It looks like hotel mogul Barry Sternlicht, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Hollywood boss Peter Chernin may need to make some adjustments to their 2009 vacation itineraries: The Yellowstone Club, the invitation-only private ski and golf resort in Montana for the exceedingly wealthy, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday. Club officials say the resort will remain open for the ski season, but its long-term prospects are unclear. The good news is that the club's 340 members will no longer have to fork over $16,000 a year in membership dues. The not-so-good news: Their $250,000 initiation fees just went down the drain. [AP]

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft (and, sadly, only the third-richest man in the world these days) turns 53 today. Closer to home, Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi is also marking her 53rd. Others celebrating: Julia Roberts is 41. Joaquin Phoenix turns 34. Musician Ben Harper is 39. Bruce Jenner, the man to blame for bringing Brody Jenner into the world, is 59. Actress Lauren Holly is 45. And Dayanara Torres, former Miss Universe and former wife of Marc Anthony, is 34.

Oh, surely you didn't think Bill Gates would fade away into saintly obscurity after retiring from his day job at Microsoft, did you? Techflash reports he has a new company, a sort of think tank called BGC3. The letters stand, roughly, for "Bill Gates Catalyst". The three? Possibly a reference to the companies he's founded. Microsoft was Gates's first company; Corbis, the photo-licensing agency, his second. (Should we count the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, since it's a nonprofit.) BGC3 will house Gates's intellectual musings, with the resulting innovations to be funneled largely to Microsoft or to his foundation. It sounds a bit like former Microsoft research chief Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures, minus the controversial accumulation of patents.

A Belgian condom ad, discovered by alt-culture magazine Coilhouse, features Bill Gates as a penis, wrapped in what the ad calls an "efficient antivirus." Here's the uncensored version (NSFW):

Like any good ro-man-on-man-tic comedy, before Bill Gates and Warren Buffett had their first encounter at Gates's parents' home in 1991, they didn't want to meet each other. Says Buffett: "While we're driving down there, I said, 'What the hell are we going to spend all day doing with these people? How long do we have to stay to be polite?" Says Gates: "I told my mom, 'I don't know about a guy who just invests money and picks stocks. I don't have many good questions for him; that's not my thing, Mom." Both showed up at the appointed time anyway — Buffett in a economy-sized car, Gates in a helicopter. It was love at first bluster, according to the Financial Times."We talked and talked and talked and talked and paid no attention to anybody else. I started asking him a whole bunch of questions about his business, not expecting to understand any of it. He's a great teacher, and we couldn't stop talking," Buffett told the newspaper. "We were sort of ignoring all these important people, and Bill's father finally said, gently, that he'd prefer that we join in a little more." Then the conversation turned to sex and computers. As the night wore on — Gates's helicopter had to fly before it got dark, and he let it go — Gates and Buffett grew more and more fascinated with each other. Buffett asked Gates about IBM and Gates told him to buy stock in Microsoft and Intel. Then, per the rules of the buddy-comedy genre, Gates objectified a woman. (The idea being, of course, to share a sexual course of thought without crossing any societal norms.) Says Buffett: "Bill started trying to convince me to get a computer."

As the seasons change and we settle into autumn, I'm reminded once more that yet another year will soon pass and that we're all getting older. Or at least, the old people are. Check out the images below, picturing tech luminaries in their youths juxtaposed with more recent photos. You might find yourself in disagreement with the English poet John Donne, who wrote: "No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face."Young Steve Jobs, Apple cofounder:

Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo for around $40 billion. That didn't work. Microsoft now plans to spend that much buying back stock, while it also increases its shareholder dividend by 18 percent. The company will take on as much as $6 billion in debt to pay for the buyback, which seems to rule out any major acquisition in the near term. Conveniently, the buyback also helps Microsoft founder Bill Gates with one of his biggest problems: selling his $20.3 billion stake in Microsoft in order to fund his nonprofit without killing the company's stock price.Gates sold $350 million worth of shares in August and $2.54 billion worth in 2007, but even at that rate the 52-year old will sell his last Microsoft share right shortly after he's eligible for Social Security, the New York Post reports. Microsoft began a $30 billion stock buyback program in 2004, eventually increasing that round of repurchases to $40 billion.

The doublespeak coming from Microsoft and its ad agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, in the wake of its "icebreaker" ad campaign featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, is amazing. Yesterday, Valleywag learned that Microsoft PR was revving up a spin campaign to go along with the ad campaign. Its aim: To make sure no one interpreted its shift to a series of anti-Mac ads as an abandonment of the Seinfeld spots. But Crispin Porter tells Gizmodo that it did, indeed, have another Seinfeld and Gates spot already produced. It's just not scheduled to air. Anytime. As of yet. It could air. Some day. If Microsoft wants it too. So does this mean Seinfeld will return? As a Microsoft flack told us yesterday, "possibly" and "potentially."

Microsoft is dropping Jerry Seinfeld's nonsensical ass from its massive ad campaign, which they say was, you know, always the plan! The company is actually dubbing the new ads in its $300 million campaign, debuting tonight, "phase two." (Couldn't think of anything slightly less evocative of the Death Star?) The company line is that the "Seinfeld and Bill Gates do the robot" ads were just teasers, and now the real informative spots start. But fuck that; the new ads sound easily just as weird: The "theme" of the new spots is the standard, vapid "Windows. Life without walls." Whatev. And Microsoft has decided to fight back against all those vicious Mac ads by co-opting the phrase "I'm a PC." In the new ads, you will see: a John Hodgman doppelganger, and "everyday PC users, from scientists and fashion designers to shark hunters and teachers." And, of course, more random celebrities!!

