All aboard, all aboard, it’s the Microsoft advert train again, next stop comedy.

That’s right, Microsoft has rolled out the second television spot in its Vista-marketing blitz, and good news comedy chums, it’s even more surreal than the first one. Again there’s no mention of Vista, but then there simply isn’t time as Bill and Jerry move into an everyday ordinary home to experience the life of normal people. Anybody familiar with the antics of shortlived Nickleoden wonder show Pete & Pete will feel right at home in this latest slice of Microsoft madness, in which cause, effect and logic are rather wonderfully torn asunder.

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I might as well lay my cards on the table. My favourite ever comedian is Spike Milligan, though Chris Rock’s early stuff leaves me gasping for air, praying for a lull so I might breath between belly laughs. My favourite ever sitcom is Arrested Development, followed by Frasier - both of which are so mind-bogglingly brilliant, a choir should start a lament every time we mention their passing.

I like my comedy to come from unexpected angles, I appreciate bad jokes told well, and comedians who charge at the truth without fear of what will happen when they hit it - stand up Bill Hicks and Richard Prior. I’m laying all this at your feet, because I’m about to use it as a crash mat.

You see, the Vista advert made me laugh, and more importantly I think it’s a good piece of marketing.

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There are doubtless a number of things Microsoft employees will miss about Bill Gates when he toddles off to airdrop billions on charities, but his email rants won’t be one of them.

To mark his passing, the Seattle Post Intelligencer has dug out what it bills as an “epic rant” to poor Jim Allchin, describing the world of pain the Microsoft boss sufferred when he tried to download and install Windows Moviemaker in 2003.

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Opportunities to interview Bill Gates don’t come along that often (Lord knows, we’ve tried). Even the BBC, with its undoubted worldwide clout, has only managed to pin down the Microsoft chairman for a decent interview twice in the past decade.

The first time was in 1999, when a poorly-briefed (and I’m not refering to his infamous pants) Jeremy Paxman interviewed Gates. Paxman lobbed in his trademark terse questions, but lacked the knowledge to disect Gates’s answers with even a hint of the ferociousness he reserves for polticians.

As this Slashdot reviewer said of the Paxman interview: “He challenged Gates on various issues, even mentioning Linus Torvalds, but unfortunately Jeremy isn’t a technology expert, so the topic of open standards and protocols wasn’t raised, and when Gates’ asserted that the field was wide open for anyone to do what he and Microsoft have done, Jeremy didn’t know enough to point out that when someone begins to look like they might challenge Microsoft’s position, they get driven out of business or acquired.”

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