Gates live -- sort of

I'm here at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco where Microsoft's holding its big production on how it's going to revamp the world of software services and (hopefully, from Microsoft's view) crush Google.

Right now Gates is droning on and on and on, offering a transcontinental tour of the tech landscape. We've heard the pitch in various bits and pieces over the years. Long-winded bloviation in spades. Let's hope he gets to the point sooner, rather than later.

Just for the heck of it, I just checked the stock market. Google's over 381 bucks per share while Microsoft's shares are treading water around 25.