Brett tried to claim that about half of the PCs sold through NZ retailers like Harvey Norman were "media centre" PCs. When pressed as to what this meant--did they include special hardware like TV tuners?--he had to admit it simply meant they were being bundled with Windows XP Media Center Edition. 

  

 When various questionable comments by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer were mentioned, like claims that [Linux violates Microsoft's intellectual property|http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7228555922.html], or that Windows Vista isn't selling well because of ["piracy" so they'd better tighten the WGA screws|http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37721], he had an interesting defence: that there were other behind-the-scenes aspects to these utterances, that Brett was privy to but could not tell us about, that if revealed would cast those statements in an entirely different (and presumably less uncomplimentary) light. He brought up the old adage, "never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity", but then had to back off the conclusion that these remarks from Microsoft's top management were evidence of stupidity.