OUT TECH-ING THE OTHER GUY

Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Jerry Sanders (MicroSoft, Intel and AMD) are in a high-powered business meeting. During the tense negotiations, a faint beeping noise is suddenly heard from over where Bill is sitting.

"Whoops!" exclaims Bill "that must be my emergency beeper.  Please excuse me for a moment, guys, I really need to take this call." So Bill lifts his wristwatch to his ear and begins talking into the end of his tie. After completing the call, he notices the others are staring at him quizzically.

"Oh gee, sorry," Bill explains, "this is a new emergency communication system I had worked up by some guys down at the office. I had an earpiece built into my watch and a little microphone clips onto the end of my tie so I can a take a call anywhere." The others are suitably impressed and return to their discussion.

A few minutes later they're interrupted again, but now it's Andy who's beeping. "Oh," he says "that's _my_ emergency beeper. Gee, this must be a really important call for my secretary to beep me in here." At which Andy taps his right earlobe twice and begins talking into thin air.

When he completes his call, he notices the others are staring at him  as if he's a nutcase. "Hey," he grins "Bill's not the only one around here with technology on him: I have an emergency communication system too, but I had the earpiece implanted in my earlobe and a tiny microphone embedded in this capped tooth." He points to one of his front teeth. "Pretty nifty, huh?"

The others agree that this is pretty cool and, once they find out who Andy's dentist is, the meeting resumes. Moments later, their talking is again interrupted when Jerry emits a thunderous fart. He looks around at the others glaring at him and says, a bit uncomfortably, "Um...can somebody hand me a sheet of paper? I'm receiving a fax." 1