He drives to auditions in a silver Ferrari and goes home to a waterfront spread on Malibu's ritzy Carbon Beach...you don't know whether to hate him, try to become his new best friend or simply admire him for having nothing to do with Oracle.

David seems to have inherited the Aura of Awesome from his father, without the accompanying kind-of-a-dick-itude of the man who reneged on his one philanthropic promise: a medical research endowment for Harvard. Then again, the reports from "friends" of David haven't yet poured in. Those stories would fit just fine in the comments section (just pick a username and password, and we'll approve the account if your gossip's good) or in an e-mail to tips@valleywag.com.

Billionaire's son flies on his own [SF Chronicle]

#1 William Henry Gates III [Forbes]

So remember when you're fiddling with the height on your painstakingly designed machine — Stumpf took an extra year to make sure a 4'11" test subject could adjust it without standing — raise a Vitamin Water in toast to the man who put your comfort in control.

Bill Stumpf, 70, a Designer of the Aeron Ergonomic Office Chair, Dies [NY Times]
Photo by JDRF Capitol [Flickr]

• "This next wave is going to be bigger than anything that came before it, says [BEA cofounder William] Coleman."
• "Coleman is one of dozens of new barbarians plotting the Cheap Revolution."
• "They are embracing simplicity, unlocking prodigious new power and cutting tech costs by up to 90%, threatening the Silicon Valley plutocracy."

Yeah, a guy worth $50 million who was nearly a dot-com billionaire in 2001 is just the barbarian we need to threaten the plutocracy. Is anyone else worried for Forbes's sanity, or is it just accepted that everyone writes like BusinessWeek now?

All right, Valleywag's heading home early. We'll be back Tuesday. Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

The New Barbarians [Forbes]
Image by Paul Kidby, Discworld illustrator [PaulKidby.com]

It would be rude, of course, to just ask your Google friend, "Can you buy our drinks from now on?" So we asked a few Googlers how to separate the rich from the poor. The following tips all come from employees at the Mountain View Googleplex.

• "I'd say: 'Did you start before me?'" The rule of thumb, everyone agrees, is the start date. Pre-IPO employees made bank. But no one wants to reveal other magic dates. Just know that earlier is better.
• They drive a crappy car. The usual nouveau-riche status symbol won't work with Googlers. (There's a subtler sign in a Googler's car choice — more on that later.)
• Engineers are the real winners. No one's sure just how much richer the geeks are than the ad-sales wonks and other early Googlers, but there's definitely a class divide — not that anyone acts like it at the office.

Read on for the real secret to spotting a rich Googler in the parking lot.

• Rich Googlers keep a home in San Francisco and another in Mountain View.
• Their weekend plans involve airplanes and/or beaches and/or simulated zero gravity.
• They purchase a second car simply because they're curious to run an experiment on hybrid efficiency.
• They only go home to sleep, but they still employ a housecleaner and a gardener.
• They retire at the age of 28 and say that they kept working those last two years because they loved the job.
• "They hire a team of nannies. They have to hire a personal chef just to cook for the nannies." Okay, the cook was a joke, but this Googler was dead serious about the nannie squad.

The takeaway principle? It's all in the discreet expenses. Googlers "live like they're poor undergrads," says one of the company's newer hires. In other words, don't look for glam — look for conveniences and eco-friendly frivolity.

We think this more accurately represents Business 2.0's attitude. I mean, holy shit, $60,000 a month! That's as much as a respectable small business! Who can fathom this kind of wealth besides every damn millionaire in the Valley?

Mega-size version [Valleywag]
Earlier: A word about the photo in Business 2.0's Michael Arrington profile [Valleywag]
And: A picture of Michael Arrington lighting his cigar with a hundred-dollar bill [Valleywag]

As I told CNBC, I whipped up my article in five minutes. I figured Gross did the same. The man does a great job of taking this seriously on CNBC's On the Money. (In the intro, I'm talking about Larry Ellison, Oracle founder and owner of the world's biggest yacht.)

It's no Long Tail Theory, but it'll do.

The CEO Bought a Yacht? Then it's time to sell. [Slate]
Earlier: The State of Ships: How yachts kill companies [Valleywag]

• There's vodka on the desks. (Granted, it's Grey Goose, so we're not talking total squalor.)
• Boxes strewn about the floor.
• But what really clinches it are the rats in the ceiling.

Are Chad and his staff subsisting entirely on rat stew? There are other ways to cut costs, dudes.

