbnail art of the actual device, as shown.
After doing a clean install of Windows 7 on a notebook, the first thing you should do is tune and calibrate ClearType text and Display Color. Windows 7 includes two built-in wizards that run you through the entire process, pain-free. Launch ClearType Text Tuning by typing cttune in the Start Menu search field and opening the search result. You’ll go through a brief series of steps that ask you to identify the best-looking text-rendering method. For Display Color Calibration—useful if you’re using Windows 7 with a projector or large-screen LCD—search and launch dccw from the Start Menu. It’ll run you through a series of pages where you can adjust the gamma, brightness, contrast, and color of the screen to make images look their best.
Control AutoPlay Settings Like a Megalomaniacal Tyrant
Windows 7’s version of AutoPlay, like its predecessors’, lets you specify what to do with media types when you connect an external drive or insert a disc. Sure, you may have hated AutoPlay in Windows XP, but Win7 provides you with reasons to take a fresh look. As in Vista, Win7 lets you configure AutoPlay settings by media type, but you should poke around for more tweaking options. Open Control Panel, select Hardware and Sound, and then select AutoPlay. By default, Win7 uses AutoPlay for all media and devices; this can be unchecked, and from there you can personalize AutoPlay actions like a madman. Note that each type of media—music CDs, DVDs, software and games, media files, blank media, and video discs—offers you choices based on Windows utilities as well as third-party programs. Choose your favorite app as an AutoPlay default, or to keep the traditional pop-up AutoPlay menu, select Ask Me Every Time.
Solve External Hard Drive Hassles with Convert.exe
Windows 7 prefers hard disk drives that use the NTFS file system: Its integrated backup program cannot back up files from or to drives that use the older FAT32 file system. So, if you select a drive that uses FAT32 as the backup location, Windows 7 displays an error message. FAT32, a leftover from the days of Windows 98, works with both MacOS and Windows (which is why most external hard disks use this file system by default), but it lacks the features needed to fully support Windows 7 backup. Use Convert.exe to solve this problem. Open a command-prompt session and use the following command to change your external hard disk’s file system: convert x: /fs:ntfs (replace x with the actual drive letter of your external hard disk). Convert.exe will check your external hard disk for errors, verify there’s enough space for conversion, and then convert with abandon. While this theoretically will not destroy your data, we recommend you back up your files first.
Convert WMC Recordings for Use with Vista and XP
Windows Media Center (WMC) improved in the jump from Vista to Windows 7—you’ll find better integration of cable, broadcast, and Internet TV in the program guide, better support for widescreen displays, and a refined user interface, among other changes. But if you want to share your recordings with Windows XP or Vista users, or use the dozens of recording and file-conversion utilities made for those versions of WMC, you’re sort of screwed, as Windows 7 no longer uses the DVR-MS file format for recording. Instead, it uses WTV (Windows TV), and WTV files can’t be used by older versions of WMC or Windows Media Player.
You can, however, convert a TV recording from WTV to DVR-MS by using the conversion utility provided in Win7.
TV recordings are stored by default in the Public Recorded TV library. Open the library, right-click the recording, and select Convert to DVR-MS Format. At the end of the conversion process, the Recorded TV library contains both your original .wtv file as well the .dvr-ms conversion. The .dvr-ms file can be used with programs designed for Windows XP and Windows Vista Windows Media Center, and can be played on Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player in Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Command Windows 7 to Generate an Energy Report
As a power user, you may be concerned with power consumption, making the command-line utility powercfg.exe a must-see. To create a report on your PC’s energy appetite, press the Windows key and type cmd in the search box. Right-click cmd and select Run as Administrator. Now, select the box and type powercfg –energy at the command-line prompt, and hit Enter. Powercfg will run for about 60 seconds, then generate a report called energy-report.html in C:Windowssystem32. This report will notify you of anything in your computer that is keeping the CPU cycling, thus burning power and sucking notebook batteries dry. After you run the report, you’ll likely find that USB devices never entered Suspend state. While you might think the power consumption of a USB key is pretty insignificant, if it prevents the CPU from cycling off, that device can really hit where it hurts—in your battery’s nards.
Cling (Desperately) to Vista’s Taskbar
Let’s start with the bad news: Windows 7 eliminates the option to use the classic grey Windows 2000–style Taskbar. You’re also committed to the modern version of the Start Menu. But the good news is that you can still tweak the Taskbar to make it run like it did in Windows Vista, replacing the program icons with the names of each open app. Right-click the Taskbar and hit Properties. Check the “Use small icons” box and select “Combine when Taskbar is full” from the drop-down menu under Taskbar buttons. You still get the peek-view thumbnail feature of the Taskbar, and inactive programs remain as single icons, but open programs will display their full names.
All active programs show up as icons on the Taskbar, whether you want them to or not. While this is useful for web browsing or word processing, your taskbar can get cluttered with icons you would normally expect to be hidden away, like those for Steam or a chat client. You can, however, keep active instances of these programs hidden away in the System Tray/Notification Area by right-clicking their shortcuts, navigating to the Compatibility tab, and selecting Windows Vista under the Compatibility Mode drop-down menu. Just be aware that this only works for programs that would previously hide away from the Taskbar in Vista.
Manage Your Jump Lists
The Jump List, a list of shortcuts to files or tasks for a particular Start Menu or Taskbar item, is one of the most significant improvements in Windows 7. Each time you open a file or website, or run a task with a program that supports Jump Lists, Windows 7 stores the shortcut to the file, website, or task for reuse. Unlike Windows XP, however, Windows 7 doesn’t group these shortcuts into a single location. Instead, it stores shortcuts for each program’s files, websites, or tasks in a separate shortcut list—aka the Jump List. To see the Jump List for a program in the Start Menu, simply click the right-arrow icon. To see the Jump List for a program icon on the Taskbar, right-click the icon. Windows eventually removes items from the Jump List when it runs out of space, but you can override this. To make any Jump List item a permanent entry, highlight it and click the pushpin icon (reverse this process to unpin it). And if the idea of leaving an icon trail of all your recent history disturbs you, you can disable Jump Lists entirely: Right-click the Start Menu, choose Properties, and uncheck the two boxes under Privacy.
Organize Your Taskbar and System Tray
The programs that you pin to your Taskbar can be moved around to any order you want, whether they’re just shortcut icons or currently active applications. The Taskbar, if unlocked, can also be dragged to latch to the left, right, or even top of your desktop. As shown below, Windows 7 improves side-docked Taskbar support with better gradient rendering and shortcut support. It really works well if you’re using a widescreen monitor. Just as the Taskbar icons can be rearranged at will, the icons in the System Tray (actually called the Notification Area) can be dragged and set to any order, as well. Hidden Icons can be dragged back into view, and you can hide icons by dragging them over the white triangle, and dropping them into the Hidden Icon well—much easier than working through the Notification Area Customization menu.
Accelerate Your Start Menu
The Start Menu hasn’t changed much from Vista, but there are some notable improvements. The behavior of the power button has been changed to Shut Down, as opposed to Hibernate, which was the asinine default in Vista. But you can also change the button default to do other actions. Right-click the Start Menu, and choose Properties. From the Power Button Action drop-down, you can choose a new default button behavior. If you hit the Customize button, you’ll enter a world of opportunities that help you control what the Start Menu displays. Most options are turned off, but you may want some on, like the option to display recorded TV files, a feature that’s new in Windows 7. Also be aware that Start Menu items should be set to “Display as a link” if you want them to open up Jump Lists.
