Bill Gates makes a non-Microsoft visit

Bill Gates, The Greatest Geek Who Ever Lived, has spent the last few days in the UAE. He was treated to, among other things, some quality time with Sheikh Hamdan, the deputy prime minister, an afternoon at Abu Dhabi's Red Bull Air Race (where he was fitted out with a uniform of Team Abu Dhabi, the newest entrant to the contest), and a meeting with Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai.

Of course, the local twitterati were ahead of the game on this one, with a number of Gates spottings and general "he's in town" talk coming out well in advance of any reports by us slack-footed media types.
The biggest news of the visit was the creation of a new partnership between Dubai Cares and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, the world's richest charity. 

According to the people at Microsoft, the visit was organised by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, and while he may have talked up a few Microsoft projects and general technology ideas, this was a philanthropic, not corporate, visit.

The world's richest man has moved on to Qatar, where he is delivering a keynote speech at a conference being hosted there by Carnegie Mellon University. He is also talking up a project with the extremely cashed up Qatar Foundation, which runs, among other things, the Qatar Science and Technology Park.