So before the Freakonomics guys get their hands on this trend and ruin it for everyone, here's our chart of tech CEOs, ordered by color-coded company performance, each with a yacht proportionate to the CEO's real boat size.

The CEO Bought a Yacht? [Slate]
Oracle's future: What's a yacht got to do with it? [Computerworld]

Is it the Boeing 767 that Larry and co-founder Sergey share, which was recently getting refitted? Did Larry get to land while lying on the sofa, or did he have to make do with those hammocks he reportedly requested for the plane? Most importantly, why the hell didn't anyone publish a photo of the jet?

Google expertise for Aravind Hospital [The Hindu]

So if it comes down to a battle for Malibu (which we hope will be played out in the streets, along the lines of Baz Luhrmann's version of Romeo and Juliet), who would win? Mel may have some serious stunt-training in him (or at least some Drunken Boxing practice), but Larry could hire Chuck Norris as a stunt double — and everyone knows that Chuck Norris doesn't fight. Chuck Norris kills.

Malibu owner No. 1, please step forward [SignOnSanDieago; Photo by Bart Nagel]

• CBS head Les Moonves met with YouTube CEO Chad Hurley and, according to onlooking reporters, got excited about putting CBS clips on YouTube. Note that NBC already partnered with YouTube, which could become the pimp for every major network. Watch and see if Hurley chats with Disney's Rob Iger next.
• The CEOs of Wal-Mart and Home Depot will show up later. Google's Sergey Brin didn't show yet.
• The guy making the Slingbox (a media home network gadget) wants "every single person in this place to buy a Slingbox." Sounds a little too salesmanish; my guess is someone pushes him out of the boat on river-rafting day.

YouTube Takes Stage at Media Summit [AP]
Earlier: Awkward moments at Media Mogul Summer Camp

• At the campfire sing and s'mores night, Rupert Murdoch asks Disney CEO Robert Iger to pass the marshmallows. "Gee, Rupe," says Robert. "Isn't a favor something friends do? And if I remember, I invited you to be my friend on MySpace five times? And you said no." Time Warner's CEO hands Rupert a jet-puffed and the conflict is defused.
• Everyone hates Sony CEO Howard Stringer. Not because he's either suing their technology company or getting sued by their media company, but because he makes everybody call him "Sir Howard."

• Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, Google founders Larry and Sergey, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos build a fort and hang out trading stories and chewing tobacco. When Meg Whitman tries to come in, they put up a "No eBay CEOs" sign.
• Intel chairman Craig Barrett spends the whole week praising Steve Jobs, who isn't there, which frankly everyone was glad about.
• YouTube CEO Chad Hurley comes out of Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons's tent looking flushed and sweaty. He spends a lot of time gazing off into the hills after that.
• Nike chairman Philip Knight makes the stupid mistake of bringing one — ONE — pair of Adidas, and it's all over after that.

Friction to mark annual retreat [AP]

"They were wanting to know if you could move a sofa across the room during flight," he explained. "Could they sleep in the bed and take off and land while in the bed."

And it gets even better. For a September 2005 meeting at Google HQ, Jennings [the designer] was asked to deliver a "a full-size sofa mockup" for Brin and Page to test. They wanted to "sit on it, lay on it, then have comments about it. We had meetings that would last a minute, two minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes."

Why is this so embarrassing to Sergey and Larry? Because unlike other moguls who admit to a little indulgence, these two were proud of their reputation as "just two regular joes."

New from Google Labs: Google Sofa [Good Morning Silicon Valley]
Earlier: Sergey's an officer in the mile-high club [Valleywag]

The Google jet being custom-fitted for founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin is a monumental achievement in the size wars of Silicon Valley billionaires. Larry and Sergey's Boeing 767 outclasses all other corporate jets in length. As shown above, its impressive girth also dwarfs those of lesser moguls.

Those with a penetrating gaze will notice that the cockpit has been removed from the drawing of the 767, so any missing optical inches are due to the excised tip.

Earlier: Sergey and Larry's Google jet, mapped

Rising Sun, the 138-meter yacht: over $200 million

BMW Oracle yacht racing: unknown sum

Atherton estate: $25 million

Woodside estate: $200 million

Twelve properties in Malibu: over $180 million

Gulfstream V: $38-46 million

Harvard University donation: zip

Wealth of experience [IT Weekly]

While we've got some room to talk here, I forgot some details in the last post on this piece. Larry and Sergey, for example, fought so hard over Sergey's king-size that CEO Eric Schmidt had to step in. Eric's words of peace, according to the fired plane designer, were "Sergey, you can have whatever bed you want in your room; Larry, you can have whatever kind of bed you want in your bedroom. Let's move on."

