Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend an Interns BBQ at Bill Gates' house. Wow! Wow! Wow! I was expecting a mansion on a lakefront compound, but even my high expectations were out done by this house and property. To get to Bill's house we first took a bus to a church parking lot where we were greeted by members of Bill's security team who put us through the metal detects so sensitive that they would beep if you had too much iron in your blood. Okay that may have been an exaggeration for effect :). We then took a small shuttle to Bills house. To get to his house you drive down a narrow one way street curving between houses and bush until you arrive at a very heavily wooded area with an Iron gate and two more security guards. After some radio work, the gates to the compound finally opened and we start to drive inside. At this point you cannot see anything because the area is so heavily covered with trees, bushes, streams, etc. The shuttle then proceeded over a bridge and past an airplane hanger of a garage to a round about drop off area. We got off the shuttle and entered a nearby door into Bill's house. The house is a mixture or mahogany, contemporary art, marble and technology - a truly awesome decor. We then proceeded down a very long staircase, past a few sitting areas (one with the biggest wall of TVs ever) and finally into an outdoor reception area filled with various covered patios, docks, boats and sitting areas. The food server was good but that took a back seat to the networking opportunities at this event. Not only was Bill on hand to chat with, but many corporate VPs including Amitabh Srivastava-VP core OS dev, Robert Short-VP kernel dev, Mike Nash-VP security technology, Jawad Khaki-VP windows networking, Will Poole VP windows client business as well as VPs from mobile devices, embedded and user experience groups were there. I did not really talk with Bill because most interns swarmed him, salivating at his presence. So, instead, I shook his hand, picked my jaw off the grass, and networked with all the VPs that only a few interns were paying attention to. After some good conversations, I explorer the house - those few parts we were allowed to see. The most interesting thing about Bill's house is the fact that most of it is built into the hillside and thus underground. From the exterior, his house appears much less flashy then those around his. I will leave it to your imagination to derive why he has done this. His house seems to extend quite deep down underground because there was a glass elevator shaft beside the staircase we walked down of which I could just barely see the bottom (Bill's bat cave?). Anyways, I will wrap up by saying the event was awesome, the food was good and it’s not everyday that one gets to meet and greet with VPs at Bill's house - maybe someday I'll get invited back or, better yet, invite him to my “super” mansion?