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A couple tenuously related Bill Gates news items today that hit close to home.

First, Bill is in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum [What, again my invite was lost? That's nine years running!! ed.] and is, naturally, on the podium at least once. This year he's promising the elimination of spam (email not the fake meat kind, although both are interesting propositions). OK, whatever. Another plug for some Microsoft upgrade or another. Yes, but no. Soothsaying Bill points to . . . the post office for the solution. Well, not exactly, but close enough. Here's a couple grafs from the NYTimes:

The third way [spam will be elminated], which Mr. Gates said was likely to arrive later but be the long-term solution, would require that e-mail messages sent by strangers come with postage attached, the equivalent of a postage stamp.
"If the sender is your long-lost brother," he said, the payment can be declined, costing the sender nothing.
But recipients who want to fight spam would always accept the payment if the incoming mail appeared to be spam, making the sending of such messages uneconomic.

Given my employ: You Rock Bill!.

Second, the British Foreign office ["Whitehall says . . ."] announced that:

Britain will give an honorary knighthood to Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates in recognition of his contribution to enterprise in Britain, the government said Monday.

Now, he can't be called "Sir Bill," because he's not British -- or a citizen of the Commonwealth -- but he'll officially be aristocracy of a sort.

So, let's be historically clear: the French Empire, the British Empire, the American (we're not an. . .) Empire, and the Microsoft Empire. Yup.

Posted by Grayson at January 26, 2004 08:19 AM