And, of course, there's Larry's request to hang hammock from the ceiling. Turbulence is fun again!

Lawsuits Fly Over Google Founders' Big Private Plane [WSJ, no sub]
Earlier: Sergey's an officer in the mile-high club

At one point he witnessed a dispute between [Page and Brin] over whether Mr. Brin should have a "California king" size bed, he says.

Now, it's perfectly normal for Sergey Brin to want a roomy place to, um, sleep. So what's with Larry? King size beds were just a bit too gaudy for him? Double beds would make his flying palace seem like an everyday business expense? Unclench, Larry, unclench.

Lawsuits Fly Over Google Founders' Big Private Plane [WSJ]
Picture: Interior drawing from linked article

Summers, of course, was pushed out of Harvard after he implied that girls aren't good at math and science.

"It's official," said Oracle spokesman Bob Wynne. "The reason is the relationship he had with Larry Summers who leaves this week. Larry Summers was the brainchild of this whole concept. With his departure, Larry reconsidered his decision."

Disregarding Mr. Wynne's word choice (surely brainchild is not the word he wants), this would make a fine excuse. Except that Ellison didn't bother mentioning his change of heart when Summers resigned in March, instead waiting until last week's media frenzy forced his hand.

Hey, when Larry Ellison is running late, time had better slow the hell down.

Ellison reneges on $115 million donation to Harvard [SFGate]
Earlier: Perks of being Ellison: Saying "fuck you" with a safari [Valleywag]

A $31 Billion Gift Between Friends [NYT]

I saw your items: "Internet Millionaires to African AIDS Babies: Drop dead!" and "Larry Ellison doesn't care about sick people" and recalled my fund raising attempts among Silicon Valley leaders and VC's who use "Benjamins" for toilet paper.

My wife is a seven year breast cancer survivor and a road cyclist. Over the last three years, she and I have manged to raise about $30,000 for the Lance Armastrong Foundation (LAF).

We are not displeased with that total, and money I have made off of stock options originating in Silicon Valley have allowed us to donate about $21,000 of that total our of our own resources.

We believe in putting our money where our mouths and beliefs are. We are a middle class married couple here in Boulder, CO who 'lucked into' some financial windfalls which were very large in our view (but probably would not cover the money Larry Page makes in Google stock, in the time required to blow his nose).

The "odd" thing is, I have been making "matching donation challenges" over the last three years to leaders of certain high tech companies and venture capitalist (all of whom were directly or indirectly my employers at the time of the challenges).

I wasn't just asking for a handout to the LAF, I was going to match EACH of their donations, with one of my own, up to about a limit of $10,000 each year.

I only ever generated TWO responses (and got those only after a fair amount of badgering and one letter which bordered on "Two O'clock in the morning Jerry Lewis Telethon begging") and a total of $2000 in donations in three years of trying.

Given what I said before, we have ended up matching such funds on a 10 to 1 ratio.

The people in question are leaders in HUGE technology companies and worth multiple millions of dollars, yet they 'throw around nickels like they were manhole covers'.

So the results Curt Hopkins got do not surprise me in the least.

"The rich are different than you and me" — F. Scott Fitzgerald

cheers,

michael birdsong

But 28 people at the Institute are now jobless, ten months after Ellison promised the money to pay them. While would-be Institute members at Harvard still express hope, Larry's spokespeople won't comment to the press. Which means that not only is Larry stiffing his beneficiaries — he's delivered them a big "fuck you."

Hey, it's not like the mogul is made of money. Those yacht payments take a big bite from the billionaire budget, and sometimes there's not enough left to feed the dog.

Er, sorry, feed the charity.

Harvard left in lurch Ellison over donation [MSNBC, who probably meant "over Ellison donation"]

But from all but Blogger co-founder Evan Williams, Curt didn't get so much as a "screw you." Not all of the non-responders are worth millions, but one suspects they're all better off than the average Central African farmer.