Arrange Files by Type, Month, Artist, and Other Options
Windows Vista introduced the concept of using the Details folder view to group files by criteria such as name, date modified, type, size, and other options. These choices are still available in any folder by right-clicking inside the folder and selecting them from the options menu. But Window 7 does Vista one better with its new Libraries scheme, which enables you to view the contents of multiple file locations in a single logical folder. And as you’d expect, each Library comes correct with contextual file-arrangement options that vary according to what’s being viewed. For example, in the Pictures library, you can choose from Day, Rating, Tag, and Month. For videos, maybe arranging by Length, as in our screenshot, is most relevant. You get the point.
Pin Folders to Favorites and Start Menu
Explorer’s Jump List shows your seven most frequently visited folders, but you can manually bookmark some favorites to the top of the list by pinning folder locations. Just right-click any folder—either on your desktop or from an open instance of Explorer—and drag that folder icon to the Explorer shortcut on the Taskbar. You’ll see a message that reads “Pin to Windows Explorer” before you release the mouse button. The folder will appear under a Pinned section of the Jump List, and you can remove it by clicking the “Unpin from this list” icon on the right side of the panel. You can also right-click and drag a folder directly to the Start button to pin that folder to the general Start list.
To complete your Windows 7 power-user experience, you may consider dropping the whole darn OS onto a USB drive. Whether you carry it around in your pocket or toss it in a desk drawer, it’s a perfect boot disk for emergency installs—including those times when you’re working with a netbook or some other computer that lacks an optical drive. Even better, your install times will be significantly reduced, thanks to your key’s flash memory—we shaved off minutes from our total install time.
Here’s how to create a schmancy-fancy boot key for either Windows 7 or Vista—but not for other OSes, so please don’t try! We’ve run a truncated version of this article in the magazine before, but because it was so incredibly popular—and so germane to this feature story—we’ve decided to share it again, this time with more detail and screens.
1. Format Your USB Key
Plug in your USB key and back up any existing data stored on it. You’ll need to format the key (thus erasing existing data) before you can make it a bootable device. We used an 8GB key, but a 4GB key will also work.
2. Partition that Key in CMD
Open up a command prompt as an Administrator. You can do this by searching for cmd.exe in your Windows/System32 folder, right-clicking the executable, and selecting “Run as administrator.” Alternatively, type CMD in the Start Menu search field and activate the command prompt using Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
You should now be under C:Windowssystem32 (assuming your Windows partition is the C drive). Type diskpart in the command line to enter the Disk Partition command-line tool, which lets you format and create partitions on active disks. Now type list disk to reveal a list of all your active disks, each of which is associated with a number. Make a note of which one is your USB key, based on the capacity. In this screenshot, our USB drive is Disk 2.
3. Format Away (Command-Prompt Style)
It’s now time to enter a load of commands to properly partition the key, and format for the NTFS (did you know this stands for “New Technology File System”?). In succession, enter the following—and type carefully, Jimbo!
Select Disk # (where # is the number of your USB disk. We typed Select Disk 2 for this job)
Clean (this removes any existing partitions from the USB disk, including any hidden sectors)
Create Partition Primary (creates a new primary partition with default parameters)
Select Partition 1 (focuses operation on the newly created partition)
Active (sets the partition to active, informing the disk firmware that this is a valid system partition)
Format FS=NTFS (formats the partition with the NTFS file system. This may take several minutes to complete, depending on the size of your USB key)
Assign (this gives the USB drive a Windows volume and next available drive letter, which you should write down. In our case, drive “L” was assigned)
Exit (quits the DiskPart tool)
4. Copy Windows DVD to a Desktop Folder
Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD into your drive, and view the files that it contains. Copy all of the files to a folder on your Desktop. We put the disc contents in a folder named Windows 7.
5. Turn Your Key into a Bootable Device
Now, go back to your command prompt, running it as an Administrator. Using the CD command, navigate your way to the folder where you placed the Windows disk ISO files. Your command line path should look something like C:UsersUSERNAMEHEREDesktopWindows 7 if you followed our lead on folder placement. Now type the following commands:
CD Boot (this gets you into the boot directory)
Bootsect.exe /nt60 L: (this assumes L is the drive letter assigned to your USB key from the previous step)
In case you’re wondering, Bootsect infuses boot manager–compatible code into your USB key to make it a bootable device. Also be aware that if you’re currently running 32-bit Windows Vista or 7, Bootsect will only work if you use the files from the 32-bit Windows 7 install disc. The Bootsect executable from the 64-bit version will not run in 32-bit Vista. Don’t forget it!
6. Load the USB Key with Your Install Files
Copy all of the extracted ISO files into the USB drive. You don’t need to do this from the command prompt. Just drag and drop the files from the Windows 7 folder into the USB drive using Windows Explorer. We also recommend copying your hardware drivers onto the same key so the installation wizard can find them.
Your USB key is now all ready to go! Plug it into your target system and make sure you enter the BIOS (typically by hitting F2 or F12) to temporarily change the boot order to allow booting from the USB key before your primary hard drive or optical drive. Now, when you plug the key into a machine, your system should automatically begin speedily downloading setup files off of the USB key and entering Windows 7 installation.
Saya telah menulis sepucuk surat minggu lalu mengenai kerja-kerja di yayasan, berkongsi beberapa masalah. Warren Buffet mengesyorkan saya berbuat begitu — berterus-terang mengenai apa yang berjalan lancar dan apa yang tidak, dan melakukannya sebagai satu acara tahunan. Matlamat saya ialah untuk menarik lebih ramai orang untuk menangani masalah itu, sebab saya fikir terdapat beberapa masalah yang sangat penting yang tidak dapat ditangani tanpa dipaksa-paksa. Maksudnya, keadaan pasaran tidak mendorong para saintis, pakar perhubungan, pemikir, pemerintah untuk melakukan perkara yang betul. Dan hanya dengan memberikan perhatian terhadap perkara-perkara ini serta adanya orang pintar yang prihatin serta dapat menarik lebih ramai orang lagi, barulah kita boleh membuat kemajuan seperti yang kita perlukan.
Jadi, pagi ini saya ingin berkongsi mengenai dua masalah dan bercakap mengenai perkembangannya. Tetapi sebelum memperkatakannya, saya akui yang saya seorang optimis. Sebarang masalah yang sukar, saya fikir ia boleh diselesaikan. Dan antara sebab saya berfikir begitu ialah dengan memandang ke waktu silam. Di sepanjang abad yang lalu, purata jangka hayat telah meningkat lebih seganda. Satu lagi statistik, mungkin yang menjadi kegemaran saya, ialah dengan melihat kepada angka kematian kanak-kanak. Sejak tahun 1960, 110 juta kanak-kanak telah dilahirkan, dan 20 juta daripada itu mati sebelum berusia lima tahun. Lima tahun yang lalu, 135 juta kanak-kanak telah dilahirkan — lebih ramai — tetapi kurang 10 juta daripadanya mati sebelum berusia lima tahun. Jadi, itu menjadi faktor bagi dua penurunan bagi kadar kematian kanak-kanak. Ia suatu fenomena. Setiap nyawa itu amat berharga.
Sebab utama kita boleh mencapainya bukan saja kerana meningkatnya kadar pendapatan tetapi juga berlaku beberapa penemuan yang utama: Vaksin telah digunakan secara meluas. Contohnya, penyakit campak meragut empat juta nyawa sehingga tahun 1990 tetapi hingga kini kurang dari 400,000 nyawa Jadi, kita benar-benar dapat melakukan perubahan. Pencapaian seterusnya ialah mengurangkan 10 juta itu kepada separuh lagi. Dan saya fikir ia boleh dilakukan dalam masa kurang 20 tahun. Kenapa? Sebab hanya tinggal beberapa jenis penyakit yang menyebabkan jumlah kematian yang banyak itu: cirit-birit, pneumonia dan malaria.
