As promised, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night, pimping his little heart out for Windows Vista. I didn't get to watch it then, but thankfully Comedy Central has put the whole interview online. It's not a laugh riot, and I'm sad to report that John Hodgman (the PC from Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads and a regular Daily Show contributor) didn't make an appearance, but there's plenty of cute banter between Gates and Stewart. Here's Part 1:

Gates seems a little ill at ease, but I guess I would too if I were a guy not known for his sense of humor trying to sell a product on a show run by a guy known for skewering public figures. But everything goes down without any trouble until the very end, when Gates, apparently unaware that the usual talk show protocol is to sit and chat (or pretend to chat) with the host while the credits run, BOLTS OFF STAGE! But, when you're worth $50 billion, I guess you can get away with that.

Check out the second part of the interview, and Gates' sudden departure, after the jump.

Today seemed like it was gonna be a low-buzz day for Vista's impending retail release, until I came across this tidbit: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is scheduled to appear on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart on Monday, just an hour before Vista's midnight launch. As Candace Lombardi over at CNet points out, John Hodgman, who plays the PC on Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads, is a regular Daily Show contributor. I really hope Stewart & Co. can get the two together for some hijinks. We'll be sure to post some video as soon as we can get our little paws on it.

In other news, remember that huffing and puffing over Vista's copious DRM cruft and the response on Microsoft's Vista blog? Well, of course there's now a response-to-the-response. Peter Gutmann, who wrote the original "Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection" to which the Vista blog post was in reply, has added an addendum to the original article in, er, reply. Gutmann calls Microsoft's response "PR spin" and makes a pretty strong case, but I'll leave it to you to judge for yourselves.

Lastly, a Vista tips from the fine folks over at Lifehacker: How to disable annoying "Need your permission to continue" prompts. To quote our own David Chartier: "What happens when you try to save your users from your own security and usability mistakes over the last 15 years or so? Apparently, they revolt and hurl your solutions right back in your face."

In case you're not all caught up, you can check out the previous three days of our Vista Countdown over here.