Gossip

Bill Gates gets "honorary" knighthood; Microsoft parties into the night

Bill Gates now shares an honour with "Uncle" Clive Sinclair - a meeting with the Queen of England and the discovery that she doesn't share our obsession with high tech. "Sir" Bill got his title (deservedly, given how much charity work he does) and then Microsoft's top guys and the best of Britain's hax repaired to Chelsea for celebration.

Ah, nostalgia. In the old days in Las Vegas, when the industry was young, writer John Dvorak used to drag poor old Randolf Hearst the third down to the Desert Inn for a Comdex party - and Bill would always turn up.

In those days it always ended up in the big bedroom of the suite that Dvorak had hired, with Bill surrounded by shouting techies, all telling him what he ought to do.

And this year, it was a bit different. At the end of the Palace ceremony, Bill and his lady went off to meet with Important people, and the rest of us ate dead things on sticks at the Collection bar in South Kensington.

Why can't he see the value of standing in a corner being shouted at by people who couldn't run a software corner shop, telling him what he ought to do? Are no traditions sacred? Why would he have dinner with Tony Blair, when he could have kebabs with a Hunky Mouse?

There's no understanding some people...