bill

There have been a fair number of changes at Microsoft HQ of late, so we wanted to provide a program for those keeping score at home. Here are some of the top executives who have joined the company or are leaving the executive ranks.

This list is neither chronological nor exhaustive. It leaves out recent departures such as dealmaker Bruce Jaffe and strategy executive Charles Fitzgerald.

Instead, I've focused on a few key folks who have left or are leaving shortly who have the biggest impact in Redmond, as well as some key outsiders Microsoft has recruited in recent … Read more

From Bill Gates' final CES hurrah to Yoko Ono and will.i.am, CES launched with a star-studded cast. See the full CNET CES slide show.

In addition to answering questions about how Microsoft plans to take on its rivals and capture the hearts and devices of consumers, Chairman Bill Gates spoke to CNET News.com on other topics, not all of which fit into Monday's Newsmaker piece. Here are a couple more questions and answers from Gates.

Q: One area that I know is important to you is emerging markets. Do you take away any lessons from Intel's fallout with OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)? I know you said recently that you are going to try and make Windows work on OLPC if … Read more

A project to develop the world's most powerful telescope on a mountaintop in Chile has received a $30 million infusion from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi. In the last week, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Project, a public-private venture to build a telescope to detect dark matter and dark energy that's accelerating the universe's expansion, said it received a $20 million gift from Simonyi's Fund for Arts and Sciences and another $10 million from Gates.

The LSST, expected to be completed in 2014, will include three large mirrors and a … Read more

Tonight, Bill Gates gave his last CES keynote before retiring from Microsoft. (Prediction: he'll give a keynote again, but probably not next year). Though entertaining and occasionally educational--Windows Live Photo Gallery got some well-deserved spotlight time for its panorama feature--there wasn't much about digital audio in it.

However, the final set piece featured a Guitar Hero III battle between Gates and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices President Robbie Bach. Each brought in a ringer--Bach got a Guitar Hero championship who shredded the introduction to Guns N Roses "Welcome to the Jungle." Gates, never to be trumped, … Read more

LAS VEGAS-- Tonight, Bill Gates gave the big kickoff keynote for the Consumer Electronics Show. There's exhaustive coverage of this talk elsewhere, so I thought it'd be interesting to focus on what Gates had to say about the future of the Web and Web applications. (For the more well-rounded look at this talk, see Ina Fried's News.com story, Gates: Curtain call for crystal ball; for all CES news, see ces.cnet.com.)

Social networking: Gates said the "second digital decade" will be more about connecting people, and that applications will use services in the … Read more

The entire technology world is preparing to descend on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, but many of those in the San Francisco Bay Area are finding it slow going.

The entire Beyond Binary staff (yes, that is just me), is among those who have been hanging out at San Francisco International Airport amid weather-related flight delays. My flight is now running three hours late, but, like all good CES-goers. I have plenty of gadgets to keep me occupied.

My laptop and Sprint EV-DO card are letting me blog, while a video iPod has a season of Weeds and … Read more