Justeru, berbalik kepada persoalan yang saya utarakan pada pagi ini, iaitu bagaimana kita menghentikan penyakit berbahaya yang disebarkan oleh nyamuk?
Jadi, apakah sejarah penyakit ini? Ia merupakan satu penyakit yang teruk sejak beribu-ribu tahun. Malah, jika kita lihat pada kod genetik, ia satu-satunya penyakit yang dapat kita saksikan orang-orang yang tinggal di Afrika telah mencipta beberapa cara untuk mengelakkan dari kematian akibat malaria Angka kematian sebenarnya memuncak lebih sedikit dari lima juta dalam tahun 1930an. Ia sungguh besar. Dan penyakit itu berlaku di seluruh dunia. Satu penyakit yang dahsyat. Ia menular di Amerika Syarikat. Ia menular di Eropah. Orang di zaman itu tidak tahu apa puncanya sehinggalah pada awal 1900an, apabila seorang anggota tentera British terfikir bahawa nyamuklah penyebabnya. Jadi ia ada di mana-mana. Dan terdapat dua cara yang telah membantu menurunkan kadar kematian. Satu ialah membunuh nyamuk dengan DDT. Satu lagi ialah merawat pesakit dengan kinina atau ubat yang bersumberkan kinina. Dan sebab itu kadar kematian dapat dikurangkan.
Kini, ironisnya, apa yang berlaku ialah, ia telah dihapuskan dari semua zon beriklim sederhana, di mana wujudnya negara-negara yang kaya. Jadi kita dapat lihat: tahun 1900 ia merebak di mana-mana. Tahun 1945, masih ada di kebanyakan tempat. 1970, Amerika Syarikat dan banyak tempat di Eropah sudah dapat menghapuskannya. Tahun 1990, kawasan utara sudah menghapuskannya. Dan akhir-akhir ini anda boleh lihat ia hanya di kawasan sekitar khatulistiwa.
Dan hal ini menimbulkan satu paradoks bahawa kerana penyakit ini hanya berlaku di negara-negara miskin, ia tidak mendapat banyak bantuan. Misalnya, lebih wang dilaburkan dalam kajian ubat mengawal keguguran rambut daripada kajian untuk mengubati malaria. Memang, keguguran rambut ialah sesuatu yang menakutkan. (Ketawa) Dan ramai orang kaya yang terkena. Dan sebab itulah keutamaannya sudah ditetapkan.
Tetapi, bagi malaria — sekalipun jutaan kematian setiap tahun yang disebabkan malaria masih kurang menggambarkan impaknya. Lebih dari 200 juta orang yang menghidapnya dalam satu-satu masa. Ertinya pembangunan ekonomi di tempat-tempat ini terbantut kerana ia menghambat perlaksanaan banyak perkara. Kini, memang diketahui malaria disebarkan oleh nyamuk. Saya ada bawa beberapa ekor di sini, supaya anda boleh mengalaminya. Biarkanlah nyamuk-nyamuk itu berterbangan di sekitar auditorium ini (Ketawa) Jangan hanya orang miskin sahaja yang mengalaminya. (Ketawa) (Tepuk tangan) Nyamuk-nyamuk itu tidak dijangkiti.
Oleh itu, kita sedang melakukan beberapa perkara. Kita ada kelambu. Dan kelambu ialah satu benda yang bagus. Maknanya, ibu dan anaknya masuk ke dalam kelambu pada waktu malam, jadi nyamuk yang menggigit pada lewat malam tidak dapat menyerang mereka. Dan apabila anda menggunakan semburan DDT dalam rumah serta memasang kelambu, anda boleh mengurangkan kadar kematian sehingga 50 peratus. Dan hal itu sedang berlaku sekarang di beberapa buah negara. Sungguh memberangsangkan.
Tetapi kita harus berhati-hati kerana malaria – parasit itu membiak dan nyamuk juga membiak. Sebab itu, setiap penawar yang kita gunakan dahulu sudah menjadi tidak berkesan. Dan akhirnya anda tinggal dua pilihan. Jika anda pergi ke sebuah negara membawa penawar yang betul dan cara yang betul, anda melakukannya dengan sungguh-sungguh, anda sebenarnya boleh mencapai tahap penghapusan di kawasan setempat. Dan di situlah kita nampak peta penularan malaria menguncup. Atau, jika anda ke sana secara acuh tak acuh, untuk satu tempoh masa anda boleh mengurangkan beban penyakit itu, tetapi lambat-laun penawar itu akan menjadi tidak berkesan, dan kadar kematian akan melonjak naik lagi. Dan dunia sudah melaluinya. Perhatian diberi dan kemudian tidak mengendahkannya lagi.
Kini kita sudah membuat kemajuan. Dana untuk kelambu sudah meningkat. Terdapat penemuan ubat baru. Yayasan kami membiayai kepada satu vaksin yang sudah memasuki ujian tahap ketiga yang akan bermula dalam beberapa bulan lagi. Dan ia dapat menyelamatkan dua pertiga nyawa jika ia berkesan. Jadi, kita akan mempunyai cara-cara baru seperti ini.
Namun, perkembangan begitu tidak memberikan kita apa-apa hala tuju. Sebab hala tuju untuk menghapuskan penyakit ini melibatkan banyak perkara. Ia melibatkan pakar perhubungan yang dapat memastikan kemasukan dana, yang dapat meneruskan kelangsungan projek ini yang mampu menyebarkan kisah kejayaannya. Ia melibatkan saintis sosial, agar dapat menggalakkan bukan setakat 70 peratus orang menggunakan kelambu, tetapi 90 peratus. Kita perlukan ahli matematik untuk membuat simulasi, ala Monte Carlo agar kita faham cara kaedah ini digabungkan dan bekerjasama. Sudah tentu kita perlukan syarikat ubat-ubatan untuk menyediakan kepakarannya. Kita perlukan sumbangan pemerintah negara kaya bagi menyediakan dana untuk projek ini. Dan apabila elemen-elemen ini bergabung, saya agak optimistik kita boleh menghapuskan malaria.
Sekarang, saya akan beralih kepada soalan yang kedua, soalan yang agak berbeza, tetapi pada saya ia sama penting. Dan ia adalah: Bagaimana anda menjadikan seorang guru itu hebat? Ia seperti satu soalan yang orang akan mengambil banyak masa membahaskannya, dan kita sangat faham mengapa. Dan jawapan sebenarnya ialah kita tidak begitu memahaminya. Mari kita mulakan dengan bertanya mengapa hal ini penting. Saya yakin, semua kita pernah mempunyai beberapa orang guru yang hebat. Kita semua menerima pendidikan yang baik. Itulah salah satu sebab kita berada di sini pada hari ini, sebahagian daripada sebab kita mengecap kejayaan. Saya boleh berkata begitu, sekalipun saya tidak tamat kolej, saya mempunyai guru-guru yang hebat.
Sebenarnya, di Amerika Syarikat, sistem pendidikannya berjalan dengan agak baik Terdapat guru-guru yang berkesan di tempat-tempat yang terhad. Jadi 20 peratus pelajar yang teratas mendapat pendidikan yang baik. Dan 20 peratus yang teratas itu menjadi yang terbaik di dunia, jika anda membandingkan mereka dengan 20 peratus teratas yang lain. Dan mereka telah mencipta revolusi dalam bidang perisian dan bioteknologi dan mengekalkan Amerika Syarikat di barisan hadapan.
