In the lead-up to its CES keynote, Microsoft was that would cause Steve Jobs to lay down and, in a gesture of his submission to Steve Ballmer, allow him to rub his belly.

Long story short, that didn't happen. (Surprise!)

Instead, Ballmer introduced an unremarkable "slate" computer from HP running Windows 7 in a keynote "Incredibly boring. Incredibly incredibly boring. Really."

they named it a slate assuming Apple really is going to name its tablet the . The Macalope certainly wouldn't put it past them, but he thinks it might just be because Microsoft .