Gates sells Microsoft stock

TheRegister reports that Bill Gates has sold almost half a billion dollars worth of Microsoft stock this year and is buying up pharmaceutical stock in its place. Apparently he began to invest heavily in pharmaceuticals earlier this year and has bought 2.5 million shares in Prozac manufacturer Eli Lilly as well as Merck and Pfizer. And yet, the nine million shares Gates sold off represent just over 1.3% of his overall Microsoft holdings. Given his investment in Prozac, perhaps Gates is not as confident about .Net as he likes to make out? [More at TheRegister]

Intel yesterday launched new technologies designed to boost the performance of its Pentium microprocessors and outlined security technology that will be built into its chips. The company said it would incorporate hyper-threading technology into Pentium 4 chips running at 3GHz and above. This marks the first time the technology, which made its debut in server processors earlier this year, has appeared in processors for desktop computers, Intel said. Hyper-threading makes one processor appear as two to operating systems and software that have been written to support the technology. The company also offered information on its security technology known as LaGrande Technology, saying it would allow for greater security than what is possible through software. For instance, it would allow computers to boot up securely, preventing a virus on the PC`s hard drive from becoming active. [Reuters]

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