Ian Dunmore writes on Bill Gates ride into *town* yesterday:
"This must be Chairman Bill's month. Not only did the Microsoft supremo recently learn he's destined for a much-prized honorary knighthood (and has apparently been consulting archived editions of Monty Python ever since to find out how he's meant to behave when receiving it) but also found himself the revered guest of an ever techno-savvy Tony Blair and chums yesterday. This before hotfooting it over to the QE2 Conference Centre for the launch of the software giant's new CRM offering. And then, just when he must have been thinking things couldn't get much better, his day was topped off by the arrival of a Public Sector Forums representative to take in and ponder received wisdom as per the richest man in the known Universe. Yes, we were there, and listen and ponder we did, and actually it needs to be said, for a change we weren't that unimpressed. Although the new MS kit is aimed primarily at the SME market a fair few public sector bods from both local and central government had also pitched up to be charmed by a relaxed and confident Gates quip about the menace of spam (he gets it himself you know, most of it from legal firms offering services for a few cents a day or advice about how to cope with personal debt) and take the usual odd sideswipe at the LINUX & UNIX OSs.

Riding shotgun was Microsoft's Jeff Young, General Manager of Emerging Solutions, who helped his leader through some tricky moments during the Q&A especially from two of the public sector delegates - representing DEFRA and Derby City Council respectively. The purpose of e-Government, according to Young, is to make information at the centre of the organisation more accessible to the citizen, but beyond nodding sagely it was obvious he (Gates) didn't have a clue, despite - or maybe because of - his earlier appointment with the PM. In fairness though, it should be said he made clear his personal passion these days is for product development and not the business end of the cycle so he can perhaps be forgiven such minor omissions. You can forgive anything really, can't you, of someone as minted as that, especially when they announce they’ll be helping the government hand out up to 2 million free PCs over an unspecified period."