Gates to pen new tech book

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is planning to write another book on how new technology will affect people and companies.
Gates, whose last book, Business @ at the Speed of Thought, was published in 1996, is still in the early stages of planning and no date has been set for the book's release, a Microsoft spokesman said.
"Bill has begun thinking about a new book that will talk about new technology and how innovation is going to transform the way we communicate, entertainment and also how innovation is going to have a profound effect at large institutions," said the spokesman.
Gates also wrote The Road Ahead in 1995 with two other authors.
The new book is expected to explore ways of improving how individuals and corporations collect and manage the increasing volume of data made available through technology.
Such topics are also on the agenda at Microsoft's annual CEO Summit, where the software giant invites chief executives from various corporations around the world to its Redmond, Washington, campus for two days of networking and presentations led by Gates.
The world's largest software maker also announced it would launch the next version of its Office spreadsheet, email and word processing programs during the second half of 2006, the same time frame it is planning for the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn.
Gates promised in an email to executives that the upcoming Office upgrades - code-named Office 12 - would make it easier for workers to "focus, prioritise and apply their expertise, visualise and understand key data, and reduce the amount of time they spend dealing with the complexity of an information-rich environment."