Rating: 
Summary: Complex business portrait ruined by an anti-Microsoft slant
Review: "Ballmer is vast. Ballmer contains multitudes." This observation in the introduction to Bad Boy Ballmer leads respected investigative journalist Fredric Alan Maxwell to conclude his unauthorized biography/expose of Microsoft head honcho Steven Anthony Ballmer, and truth be told, Microsoft itself, with "Steve Ballmer can remind you of many people." This seems to be his prevailing message along with "Microsoft is bad!"
Granted, Microsoft's misdeeds have been made public and their ruthless corporate strategies painstakingly if not gleefully reported by the media. A lot like Martha. But few companies have created such wealth or had more lasting influence on our lives, and thus Ballmer, who is Microsoft, deserves attention.
While "Monkey Boy" Ballmer, as portrayed by Maxwell, is passionless (he's committed to cancer research and was devastated over the deaths of his beloved parents, Fred and Bea), he self-contradicts, like Walt Whitman, and is a chameleon. Perhaps this is why Maxwell concludes by saying, anticlimactically, "Steve Ballmer can remind you of many people."
In this intricate as the integrated circuit biography, there are nuggets of gold underneath, such as the ironic twist that Fred Ballmer helped prosecute the Nuremburg trials under Microsoft antitrust case judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. Michigan and Seattle history, as well as Jewish identity (Ballmer is Jewish) and its contribution to Ballmer's psychology give the book that touch of individuality that a portrait of one of the highest-paid American employees, and one of its most controversial companies, deserves.
Rating: 
Summary: Extrodinary
Review: A second reading of Maxwell's Bad Boy Ballmer, confirmed and increased my first impression. Ballmer is one heck of an employee and person. Bill Gates' pursuit and success in bringing Ballmer "onboard" is perhaps the fundamental reason for Microsoft's enduring success.
He is shown as a man secure enough to weep on his wedding day,a man deeply involved with his family, religion and community.
His gemerous support of education and religion is another mark of the man's dedication to use his success to benefit others.
Unauthorized bios usually in up as titllating "maybes, could haves, and supposes". This bio says "Here he is". Form your own
opinion. My opinion is "What a man; loyal, successful, dedicated and dependable". Pity they can't use him as a model in the MBA programs.
Maxwell has a talent for research and bringing together the
the facts in a very readable and interesting motif. What does he have for us next?
Rating: 
Summary: BALLMER : A REREAD
Review: A second reading of Maxwell's Bad Boy Ballmer, confirmed and increased my first impression. Ballmer is one heck of an employee and person. Bill Gates' pursuit and success in bringing Ballmer "onboard" is perhaps the fundamental reason for Microsoft's enduring success.
He is shown as a man secure enough to weep on his wedding day,a man deeply involved with his family, religion and community.
His gemerous support of education and religion is another mark of the man's dedication to use his success to benefit others.
Unauthorized bios usually in up as titllating "maybes, could haves, and supposes". This bio says "Here he is". Form your own
opinion. My opinion is "What a man; loyal, successful, dedicated and dependable". Pity they can't use him as a model in the MBA programs.
Maxwell has a talent for research and bringing together the
the facts in a very readable and interesting motif. What does he have for us next?
Rating:
Summary: A winner
Review: Bad Boy Ballmer showed me, a non-techie, how both Microsoft and Ballmer made their many billions on the back of inferior products. I give the book out as presents.
Rating:
Summary: Larger than life character, more interesting than Bill Gates
Review: Fred Maxwell has done it! Actually written a biography of an executive that is fun and informative. You can tell that he has done his homework, and you can tell that Maxwell is a creative, lifelong writer, with a lot of great things to say, and the ability to make all of his scenarios keep you turning pages, laughing, and thinking. Did Steve Ballmer pose for the cover of that last Tom Wolfe book, "A Man in Full"?