Kini, kekuatan 20 peratus teratas itu sudah mula pudar secara relatif, tetapi yang lebih membimbangkan lagi ialah pendidikan untuk golongan yang selebihnya. Bukan sahaja ia lemah tetapi ia bertambah lemah. Dan jika anda lihat pada ekonomi, ia benar-benar hanya menyediakan peluang pekerjaan untuk orang yang mempunyai pendidikan yang lebih baik. Dan kita perlu mengubah hal ini. Kita mesti mengubah supaya semua orang mempunyai peluang yang saksama. Kita perlu mengubahnya supaya negara ini kuat dan kekal di barisan hadapan dalam semua bidang yang dipacu oleh pendidikan tahap tinggi, seperti sains dan matematik.
Apabila pertama kali saya mengetahui mengenai statistik itu, saya agak terkejut dengan begitu teruknya keadaan yang sedia ada. Lebih 30 peratus kanak-kanak tidak pernah tamat sekolah tinggi. Dan keadaan itu dikelabui sekian lama sebab kita lazimnya menghitung kadar keciciran dengan mengambil perbandingan antara jumlah yang memulakan tahun senior dan jumlah yang menamatkannya. Sebab mereka tidak memantau di mana kanak-kanak itu berada sebelum itu. Tetapi kebanyakan keciciran sudah berlaku sebelum masa itu. Mereka terpaksa menaikkan kadar keciciran yang diumumkan selepas pemantauan itu dilakukan hingga melebihi 30 peratus. Bagi kanak-kanak minoriti, ia melebihi 50 peratus. Dan sekalipun anda lulusan sekolah tinggi, jika anda berpendapatan rendah, anda mempunyai kurang dari 25 peratus peluang untuk tamat kolej. Jika anda berpendapatan rendah di Amerika Syarikat, anda mempunyai peluang yang lebih tinggi untuk ke penjara daripada mendapat ijazah dalam masa empat tahun. Dan hal ini tidak adil.
Jadi, bagaimana anda menjadikan pendidikan lebih baik?
Yayasan kami, sejak sembilan tahun yang lalu, telah melabur di dalam bidang ini. Ramai orang yang terlibat. Kami bekerjasama dengan sekolah-sekolah kecil, kami membiayai biasiswa, kami meningkatkan perpustakaan. Kebanyakan dari perkara ini menghasilkan kesan yang baik. Tetapi, semakin kami meneliti hal ini, semakinlah kami sedar yang guru hebatlah menjadi kunci kejayaannya. Dan kami bekerjasama dengan beberapa pakar untuk mengkaji berapa banyak perbezaannya di antara guru-guru, katakanlah, di antara golongan yang paling atas, yang terbaik, dan golongan yang paling bawah. Berapa banyak perbezaan di dalam sesebuah sekolah atau di antara sekolah-sekolah? Dan jawapannya ialah perbezaan ini sungguh di luar jangkaan. Golongan guru yang paling atas akan meningkatkan prestasi kelas mereka — berdasarkan markah ujian — dengan lebih dari 10 peratus dalam satu tahun. Apakah ertinya? Ertinya jika seluruh Amerika Syarikat, selama dua tahun, mempunyai guru-guru dari golongan yang paling atas, maka seluruh perbezaan di antara kita dan Asia akan lenyap. Dalam masa empat tahun, kita akan mengatasi semua orang di dunia.
Jadi, mudah saja. Apa yang anda perlukan adalah guru dari golongan yang paling atas. Dan anda akan katakan, “Wah, kita perlu memberikan mereka ganjaran. Kita perlu mengekalkan mereka. Kita perlu ketahui apa yang mereka lakukan dan memindahkannya kepada orang lain.” Tetapi saya katakan, hal itu tidak berlaku pada masa ini.
Apakah ciri-ciri golongan yang paling atas itu? Apakah sifat mereka? Mungkin anda fikir mereka adalah guru-guru kanan. Tetapi jawapannya tidak. Seseorang yang sudah mengajar selama tiga tahun, mutu pengajaran mereka tidak berubah selepas itu. Perbezaannya adalah sangat, sangat kecil. Anda mungkin fikir golongan ini adalah pemegang ijazah sarjana. Mereka kembali belajar dan meraih Sarjana di dalam Pendidikan. Carta ini menunjukkan empat faktor yang berbeza dan menjelaskan banyak perkara mengenai mutu pengajaran. Yang di bahagian bawah itu, yang bertulis tidak ada kesan langsung, itulah golongan berijazah sarjana.
Pada masa ini, sistem gaji memberikan ganjaran terhadap dua perkara. Satu ialah berdasarkan tempoh perkhidmatan. Sebab apabila gaji anda meningkat, anda akan masukkan ke dalam pencen anda. Yang kedua ialah memberikan wang tambahan kepada yang lulus ijazah sarjana. Tetapi ini tidak ada kaitan dengan menjadi seorang guru yang lebih baik. Mengajar untuk Amerika: kurang kesannya. Bagi guru matematik yang khusus dalam matematik, kesannya boleh diukur. Tetapi, keseluruhannya ialah prestasi anda yang terdahulu. Ada orang yang sangat bagus dalam hal ini. Dan kita tidak pernah melakukan sesuatu untuk mengkaji perkara itu dan mengambil iktibar dan menerapkannya, untuk meningkatkan purata kemampuan — atau menggalakkan golongan itu untuk kekal berada di dalam sistem itu.
Anda mungkin berkata, “Adakah guru bagus kekal dan guru tidak bagus pergi?” Jawapannya ialah, secara purata, guru-guru yang agak baik meninggalkan sistem itu. Dan ia satu sistem dengan kadar pusing ganti yang tinggi.
Kini, terdapat beberapa tempat — sangat sedikit — di mana guru yang hebat dilatih. Satu contoh yang baik ialah sekumplan sekolah carter yang dipanggil KIPP. KIPP bermakna Ilmu Itu Berkuasa. Ia sungguh menakjubkan. Mereka ada 66 sekolah — kebanyakannya sekolah menengah, ada juga sekolah tinggi — dan cara pengajaran mereka sungguh hebat. Mereka mengambil kanak-kanak yang paling miskin, dan lebih 96 peratus lulusan sekolah tinggi mereka pergi ke kolej selama empat tahun. Semangat dan sikap di sekolah-sekolah seperti itu sangat berbeza daripada sekolah awam biasa. Mereka amalkan pengajaran berpasukan dan kemahiran guru sentiasa dipertingkatkan. Mereka mengumpulkan data, markah ujian, dan berkata kepada guru mereka, “Anda telah membuat peningkatan begini banyak.” Mereka sangat komited untuk menjadikan cara pengajaran mereka lebih baik.
Apabila anda duduk di dalam salah sebuah bilik darjah ini, pada mulanya ia sangat pelik. Saya duduk dan saya berfikir, “Apa yang sedang berlaku?” Guru itu berkejar ke sana kemari, tahap kecergasan sangat tinggi. Saya fikir, “Adakah saya berada di acara sukan. Apa yang sedang berlaku?” Guru itu sentiasa memerhatikan jika ada pelajar yang tidak memberikan tumpuan, mana satu pelajar yang berasa bosan dan memanggil pelajar dengan pantas, menulis sesuatu di papan hitam. Ia sebuah suasana yang dinamik, kerana sewaktu di sekolah menengah terutamanya — darjah lima hingga lapan — mengekalkan perhatian mereka dan menetapkan arahan supaya semua yang berada di dalam bilik darjah perlu memberikan perhatian, tidak ada sesiapa yang boleh bergurau atau tidak ambil peduli. Semua orang mesti terlibat. Sebab itu KIPP sedang melakukannya.
