http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
While all of the loony stuff Steve Jobs does is filed under:

"Oh that's just the mad genius El Jobsie is known for! So when are we gonna get that iTablet! :)"





]]>Sep 11th 2009 7:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 7:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 8:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
Engadget Spread Lies!!!!







.]]>Sep 11th 2009 8:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 9:08AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
1. He's overseen the production of Microsoft's best OS ever. And if we're being honest it's the best commercial desktop ever.
2. Managed to make the Xbox 360 an extremely strong and established console despite a horrendous failure rate.
3. Avoided an unwise merger and got what he wanted for a fraction of the price.
4. Did a lot of behind the scenes work that made this possible.

You know, I like Ballmer - he's brash and in your face but he believes in what he does and has the guts to be passionate about it. I respect that.

As for those of you that call him 'stupid' just shut the fuck up. Brash? Yup. Passionate? Yup. Stupid? WTF?

]]>Sep 11th 2009 10:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 10:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Steve Ballmer is not just stupid, he's an idiot who happened to be in the right place at the right time. I wonder how you could possibly know that he "did a lot of behind the scenes work that made this possible", when practically every one of his appearances in public confirm his utter inability to do anything but act aggressively and show his failure to understand anything about the market.]]>Sep 11th 2009 10:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/1] Windows Vista
2] Zune

Yup. Ballman is the king! I think he's still smarting from his public prediction that the iPhone would tank. Genius he is!]]>Sep 11th 2009 11:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
I'm sure that employee had a talk with his manager shortly after.]]>Sep 11th 2009 3:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
That great and all, but the POINT is. As a CEO of a major company like Microsoft, Ballmer has the responsibility of "acting" accordingly to the position he is in.

You can say he's "In you face" all you want, that doesn't change the fact that the "employee" who ever he was, has every right now to go to HR and fill a complain against Ballmer -- for "public humiliation of an employee, in a NON-work related incident -- during working hours, in front of the entire company."

AND the employee would WIN, because there's prove. And worst yet, Ballmer himself REPEAT his insults in a PUBLIC forum. And now the situation has made it onto the internet. Ballmer is not a Rock Star, so he doens't get to act like an immature brat. If Ballmer cannot control his own actions, then step down as boss. That is the point.]]>Sep 11th 2009 12:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 12:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
The other Steve is buying organs effectively allowing a person without as much money to die, still parking in handicapped spots, approving advertisements with lies, selling devices with exploding batteries that have harmed people (why recall in one country, but not all?) taking pot shots at their competition that helped rescue them from bankruptcy (why not include MS in that "Other" group in his monopoly proving chart?), and so on, and so on, and so on...

But Ballmer needs to be held to a higher standard.]]>Sep 11th 2009 12:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Meh...not too sure about that. Yeah, it may be their best OS, but it's certainly not the best commercial desktop ever. I still find myself frustrated by the Windows experience. Having started on DOS, then moving to Windows, then Linux, then OS X, I would say the Gnome Desktop is most frustrating, followed by Vista, then 7, then XP, then OS X at the top. Not fanboism, just my opinion (I hate that I have to say that whenever speaking in favor of OS X). Granted, when you take software compatibility into account, the list gets re-ordered a bit, with OS X moving closer to the bottom, however we're talking about the desktop experience. Windows 7 is nice, but still more complicated than it needs to be.

2. Managed to make the Xbox 360 an extremely strong and established console despite a horrendous failure rate.
I'm still amazed by this. Granted, I've only had one RRoD in nearly 3 years, but I'm still scared every time I turn the thing on that my 360 will fail. Still, it's my favorite console, and will risk it Red Ringing over playing the same game on PS3. Having said that, I'm nearing the 3 year mark, so I may be a little less eager to risk failure once the warranty runs out. I think that when it comes to RRoD, MS should have made the warranty a lifetime one. They gain points for having the best warranty in the business, however they lose points for trying to get around that warranty by changing the symptom with the launch of NXE.

3. Avoided an unwise merger and got what he wanted for a fraction of the price.
No matter how you slice it, that was pretty smooth.

4. Did a lot of behind the scenes work that made this possible.

You know, I like Ballmer - he's brash and in your face but he believes in what he does and has the guts to be passionate about it. I respect that.

As for those of you that call him 'stupid' just shut the fuck up. Brash? Yup. Passionate? Yup. Stupid? WTF?

He's not stupid, I agree with you there. However, he does come off as unstable. It's possible to show your passion for a company without throwing chairs, turning red in the face and screaming at people. To me, that (and stunts like the one in the article) just shows instability. It shows stress. And it makes me wonder, "If that's how he is in public, what must life at the office be like?" It tells me that the pressure being put on MS by its competitors is getting to him. That's not something investors want to see. Also, I wonder about the wisdom in making the face of a company that makes enterprise software one of its priorities an unstable one.

And just so no one accuses me of being an apple fanboi just for saying something negative about MS, I'm not too thrilled with Apple lately. Their announcements are getting pretty bland, their new releases are ho-hum, and their hardware seems to be declining in quality. I think the biggest news at the latest event was Steve Jobs' appearance, not their products. And no matter how you slice that, it's a bad sign.]]>Sep 11th 2009 1:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 1:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 12th 2009 1:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
1. He's overseen the production of Microsoft's best OS ever. And if we're being honest it's the best commercial desktop ever.
Glossing over that he oversaw one of MS's WORST OSes first, but thankfully there were talented enough people under him to fix it.

