A tour of Bill Gates' mansion in Medina is going for a hefty price tag. The bid to tour his house (and have him guide you around) is up to $35,000. Last year, the tour sold for $8,600, the Seattle PI is reporting.
But before you run out to start bidding, it's only available to those who work at Microsoft as part of its annual charitable giving campaign. According to the Seattle PI, word slipped that the bidding was on the rise this year from Microsoft CIO Tony Scott at the Society for Information Management's SIMposium on Tuesday.
The Seattle PI is saying that employees can also bid to go on a run with CEO Steve Ballmer and the opportunity to buy the "World's Best Bologna Sandwich." But it's the tour of Gates' house that receives top billing every year. And for good reason--that thing is huge.
But all this talk of going on a tour of Bill Gates' house begs an important question: how much would you pay to talk a walk around Bill's house? Let us know in the comments below.
And just to start things off: $500. That's my limit.
Melinda Gates was recently interviewed in Vogue magazine and had some rather interesting things to say about her husband and the technology in her home.
According to Gates, both she and Bill have strict rules forbidding their children from having an iPod or iPhone.
"There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household," Gates tells Vogue. "But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids."
But it gets better. Gates went on to say that there is an "inevitable lure of forbidden fruit" and "every now and then" she looks at her friends and says, "'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone.'"
Of course, the blogosphere has erupted, adding fuel to the Bill Gates fire that might never extinguish. In fact, commenters on David Carnoy's Crave article first reporting on this story have delivered some interesting takes on the issue.
"That is kind of a pathetic insecurity that demonstrates just how little confidence Gates and wife have in the products that built their lives," a commenter named ewlech wrote.
In Gates' defense, commenter David Dudley writes, "I don't think it's a confidence issue, they just don't see a point in using their own cash to increase market share of a competitor. You certainly would not espouse Apple to use Dell servers in their internal infrastructure despite opinions of what is 'superior' or otherwise, right?"
The argument could rage for hours. But I don't think it's as difficult an issue as some might think. If I were Bill Gates and I had three children running around my mansion, I'd ban all Apple products, Nintendo consoles and handhelds, Linux, and every single Zune competitor. There's something to be said about family loyalty.
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Even though Bill Gates gave his farewell speech at CES this past January, the soon-to-be retired founder of Microsoft has been strangely vocal ever since his departure announcement. And although he's inexorably tied to his beloved software company, why hasn't he entered the twilight of his life as he said he would?
After all, doesn't he have something better to do, like take care of his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or water flowers in the backyard or watch the ruined Price is Right?
Obviously he doesn't think so. Instead of helping to lead the fight against diseases all over the world, ol' Billy can't seem to break the ties that bind him to his company and by the looks of things, he doesn't even want to.
And although he may take some time off to explore the world and make good on some of his charitable promises, Gates will never retire from Microsoft and if you ask me, he'll be at the helm sooner than you think.
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