Bagaimana keadaan itu berbanding dengan sekolah biasa? Di sekolah biasa, guru-guru tidak diberitahu bagaimana prestasi mereka. Data tersebut tidak dikumpulkan. Di dalam kontrak guru, ia mengehadkan berapa kali guru besar boleh datang ke bilik darjah — adakalanya satu kali setahun. Dan mereka perlu memberikan notis lebih awal untuk berbuat demikian. Cuba bayangkan, jika anda mengendalikan sebuah kilang, di mana pekerja-pekerjanya, ada sebahagiannya yang hanya membuang masa, dan memberitahu pihak pengurusan, “Anda hanya boleh datang sini setahun sekali, tetapi anda mesti beritahu kami sebab kami mungkin akan berpura-pura dan cuba melakukan kerja dengan baik hanya untuk waktu itu sahaja.”
Bagi guru yang mahu memperbaiki diri pun tidak ada kemudahan untuk melakukannya. Mereka tidak mempunyai markah ujian, dan terdapat usaha untuk menyekat data tersebut. Contohnya, New York telah meluluskan undang-undang yang melarang data peningkatan guru dikeluarkan dan digunakan dalam pertimbangan kontrak bagi guru-guru. Jadi, ia seperti bergerak dalam haluan yang bertentangan. Tetapi saya optimistik mengenai hal ini, Saya fikir masih ada perkara-perkara yang jelas yang boleh kita lakukan.
Pertama sekali, masih banyak lagi ujian yang sedang dijalankan, dan ia memberikan kita gambaran di mana kedudukan kita sekarang. Dan ia membolehkan kita mengetahui siapa yang melakukannya dengan baik, dan menghubungi mereka dan mengetahui apakah teknik yang mereka gunakan. Memang, kos video digital murah sekarang. Pasang beberapa buah kamera di dalam bilik darjah dan buat rakaman secara kerap adalah sesuatu yang praktikal di semua sekolah awam. Dan beberapa minggu sekali, guru-guru boleh berkumpul dan berkata, “OK, ini ada klip video tentang tindakan saya yang rasanya baik. Di sini klip video sesuatu yang saya lakukan kurang baik. Nasihatkan saya — dan apabila budak itu buat perangai, bagaimana patut saya tanganinya? Dan mereka semua boleh sama-sama berbincang mengenai masalah itu. Anda boleh mengambil guru-guru yang terbaik dan membuat catatan mengenainya, supaya semua orang dapat lihat siapa yang terbaik untuk mengajar mata pelajaran ini.
Anda boleh menyediakan kursus-kursus hebat seperti itu supaya seseorang pelajar itu boleh menonton kursus fizik, belajar daripadanya. Jika anda mempunyai pelajar yang ketinggalan, anda boleh menyuruhnya menonton video itu untuk mengulangkaji konsep itu semula. Malah, kursus-kursus percuma ini bukan hanya ada di internet, anda boleh menjadikannya dalam bentuk DVD yang boleh ditonton pada bila-bila masa, dan sesiapa yang mempunyai pemain DVD boleh belajar daripada guru yang terbaik Dan dengan memikirkan ini sebagai sistem meningkatkan diri, kita boleh melakukannya dengan lebih baik.
Kini, terdapat sebuah buku mengenai KIPP– tempat di mana ia sedang dijalankan — tulisan Jay Matthews, seorang pemberita, tajuknya, “Bekerja Keras, Bersikap Ihsan”. Dan saya fikir ia sesuatu yang menakjubkan. Ia memberikan anda apa ertinya peranan seorang guru yang baik. Saya akan memberikan buku ini kepada setiap orang yang ada di sini secara percuma. (Tepuk tangan)
Kita membelanjakan banyak wang dalam pendidikan, dan saya benar-benar fikir bahawa pendidikan ialah yang paling penting untuk diperbetulkan bagi sesebuah negara untuk mempunyai masa depan yang mantap. Malah, ia dimasukkan di dalam rang undang-undang rangsangan, sungguh menarik, versi Dewan sebenarnya mempunyai wang di dalam sistem data ini, dan ia dikeluarkan di Senat sebab ada orang yang rasa terancam oleh perkara-perkara yang demikian.
Namun, saya rasa optimistik. Saya fikir orang ramai sudah mula menyedari betapa penting hal ini, dan ia berupaya mengubah kehidupan jutaan manusia, jika kita lakukannya dengan betul. Saya hanya ada masa untuk memperkatakan dua masalah itu sahaja. Terdapat banyak lagi masalah yang seperti itu – AIDS, pneumonia — saya nampak anda sudah mula rasa ghairah, hanya dengan mendengar namanya sahaja. Kemahiran yang diperlukan untuk mengatasi masalah ini juga sangat luas. Anda tahu, sistemnya tidak dapat menyelesaikannya secara spontan. Pemerintah biasanya tidak akan menyambut masalah ini dengan spontan. Sektor privet tidak dengan sendirinya mengagihkan sumber untuk tujuan-tujuan ini.
Oleh itu, orang bijak seperti anda semua perlu mengkajinya, mengajak orang lain untuk terlibat — dan anda membantu mencipta penyelesaiannya. Dan dengan itu, saya fikir akan ada sesuatu yang hebat yang akan muncul.
Terima kasih. (Tepuk tangan)
English
I wrote a letter last week talking about the work of the foundation, sharing some of the problems. And Warren Buffet had recommended I do that — being honest about what was going well, what wasn’t, and making it kind of an annual thing. A goal I had there was to draw more people in to work on those problems, because I think there are some very important problems that don’t get worked on naturally. That is, the market does not drive the scientists, the communicators, the thinkers, the governments to do the right things. And only by paying attention to these things and having brilliant people who care and draw other people in can we make as much progress as we need to.
So this morning I’m going to share two of these problems and talk about where they stand. But before I dive into those I want to admit that I am an optimist. Any tough problem, I think it can be solved. And part of the reason I feel that way is looking at the past. Over the past century, average lifespan has more than doubled. Another statistic, perhaps my favorite, is to look at childhood deaths. As recently as 1960, 110 million children were born, and 20 million of those died before the age of five. Five years ago, 135 million children were born — so, more — and less than 10 million of them died before the age of five. So that’s a factor of two reduction of the childhood death rate. It’s a phenomenal thing. Each one of those lives matters a lot.
And the key reason we were able to it was not only rising incomes but also a few key breakthroughs: Vaccines that were used more widely. For example, measles was four million of the deaths back as recently as 1990 and now is under 400,000. So we really can make changes. The next breakthrough is to cut that 10 million in half again. And I think that’s doable in well under 20 years. Why? Well there’s only a few diseases that account for the vast majority of those deaths: diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria.
So that brings us to the first problem that I’ll raise this morning, which is how do we stop a deadly disease that’s spread by mosquitoes?
Well, what’s the history of this disease? It’s been a severe disease for thousands of years. In fact, if we look at the genetic code, it’s the only disease we can see that people who lived in Africa actually evolved several things to avoid malarial deaths. Deaths actually peaked at a bit over five million in the 1930s. So it was absolutely gigantic. And the disease was all over the world. A terrible disease. It was in the United States. It was in Europe. People didn’t know what caused it until the early 1900s, when a British military man figured out that it was mosquitoes. So it was everywhere. And two tools helped bring the death rate down. One was killing the mosquitoes with DDT. The other was treating the patients with quinine, or quinine derivatives. And so that’s why the death rate did come down.
