Okay, so everyone's in a tizzy because Bill Gates isn't the world's richest man anymore, having been bested in the filthy lucre department by Rob Walton of Wal-Borg fame. Personally, we're not dancing any jigs over the news, since in many ways Wal-Mart is to retail what Microsoft is to software-- hugely profitable, wildly successful, and arguably irretrievably evil, depending on your point of view. And since Apple board member and Steve Jobs's bestest buddy Larry Ellison is still one notch lower on the Obscene Personal Wealth meter than ol' Billy Boy, we're just not all that interested.

What does turn our collective crank, however, is Worth Magazine's list of the top fifty CEOs for 2001, as kindly pointed out by faithful viewer J. Alfred Prufrock. (Love those rolled trousers, Alfie boy.) Being generally positive sorts, we'll overlook the fact that (as MacCentral notes) the Stevester slipped from 6th to 12th this year, as well as the travesty of sticking Microsoft CEO Steve "Peter Boyle's Less Socially Adept Half-Brother" Ballmer in the top spot. Instead, we'll focus on the good news: once again, Steve beat out Mike Dell. And really, given the ongoing catfight between these two, what else matters?

Last year, Steve was 6th and Mike was 10th, but even though Steve just fell to 12th in 2001, Mike slipped even further, all the way down to 21st. Perhaps that's due in part to Apple's three-year stock performance of a 78% gain beating Dell's 48%-- but that can't be the only factor, since last year Dell was winning that particular contest 1030% to 662% (ah, that tech stock bubble... how we miss it so...) and still lost out to Steve overall. We'd put the difference down to personal style (i.e. Steve actually has some), but then we take another look at Ballmer, and, well, never mind.

No matter; whatever the reason, Mike's still eating Steve's dust and that's the important thing. We imagine poor Mike is currently flagellating himself and cursing the fact that his last-ditch Apple-bashing in Business Week apparently did nothing to sway the judges. And he must really be steaming over the fact that Steve is described in the article accompanying the list as having "vision," and thus belonging to "the rarest of all CEO breeds," while Mike himself isn't even mentioned. Ouch! But fear not, Mike; 2002's just around the corner, and you've got a whole year in which to distinguish yourself as something other than just another box-builder. Hey, anything's possible.