Whether Microsoft likes it or not, Windows' Blue Screen of Death error is iconic -- it's the universal sign that something really bad has happened to your software. But who wrote the original message that would grace the screens of sick PCs worldwide? None other than Steve Ballmer, according to company veteran Raymond Chen. The executive (then in charge of the Systems Division) reportedly didn't like the warning text that engineers first wrote, and took up a challenge to write better material himself. As it turns out, Ballmer did a good enough job that his version made it into the shipping product "pretty much word for word." The message has long since changed and thankfully appears much less often on modern computers, but it's fun to think that the owner of the LA Clippers is also responsible for an app crash alert seen by millions of people.
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