Bill Gates is going back to college, and Beyond Binary is going along for the ride.

Next week, the Microsoft chairman and philanthropist is doing a three-state college tour, meeting with students and faculty to encourage more people to join efforts to solve society's biggest global challenges.

In a blog post this week, Gates noted that he's done similar tours during his time at Microsoft, but that this is the first time he's done it in his capacity as head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"I'm most looking forward to my conversation with … Read more

Ed Roberts, whose early Altair 8800 computer helped inspire Bill Gates and Paul Allen to start Microsoft, died Thursday. He was 68.

Though Roberts' name is less well known than some other computing pioneers, the Altair is widely credited as the first personal computer and for helping inspire the modern computer industry. Roberts established Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), which introduced the Altair in 1975. An article on the Altair in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics caught the eye of a young Allen, who showed the story to Gates.

Gates and Allen quickly reached out to Roberts, … Read more

Surely, there are going to be some people beating their heads against a wall in Redmond today.

After a decade of pursuing the notion of a tablet computer for consumers, it now appears possible, if not likely, that Apple will be the one that gets credit--and the revenue--for making the product mainstream.

Although PC makers have been selling tablet-shaped computers for years, the idea has caught on mainly in niche business markets like health care and transportation, rather than as a device for the average Joe.

But that's not to say Microsoft hasn't been trying. Bill Gates first talked about the idea of a Tablet PC … Read more

Bill Gates returned to "The Daily Show" on Monday night, trading barbs with Jon Stewart while highlighting his philanthropic work.

Gates, who last appeared on the show three years ago to tout the launch of Windows Vista, showed up this time to coincide with the release of his annual foundation letter (also the subject of this CNET interview I did with Gates).

On the Daily Show, Gates caught Stewart up on recent history, pointing out that it has been 18 months since he left Microsoft's full-time employ.

Stewart quickly recovered. "Do you feel unburdened now not … Read more

SEATTLE--When it comes to his foundation work, Bill Gates has plenty to say. In addition to his 17-page annual letter (PDF), the Microsoft chairman sat down with CNET's Ina Fried to talk about what he's learned in the past year. Here, we've broken the half-hour interview up into five segments, based on topic.

The full interview, in written form, can also be found here.

Bill Gates on why he's 'fired up' In the first part of a wide-ranging interview, the philanthropist and Microsoft chairman talks about innovation and how the future is bleak without it.

Gates … Read more

SEATTLE--Bill Gates thought that coming up with vaccines would be the hard part and that delivering vaccines would be the easy part.

It turns out they are both hard.

That's one of the lessons that Gates tells CNET he has learned in his new role as full-time philanthropist. In travels to Africa, he saw firsthand the challenges of delivering vaccines, many of which have to be kept cold to be effective and are needed in places with no refrigeration.

"We were a bit naive about that, particularly getting new vaccines adopted by countries," Gates said in an interview with CNET's Ina Fried last week. "It had been so long since they had done it, I just assumed they would look at the numbers, it would be a very straightforward process. Well, the process doesn't even exist."

Plus, he said, "The cold chain is more messed up than I expected."

In the interview, which was done in conjunction with the release of the annual letter (PDF) from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates talked about other surprises he encountered in his travels, including the fact that one of the ways to reduce the spread of AIDS in Africa is to promote adult circumcision--something that he wasn't sure would be feasible.

"Male circumcision--which I thought wouldn't be a big effect because I didn't think adults would be that interested in it--it looks like that's really going to help slow the disease," Gates said.

Gates also talked about his recent foray into Twitter and the launch of his Gates Notes Web site.

"The Internet is tailor-made for the kind of activities I'm involved in," Gates said. "When I take a trip, we have all these photos. And there were things that were fun and exciting, and people want to see that. It's very easy to put it up there...I think it's going to be a lot of fun to be sharing on an ongoing basis, and people who are interested in a particular topic can just find that piece and go after that." … Read more