2. Managed to make the Xbox 360 an extremely strong and established console despite a horrendous failure rate.
Because they've bled money in to it. And still are hemmoraging. I'm on my third console btw. First was 3 red rings, 2nd was a dead laser (after 2 weeks! and I barely played!), 3rd was no video. The only reason I hadn't moved on to PS3 yet was because MS ate the cost of the machines to make it cheaper, and sunk millions of dollars in to acquiring great studios like Bungie and Lionhead. (I'm still pissed about Bungie. I paid $500 years ago for a top-of-the-line All-In-Wonder expecting to play Halo 1 on PC... and then suddenly it was an Xbox Exclusive title after MS bought them up... by the time it came out on PC, my card was barely able to run it)

3. Avoided an unwise merger and got what he wanted for a fraction of the price.
What he should have wanted was to not be in that position in the first place. They could and should have had a huge lead in the internet market. Instead, with no vision of where things are headed in the future, he ended up playing catch up. But congrats on the non-merger, from being a distant third in the search engine market to a distant tied-for-second now.

4. Did a lot of behind the scenes work that made this possible.
He's a salesman. He's not a visionary, and should not be a CEO. The problem is MS has no idea where the markets are heading, and instead only play catch-up now. Billions of dollars buy some spiffy wheels to catch-up, but they haven't been innovators in a long long time, and the problem in their case starts right at the top.]]>Sep 11th 2009 8:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
But, hey, don't let reality rain on your hate parade.]]>Sep 12th 2009 5:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
"Glossing over that he oversaw one of MS's WORST OSes first, but thankfully there were talented enough people under him to fix it."

Maybe you've forgotten, but Vista was Allchin and Gates' last great masterpiece together. Ballmer was handed the reigns after Vista was pretty-much finalised.

Besides, as a Vista user, I can definitely say that it's quite a bit better than XP. :D]]>Sep 13th 2009 1:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
I'll agree that Windows 7 finally gets some stuff right, but Balmer has been an abject failure since Bill Gates left.

- Balmer oversaw a disastrous 6 year period of stagnation resulting in Vista, the most despised windows version since ME.
- Balmer oversaw the first quarter in company history when they saw a negative increase in revenue
- Balmer oversaw a similarly long period of stagnation and decay of Microsoft's mobile platform --- it's primary progress being four name changes --- culminating in Windows Mobile 6 which still uses basically the same ancient non-accelerated GDI+ interface layer, Wince Kernel, and ARMv4 compiler target as devices from the PocketPC era.
]]>Sep 13th 2009 4:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
Most. Disturbing. Photoshop. Ever.]]>Sep 11th 2009 7:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
]]>Sep 11th 2009 8:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 8:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
Sheesh!]]>Sep 11th 2009 12:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 14th 2009 1:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
I would've asked to see the phone he uses. Odds are 9:1 that he'd whip out a Blackberry, Android, or iPhone himself. When I think about the many years I spent with WM, I shudder... ::shivers::]]>Sep 11th 2009 6:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 7:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/I've been using it for wifi checking email, msn, web surfing until my iPod Touch came along.]]>Sep 11th 2009 7:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
]]>Sep 11th 2009 9:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
Yeah it's real friendly to be forced to use iTunes and not allowed to change my own battery.]]>Sep 11th 2009 10:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 11:10AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/

are phillips screwdrivers illegal where you live?]]>Sep 11th 2009 11:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
taken from Apple support discussion forums: "If an iPhone that is under warranty is opened by you or by a 3rd party, doing so will void the warranty"

No phone that I have ever owned has required the use of a tool to change the battery. On top of that, changing the battery did not void the warranty. Screwdivers are not illegal, and yes I *could* change the battery. But why would I void the warranty of an expensive piece of equipment before it expired on it's own? There is plenty of time for jailbreaking, hacking, and tweaking (all of which violates the EULA in case you forgot. Not that I agree with it, but that's the way it is.) after the warranty expires and you can't get it replaced for free.]]>Sep 11th 2009 12:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
If it's under warranty then Apple will replace the battery for you. But hey, don't let me stop you from bitching about a problem that doesn't actually exist.]]>Sep 11th 2009 4:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Yeah, I should just mail off my phone and wait a couple weeks while they CHANGE THE GOD DAM BATTERY?]]>Sep 12th 2009 6:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 13th 2009 2:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 6:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 2:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/
also, going to that length isn't funny. i would have been funny if he just pointed it out, he didn't need to grab the phone from the guy. as the the fact that he was carrying an iphone, so what? i'd be willing to bet that a most MS employees get a WinMo work phone anyway; that iPhone was probably just the guy's personal device. although MS probably has rules against bringing personal devices in to work.

anway, back to work. man, all-nighters are fun!]]>Sep 11th 2009 6:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 8:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/11/ce-oh-no-he-didnt-part-lxii-steve-ballmer-publicly-ridicules/Sep 11th 2009 8:43AM