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, Geekish, Exhuberate, and Brilliant
Review: Fredric Alan Maxwell is loud and proud. I would have discarded the book early in the reading, if it had not been for exuberate descriptions and storys of Steve Ballmer. Maxwell seems to hate capitalism. I'm a strong believer in capitalism, so his scarcastic remarks really annoyed me. Rather than letting the reader analyze the facts about Microsoft, he interjected stupid idols, such as, calling Microsoft the "beast". Its like he wants the reader to believe, Microsoft is the gangster who rapes, pillages, and destroys the community. Maxwell does not seem to be high tech expert, he can barely talk intelligently about subjects like Java, dot.net, and Server technology.
Think about it, Microsoft has made Corporate America richer because of its products. Microsoft wealth is simply a product of supply and demand. Customer continue to demand their products. Most of the VB and MFC programmers I know have migrated to developing in C# , ASP.net, and VB.Net. Dot.net was a great strategic move by MS. Win 95 was a hugh success and pattern to follow for emerging hardware introductions. Win 95 made the leap from 16 bit apps to 32 bit apps. The 32 bit apps were cool, so I dished out the money and receive value for several years using win 95. I've never regretted my investment in MS products.Maxwell wants badly to denounce Microsoft incredible wealth machinery by claiming MS pulled a fast one. Maxwell points out the battle turned from the Justice Department to the political election. MS would reverse political democratic tradition by supporting Republican George Bush Junior and hope his administration would not agressively pursue the anti-trust charges. $2 million in soft money to the Republican party. Ballmer would yell "Who op!" three times seeing a possible escape from Judge Jackson. Bush would reveal, he was on the side of big business, just what Microsoft wanted to hear. At the turn of the century, 2000, Ballmer became the MS CEO, fourth richest man in the world, and characterized himself by screaming "I love this company!". I found Ballmers biography from childhood to adult: interesting, geekish, exhuberate, and brilliant. Ballmer would meet Gates at the Currier house. Gates would leave Harvard claiming they had nothing more to teach him. Gates and Paul Allen purchased existing code for 75k and created Basic. Ballmer graduates Harvard and goes to work for P&G. Later, Ballmer's excellence in math and ambition would take him to Stanford. In the meantime, Gates would be under pressure to build an OS compatible for the IBM PC Junior. Prior to graduation Ballmer would leave Stanford and help Microsoft manage the amazing feat. Ballmer is a interesting person to follow. I found his story inspiring.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, Geekish, Exhuberate, and Brilliant
Review: Fredric Alan Maxwell is loud and proud. I would have discarded the book early in the reading, if it had not been for exuberate descriptions and storys of Steve Ballmer. Maxwell seems to hate capitalism. I'm a strong believer in capitalism, so his scarcastic remarks really annoyed me. Rather than letting the reader analyze the facts about Microsoft, he interjected stupid idols, such as, calling Microsoft the "beast". Its like he wants the reader to believe, Microsoft is the gangster who rapes, pillages, and destroys the community. Maxwell does not seem to be high tech expert, he can barely talk intelligently about subjects like Java, dot.net, and Server technology.
Think about it, Microsoft has made Corporate America richer because of its products. Microsoft wealth is simply a product of supply and demand. Customer continue to demand their products. Most of the VB and MFC programmers I know have migrated to developing in C# , ASP.net, and VB.Net. Dot.net was a great strategic move by MS. Win 95 was a hugh success and pattern to follow for emerging hardware introductions. Win 95 made the leap from 16 bit apps to 32 bit apps. The 32 bit apps were cool, so I dished out the money and receive value for several years using win 95. I've never regretted my investment in MS products. Maxwell wants badly to denounce Microsoft incredible wealth machinery by claiming MS pulled a fast one. Maxwell points out the battle turned from the Justice Department to the political election. MS would reverse political democratic tradition by supporting Republican George Bush Junior and hope his administration would not agressively pursue the anti-trust charges. $2 million in soft money to the Republican party. Ballmer would yell "Who op!" three times seeing a possible escape from Judge Jackson. Bush would reveal, he was on the side of big business, just what Microsoft wanted to hear. At the turn of the century, 2000, Ballmer became the MS CEO, fourth richest man in the world, and characterized himself by screaming "I love this company!". I found Ballmers biography from childhood to adult: interesting, geekish, exhuberate, and brilliant. Ballmer would meet Gates at the Currier house. Gates would leave Harvard claiming they had nothing more to teach him. Gates and Paul Allen purchased existing code for 75k and created Basic. Ballmer graduates Harvard and goes to work for P&G. Later, Ballmer's excellence in math and ambition would take him to Stanford. In the meantime, Gates would be under pressure to build an OS compatible for the IBM PC Junior. Prior to graduation Ballmer would leave Stanford and help Microsoft manage the amazing feat. Ballmer is a interesting person to follow. I found his story inspiring.
