Microsoft Commercial, 1985 (Work Safe)
If you aren’t familiar with Steve Ballmer, the above video won’t be as funny. As a bit of explanation, Steve Ballmer is now the stony-faced, belligerent CEO of Microsoft, the technological powerhouse that likes to throw elbows whenever it can.
It’s amazing to me to think that a mere 20 years ago, a colossus like Microsoft was peddling its cheesy wares the same as spray-on hair or the ThighMaster. Of course, 20 years is an eternity in the technical market, but I’d like to think that it wasn’t too long after this commercial was made that Microsoft began to dominate the industry.
At the same time Ballmer was blowing our minds with free Reversi, Gates was being as sultry as computer nerds can be. Last week, some photos shot through the techie blogosphere, purportedly of a young Bill Gates posing for Teen Beat magazine. Close, but not quite. Still, it’s refreshing to me to see M$ at its youngest and most vulnerable, back when Bill was a pioneer and an innovator, instead of a ruthless capitalist and knee-jerk litigant, and Ballmer was on par with that fucking cretin in the question mark suit who yells at us about free government money.
In any case, I know that no matter how rich Bill Gates is, he still got the crap kicked out of him in high school, as evidenced by the following photo.
Happy Birthday!!!