The latest CEO berk: Netgear’s Patrick Lo. According to Smarthouse, he invited all of six journos to what appears to be a sad little rant about Apple and Microsoft.

In case you’re wondering, Lo:

• had no answers why Apple was more successful than Negear (and so he can’t really have thought about it all that much);
• said Apple’s ‘closed model’ only works because Apple “owns the market” for things like MP3 players;
• claimed Jobs versus Flash is all about ego;
• whined that “Steve Jobs doesn’t give me a minute,” to relay his concerns about Apple’s business practices. (Gosh, I wonder why.)

Still, the Smarthouse article reports that Lo’s criticism of Microsoft was rather more brief, saying “Microsoft is over—game over—from my point of view”. I’m sure Ballmer and co. will agree, with Microsoft’s tiny $6.66 billion Q1 profit versus Netgear’s most recently revealed quarter: $13.1 million. Still, I’m sure that was a blip and I look forward to Netgear’s February 8 announcement where it’s overtaken Microsoft.

A nice piece from MacRumors, which digs up a 1985 interview with Steve Jobs, including this gem of a quote:

My philosophy is that everything starts with a great product. So, you know, I obviously believed in listening to customers, but customers can’t tell you about the next breakthrough that’s going to happen next year that’s going to change the whole industry. So you have to listen very carefully. But then you have to go and sort of stow away—you have to go hide away with people that really understand the technology, but also really care about the customers, and dream up this next breakthrough.

This is a problem with many industries, not least the majority of the tech world. Most companies provide customers with what they say they want; good companies provided customers with what they actually need, even when they didn’t realise they needed it.

Paul Thurrott:

There are some parallels to draw between […] Cook’s taking over day-to-day operations at Apple […] and Steve Ballmer’s ascension at Microsoft. And not to ruin the surprise, but this may be bad news for Apple. The simplest way to explain this is to simply provide the closing quote in the [NY Times] article: “He will not be the visionary, but that’s O.K. because there are other talented people around him.” Sure. That’s what they said about Ballmer too. Just a thought.

John Gruber:

There are some parallels: an operations executive succeeding a visionary product-oriented founder. But, I’d say Cook-as-Ballmer is pretty much the worst case scenario for Apple.

The warnings signs with Ballmer have been there for years. He’s been out of touch for a long time. Remember when he laughed at the iPhone? Said it had “no chance”? Let’s not worry about Tim Cook until he starts saying dumb things.

In addition to that, I’m pretty sure Tim Cook’s never leapt about the stage like a mental person. He also led Apple through the previous period where Jobs was away from the action, and hasn’t put a foot wrong when he’s been under the spotlight at Apple events or on earnings calls.

Even in the most recent earnings call, Cook differentiated himself from Ballmer in dismissing the opposition. Ballmer got caught by claiming Apple’s product had no chance, yet it went on to be a massive success. Cook’s dismissal of Android tablets is based on facts rather than guesswork. On Honeycomb tablets (i.e. the first Android tablets with an OS actually designed for tablets rather than smartphones), he states:

There’s nothing shipping yet, so I don’t know. They lack performance specs, they lack prices, they lack timing. Today, they’re vapour. We’ll assess them as they come out. However, we’re not sitting still…

There’s a big difference there from “no chance”.

BBC News reported yesterday that Facebook had banned Kate Middleton, for being a fake princess-to-be, rather than, say, realising that soon-to-be-royal Kate Middleton isn’t the only person with that name. (The story was also covered in The Sun, which, naturally, started off with the most important fact to its readers—that banned Middleton is blonde.)

After the super soaraway paper got involved, Facebook apparently relented, but Facebook’s quote on ITProPortal.com is interesting:

We review thousands of pieces of content every day and takes action to ensure Facebook remains a safe and trusted environment for everyone. Of course, we make an occasional mistake.

Two questions here leap to mind. First, did Facebook ban on a hair-trigger (as suggested by the original articles) rather than doing some actual research? (In other words, how much research is done before action is taken?) If so, that’s poor form for a site that’s pretty essential to millions of people. Secondly, did ‘imposter’ Middleton do a great deal to fix this or just run straight to the press for her 15 seconds of fame?

Trying to annoy the music industry for the billionth time, The Pirate Bay says its next major launch will be fear.themusicbay.org, according to TechRadar. An unnamed insider is quoted as follows:

The music industry can’t even imagine what we’re planning to roll out in the coming months.

For years they’ve complained bitterly about piracy, but if they ever had a reason to be scared it is now.

Roughly translated: LOOK AT THE SIZE OF OUR HUGE PENIS!

Yeah, well done, The Pirate Bay. You celebrate ‘sticking it to the man’, including the artists (who clearly don’t deserve anything for their work) and those evil indie labels (who burn millions per second with their unicorn-powered cocaine factories).

The majors need a slap, certainly, but the battle’s largely been won in music: DRM-free track-by-track sales across many sites, direct-selling from indies, and the likes of Spotify for on-demand access to as much music as you can consume. I’m not sure how the Pirate Bay’s antics will improve things; instead, they’re more likely to enforce to many the feeling that they should, for some reason, be entitled to free music and that everyone they rip off somehow had it coming.