Okay, enough with the Stevenote for now; there was way too much buildup of that thing over the course of the past few weeks, and frankly, we're glad it's over. We'll probably come back to it once we get to see the show itself (assuming Apple posts a QuickTime stream), but for now, we're just glad that we can move on to other things. Like speeches by other Steves. Howlier Steves. Steves with a far more uncanny resemblance to Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein.

That's right, kiddies, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently addressed the Churchill Club in Santa Clara, and according to CNET, his focus was on how his company is under attack by "thieves, con artists, terrorists and hackers"-- which is, by the way, the nicest thing he's ever said about us. But the love-in doesn't stop there; Ballmer also had a bunch of nice things to say about some folks in Cupertino you might have heard of: "Apple is doing some good, innovative work." In particular, he's got high praise for AirPort: "It's easy to forget how truly groundbreaking this technology was."

Awwww, that's so sweet! We were all wrong about the guy! Isn't it great that he can publicly compliment his company's largest outside R&D team like that? (By the way, on what must be a completely unrelated note, CNET also reports that Microsoft has just updated its line of wireless networking products to include 802.11g support-- you know, the stuff that Apple's been using since January. Ain't coincidence grand?) Well, now that we know that Ballmer gave props to Apple in public, we're going to have to be a lot nicer to him. That's right, from now on, no more Ballmer jokes. No more speculation about the nature of his particular species, no more gratuitous links to embarrassing video footage (well, except that one, of course), no more subtle references to Piltdown Man and the like. Ballmer is officially A-OK in our book.

Later on during his talk, Ballmer noted that "Apple doesn't appear to be stealing much of the computer market from Windows-based rivals" and said "I don't see their basic position in the market changing."

Hmmmm.

Now, see, the old AtAT would have made some sort of disparaging remark, probably alluding either to Ballmer's perceived ape-like qualities or his apparently glandular perspiration issue. But we've reformed. So, we repeat: Ballmer noted that "Apple doesn't appear to be stealing much of the computer market from Windows-based rivals" and said "I don't see their basic position in the market changing."

That's because the guy lacks the evolved brain capacity to see anything past his next banana and his hourly dose of Right Guard.

(Hey, we tried.)