Decent People
Evan Williams (Blogger, Odeo)

People Who Would Rather Buy a Fourth Lexus Than Give a Dime to Keep African AIDS Babies From Going Tits Up
Chris Anderson (Wired)
Ted Leonsis (AOL)
Steve Scott Johnson (Ookles, Feedster)
Craig Newmark (Craigslist)
Craig Mundie (Microsoft)
Esther Dyson (I have no idea)
Joi Ito (goes to lots of Blogger conferences, other than that...visits diaper hookers in Kabukicho?)
Michael Arrington (Techcrunch)
Steve Wozniak (Apple)
Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media)
Kevin Kelly (Wired)
Jason Calacanis (Weblogsinc/AOL)
Nick Denton (Gawker)
James Hong (Hot or Not)
Max Levchin (Slide, Paypal)

The Blogswana Project [Official site]
Donation page [Blogswana Project]

When he's in the Bay Area, Tom McInerney, the 33-year-old co-founder of San Francisco online video site Guba, zips around in his "low-end" 325i BMW, the 2003 version. In Hollywood, he powers up a Porsche 911, the 40th anniversary model. His home in San Francisco is a Victorian. His L.A. digs are a bit splashier: a Beverly Hills penthouse perched across the street from the William Morris Agency.

McInerney is angling to cut deals with the Hollywood suits and become an online distributor of their video.

"Looks matter here," said McInerney.

I was serious about the quiz.

1. Fancy Tom McInerney and his PR people got Guba into the press 67 times in the last two months, according to LexisNexis. Competitor YouTube got 853 mentions in the same time frame. Which looks hotter to a Hollywood suit?
1b. Is it a bad sign that only a half-dozen of the "Guba" citations are actually about McInerney's company?

2. What's the lease like on a Porsche 911?

3. Which is a surer sign that an article about tech and Hollywood is headed downhill: Quoting Tony Perkins, or the word "rooftop" dangerously close to the word "party"?

4. The article also says: "A valley VC held forth on the new, new convergence — the sudden collision of those who work to change the world and those who just want to entertain it." In an essay with a topic sentence, supporting examples, and conclusion, describe the pros and cons of beating the shit out of this VC.

To win deals, tech firms go Hollywood [Mercury News]

True, the seven-bedroom Atherton house Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison listed for sale last year at $25 million is now priced at a mere $16 million.

Oh no! Not Larry's $25 million Japanese villa! Don't let the Chuck Norris of Silicon Valley go poor — keep pumping that housing bubble.

Okay, so Ellison did sell off an acre of the estate, leaving two-thirds of the place on the market. So buyers may feel a bit cramped as they float in the middle of their private pond.

High-end home market is down

"All along," says Farzad, "Allen has acted in ways that make him seem either oblivious or indifferent to the plight of ordinary shareholders." Well sure — Allen's worth over $22 billion. If Charter dies, he just needs to mortgage SpaceShipOne again.

Charter: Cable's Sucker Stock [BusinessWeek]

• Yahoo didn't buy Technorati. Sorry, Flipmeat Trifecta players. [ZDNet]
• The SF Chronicle confirmed that hey, some of these Valley guys are pulling in rather a lot of money. [SF Chron]
• A woman called Steve Jobs hot. She just wanted him for his big...cube. [Wired News]
• Someone on Curbed noticed the new Apple New York store looks a lot like the Louvre. (Except if the Louvre burned, there'd be less looting.) [Curbed]
• And among the many videos of the Apple store opening, this is the juiciest — with the best Steve cameo. [YouTube]

• Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in the San Francisco Chronicle: "I'm going to want to have intelligence in my pocket." Or he's just happy to see you. [SF Chron]
• Word is that Ballmer's gonna get fired. Guess those "big, bold bets" fucked the deck. [Ars Technica]
• Are javascript reflections the new blink tag? [Neondragon.net]
• Google's business founder, Omid Kordestani in 2004, advised an audience of businesswomen: "Measure everything." At a record-breaking 2005 compensation of $289 million, is Omid overcompensating for something? [Mercury News]
• What was Dave Winer doing in Amsterdam's red light district? [Scripting.com]
• The London Times dives deep into the life of arrested Gizmondo ex-exec Carl Freer — yes, he's so much more than the dude hanging with Ferrari-crasher Stefan Eriksson. [London Times]
• Pictured: Google Smile. [Office Pirates]

Going through old stories and saw this one: [I almost feel sorry for Jon Schwartz. Almost. (Valleywag)]

I live around the corner from this house. Update is that he sold the house a few months ago (and the attached guest house) for a reported 3.2mm. His old place (700 Noe) was an amazing home and he clearly put a lot of work to make all the finishes nice, including hiring a cabinetmaker to design custom closets and outfitting walls with venetian plaster - the elevator was just an extra touch. Now that he and his wife are having kids, they needed a bigger/more kid-friendly home. He supposedly moved to a new and bigger house on Church St.

