Microsoft president and ace publicist Steve Ballmer knocked five per cent of his own share price and made a substantial dent in the Dow Jones yesterday by describing the overvaluation of technology stocks as absurd. Oops. Speaking to an audience of journalists (double oops) Ballmer said that he'd put "our own company and others in that [overvalued] category." This vote of confidence was no doubt welcome to his colleagues elsewhere who were announcing that Microsoft's online travel service, Expedia, was to IPO. The market seems to have reacted warmly to Ballmer's helpful interventions. According to the WSJ's Smartmoney, "The message boards reacted furiously. Postings on Raging Bull's MSFT message board were titled 'hang this man' and 'what the hell is Steve Ballmer doing?' A Yahoo! (YHOO) posting: 'If Gates doesn't drag him out back and kick the s--- out of him, I will.'" Triple oops. ®