The ‘D’ Conference is always filled with surprises, and a nice one came last night when Microsoft founder Bill Gates came to our table and joined us for dinner. It was already an interesting group (Esther Dyson, Gordon Crovitz, Don Graham, Craig Mundie, Ann Winblad were there and others (such as Nathan Myhrvold and Tim O’Reilly) joined us off and on as the dinner progressed.

Staci blogged about it here –> http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-d6-serendipity-supper/

It’s true that during the two and a half hours we covered in detail everything from malaria in Africa to monetizing paid search with stops on nuclear power and childhood education in between. Gates may not have technically finished college (yet), but there is no doubt that his brainpower is hard to equal.

Just noticed this flattering post from my former colleague Peter Weiss, who was one of the original online video producers, having pioneered a lot of streaming techniques at MyPrimeTime….Nice to see Peter is still pushing the envelope with online video –> http://justplays.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/helen-whelan-craig-forman-and-donald-van-de-mark/

I love the ‘green’-tech focus of this year’s CES, including the windup power charger for Nick Negroponte’s inexpensive laptop and the LG Skycharger wind-and-solar powered battery bank. There is also a slew of drop-dead demos (better than in some previous years): Intel demoed a 3D TV film by Dreamworks that (when viewed with a pair of Wayfarer knockoffs) gave an amazingly realistic depth-of-view that would profoundly change the way we watch sports (think football, autoracing or tennis)…And Sony’s flexible OLED display (which bends and flexes like a playing card while remaining incredibly bright and well-defined) is also stunning.

So, what’s the hang up? With the economic doldrums overhanging this CES, these stunning displays of new technology raise the obvious question of who might possibly have enough werewithall to buy them when and if they finally get to market? While I am personally as confident as anyone that some day the economic bounceback will be underway, right now all signs point to the recovery being some distance off. It’s impossible to know how long the current doldrums will continue, and their impact on the adoption of this cool new stuff can only be predictable in one direction: it will take more time, effort and money to get anyone to buy this stuff than was previously expected.

That’s a pity, because many of the breakthroughs on display here — especially the self-powered windup radios, GPSs and computers, actually could benefit people immediately.