Rating:
Summary: Neon Steve
Review: I do not read the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, or any of the other publications that deal with the world of big technology, big business, and big personality. I did however avidly read Bad Boy Ballmer and found it an informative and balanced account. It is also rather funny 'cause when the techno-richies start dishing dirt they know where the chips are buried, especially Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems. I suppose though, as one reviewer complained above, if you are a stockholder of Microsoft you may have heard some of these stories before. But if on the other hand, you are like me and the brash Steve Ballmer is something of a new face in the pantheon of business demigods, if you too haven't heard his fascinating American tale, or perhaps only picked up bits and pieces of it, I think Frederic Alan Maxwell's presentation is well worth reading. Bad By Ballmer is by turns stunning and surprising. Mr. Ballmer lives in neon colors and Mr. Maxwell has done his homework.. Perhaps the real issue here is that as Microsoft piles up more gold, how can all that money not have a tremendous impact on the politics, law, and culture of the futurel? Maxwell uses the anti-trust cases involving Microsoft to explore this question. And there are big, big issues here concerning our democracy in the face of gathering corporate power, of which Mr. Ballmer's Microsoft looms like a thousand tentacled beast. Maxwell also gives you an inkling of the unprecedented size of the fortune produced by the juggernaut Microsoft. It is truly astounding. Carl Sagan's TV mantra, "...Billions and billions." seems inadequate in face of these numbers Maxwell also explains to the non-technologically inclined what all those Windows operating systems do. And as best as an outsider can, he informs you about one of the most interesting business partnerships in US history -- Bill and Steve's excellent adventure, indeed. In short, this book may very well open your eyes to a new world just on the horizon. Be uninformed at your own peril.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but Flawed
Review: I found this book moderately entertaining, but was really troubled by the author's lack of fact-checking. He claims to live in Seattle and be familiar with the area, and yet he misspelled 'Bellevue' WA at least three times in the book -- ouch! Second, he refers to IE as an 'Internet search engine' instead of a browser -- huh? Third, he claims Microsoft put into place a requirement that contractors take off 'a month' after one year of contracting due to the class action suit against them. In fact, it's 90 days -- not 30 days. (As anyone who has ever contracted can tell you, 90 days is a much more damaging amount of time because it's highly unlikely your original contract will be available after that period of time.) Lack of attention to details such as this suggest he didn't really dig deep to understand his subject matter -- and make one wonder what other facts he misrepresented throughout the book. These are minor points, but so glaring as to call into question the author's thoroughness. That, coupled with the lazy way he simply quoted from previously published works by others indicate this is simply a polemic discourse on Microsoft. The author comes across as biased and influenced by gossip and innuendo. I got the feeling there was little real 'research' that went into this -- it reads a lot like what one might find in a British tabloid. He simply looked for quotes that would support his presumptions. Since this is an 'unauthorized' biography with nary a true encounter with its subject matter, it's pretty difficult to take much of what the author says seriously. The entire book is skewed from his desire to prove Ballmer and Microsoft are evil. Having said that, I will add that it is an entertaining read -- just as those tacky British tabloids are entertaining to read. Not a lot of substance, plenty of gossip and quickly forgettable. I would caution anyone who reads it not to accept everything the author says at face value.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Eye-opening Read
Review: I got Bad Boy Ballmer as a present, put it on my bedside table, and picked it up one night last week. I read it all the way through, discovering more about Microsoft than I'd read anywhere else. A tech buddy has his birthday next week. I'm getting him a copy.
|
