Gates, Allen Gear Up for Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands

Here at Xconomy, preparations are in full swing for our Battle of the Tech Bands, which is happening at the WTIA Summer Celebration on Thursday, July 30, at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. If you or anyone you know plays in a band with at least one member from a Northwest tech, life sciences, or tech investing firm, please submit your band’s stuff to [email protected] (full details and event info here).

The deadline for submissions is coming up fast—next week, June 12—so don’t delay. We’ve already got a bunch of worthy competitors, but a few more bands from the tech powerhouses (Microsoft? Amazon? Real?), as well as the gaming cluster, certainly wouldn’t hurt. We know you’re out there.

We’ve lined up a team of stellar judges, and are working on a few more, as well as some great music-related prizes. Stay tuned for details on those.

Meanwhile, in cartoon land, Bill Gates and Paul Allen have some extra time on their hands to devote to getting their musical act together in time to participate in the Battle. It’s the latest installment of the Protingent Man comic, courtesy of David J. Locher and Donn Harvey (see the last installment here and the full strip here):

Protingent Man

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Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.