We're afraid we've got some bad news, people: faithful viewer David Poves alerted us to the fact that a British show called "The World's Most Powerful" evaluated Bill Gates versus our very own Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates "won." In other words, the British have decided that Bill is a big manly hunk o' power and Steve possesses no more than a mere shadow of the former's raw and vibrant potency. Or something. (Apparently the British just aren't happy unless they're actively provoking the Wrath of Steve-- but then again, since he's evidently such a meek lil' puppy dog, where's the harm?)

Now, we haven't seen the show, but it's clear that this Alvin Hall guy who hosts it is using a fairly limited set of criteria to judge who's more "powerful." The fact that he's a "financial guru" ought to lend a little insight into where he's coming from when he rates these people: he "weighs up their celebrity and influence" and "uses his financial and business skills to analyze their careers and to measure their economic power." Economic power. Right. Well, okay, considering that Billy-Boy's the richest man in the world and he flexes monopoly muscle over something like 90% of the computer industry, sure, we're going to have to concede that he does in fact have more "economic power" than our own Lil' Stevie.

But economic force is but one measure of how "powerful" someone is. What about the power to kick some serious tail? If you put Bill and Steve in Mexican wrestling masks and tossed 'em in a big steel cage, we can personally guarantee you Gates would be crying for his mommy inside of twenty seconds (at least, as best he could while being force-fed a folding chair). How about the power to command legions of unquestioningly loyal followers to go forth and do thy bidding? If Steve says the word, Mac fans the world over would grab the nearest blunt instrument, march on Redmond, and go caveman on the Microsoft campus until it was nothing more than a smoking hole in the ground, littered with the mangled bodies of Bill's minions.

What about Donkey Kong skills? Steve's a barrel-jumping master of the highest order, and Bill can't even get past that second level with the fireballs that look like ducks, for crying out loud. Now who's got the power? Huh? Huh?

So if you subscribe to a broader interpretation of what constitutes "power" and feel that Steve was robbed, faithful viewer Matthew Elton notes that you can vote for which of the geeks you feel is most powerful in the Beeb's online poll. When last we checked, Steve was winning with 80% of the vote. Gee, when discussing types of power, did we mention the power to skew Internet polls with the force of thousands of Mac users with way too much spare time on their hands?