The new ad campaign from Crispin Porter & Bogusky for Microsoft, which has been rolled out in two parts so far, are "'icebreakers' designed to start a new kind of conversation." Which mean instead of everyone talking about how terrible Windows Vista is, they're talking about how little sense the new ads from Microsoft make. Ultimately, the plan is to get us talking about how Microsoft seems to be screwing up not just Vista and its brand, but "Windows in all its forms." [Windows Vista Team Blog]

It was just last week that Microsoft unveiled their new advertisement featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates hanging out in a shoe store. Shockingly, you rubes failed to comprehend what this had to do with computers and PCs remained firmly on store shelves. Well, perhaps this latest opus will change all that. In today’s installment Bill and Jerry deign to hang out with regular people in the suburbs. It may be a little less weird than their previous outing, but it’s certainly longer—in fact, it’s a whopping four and a half minutes! We’ve excerpted a choice 30-second cut, but you can watch the entire thing here. If this baby doesn’t get you to put down that Mac and climb aboard the Vista train, nothing will. [YouTube]

Boy, $300 million sure buys a lot of storytelling. Microsoft has released two more 90-second ads starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, the Laurel and Hardy of... Microsoft ads. More than the first, totally mystifying "shoe store" ad, these new spots flesh out the plan: Bill Gates as lovable icon. He's like Joe Isuzu with a bad haircut! He does the robot! We're still skeptical, but it's progress. You can watch the two official ads here, but we like this version even more: all the footage of the two ads (and some extra that was edited out) in one four-and-a-half-minute long unfolding storyline. Trippy:

It's time for the second spot in the Crispin Porter & Bogusky-produced advertising campaign for Microsoft and Windows Vista. Unlike the last one, there's even a computer! Premiering in two parts during tonight's episode of Big Brother on CBS, the premise posits mundane comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates staying in a Seattle home with "real people" (like veteran actor David Costabile) in order to connect with consumers. Cue the hijinx. The question is, will the campaign work?I may well be too far down the rabbit hole to have any idea if the spots are having the desired warm-and-fuzzy effect on the populace. If anything, they serve to remind us of the opposite: That Gates and Microsoft are so out of touch, the company has to pay an advertising agency $300 million (and Seinfeld $10 million) to lend even the thinnest veneer of approachability. "Cool," presumably, would have cost extra.

Click to viewIn this clip, CNBC's Jim Goldman asks Apple CEO Steve Jobs what he thought of Microsoft's new ad featuring Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Watch the clip: Jobs answers Goldman's question politely, but the CEO's body language says what he won't. He shakes his head. He throws his hands up in the air. He grins and laughs. Like the rest of us, the guy who greenlighted the Mac vs. PC series, the Think Different campaign, and the infamous anti-IBM 1984 ad doesn't get what Microsoft was thinking running that thing either.

"Most companies would have to spend a billion dollars on advertising to get this kind of attention," a brand consultant insisted to the Wall Street Journal in response to Jerry Seinfeld's what-the-huh 90-second TV spot for Microsoft. "The fact that they have the blogs, the business community and mass media talking about it means they hit a nerve," says another. "It's exactly what we were trying to achieve, which was to drive buzz," says Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla. Three's a trend! But ask yourself how many other companies will now intentionally develop campaigns designed to get people talking and talking about how disappointed they are with the whole thing?

In its bid to top the deceptively simple "I"m a Mac/I'm a PC" ad campaign of its rival, Microsoft went big, hiring auteur Michel Gondry to direct a commercial featuring Jerry Seinfeld alongside Bill Gates (update: we've been informed that though Gondry shot at least one commercial for this campaign, this particular ad was crafted by director Bryan Buckley). For his involvement, Seinfeld was handsomely compensated to the tune of $10 million — a big number, but small potatoes compared to the whole ad campaign's rumored $300 million budget. For that kind of cash, you might expect the end result to be an orgy of CGI with all participants covered in a thick sheen of liquid gold. However, Microsoft had something considerably quieter and more head-scratching in mind. Take a look at the lackadaisical proceedings and then try to physically restrain yourself from bolting out the door to buy a PC. That is what's being advertised, isn't it? [Microsoft]

Microsoft's new Seinfeld ad campaign proves you can't predict success. Here are five goofy ads that worked — plus the clip that probably sold Microsoft on Seinfeld. Above: A parody of Jacques Cousteau's undersea documentaries for Sun Microsystems.

Less than two weeks after Microsoft confirmed that it had picked the Mac-loving Jerry Seinfeld as its new endorser, this ad with Seinfeld and Bill Gates is everywhere. And it is awful. I mean, it's kind of engaging to see this half-billionaire comedian kicking it in a shoe store with the many-billionaire Microsoft nerd-in-chief; but up until the final seconds, I was convinced this was an ad for Payless. And I may be stupid, but I'm still your target audience, Microsoft. Surely Sarah Silverman and Willie Nelson will be a bit more techno-centric. Watch what $10 million can buy, after the jump:

The first Microsoft ad starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates (and for which Seinfeld was paid $10 million) is now online. It's not especially funny—it starts off in a mall shoe store, Jerry does a lot of talking, and Bill looks sorta sad. Although you probably would have been more surprised if it actually had made you laugh. [AlleyInsider]

Long-time Macintosh enthusiast Jerry Seinfeld kicks off the new Microsoft campaign by spotting company cofounder Bill Gates at a fictional discount shoe store. The 90-second spot makes a lot less sense from there. Can't say for certain if this is the spot that Michel Gondry directed, but it certainly has the loopy narrative touches, playful music and one giveaway visual cue: A shot of someone wearing shoes and socks in the shower. It makes no mention of technology until the end, when Seinfeld asks when Microsoft will make an edible computer — and then the audience is treated to Bill Gates adjusting himself in his boxer shorts, hands-free. The whole production says "quirky," not slick or cool, but then Windows Vista is full of maddening quirks.