TECHNOLOGY TYCOONS

By MICHAEL KRANTZ/NEW YORK

O.K., you're the world's most feared monopolist, your ruthless predations the subject of a Justice Department probe. So what do you do to get away from it all? Get a cool haircut and party down amongst your fellow geeks. At last week's Comdex, the computer industry's annual Las Vegas hoedown, Wild BILL GATES was feeling the groove at the Harley-Davidson Club on the Strip, dancing with the commoners until the wee hours. To see for yourself, go to ZDNet's PC Week Online zdnet.com/pcweek for a video playback of the Microsoft chairman's floor technique. All in all, it was a fine way to undercut a nasty spate of bad p.r.--if this decade's Darth Vader can cut loose like a heedless frat boy, he can't be all bad, right? Especially with that hot new 'do.

--By Michael Krantz/New York