As you well know, we tend to go on and on (and on and on and on and on) about Michael Dell's increasingly obvious obsession with Steve Jobs and the man's many transparent attempts to duplicate His Steveness's strategies and accomplishments. But as far as we know, at least ol' Madman Mike has never gone so far as to dress up like Steve during a keynote address. (Yet.) Now, Bill Gates, on the other hand... well, let's just say that his own copycat antics must have Mikey fearing for his reputation as the Ultimate Steve Wannabe.

Bill copying Steve isn't exactly anything new, either, as we've mentioned in the past. The theme of one Gatesian keynote address from last year was so noticeably similar to Steve's "the PC is not dead / digital hub" spiel from three weeks prior, we cheekily wondered of Bill in the scene's title, "did he wear a turtleneck?" Well, thanks to faithful viewer Hari Punz, once more we get to witness life imitating sarcasm-- with horrifying consequences. See, Hari pointed us towards a German FutureZone article about Mr. Gates's Xbox unveiling in Japan, and, well, you can pretty much guess the rest.

Our single year of high school German is woefully inadequate in this situation, and the Babelfish translation, while hilarious in its own right, isn't much help either. But there are a couple of photos which clearly reveal that Bill Gates is definitely, undeniably, and unabashedly wearing a black turtleneck ("Rollkragenpuli") as he addresses the crowd. A publicity photo of Steve in his usual keynote attire is provided for reference, and the similarity is both staggering and not just a little scary.

Interestingly enough, while black is supposed to be slimming, Bill's "wealth antinode bulge" is strangely accentuated-- or, as Hari kindly rendered intelligible, Bill's gut is hanging out in a big way. Clearly this is not a good look for him-- but let's be a little charitable, lest we forget that Steve himself delivered his last Tokyo keynote in a suit. There must be something in the water over there that makes tech celebrities dress differently, or something. In closing, the article opines that "at this point Gates should not obviously differently than its fashionable model job plug, but schlabbern leave leave." They took the words right out of our mouths.