Hits and Misses: Steve Ballmer!
Techtree News Staff, May 20, 2008 2100 hrs IST
A man upset with the Hungarian government's decision to sign a software and training deal with Microsoft threw three eggs at Steve Ballmer -- and missed.
In what could be the talk-about-town for days to come, Microsoft Chief Steve Ballmer got egg on his face -- almost!
Ballmer was delivering a lecture at the Cornivus University in Budapest, Hungary, when an angry young man stood up and began hurling eggs in Ballmer's direction. Luckily, Ballmer ducked the projectiles, crouching in a rather undignified manner to take cover under a desk that came in handy at the right time. The eggs, fortunately, ended up on the white-board just above Ballmer.
During his lecture, Ballmer was asking the Hungarian students how many of them were studying for imminent exams. This is when the portly, bespectacled man stood up amongst the audience and began yelling at Ballmer in heavily-accented English, "Hey you, give the money back, right now!". His speech delivered and the little protest carried out (though unsuccessfully), the man abruptly walked out of the room. Prominently, his white shirt had "Microsoft = corruption" scrawled on the back. Caught on video, the incident is fast becoming another YouTube hit.
Of course Ballmer, though visibly shaken, laughed it off, telling his audience, "It was a friendly disruption... that broke my train of thought." Hungarian news reports though, have a different story to tell. The protestor, a student, was upset that his country's government has awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide software and IT training to local professionals under a program dubbed 'Titan'.
Interestingly, the incident comes even as Microsoft is freshly pursuing negotiations with Yahoo!, after having their take-over bid turned down the first time.
USER COMMENTS
don't be proud of your ignorance...
by rollo, paris, on May 21, 2008 01:49 AM, Report abuse
I couldn't care less of your comment because you are commenting my comment while the topic is about what a poor Country should be concerned about first, And if you can't find anything original to say then just read the other comments
by mark, new york, on May 21, 2008 01:59 AM, Report abuse
not only ignorant but rude... ballmer doesn't do business with poor countries, he went there to earn bucks. this implies the country is not poor. Hungary is a part of EU. Hope you know what EU is...
by rollo, Paris, on May 21, 2008 02:06 AM, Report abuse
by anastas, budapest, on May 21, 2008 02:10 AM, Report abuse
you don't know where new york is? really?
by mark, new york, on May 21, 2008 02:15 AM, Report abuse
> Hope you know what EU is... >by rollo from Paris on 21/05/08 02:06 AM no you don't. you just say it to look good. (with words) you french can't stand the others europeans , don't play like you guys care, because you don't.
by mark, new york, on May 21, 2008 02:24 AM, Report abuse
hey mark........ did u know that charles simonyi the one who created MS Word was from Budapest? By the way.....he was a computer programming prodigy......maybe next time you'll think twice beore calling a country poor
by Sandeep, Chennai, on May 21, 2008 08:40 AM, Report abuse
while the "elite" and privileged characters "play" with the funny things the others are dealing with serious problems. That's what I meant. Now judging by this comedy I see a bright future if the managers coming out of that university are already "detached" from the society like the "elite" usually are. Like it was before (over there) and it is now. Microsoft is a huge american corporation. They don't care. But watching the excited student missing his goal completely made me laugh a little. I wanted to make a "wake-up" call. Something like when you watch the rich people playing golf where right outside there are millions starving. Not the case of Budapest, of course.. but you get the idea of what I had in my mind when I saw the news report.
by Mark, New York, on May 21, 2008 02:50 PM, Report abuse
ignorance is bliss. the standard of living in budapest is rather similar to that of middle class americans. albeit with smaller cars, not such wide-screen tvs, and smaller, european-style apartments. but you get the point. and btw, building a better country includes stamping out corruption (campaign contributions and such included), which as far as i know was the point of this little episode...
by Anonymous, budapest, on May 22, 2008 12:21 AM, Report abuse
1st computer was made by a Hungarian guy in Princeton Uni, 1944, his name is Janos Neumann. ENIAC = Electronic Integrator And Computer,in the UK in 1945 after the ENIAC they created the EDSAC. so before u write silly things & rubbish comments about Hungarians check what you write about. And rich country, do u still believe US is a rich country? Where is all your cash? Where is Shanghai? :))))
by Sandor, London, on May 22, 2008 04:22 AM, Report abuse
It would take a New Yorker not to know where Budapest is, or that there are more Europeans on Internet than North Americans. FYI Budapest is in Hungary, and the architecture all computers have today is known as the von Neumann architecture after the Hungarian who invented it.
by bumpy, Erewhon, on May 22, 2008 02:09 PM, Report abuse
Ballmer oughta resign. He's just a crap shooter on steroids. I've felt like stuffing a sock down his throat a couple of times.
by Will, Texas, on May 21, 2008 10:45 AM, Report abuse Reply
Wow was waiting for this to happen... wonder what took so long.. next time someone throw Win Vista DVDs at Bill gates please.. Crap M$
by gadget Guy, Hyderabad, on May 21, 2008 01:06 AM, Report abuse Reply
This doesn't surprise me. I mean look at this guy...he is so fat and ugly no wonder he is pissed off at things. Honestly these luser aka linux users need life so they are happy and not always pissed off at one thing or the other.
by Eva, Paris, on May 21, 2008 08:14 AM, Report abuse
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where is budapest? I didn't even know that they had computers over there: don't they should be more concerned about more important things over there? like building a better country with enterprises instead of playing with those things that are for rich countries to get upset about?
by mark, new york, on May 21, 2008 01:41 AM, Report abuse Reply