Steve Ballmer at the end of his sanity?
 

http://news.com.com/Court+docs+Ballm...-5846243.html?

Brief synapsis:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" Google in an expletitive-laced, chair-throwing tirade when a senior engineer told him he was leaving the company to go work for Google, the engineer claimed in court documents made public on Friday.

The allegation, filed in Washington state court, is the latest salvo in an increasingly nasty court fight triggered when Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee jumped to Google in July in what Microsoft claims is a violation of a one-year, non-compete agreement.

In a sworn statement made public Friday, Mark Lucovsky, another Microsoft senior engineer who left for Google in November 2004, recounted Ballmer's angry reaction when Lucovsky told Ballmer he was going to work for the search engine company.

"At some point in the conversation, Mr. Ballmer said: 'Just tell me it's not Google,'" Lucovosky said in his statement. Lucovosky replied that he was joining Google.

"At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office," Lucovosky recounted, adding that Ballmer then launched into a tirade about Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google." Schmidt previously worked for Sun Microsystems and was the CEO of Novell.

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What in the world? I wouldn't believe it, but it is CNET.

That indeed helps to understand the total lack of style in M$ products.

Ballmer only gets that kind of press because he's with Microsoft. But if you've been in any corporate meeting, people say stuff like that all the time about competitors. What do you think Steve Jobs sounds like when he's pissed off ordering something like the unusually quick termination of the Mac Mini Test Drive program or discussing who leaked the new G5 towers? I'm sure he's not kicking back with a relaxed smile on his face.

Although, most people don't throw a chair across the room.

I also have a hard time trying to see Steve Jobs vowing to 'kill' something and bury a CEO. I'd leave for Google too if I was any part of this.

Steve, Steve, Steve.....

I thought he was kinda insane after I watched this.

And this.

You need Windows Media player to watch them. I really like the way he screams in the first one. :D

From the waiting room to the psychiatric ward...
 

I think this is tragic – that we don’t have Mr Ballmer’s tirade on video, I mean. :D Sounds like he’s taking his peeve against Mr Eric Schmidt a tad bit too far.

Amazing how immature personal rivalries will sometimes cloud business decisions, not to mention result in the most heinous acts of war.

Don’t know whether it is true, but I have heard that Dresden was firebombed during World War II basically because of romantic rivalry between a German and Allied general. Historians have apparently had great difficulty finding relevant orders from the very top of the command chain, for what was one of the most horrific and senseless massacres of the War.

Now if that is true, it does put Mr Ballmer’s chair-throwing into perspective.

By the way, here are the psychotic ramblings of another individual who is clearly losing his touch and in need of psychiatric care – this time a bicyclist on an Internet discussion forum. Please be forewarned of explitives. It’s a series of posts …


With best regards,
ArcticStones

There needs to be a warning here of some very horrible language at this forum posting link.

This guy sounds like an accident waiting to happen. One day, he's going to mouth off like that to someone who won't tolerate it.

So . . . anyone feel like going biking with cyclotouriste? ;) Man alive, what a temper!

Ballmer has always seemed a little on the "hyper" side of things, to me. I hope he checks his blood pressure often.

schneb is right! That should definitley have an explicit language warning on it!

Looking at the forum, it really makes us appreciate how clean these forums are, huh?

I think its safe to say we are all glad there is no one like that here. I don't think the admins would tolerate it. :)

Did anyone watch the videos in the links I posted? Perfect example of Ballmer's hyper-activity.

I would feel embarrassed if Steve Jobs opened a Keynote like that! ;)

Hey, it might be worthwhile to pause just for a moment and recall Steve Jobs’ reaction to a recent biography written about him. Title: "iCon". He had ALL titles by that publisher pulled from Apple stores! And we’re talking Mac books by some of the finest tech writers alive.

Hyperinflated egos and hyperactivity may be par for the course at the top.


;)

It's amusing to see what people project onto others, based on what they wish they were like. There are pretty well documented incidents of Jobs showing his egomaniacal/megalomaniac personality, shouldn't be hard to find a few with a quick search.

Theres a whole section in this book I have, The cult of Mac, on Steve Jobs's "potty mouth."

I also read somewhere he flipped out on a young Bill Gates when he found out Microsoft was releasing there own GUI-based work enviroment called "Windows". But then again, he had good reason.

Bill Gates was right...
 

A digression:

A few years ago I saw a movie about the early history of Apple and Microsoft.

There is a memorable moment where Steve Jobs is going on and on about the advantages and the superiority of the Mac.

At one point Bill Gates shakes his head: “You just don’t get it, do you. That doesn’t matter!”

Unfortunately, Bill Gates was absolutely right.


– ArcticStones

Arctic, that movie is "The Pirates of Silicon Valley." It does provide an interesting glimpse into the early days of personal computing.

The Second Coming of Steve Jobs is also a good read, describing his years with NeXT and Pixar up to his return to Apple. One did get the impression that he'd learned some lessons along the way. In fact, an interview with the author of iCon on NPR suggested the same and seemed to be a mostly favorable review of his OS X strategy.

Interesting glimpses
 

Thanks, Phil. I never did catch that title.

Personally, I am not entirely convinced that Apple’s reaction against publisher John Wiley & Sons was an expression of a bruised, hyper-inflated ego. Certainly the publisher didn’t see economic cause for complaint, as their book “iCon Steve Jobs: The Greates Second Act in the History of Business” took off on the sales charts – and they had order more books than expected ever before the first press run.

To some degree, this could very well have been posturing by Apple to convince entertainment media multinationals that Apple is willing to play hardball when needed, and that Apple can be a trusted partner in regards to protection of copyright, intellectual property, etc.
(Phil, I would be very interested in your thoughts on this – or anyone else.)

But big ego? No doubt about!

Personally, I am awed by what Steve Jobs has achieved after his return to Apple. He does seem to have learned some very good lessons. In fact he himself touched on this in his Commencement Address this summer at Stanford University.


With best regards,
– ArcticStones

.

I just posted something in another thread that, upon reflection, perhaps should have been here. Oh, well...

– ArcticStones

To some degree, this could very well have been posturing by Apple to convince entertainment media multinationals that Apple is willing to play hardball when needed, and that Apple can be a trusted partner in regards to protection of copyright, intellectual property, etc.

Apple's numerous lawsuits of various corporations and individuals ought to be convincing enough. I can't see much benefit from alienating a publisher who has brought out some good books to help promote use of Apple products, and if the books were selling well at Apple Stores, that makes even less sense.

None of which has anything to do with Steve Ballmer, of course . . . ;) Oh well, that's how threads go, and so long as they don't meander too far into politics, religion, and pirating intellectual property, so be it.

I think he meant bury the executive in the business sense. As in, but him out of a job and make sure he never gets one again. The way a director would bury an actor in holywood. And in turn kill google. I don't beleive he was actually threatening the life of Eric Shmidt.

Right, I don't expect him to physically harm him in any way, he just needs to watch what he says when he wants to 'kill' a large, powerful company and 'bury' the man behind it. Those are fighting words that I think Google could stand up to.

Déjà vu
 

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Déjà vu …
For some reason I think of the historic incident of Nikita Krushchev at the United Nations, furiously pounding his shoe on the table and shouting: “We will bury you!”

Well, we all know how that went.
But then of course there is this one, which shall remain anonymous:

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

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