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Oh, my...you can't make this schnit up, can you? Nobody would believe you.


Does this mean the entire Vista team gets their walking papers after it ships?

Magic word: action. No lie.

It's really hard to like that guy...

doesn't surprise me, with that extra paranoid crap M$uk threw out yesterday as "anti-piracy", they should just keep doing what they are doing, I don't give a crap, to quote a famous starship captian. "Then let them die!"

Here in Australia, underperforming CEOs are rewarded with ever fatter salaries. Another thing we two nations have in common!

MW: Where would you like to go "today", as opposed to next year at the earliest?

Anyone know his email address?

Then why hasn´t he sacked himself?

A rare and candid photo of Steve Ballmer at breakfast.

I would think that the Vista team can see what's on their horizon.

Ampar Rocks! That was a great photo. I was just thinking of how much that picture looked like Uncle Fester. Separated at birth!

Ampar,

I was just sitting here thinking, "Man, he looks just like Uncle Fester in that picture!". Too funny!

Keith

Hey, MDN - Whaddaya mean the SS Redmond is "heading towards the ice"? Haven't they been taking on water for some time now?

If he gets rid of 6.5% weach each, it'll take over 100 years for them to run out of people to fire. I'm sure he can get M$ down to zero way before then.

Microsoft is starting by getting rid of Ballmer, right???

http://musobs.blogspot.com/

God, is that Uncle Fester in that picture??? Oh, it's just Steve Ballmer.

Cheers Ampar,



MDN Magic Word: young; He went balled at a un-naturally young age.

google 'balmer'

I am appalled and offended by your insulting comparison of my brother and Steve Ballmer. You will be hearing from my attorney.

Thanks, everyone!

That picture also reminds me of a "special needs" child. He might need to wear a football helmet to prevent head injury.

Don't you love Microsoft.

It's on its way to becoming the greatest case study of corporate failure in history. Bullmer will take 60% of the credit, Gates 29% and Steve Jobs the final 1% that will be the last 'nail in in the coffin'.

MacDailyNews stoops to taking a cheap shot with a bad photo of a great technology leader and innovator. Steve Ballmer has more money than everyone reading this site combined. 98% of the world uses Windows, not MAC for a reason!

The MacDailyNews Take is a insulting to Microsoft's excellent CEO and I do not agree with any bit of it.

I will NEVER visit this site again!!!

No wonder MS cannot deliver good products: it must be a horrible place to work at.

LOVE THAT PICTURE!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA

"98% of the world uses Windows, not MAC for a reason"

Actually it's closer to 90% ... and falling. And the reason is, they don't know any better and/or are cheapskates.

MS memo to staff:

"Sackings will continue until morale increases"

re: IT Pro

i don't see any pictures of great technology leaders and innovators on this page. i see an incompotent, manic, chair-throwing rich man doing his best uncle fester impersonation. 98% of the world uses windows because it doesn't know there's anything else. ignorance isn't always blissful.

i imagine you were just pretending to be an IT Pro, like sputnik and the others do from time to time. after all, what would a REAL windows junkie be doing here at a mac website?

connor macbook, you beat me to it =)

IT Pro....

I would say something but since you are never coming back here, it would be moot...if you are an IT Pro, then I can see why your such a mikro$uk fanboy/fangurl , I think they call it job security. If the world used nothing but macs, you would be out of a job. Does the word OBSOLETE mean anything??

IT Pro - I assume you were being ironic.....

Sounds like Ballmer's taking a page straight from the Enron School of Management.

Wow, I'm surprised no smart people here?

Firing 6.5% of Microsoft employees every year will take 165 years before there would be nobody working for Microsoft. Provided they didn't hire anymore.

Although after 95 years there will be less than 100, that might be enough to not to be able to run Microsoft anymore.

After 62 years there would be less than a 1000. After 27, less than 10,000. After 14, less than 25,000.

Oh no! "IT Pro" won't visit this site again. Good riddance.

Hey, about your name: IT Pro simply means someone that gets paid to work in Information Technology. Certainly doesn't imply expert. No wonder you want to rag on Macs - if your company used them you'd probably be out of a job. You'd prefer to keep a second rate product in use so that it continues to break and you continue to get paid.

BTW, the amount of money a person has does not equate to how good that person is. Bill Gates is the richest person in the world. This is not because he created a great product, or because he is the smartest. It's because he was a very shrewd businessman at the right time. Ballmer is rich because he happened to be with MS at the right time. Get it right.

