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by , 8:30 AM EDT, August 6th, 2001
For some time now, many PC apologists have made fun of MACWORLD Expos, comparing attendees to David Koresh's followers, or worse. Some have continued that analogy by saying that Steve Jobs's charisma is the equivalent of David Koresh's, or even worse. What they don't tell you is that a Steve Jobs appearance or a MACWORLD Expo is a dignified affair when compared to Micro$oft executives' antics at a recently video-taped Microsoft rally.
For example, Observer "mambamac" alerted us to a link at The Register containing hilarious QuickTime footage of M$ CEO Steve Ballmer doing an ugly imitation of "Thade" from Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes."
After viewing this, you will agree that no Micro$oft devotee should ever again utter a single disparaging word against the Mac community or a Steve Jobs public appearance. To see what we mean, view the footage on this author's iDisk where we've uploaded the 3 MB video clip ("control-click" on the iDisk link to download it, since we've discovered that it doesn't always play in some browsers).
The original link can be found at The Register, but we wanted to give you an alternative URL in case The Register's link disappears, mysteriously or not-so mysteriously. :-) After seeing it, feel welcome to add your comments to The Mac Observer's discussion thread on this topic.
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We took the liberty of going through the movie frame by frame in order to bring you some of the most entertaining moments from this charming film. Please note that while these images are not really taken that much out of context, they were chosen (somewhat unfairly for Mr. Ballmer, to be sure) for bearing the closest resemblance to Thade from The Planet of the Apes. As amusing (or not) as these screenshots might be, they do not substitute for the real thing, so make sure you check out the movie. And, tell a friend.
There really is no need for us to "spin" this, because the video speaks for itself. It might be one of the strangest and most disturbing things we have ever seen, but one thing is for sure: never, ever, ever (one more!), EVER again should any PC users make fun of MACWORLD or any other gathering of Mac supporters. As we brace ourselves against the jibes from PC bigots about people lining up for hours to visit Apple retails stores, just keep this video in mind to remind yourself that "at least we don't make damned fools out of ourselves."
Well, not all of us all of the time at least. :-) Then again, to be an uber-billionaire Micropoly exec, who wouldn't act like a damned fool? It's the least Mr. Ballmer can do :-)