I was just chatting to an anti-virus bod who pointed out that we're rapidly approaching the target date for the End of Spam As We Know It. Two years ago, on Jan 24th, Bill Gates reportedly said that spam would be a thing of the past in two years. Is it?

But then, his trustworthy computing drive is now four years old. The company refocused on security in 2002 and even froze code development (a risky move in an industry predicated on growth through new releases) in a bid to fix the security problems plaguing windows. Did it work? You decide.

At the end of last year, Gates talked about a web services economy in a memo that could have been written in 1999, and which seems to be more of a kneejerk reaction to Ajax programming models and Google's gradual attempts at pulling together end to end services crafted around search, than anything else. How many more statements can be made that are lacking in vision or just plain wrong, before people - including shareholders - stop listening?