Now, ironically, what happened was, it was eliminated from all the temperate zones, which is where the rich countries are. So we can see: 1900, it’s everywhere. 1945, it’s still most places. 1970, the U.S. and most of Europe have gotten rid of it. 1990, you’ve gotten most of the northern areas. And more recently you can see it’s just around the equator.
And so this leads to the paradox that because the disease is only in the poorer countries, it doesn’t get much investment. For example, there’s more money put into baldness drugs than are put into malaria. Now, baldness, it’s a terrible thing. (Laughter) And rich men are afflicted. And so that’s why that priority has been set.
But, malaria — even the million deaths a year caused by malaria greatly understate its impact. Over 200 million people at any one time are suffering from it. It means that you can’t get the economies in these areas going because it just holds things back so much. Now, malaria is of course transmitted by mosquitoes. I brought some here, just so you could experience this. We’ll let those roam around the auditorium a little bit. (Laughter) There’s no reason only poor people should have the experience. (Laughter) (Applause) Those mosquitoes are not infected.
So we’ve come up with a few new things. We’ve got bed nets. And bed nets are a great tool. What it means is the mother and child stay under the bed net at night, so the mosquitoes that bite late at night can’t get at them. And when you use indoor spraying with DDT and those nets you can cut deaths by over 50 percent. And that’s happened now in a number of countries. It’s great to see.
But we have to be careful because malaria — the parasite evolves and the mosquito evolves. So every tool that we’ve ever had in the past has eventually become ineffective. And so you end up with two choices. If you go into a country with the right tools and the right way, you do it vigorously, you can actually get a local eradication. And that’s where we saw the malaria map shrinking. Or, if you go in kind of half-heartedly, for a period of time you’ll reduce the disease burden, but eventually those tools will become ineffective, and the death rate will soar back up again. And the world has gone through this where it paid attention and then didn’t pay attention.
Now we’re on the upswing. Bed net funding is up. There’s new drug discovery going on. Our foundation has backed a vaccine that’s going into phase three trial that starts in a couple months. And that should save over two thirds of the lives if it’s effective. So we’re going to have these new tools.
But that alone doesn’t give us the road map. Because the road map to get rid of this disease involves many things. It involves communicators to keep the funding high, to keep the visibility high, to tell the success stories. It involves social scientists, so we know how to get not just 70 percent of the people to use the bed nets, but 90 percent. We need mathematicians to come in and simulate this, to do Monte Carlo things to understand how these tools combine and work together. Of course we need drug companies to give us their expertise. We need rich-world governments to be very generous in providing aid for these things. And so as these elements come together, I’m quite optimistic that we will be able to eradicate malaria.
Now let me turn to a second question, a fairly different question, but I’d say equally important. And this is: How do you make a teacher great? It seems like the kind of question that people would spend a lot of time on, and we’d understand very well. And the answer is, really, that we don’t. Let’s start with why this is important. Well, all of us here, I’ll bet, had some great teachers. We all had a wonderful education. That’s part of the reason we’re here today, part of the reason we’re successful. I can say that, even though I’m a college drop-out. I had great teachers.
In fact, in the United States, the teaching system has worked fairly well. There are fairly effective teachers in a narrow set of places. So the top 20 percent of students have gotten a good education. And those top 20 percent have been the best in the world, if you measure them against the other top 20 percent. And they’ve gone on to create the revolutions in software and biotechnology and keep the U.S. at the forefront.
Now, the strength for those top 20 percent is starting to fade on a relative basis, but even more concerning is the education that the balance of people are getting. Not only has that been weak; it’s getting weaker. And if you look at the economy, it really is only providing opportunities now to people with a better education. And we have to change this. We have to change it so that people have equal opportunity. We have to change it so that the country is strong and stays at the forefront of things that are driven by advanced education, like science and mathematics.
When I first learned the statistics I was pretty stunned at how bad things are. Over 30 percent of kids never finish high school. And that had been covered up for a long time because they always took the dropout rate as the number who started in senior year and compared it to the number who finished senior year. Because they weren’t tracking where the kids were before that. But most of the dropouts had taken place before that. They had to raise the stated dropout rate as soon as that tracking was done to over 30 percent. For minority kids, it’s over 50 percent. And even if you graduate from high school, if you’re low-income, you have less than a 25 percent chance of ever completing a college degree. If you’re low-income in the United States, you have a higher chance of going to jail than you do of getting a four-year degree. And that doesn’t seem entirely fair.
So, how do you make education better?
Now, our foundation, for the last nine years, has invested in this. There’s many people working on it. We’ve worked on small schools, we’ve funded scholarships, we’ve done things in libraries. A lot of these things had a good effect. But the more we looked at it, the more we realized that having great teachers was the very key thing. And we hooked up with some people studying how much variation is there between teachers, between, say, the top quartile — the very best — and the bottom quartile. How much variation is there within a school or between schools? And the answer is that these variations are absolutely unbelievable. A top quartile teacher will increase the performance of their class — based on test scores — by over 10 percent in a single year. What does that mean? That means that if the entire U.S., for two years, had top quartile teachers, the entire difference between us and Asia would go away. Within four years we would be blowing everyone in the world away.
So, it’s simple. All you need are those top quartile teachers. And so you’d say, “Wow, we should reward those people. We should retain those people. We should find out what they’re doing and transfer that skill to other people.” But I can tell you that absolutely is not happening today.
What are the characteristics of this top quartile? What do they look like? You might think these must be very senior teachers. And the answer is no. Once somebody has taught for three years their teaching quality does not change thereafter. The variation is very, very small. You might think these are people with master’s degrees. They’ve gone back and they’ve gotten their Master’s of Education. This chart takes four different factors and says how much do they explain teaching quality. That bottom thing, which says there’s no effect at all, is a master’s degree.
Now, the way the pay system works is there’s two things that are rewarded. One is seniority. Because your pay goes up and you vest into your pension. The second is giving extra money to people who get their master’s degree. But it in no way is associated with being a better teacher. Teach for America: slight effect. For math teachers majoring in math there’s a measurable effect. But, overwhelmingly, it’s your past performance. There are some people who are very good at this. And we’ve done almost nothing to study what that is and to draw it in and to replicate it, to raise the average capability — or to encourage the people with it to stay in the system.
You might say, “Do the good teachers stay and the bad teacher’s leave?” The answer is, on average, the slightly better teachers leave the system. And it’s a system with very high turnover.
Now, there are a few places — very few — where great teachers are being made. A good example of one is a set of charter schools called KIPP. KIPP means Knowledge Is Power. It’s an unbelievable thing. They have 66 schools — mostly middle schools, some high schools — and what goes on is great teaching. They take the poorest kids, and over 96 percent of their high school graduates go to four-year colleges. And the whole spirit and attitude in those schools is very different than in the normal public schools. They’re team teaching. They’re constantly improving their teachers. They’re taking data, the test scores, and saying to a teacher, “Hey, you caused this amount of increase.” They’re deeply engaged in making teaching better.