With the move, Jon is indeed closer to the "edge of the Mission," the neighborhood known more for poor Hispanics than software execs (but more for hipsters than anything else). But a house bigger than his $3.2-mil pad? Still not edgy, Jon. Maybe grow a goatee — that'll get the kids hot.

Earlier: I almost feel sorry for Jon Schwartz. Almost. [Valleywag]

Which pre-IPO CEO just bought a Bentley you ask? Perhaps it was preowned by none other than Larry Ellison? Netsuite, thats who.

Tipline, for anyone with details, is tips@valleywag.com. Would it be crass to ask for pics? It would be crass to ask for pics. Please, if you see Zach's car, take pics.

This time, it's not the Ferrari-crashing Stefan Eriksson in trouble (oh, he's still screwed too). It's his buddy from the FUBAR gadget company, Carl Freer, who whipped out a badge on the scene of the crash. Carl's accused of flashing his San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority badge (keep it in your pants, Carl!) to buy a gun without a background check. Such a deal wouldn't be kosher, what with him being a foreign national who can't buy guns in the U.S. His office denies the whole deal, but L.A. sheriffs found 12 rifles and four handguns at his home and on his yacht. No worries, he was probably just doing some hunting.

2nd Arrest Made in Ferrari Case [LAT]

My coworkers who don't read VW (yet) nonetheless all hit on the same topic this morning:

"Did you see the Sun's new —-"
"Ponytail, yeah."

He gets that all the time, surely. But people have hit where it hurts (or would hurt if My Little Ponytail or any of his cohorts cared about some snarky blog).

Readers and commenters balked at his recommendation that GM use free cars as loss leaders for the OnStar service (what's wrong with that? Cars are exactly like software, right?).

Two commenters agreed that Schwartz is just a placeholder until the board sells Sun, so don't get too attached.

But the best news? According to a ZABA search, Schwartz (that's Jonathan I, age 40) lives in the heart of Noe Valley. And according to Zillow, his house is worth $2 mil:

Jonathan Schwartzes in CA [Zaba search]
700 Noe St., SF, CA [Zillow]
Earlier: Sun's Jon Schwartz wants to be indie [Valleywag]
And: Jon Schwartz is a Noe poser [Valleywag]

Well I had my lunch at Google last week. And I can describe it in one word. Paradise. Make that two words. Freaking Paradise. Allow me to give you a flavor:

The sun was shining, the smell of meat grilling in the outdoors, a good-natured volleyball game in progress, the tinkling sounds of children's laughter (I don't know where they came from, maybe they were avatars.)

Googlers drinking their lunchtime libation out of coconuts. Yes. That's right. Out. Of. Coconuts.

Deep breath, Nick.

There was a mango lassi machine. As if everyone is entitled to a mango lassi. What kind of world is this? Mango lassi is special, exotic, meant for only those who deserve such a treat. Unless you are at Google, where it's mango lassi madness.

Oh and the people. They were happy and polite. Doors were held open. Eye contact was made. Hello, how are you. Again I ask, what kind of world is this? A world where there are umbrellas at every door to prevent the awkward and undignified "run across the compound with a newspaper on your head" moments during inclement weather.

Did I mention that we had to valet the car because the parking lot was full. Well I didn't have any spare change on me so I asked my host if I could borrow two dollars for the valet. He threw his head back and laughed heartily. "You don't pay them ya dummy". He is part of a privileged world, the world of Google where one is entitled to mango lassi and valet parking FREE OF CHARGE.

(The good bits are too small to read, so click it for the full version.)

Developments since the chart: Stefan taped the crash, pretended he was a cop, and this week pled not guilty to charges of grand theft (for stealing the not-paid-off Ferrari and a Benz).

Gizmondo flow chart [Game Revolution]
After flying in Ferrari, felon tells a tangled tale [Chicago Tribune]
Earlier: Stefan Eriksson arrested, still a big Ferrari-crashing loser [Valleywag]

The little heiress who said "The Sidekick is way better than the BlackBerry" in 2004 is now back on the crackberry. Maybe she needed the bluetooth support to sync her business e-mail; maybe she needed to read Gawker blogs on Mobileplay.