"I will NEVER visit this site again!!!"

Promise?

"New from Microsoft - Ballmoil. It removes all sense of reality with one application."

"but since you are never coming back here, it would be moot."

Or a moo point!

Joey: All right, Rach. The big question is, "does he like you?" All right? Because if he doesn't like you, this is all a moo point.
Rachel: Huh. A moo point?
Joey: Yeah, it's like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter. It's moo.
Rachel: Have I been living with him for too long, or did that all just make sense?

IT PRo ... you sir/madam are a man/woman of contradictions:

98% of the world uses Windows, not MAC for a reason!

I will NEVER visit this site again!!!

One is left wondering what you were doing here in the first place ...

p.s. did you attend the Elaine Benes school of punctuation?

"98% of the world uses Windows, not MAC"

O.K., but which one?

MACro
Mandatory Access Control
Media Access Control
Message Authentication Code
Move, Add, Change
Multiple Access Computers
Multiplexed Analog Component
Multiply ACcumulate?

And innovator? Of what? Termination procedures? Office furniture velocity standards? Sweat stains that resemble a bust of Richard Nixon?

To IT Pro (lol) -
Good!

IT Pro, please don't go. We were going to make you King of the Summer Carnival. :(

MDN's take is over the top. Getting personal and cheap simply spoils what is clearly a chance at an open goal.

Simple. After the debacle of Longblowin' and Hasta la Vista follow your own advice Balmer!

In the UK we have strict employment laws.

Companies cannot 'just sack people'.

If they do the employ plays the descrimination card and sues the company for alot of money.

Corporate global companies in the UK are tied by very tight legislation that is designed to protect the employees rights, and unless they adhere to these regulations the company can get fined or taken to court.

Obviously in the USA there is no such thing as this!

Ballmer knows fcuk all about british employment law - that's for sure!

"Microsoft, which has 61,000 employees, aims to push out 6.5 per cent of its staff each year who are not doing their jobs well enough, Mr Ballmer has been quoted as saying,"

Hold on - if they're firing 6.5% of the total number of employees who aren't doing their jobs well enough, doesn't this mean that there are 93.5% of employees not doing their jobs well enough left in work?!?

Why not fire ALL of the people who aren't doing their jobs well enough?

3,965 gone this year, 57,035 still to go...

is that a couple more stories down has an article about Apple sacking the Aperture team. Where's the outrage? Idiots.

"...eating mayonnaise with a shovel from the looks of it..."

Damn, ain't that the truth!

Ballmer's diet must be atrocious. He's a heart attack time-bomb. I hope, for the sake of his family, that he has defib constantly close at hand.

moo...LOL

Ballmer is a sociopath, if not downright psycho!

IT Pro....

Good riddance, you illiterate prick.

the real irony

Really? Care to provide a link to that story? Or are you just a lying bastard?

I don't know, I think he's rather sexy and want to have his child. lol

Actually, the equation you would use to figure out how many employees would be left at a firing rate of 6.5% is y=61000x^0.935 and the limit of this equation is zero which means Microsoft will always have at least 1 employee. Although 1 employee is more than enough to keep Microsoft sucking for years and years especially if it's Ballmer. I think I know what Vista's team sees beyond the horizon: the world really is flat, and they're sailing bravely on and there's sharp rocks "below".

Okay... After reading so many comments over the years about how "ironic" and "humorous" Sputnik is, I'm amazed that only one person guessed that "IT Pro" was joking.

As for the article, way to bolster your sagging morale, Microsoft! Nothing improves the mood like the knowledge that the axe is always hanging over your head. I wonder what effect this will have on recruitment?

To misquote the Fab Four,

Now we know how many (A) holes it takes to fill The Albert Hall. One.

With that pronouncement does Ballmer really expect morale to improve? I can't begin to imagine working under such psychological stress, wondering if I'll have a job next review period. Being pressured to perform at the risk of unemployment may blow up badly in their faces, especially if people do perform up to snuff, and are still fired. Does he expect smart, talented people to view Microsoft as a great place to work? Make no mistake, it was a great place to work at one time, but the rumblings of discontent are growing louder each year, and more bright, talented people are looking at Google first. I wouldn't be surprised to see people start to abandon Microsoft in droves, especially if they think they're about to be fired.

If he carries through on his plan to sack 6.5% of the workforce every year and they can't meet their recruitment goals, then in pretty short order it's just going to be him and Gates drawing straws to see who goes next. I'd pay good money to see a brawl between those two.