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Bill Gates, Jon Stewart combo underwhelms


Last week, the Browser alerted readers that Bill Gates would be on the Daily Show Monday night. It was a promising setup -- Gates meets Stewart -- but in the Browser's humble opinion, hilarity did not ensue. Sure, there were cracks from Stewart about the mysteries of the F12 key and some musings on whether beta software can make you sterile. But Stewart treated Gates more like a tech god who came down from his mountain in Redmond to tell the us what the future will be like (surprise! TV will be a lot like the Internet) than a guest to have fun with. And because Stewart's big joke was that he's a Luddite (is he really, though?), Gates didn't get to explain why anyone should rush out and buy Vista, for fear of getting too technical on the audience.

Oh well. Maybe they should book Ballmer for the next upgrade -- say 2012?
Posted by Jia Lynn Yang 9:36 AM 6 Comments comment | Add a Comment

you seem a bit optimistic on the next upgrade
Posted By Lawrence, Brooklyn, NY : 11:54 AM  

It is a comedy show-- what would you expect? As Jon Stewart once said, "The show that leads into mine has puppets making prank phone calls."
Posted By Charlie, NY, New York : 1:04 PM  

Give Gates a break already, a tech conversation would have been lost the audience. He did fine and Vista is great. And besides, there are plenty of bad politicians in the administration right now to provide the fuel for great comedy on other shows.
Posted By Dan Los Angeles : 1:52 PM  

I thought it was very funny. With all of the interviews Bill Gates is doing, there are many sources for detail on Vista.
Posted By Daniel, St. Louis, MO : 4:42 PM  

you dont have much to work with personality wise with Gates. Surely his intellect is equal if not far superior to anyone, but as far as charisma, he's no Jobs.
Posted By Steve, Carlsbad CA : 10:26 AM  

If Gates, given 15 minutes, can't express to Stewart what's compelling about Vista, I don't think the problem lies with Stewart.

Either Gates is a terrible salesman or Vista is a terrible product. Maybe both.

If I walked out of a sales meeting and told my boss, "Oh, I couldn't sell to them; they were Luddites, so I couldn't explain what's great about our product," I would be fired with extreme prejudice.
Posted By Mart, New York NY : 9:52 AM  

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