New game: Party like Paris Hilton on cell phones [Yahoo News]
Paris Hilton says: "The Sidekick is way better than the BlackBerry" [Engadget]

First off, there's the crash itself. Valleywag's chain-smoking brother Jalopnik caught pics of the carnage — the torn-off passenger compartment, the streak of debris — left after Stefan's Ferrari ploughed into a telephone pole and split apart.

Then there's the supposed video of the crash — someone said Stefan had a camcorder on the whole time.

And there's the mysterious second passenger — or, as Stefan claimed, the driver. Stefan said a German man was driving him — but did he just need to get out of a drunk driving charge?

That's another thing — Stefan was confirmed as drunk on the scene, and his alibi — the supposed driver — wasn't on the scene at all.

Meanwhile, Stefan flashed a card that identified him as a cop — kind of. A while back, he'd installed security cameras on public buses. In return, he was made a deputy anti-terrorist police commissioner, complete with business cards.

That didn't stop two men from Homeland Security from interrogating Stefan at the crash site. But Stefan was let go —

— uninjured, according to early reports. Now CNET mentions that he was bleeding from the mouth when the cops first found him.

In any case, his arrest this weekend wasn't for drunk driving. It's a grand theft case, because Stefan doesn't own the car. He was leasing it and had recently stopped paying for it. Looks like he illegally shipped it over from the UK. Same with his wife's Benz, which was impounded in March.

Thus goes the story of the tech executive fired after his mob-connection convictions were outed in the Swedish press. He's being held without bail, and who knows if he'll end up being deported, but wherever he goes, can someone keep an eye on the boy? With one good paparazzi on his ass, Stefan (bonus notes: gun clip found near the crash site! Gizmondo maker of really stupid gaming device!) could earn himself his own Gawker Media blog.

Photo: Associated Press
Earlier: More dirt on the Gizmondo Ferrari wreck [Valleywag]
Former game exec arrested in Ferrari crash [CNET]
An arrest for theft in Malibu mystery [SF Chron]
Ferrari Case Continues to Widen [LAT]
From the Wag's big brothers: Gizmondo Executive Goes to Jail, Does Not Pass Go, Does Not Collect $200 [Gizmodo]
And: Woohoo! High School Poop on the Brokeback Enzo Man! [Jalopnik]
And: Dumb Gizmondo Exec Loses Another Exotic Car [Kotaku]

For $25 million, live like Larry Ellison, before he traded up [Mercury News]

Ellison's old boat, the "Ronin" (the name means "masterless samurai" in Japanese — or, more distressingly, "one who is tossed like a wave on the sea"), is furnished with a full lounge set, multiple dining tables, and a basketball hoop. And, oddly, an empty hot tub. Why wouldn't a crowd of Bay Area journalists and notables want to polish off their party with a party in the jacuzzi? I mean, it'd at least make a great photo for Valleywag.

Netsuite parties on Larry's yacht [Tech Chronicles]

¬ One desktop is not enough for the might man. Bill uses three on his Dell.
¬ A personal assistant to filter non-contacts keeps his inbox to 100 e-mails a day.
¬ He calls the little notification box Outlook (or Gmail) uses, "the toast." Cute!
¬ Apparently, he's reinvented the wiki and named it SharePoint.
¬ As noted in Fortune's caption, Bill doesn't use much paper. Shocking!
¬ He wants to get a digital whiteboard. So now you know what to buy Bill for his birthday.

How I Work: Bill Gates [Fortune]

But that's not all the "Larry Ellison's Boat" news! After the jump, a tech blogger gives some obsession correction about an earlier yacht identification. (E-mail edited to make the links prettier.)

BMW Oracle use stealth in preparing new boat [Zee News]

Dear Walleywag [sic],

In the photo that illustrates your article about Ellison's yacht, it seems to me that you you have his old yacht, The Katana instead of the new one, The Rising Sun. I noticed this because I wrote a little post about megayachts back when there weren't any pictures of The Rising Sun available.

The Katana is sporting these ugly wraparound windows that do provide panoramic views, but have earned the yacht a nickname. A lot of people are calling it "Habitrails".

http://cache.valleywag.com/tech/rising-sun-yacht.jpg
http://www.victorychallenge.com/uploads/moduler_3151.jpg

The Rising Sun also has similar wraparound windows, but they are
somewhat flatter, as you can see here.

By the way, you might like my post about Ellison's driveway. Don't you think that he looks exactly like Hank Scorpio from the Simpsons?