2007 Foot-in-Mouth Awards

[Capper]

Once every year, Wired News compiles a list of the most entertaining tech-centric misstatements and verbal foibles from government officials, CEOs and tech luminaries.

Once every hundred years, an upstart Web 2.0 CEO says something so ridiculous it rockets to the top of the list faster than a story about Digg gets to the top of Digg.

This century's momentous proclamation came in November when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg trumpeted his social network's new ad technology, Beacon, saying:

"Once every hundred years, media changes."

Zuckerberg went on to describe how his company's mining and selling of Facebook users profiles would revolutionize ad sales, and thus media. Within weeks, Facebook did an about-face and apologized for not letting users opt-out of Beacon -- a system that announced to your Facebook friends what books, gadgets and movies you'd bought.

Journalists, advertisers and publishers around the world, however, took deep solace in knowing that media only changes once every 100 years, so they no longer need to worry about losing the new media war to free online news sites, blogs and YouTube. Instead, they just need to publish all their stories on their Facebook pages, until the next media change comes in 2107.


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Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer, on the other hand, is the mouth that gives almost every year. In April, Ballmer took the opportunity to belittle the iPhone, telling USA Today:

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."

Six months after its debut, the iPhone is outselling all Windows Mobile phones combined. But Ballmer can take heart, because the iPhone doesn't have

developers (yet)

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Apple's CEO Steve Jobs managed to lift his own foot over his turtleneck and into his mouth in September. Two months after Apple loyalists spent hours in line for the fetish item of the year, Jobs announced a $200 price drop for the 8-GB iPhone, then poured salt into early adopter's wound with this quote in USA Today:

"That's technology. If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that's what happens in technology."

A chastened Jobs issued an apology of sorts the next day, along with a $100 Apple Store credit to full-price payers. "We need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers."


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"I love my job. I hate my customers,"

Motorola CEO Ed Zander told The Wall Street Journal. Zander, whose fortunes rose with the soaring -- but ultimately fleeting -- popularity of the RAZR, lost his love six months later. Rumor has it he still hates millions of people.


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James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA, talked his way into retirement by telling a London newspaper that he feared for Africa because black people aren't as smart as whites. Watson told The Sunday Times he was:

"inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says, not really."

Watson subsequently resigned his position. After he published his sequenced genome online later in the year, Nobel Prize winner Watson was found to have 16 times more genes of black origin than a typical white European.

2007 Foot-in-Mouth Awards

[fstroupe]

Zuckerberg's could go on to winning the most moronic statement made by a rich person in this decade. Think about it...that would make only six changes in media since Gutenberg's inventing of the printing press. Hell...there were four major, groundbreaking, earth-shattering, life-changing media changes in the last century...radio, television, cable television, and the internet. Five if you add CSPAN. (where the common man actually gets a glimpse of the idiocy that goes on in the US Congress) Six if you add Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio, which has influenced all of the above.

LOL....hell...I only heard of Facebook a few weeks ago. Though I don't use that realm of the internet.

[oldman_gamer]

Developers,developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers.

[stinger608]

Hey Oldman_gamer, didn't even notice that you had become a VIP member!!!!

Thank you for your support man

That always helps Capper with the upkeep of the site!!!!

[oldman_gamer]

Figured it is the LEAST I can do for being a PITA.

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by oldman_gamer

Figured it is the LEAST I can do for being a PITA.

Oh hell your not a PITA!!! Now members like Joker, One4, Hitman, there the real PITA's:thefinge r:

[oldman_gamer]

Too phunny..

[Panda Man]

I didn't get mentioned in that list? :(


[YOUTUBE]KMU0tzLwhbE[/YOUTUBE]

[Stormcrow]

[Jokerswild]

Originally Posted by oldman_gamer

Figured it is the LEAST I can do for being a PITA.

Thats my official title and I will not give it up easily.