Ballmer Babies Banned From iPods and Google

Valah writes "In a recent Fortune interview with Steve Ballmer, the newer kinder Microsoft CEO is not only ready to take on the videogaming, search, music download and mobile markets - but he's also laying down the law in his own house. Steve says that his kids are not allowed to use Google or have an iPod."

Re:Would a different approach be better?

[chrismcdirty]

Pastors' kids don't become coke dealers. Those are cops' children. Pastors' children become whores.

The Children Shall Lead

[blueZhift]

Come on everyone, just calm down. My guess is that Steve was just joking. It is fairly safe to say that Ballmer's kids have access to a lot more disposable income than the average kid, so if they are of age (or when), you can bet that they'll have and use whatever tech toys are hip and available. Not only will they have iPods and use Google, they'll be using a bunch of stuff we can only imagine right now. And Steve will be glad that they are, if he's smart.

I spend a lot of time keeping up with new tech as part of my job and my hobbies, but still my kids manage to find all sorts of new things I haven't heard about. So what better way to keep up with trends and the competition than one's kids? So don't let Ballmer's joking around lull anyone into a false sense of security, his kids and Gates' kids may turn out to be among Microsoft's greatest assets.

You all missed it completely

[Roadkills-R-Us]

He never said in the article that he forbade them to do anything!

From what he said in the article, he's simply convinced them that MS has the better way to do things, and that's why they go the MS way. I did the same thing with my kids; I convinced them tat Linux is the better way, that every product has to be evaluated on its own merits. I also explained to them why I generally dislike MS. They will use Windows when they have to at work. They play XBox games, and if the right games come out only for XBox, or work best on XBox, my son will probably buy an XBox. But MS is never their first choice.

He joked about brainwashing them, but I strongly suspect he's simply convinced them.

Re:Would a different approach be better?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now that Pastor's Kids (TM) have been stereotyped, I might as well break the real news to you (as AC because I'm not interested in ad hominem attacks on my ID). I'm the oldest son of a pastor and have three other siblings (2 girls, 1 guy) who have become adults. I'm not atheistic, and I actually see eye-to-eye with my dad on a lot of the important religious/spiritual stuff he preaches and shows by example.

I've known probably a dozen other pastor's families pretty similar to ours, and I've seen many (actually almost all) growing up and following in the footsteps of their parents.

When their kids rebel, almost 100% of the time at least one of the following is true:
1. The pastor in their home always pushes "Do's and Don'ts" rather than following Biblical principles. The rules-based structure treats us like mindless babies, while the principles-based structure treats us as thinking adults and challenges us.
2. The pastor in their home doesn't practice what s/he preaches. Hypocrisy among parents has sadly ruined many a good Christian family for generations to come, in my experience.
3. The pastor puts the ministry (or calling) first before his/her family. This is clearly against Biblical principles, and it is a shame that anyone who is a pastor doesn't know and follow this. I'm talking about practical ways where the marriage or parent/child relationships suffer at the expense of the ministry.

So, I'll leave it to you whether you'll stereotype and write me off as a rebellious liar or at least listen to what I've experienced...

Re:Would a different approach be better?

[smellsofbikes]

Whores? Hardly. You have to pay whores, which hasn't been my experience with pastors' kids.

Re:Would a different approach be better?

[syukton]

I'm a contractor at Microsoft and my fellow contractors and I use "google" as a verb--even my lead does it, and our homepages are all set to google (mine is google news, actually). Granted I'm not in the core Windows division, but I am at Microsoft and I am allowed an amount of freedom in which search engine I use.

Re:Would a different approach be better?

[Bing Tsher E]

He works wherever you care to place him.

He's an AC. He could be Richard Stallman. He could be Bill Gates. He probably can't be Saddam Hussein. But the list of who he definitely isn't is rather a lot smaller than the list of who he might be.

I work at Microsoft, too.

Or, I could say so, if I wanted to check off that box down there that says 'Post Anonymously' for some reason.

Get it?

Re:Not surprising

[Fweeky]

Wait.. is this "God" of yours threatening me? Demanding belief under pain of burning tormented undeath for all eternity? Isn't that a bit rude? Especially when all his supposed messages mentioning this look *just* like all the the other crazy rantings of misguided people under the influence of hideous memetic diseases.

Your God isn't worth the paper he's written on.