Bill Gates

Less than a month ago, Microsoft announced that it had tapped comedian Jerry Seinfeld for its "hip" new Windows Vista ads (also featuring Microsoft chairman Bill Gates) that were going to finally stand up to Apple's wildly popular "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials. But now, the Wall Street Journal, which originally broke the story, reports that Windows is moving into "phase two" of their $300 million ad campaign—and the 54-year-old comic has gotten the boot. 

Perhaps realizing that the odd ads featuring Mr. Seinfeld and Mr. Gates shopping for shoes and moving in with a suburban family because they "need to get in touch with the people" were entirely ineffective—the self-deprecating ads seemed to drive the point of Microsoft being "out of touch" only further—the company has now summoned Deepak Chopra, actress Eva Longoria and musician Pharrell Williams for the new ads.  read more »

Microsoft Corp. has retaliated against Apple's clever, youth-targeted ads by writing a $10 million check to Jerry Seinfeld to appear in its new ad campaign, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company, whose recent quarterly profit growth has been upstaged by Apple, is hoping that the 54-year-old comedian will help make Windows seem less stale and outdated. But the choice of Mr. Seinfeld--who is most associated with his eponymous, and quintessentially '90s, New York-based sitcom--has left more than a few industry observers scratching their heads, especially since Mr. Seinfeld will reportedly appear in ads with 52-year-old Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg has joined Bill Gates in Times Square this afternoon to announce a $500 million initiative to curb tobacco use in developing countries.

“I’m delighted Bill and Melinda Gates are supporting one of the most important public health efforts of our time,” Bloomberg said in a public statement released prior to the event. The two just walked on stage here at the New York Times center on West 41st Street to discuss the initiative.

This announcement comes on the heels of a World Health Organization report about the widespread use of tobacco, which Bloomberg helped fund. He attended the release of the study back in February.  read more »

Yesterday, Barack Obama lost one of his better V.P. options when Jim Webb backed out of the running, apparently deciding that the rigorous vetting process and the intense scrutiny of a national campaign weren’t for him.  read more »

Around the same time, one of John McCain’s most intriguing options might also have removed herself – but not intentionally. That would be Carly Fiorina, whose nonchalant mentions of Viagra and birth control at a breakfast with reporters yesterday are reverberating in the blogosphere today, seemingly confirming the conventional wisdom that the ousted Hewlett Packard C.E.O. would simply be too risky an addition to the G.O.P.’s national ticket.

Bill Gates Sr., co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is shopping a book about his life and the virtues of charity, publishing sources say. (Doubleday just issued a press release saying they bought the book; see update below)

The proposal for the book--titled Showing Up For Life--was sent out last Friday by Mr. Gates' agent, Scott Moyers of the Wylie Agency. According to one top editor who has seen it, the proposal describes the book as "a series of moving, exemplary stories about the virtues of caring, of giving back, of connection."

Several editors and executives who have seen the proposal said it sounded similar to Bill Clinton's most recent book Giving: How Each Of Us Can Change the World, which was published by Knopf earlier this fall and has generated disappointing sales.

UPDATE: Doubleday has bought the North American rights to the Gates book; the acquiring editor is Roger Scholl. According to the press release, the book will be out in 2009; some of the proceeds will be donated to various charities that Mr. Gates has supported throughout his life (United Way among them).

The press release also explains the book's title (Showing Up For Life): turns out is a reference to "Bill Gates Senior’s habit for 'showing up' wherever people are needed to move an important issue forward."

Isn't it ironic that the city's MTA chairman, Mr. Pete Kalikow, has his own special form of transportation? From The New York Times:

Another of Pininfarina's one-of-a-kind projects was a car for Peter S. Kalikow, the New York developer and chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The car is a tweaked Ferrari 612 -- what Bill Gates might call Release 1.1 of the Scaglietti. Mr. Kalikow and Mr. Pininfarina call it the 612K...

Ferraris are as much legend as brand, and Mr. Kalikow's brief to the designers of his special 612 has already become legendary. The charge was to change the basic car only slightly -- so slightly, in fact, that only 10 percent of Ferrari owners would notice the difference.

10%, huh? Contratulations, Mr. Kalikow.

- Max Abelson

ERICA: "OH MY GAAAAAWWWWDDDD!"

Yes, I was screaming at the top of my lungs, but "Oh My God," was all I could get out as I sat there staring at my computer screen blankly. My email program crashed. It had a heart-attack, followed by a stroke and then capped it off with an aneurism resulting in five years of saved emails, all in carefully notated folders, disappearing forever. Gone. Done.  read more »

Please, please, please, spare me your lectures on "backing things up." I get it. I was dumb not to have saved everything somewhere, but excuse the hell out of me. I think it's a little dumber that Microsoft freakin' Outlook, without warning, becomes corrupted and dies when the storage limit goes above 2 gigs. No little pleasing tone comes up with a message reading: "please free up some space in your folders or your storage limit will be met" --just full on deadness. I called Apple, I called every computer expert friend I have (and shout outs to anyone else out there who this has happened to, because I know there are a lot of you!), but I'm just undeniably screwed.

The frontpage, 4th column feature (I think it's called an A-head) in yesterday's WSJ, unfortunately firewalled, was a sweet piece of reporting by Eric Bellman about daytraders playing the Indian stockmarket at internet cafes in Mumbai. They've left their jobs as sailors and real estate agents to try and eke out a profit of $10 a day to provide for their families. "I should have sold," one laments. "Now I'm waiting for Bernanke to shut his mouth."

I have to catch myself from loving this story too much. Those Indians are so fuzzy and smart and cute! And they are just like us! Daytrading and worshiping Bill Gates...

The Indians are incredibly comforting to us because they affirm capitalism, and our brand of capitalism, secular, meritocratic, all-out—from a foreign and brownskinned perspective. So much of the rest of the world is lagging on the capitalist model, not figuring it out like the Russians or choking the atmosphere with poison like the Chinese or afraid of it like the Muslims. The Indians have our modern religion and it seems to work for them.

Courting Justice: From New York Yankees vs. Major League Baseball to Bush vs.  read more »

A powerful endorsement of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to reform the beleaguered New York City  read more »

News that my next doctor's visit apparently will end with myhealer of choice handing me a prescripti  read more »

The Plot to Get Bill Gates: An Irreverent Investigation of the World's Richest Man … and the Peopl  read more »

Wednesday, June 16Last year, a crew working with 60 Minutes ' Ed Bradley put a miniature camera on a  read more »

Lauder Shrub ScandalAh, springtime in the Hamptons.  read more »