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Monday mornings can be tough, even if you're Bill Gates. The head of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. ran into a few glitches at a presentation he was giving at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle. In the middle of a demonstration on February 17 aimed at showing how Web browsers and E-mail will soon merge, the modem connection failed. A computer-vision demonstration by a Microsoft researcher didn't work, either. Then, during a ques

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Monday mornings can be tough, even if you're Bill Gates. The head of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. ran into a few glitches at a presentation he was giving at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle. In the middle of a demonstration on February 17 aimed at showing how Web browsers and E-mail will soon merge, the modem connection failed. A computer-vision demonstration by a Microsoft researcher didn't work, either. Then, during a question-and-answer session after the presentation, Gates had to contend with a self-described "physician-philosopher" in the audience, who posed this situation to him: A man worth about $28 billion was to lose his eyesight. A genie offered to restore his vision in exchange for the man's $28 billion. What would he do? Gates didn't hesitate, replying that he would want his sight. He then drew sustained laughter and applause by ...

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