NYT story on Steve Ballmer

In an otherwise by-the-numbers PR effort, I found that this tidbit very amusing:

Mr. Ballmer tracks his calendar with a detailed Excel spreadsheet.

So Microsoft has invested billions on Exchange, Outlook, smart phones, and PDAs, is constantly pushing the line that we are in the period of ubiquitous mobile computing, and Ballmer uses Excel to manage his time? Lame.

USA Today Reviews Vista

No surprises:

But I wouldn’t even consider a Vista upgrade with such a wimpy system. Similarly, if you’re on the borderline of acceptable Aero hardware — 1-gigahertz processor, 1 GB of RAM, souped-up video card — think long and hard before taking the plunge.

My HP seemed a good upgrade candidate: 3-GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM and a satisfactory graphics card. To prep for surgery, I downloaded the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor at www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready.

The software, which works only with XP, scanned my machine. It was deemed Aero-capable — almost.

…

Of perhaps greater significance, Vista promises to be more secure. Time will tell. At the very least, Windows frequently asks you for permission before allowing potentially risky changes to be made.

…But at times, the computer has been running noticeably slower. The system crashed at least once.

So what does that tell you about this USA Today headline?