Just a quick note, in hopes that this might blossom into a full-fledged melodrama for tomorrow's episode: we noticed over at Macworld UK that today marks the beginning of the Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference-- and both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are scheduled to speak. Wuh-oh-- Steve and Bill at the same conference? Do we sense impending smackdown?

Sadly, however, it appears that the WSJ balked at the insurance implications of putting both CEOs in the same room at the same time; according to the conference schedule, Billy-Boy's slated for a special dinner tonight, whereas Steve is booked for a day of "provocative unscripted conversations" tomorrow. (It's a bummer that the conference is sold out; we imagine sitting around with Steve in beanbag chairs while lava lamps do their blobby thing and someone asks, "Have you ever looked at your hand, man? I mean, really looked at your hand?") So while both Steve and Bill are D:-bound, the scheduling deftly avoids forcing them to get within knife-fighting range of each other.

Still, there's always the chance of bawdy French farce and the two CEOs accidentally crossing paths, and should that happen, well, all bets are off. We assume at a minimum that one of them gets Maced, and we hear that Steve is fond of the head-butt to the bridge of the nose, which he inexplicably refers to as a "Scottish brain wedgie." Bill, meanwhile, is said to have a favorite move of his own, which involves feigning a seizure and then, when his opponent is off guard, kicking him right in the general protection faults. It's also not unheard of for one or both men to be carrying rudimentary weapons, such as rusty bicycle chains or bedsprings sharpened into makeshift shivs. On the whole, any chance meeting between the two ought to be chock full of zany yuks and internal bleeding. Here's hoping!

On a side note, we notice that D:'s home page mandates "absolutely no PowerPoint allowed." Which is just fine and dandy for Steve, of course, seeing as he's got Keynote if he needs to wow a room full of attendees with some nifty gee-whiz animated sales figures. But what about Bill? Well, in the same situation, we figure he'll default to overhead transparencies and making hand shadows of talking dogs-- assuming Steve hasn't put him in traction by then.