When you actually go and sit in one of these classrooms, at first it’s very bizarre. I sat down and I thought, “What is going on?” The teacher was running around, and the energy level was high. I thought, “I’m in the sports rally or something. What’s going on?” And the teacher was constantly scanning to see which kids weren’t paying attention, which kids were bored, and calling kids rapidly, putting things up on the board. It was a very dynamic environment, because particularly in those middle school years — fifth through eighth grade — keeping people engaged and setting the tone that everybody in the classroom needs to pay attention, nobody gets to make fun of it or have the position of the kid who doesn’t want to be there. Everybody needs to be involved. And so KIPP is doing it.
How does that compare to a normal school? Well, in a normal school teachers aren’t told how good they are. The data isn’t gathered. In the teacher’s contract, it will limit the number of times the principal can come into the classroom — sometimes to once per year. And they need advanced notice to do that. So imagine running a factory where you’ve got these workers, some of them just making crap and the management is told, “Hey, you can only come down here once a year, but you need to let us know, because we might actually fool you, and try and do a good job in that one brief moment.”
Even a teacher who wants to improve doesn’t have the tools to do it. They don’t have the test scores, and there’s a whole thing of trying to block the data. For example, New York passed a law that said that the teacher improvement data could not be made available and used in the tenure decision for the teachers. And so that’s sort of working in the opposite direction. But I’m optimistic about this, I think there are some clear things we can do.
First of all, there’s a lot more testing going on, and that’s given us the picture of where we are. And that allows us to understand who’s doing it well, and call them out, and find out what those techniques are. Of course, digital video is cheap now. Putting a few cameras in the classroom and saying that things are being recorded on an ongoing basis is very practical in all public schools. And so every few weeks teachers could sit down and say, “OK, here’s a little clip of something I thought I did well. Here’s a little clip of something I think I did poorly. Advise me — when this kid acted up, how should I have dealt with that?” And they could all sit and work together on those problems. You can take the very best teachers and kind of annotate it, have it so everyone sees who is the very best at teaching this stuff.
You can take those great courses and make them available so that a kid could go out and watch the physics course, learn from that. If you have a kid who’s behind, you would know you could assign them that video to watch and review the concept. And in fact, these free courses could not only be available just on the Internet, but you could make it so that DVDs were always available, and so anybody who has access to a DVD player can have the very best teachers. And so by thinking of this as a personnel system, we can do it much better.
Now there’s a book actually, about KIPP — the place that this is going on — that Jay Matthews, a news reporter, wrote — called, “Work Hard, Be Nice.” And I thought it was so fantastic. It gave you a sense of what a good teacher does. I’m going to send everyone here a free copy of this book. (Applause)
Now, we put a lot of money into education, and I really think that education is the most important thing to get right for the country to have as strong a future as it should have. In fact we have in the stimulus bill — it’s interesting — the House version actually had money in it for these data systems, and it was taken out in the Senate because there are people who are threatened by these things.
But I — I’m optimistic. I think people are beginning to recognize how important this is, and it really can make a difference for millions of lives, if we get it right. I only had time to frame those two problems. There’s a lot more problems like that — AIDS, pneumonia — I can just see you’re getting excited, just at the very name of these things. And the skill sets required to tackle these things are very broad. You know, the system doesn’t naturally make it happen. Governments don’t naturally pick these things in the right way. The private sector doesn’t naturally put its resources into these things.
So it’s going to take brilliant people like you to study these things, get other people involved — and you’re helping to come up with solutions. And with that, I think there’s some great things that will come out of it.
ZAKARIA: He’s been called the world’s biggest movie star, with almost 70 blockbusters to his credit. His box office stake is said to be comparable to that of his Hollywood counterparts Tom Cruise and Will Smith, and you may never have heard of him.
But his contributions to the bottom line are so prodigious, he was invited to ring the opening bell at the NASDAQ. My magazine, “Newsweek”, has named him one of the 50 most powerful people in the world, and he stirs up such passion that his fans burned a U.S. flag after he was detained at Newark Airport last summer. Perhaps the TSA agents have never heard of him either.
The film he is here in the United States to promote when he was questioned is called “My Name is Khan”, and, ironically, it’s about racial profiling of Muslims after 9/11.
Shah Rukh Khan, welcome.
KHAN: Thank you very much, Fareed.
ZAKARIA: First, tell us about this incident. So you are, without any question, the biggest movie star in India, a billion fans some people say, and you get to Newark Airport and what happens?
KHAN: You know, normally I am kind of used to being — having extra security checks, perhaps because of the name or the way profiling is done, even my kids, so I’m used to it. It’s not something new. So —
ZAKARIA: They thought your fans were sort of being unruly or —
KHAN: Yes, I guess — suddenly they started asking questions, what are you doing here and do you have a telephone number? I was going to give yours. Yes? I was going to — you know, I took out my phone and they were a little angry about me taking out my phone. So I said, I can’t give you a number until I find them out.
So I sort of — I gave a few numbers and then they would go in, check, then they came and said what are you doing here? And so I said I’ve came here for a film. There were some strange questions like if you’re a film actor — I’ve come for a live talk, and they said if you have come for a talk, how can you be a movie star? So I said, you know, I talk also. (INAUDIBLE) acting films.
So it just got out of hand, and I guess it was a process, so they went on and on — and it took a couple of hours.
ZAKARIA: But you — you feel like you have had experiences like this before?
KHAN: Not quite like this, but — not at the immigrations, but at security. I’m — you know, initially, when — post 9/11, I think, yes, there were instances when — I guess your boarding pass gets SSS (ph) written on it, so you’re taken on to the other side and you take off your shoes and stuff, yes?
ZAKARIA: Even your kids?
KHAN: Oh, yes, yes. They get very excited, because, you know, they get to put their feet on those little marks and stand like that. So they think they’re being special.
ZAKARIA: Now, you’re very — you’re relaxed about it. Does it — does it not anger you, I mean, that you’re — I mean, you’re —
KHAN: No. I said it before, Fareed. Like, you know, if I’m planning to come to your house, I have to follow the rules. It’s as simple as that. I’m very practical like that. So I’m like, OK. I said, if I have to come to your house and you have a rule that I need to take off my shoes before I walk into your study, then I do that.
But I just — just had an issue that, you know, for a country which has such outstanding processes and systems for everything, and they have a process and system for, you know, profiling people who are perhaps on a marked list, they should also have a system where people who come regularly, they should also be marked positively. And so OK, you know, you can go —
ZAKARIA: Do you think this affects America’s image in — I mean, you’re — you’re somebody who understands the power of images.
KHAN: Yes.
ZAKARIA: Does it affect America’s image in a country like India?
KHAN: Oh, yes. I think so. Yes. I think all over the world.
I think, specifically, if I can just take one — because I’m an entertainer, so I would take, say, tourism, you know? Just that way. You come to have fun, you want to go to Orlando, you know, go to the Disney or whatever, when you think about it, like I do now, I take them to Europe now, my kids, if I need to. Unlike — (INAUDIBLE) and she was traveling domestically more than internationally, to be honest, because I think domestic travel is even more strict. So you do think twice. I think it does affect the image, and I’m sure it’s in a lot of spaces (ph) also, not just wanting to come to Disney. I’m sure it goes beyond that also.
ZAKARIA: And this is a big change, right? Because, I mean, 20 years ago, 30 years ago when I was growing up in India, America was the land of openness, of freedom, a sense of adventure.
KHAN: Absolutely. I think, it still is looked upon like that. And, you know, everybody wants to come to America, everybody loves America and has all the nicest things. Whether it’s technology or businesses, whatever. It’s the land of opportunity. And suddenly, the opportunity gets a little curtailed because of this. And you do think twice. And you know, would it affect me negatively, would it affect the family negatively?
