When flamboyant Oracle chief executive Mr Larry Ellison comes to town, fasten your seatbelts. Known for shooting from the lip, the sometimes yachtsman, jet pilot, art collector, driver of costly performance sports cars and multibillionaire usually gets in a few jibes at favourite targets like Microsoft.
He was in milder form last Friday in London. Typically immaculate in a double-breasted Brioni suit (he let the audience know three times that he was wearing the expensive handwork of the Italian design house), Mr Ellison produced what he called - in a dig at the geek sartorial sense of the Microsoftians - the "Seattle suit". This consisted of a denim jacket with a black backpack stitched onto the back.
Talking to the press later, he made numerous quips about Microsoft, almost none of which can be repeated.
Suffice to say he sincerely doubts Microsoft's version of events as related in the antitrust trial brought by the US Department of Justice.
He also has few kind words for Microsoft's massive operating system, Windows 2000, aka Windows NT. About the kindest: "They're brilliant guys going the wrong direction at full speed."
