Bill Gates was giving a keynote speech earlier this week in London where he was asked to name some of the luxuries he had. He just listed some DVDs and books. Surprisingly he did not list his private jet. During the speech he also mentioned that he wrote a letter to Steve Jobs, which the Apple co-founder kept by his bed-side as he was dying.

Bill Gates, the current chairman of Microsoft and the wealthiest American in the world, launched a philanthropy organization called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Thus far the Foundation has given $28 billion to charity since 2007, which is about 48% of his net worth. The Gates Foundation focused on eradicating malaria and polio. The charity has helped save the lives of over 5.8 million people so far. [GeekWire]

Walter Isaacson was at an event hosted by the Commonwealth Cub of California and he shared some additional information about the Steve Jobs biography. The 630-page biography may be expanded in a special edition. It may be in the form of an extensively annotated version or putting in an addendum that addresses the period during Steve Jobs’ death.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates appeared in a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City recently to testify in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by the WordPerfect creator. The WordPerfect creator said that several last minute changes to technical features on Microsoft Windows 95 would no longer support his software.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bill Gates has dismissed the criticisms that Steve Jobs made about him in the biography written by Walter Isaacson. Gates said his opinion on Jobs’ thoughts in an interview with Christiane Amanpour of “The Week.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the German government is working together on a $10 million project to help improve the sanitation facilities for over 800,000 Kenyans during the next 5 years. The Foundation will also provide clean drinking water for 200,000 people. Bill Gates pointed out that about 2.5 billion people do not have a proper way to flush away excrement. Providing West-style toilets is not possible due to limited water resources. The Gates Foundation is also working on using the urine of 400,000 people to make nitrogenous fertilizer in the powder form. [Time]

Microsoft Corporation (NASDASQ:MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates said that he urged the board of directors to acquire the Skype VoIP service. Last week Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion. This was Microsoft’s largest acquisition ever.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen was interviewed on 60 Minutes about his new book “Idea Man.” In Idea Man, Allen was very transparent about his relationship with Bill Gates during the start of Microsoft. Allen was highly critical of Gates’ management style. Around the 6:40 minute mark, you will see Gates getting into strong arguments with Microsoft employees. However Allen admitted that Gates was still fair as long as you convinced him that you knew what you were talking about. [BusinessInsider]