While watching Boston Legal last night, I was disturbed by a particularly uninformed opinion. Not their usual flaming liberal bias — I can make my peace with that — but the inclusion of Steve Ballmer’s name in a list of innovators, along with the Woz and Steve Jobs. Mr Shore all but admitted they just wanted a list of people named “Steve”, but still. When has Steve Ballmer ever innovated anything? I can get on board with calling Paul Allen an innovator in some limited sense. Even Bill Gates.

But Ballmer? What?

I’m not trying to flame, but let’s at least include some real innovators, like — as much as I hate to say it — Richard Stallman, who literally changed software forever. Or John McCarthy, who invented LISP, among other things. Or Tim Berners-Lee, who pretty much invented the internet.