ZAKARIA: So, now talk about this movie. Because the movie is really about this problem.
KHAN: The film is about a man’s message or I wouldn’t like to make it as strong as saying a Muslim’s message, but an American who has been living here for years and who is married here, and post-9/11 how the lives of this couple gets affected. You know, it’s like a butterfly effect. It’s not directly related to the incident of 9/11. So, the film is not about terrorism or — it’s not dealing with 9/11. Or the sadness that followed around the world. But it’s dealing with how some of the people we don’t even know and some of the far corner of the world or in America affected without being directly linked to it.
And how, just the love gets completely disrupted because he’s a Muslim man, married to a Hindu girl, both American, both have been living here for 20, 25 years. And how he has to go on a journey to explain to everybody that, guys, just because “My Name is Khan” doesn’t mean I’m a terrorist. So, it’s an emotional trip across America to convince the world. And I feel the film’s relevance is that there is an issue as far as religions and ideologies are concerned in terms of the west and Islam and everywhere.
And we have to accept it. But the thing is, I think as a Muslim, I’ve not been able to explain my religion to you well enough. So unless I do that, I don’t have an excuse of saying, uh-oh, one second, these guys are taking it wrong. Maybe they don’t know him. So, I think it’s my duty as an actor.
ZAKARIA: Do you feel that Muslims have a special responsibility to explain their religion?
KHAN: See, if you were to look at it from one side and turn around and say, listen, you better know my religion. I think that’s not fair. I think, we need to — I think, not only do they need to explain their religion, they need to understand other religions also. And it’s a dual process, just because somebody doesn’t understand, of course they will take it wrongly or react to it wrongly. And I think it’s a duty of every educated, maybe a little liberal Muslim to go out in the world and if he has the opportunity, like I think I have as an actor, I think we need to make sure, that’s yes, this is what it stands for, this is what Jihad means, this is what tolerance means and this is what Islam means. And whatever little knowledge I had, and I am not fully knowledgeable, and so I find out and try to promote that and tell people. And if you understand it, maybe you’ll say it, actually no, it’s exactly like how our discipline is. I think it’s a reason for every Muslim to think about.
ZAKARIA: You know when George Bush saw Manmohan Singh at some event, the first time he had an opportunity chance to introduce his wife, Laura Bush, to Manmohan Singh, he said to her, honey, this is the prime minister of India. This is a country that has 150 million Muslims and not one member of Al-Qaeda. That was the way he thought of Indian Muslims. Why do you think Indian Muslims are not so radicalized? When you look, think about Pakistan, Afghanistan, you know, there’s so much Jihad and terrorism in the Arabic. Indian Muslims have not succumbed as much. This is the second largest Muslim population in the world by some count. What, is there a secret?
KHAN: I think the secret lies within the way Indians are. We as people are more compromising and understanding. We do give a chance to everyone to say their point of view, listen to it, and not react really radically. Of course there will be sections which do it. And that permeates to the Muslims, to the Hindus, to the Christians, to every, you know, section in our society. I would like to believe it’s like that. But I think that’s the main reason. I think Indians by nature like people and they’re compromising and understanding. Is what I’d like to believe, really.
ZAKARIA: Do you think that there is a tendency towards radicalism, violence, within Islam right now that worries you? Because, let’s be honest, when you look around the world and you see terrorism, it is basically being committed by radical Muslims. And there is something either within the, you know, some of these fringe groups, but they all tend to come from one religion by and large.
KHAN: Yes, of course. I mean, somewhere down the line, you know, religion can be very easily misused. And I think I would like to really believe as a modern person that it’s the lack of education that is being — that is there in large sections of the Islamic world. I think the youth needs to be educated in world matters, apart from their religion. I mean, it’s really wonderful to learn your religion. I think it’s fantastic for everyone to have a discipline whichever that maybe, and respect each other that way.
But I think it’s also very important to be educated in worldly affairs. If they do, they will not be misled. I think, most of these places that we’ll talk about and radicals coming from, you would know this, that there’s a huge gap between the educated and uneducated. And most of the uneducated may be falling in the category of, you know, having a religion, by religion being Muslims. So, I think that is the main reason.
ZAKARIA: We will be right back with Shah Rukh Khan. And we will talk about Bollywood, globalization and much else. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZAKARIA: People say you have a billion fans, but as you point out, the dollar value is lower because a ticket costs less in India than it does in the States. But do you imagine there may be a time when Indian stars will be truly global in that sense?
KHAN: Much sooner than anyone would expect. Most certainly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAKARIA: And we are back with Shah Rukh Khan, by many measures the world’s biggest movie star. Talk about Bollywood and what it’s like. When I was growing up in India, Bollywood was, you know, much, much smaller than Hollywood. It was low production qualities, wonderful movies, but always, you know, very different. Often copying trends that came directly out of Hollywood, often copying stories as the stars were big in India, but very small on a global scale. That’s all seemed to have changed in the last few years.
KHAN: The younger filmmakers, I think are completely new- thinking people…
ZAKARIA: In what sense?
KHAN: To be exposed to western cinema, western culture. They have learned the technique and technology, and writing from the western world, which is a more developed science. As far as screenplay writing, it is a more developed science in the west. And they have been able to take those ideas and say OK, we can bring them into our films. Many times failing at it, but the youth here in our country now is also understanding different kind of cinema, because they’re also exposed to because of television, Internet. So, they’re like, OK, we can compare. And somehow Indians at this juncture feel, you know what? To be really proud, we need to make films which make a mark in the world.
ZAKARIA: When you think about movie stars, you know, the biggest movie stars in the world remain all Hollywood movie stars.
KHAN: Yes.
ZAKARIA: You know, Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise or something like that. Do you imagine that, I mean, you have probably more fans than those people, you know, people say you have a billion fans. But as you point out, the dollar value is lower because a ticket costs less in India than it does in the States. Could you imagine there maybe a time when Indian stars will be truly global in that sense?
KHAN: Much sooner than anyone would expect, most certainly. You know, of course, all the main standard in the world becomes how much dollar value that finally the business brings, and that’s how you’re big. But I can see it happening in the next five or six years, very easily. Because see, also the problem is that the language that we use in our films is Hindi. So, I don’t think Hollywood, that’s the only advantage that they have is that they speak in English — they’re great filmmakers also — but I think that’s a big advantage, that we don’t make films in English yet. But the time is coming now, because I have kids and they’re all watching, you know, language in Hindi films, if you see a new Indian film, you’ll realize that the language is more English (ph). You know, we’re using, and we don’t have to translate it anymore, everyone understands it. And everyone uses it every day.
ZAKARIA: Do you think that we’re, you know, at the rise of something truly called world cinema that, you know, the United States has have this privileged position of being cinema the only global cinema, but now it’s not just India, maybe China and maybe other countries will be able to present their own world cinema?
KAHN: Absolutely. You know, I mean, everybody uses these words in business parlance, everyone talks about globalization and everybody talks about globalization and everyone talks about global village and coming together. But yes, one of the biggest things about globalization and this global village scenario that we’re going through, communication and information, is going to be very clearly that the, you know, the language as a barrier will start breaking down. Culture as a barrier will start breaking down. And you go on to the Internet — I go on Twitter or you know, I hang with kids and chat with them. And I’m realizing that, you know, they’re trying to figure out what my culture is and talking about it. So, all that will break down and other cinemas will come over, will come, and they’ll use the technology — and a lot of technicians from here. But stories, every country has a story to tell. And once it reaches a certain standard in terms of technique, I think the world would like to watch it.
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