• by Nina Lentini , Staff Writer @Nina_Lentini, October 12, 2007

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer expects one day soon to see his TV wake up when he says the word "Bill," recognize his voice, find where it he world Bill Gates is, to pass along to Bill his comment, "Hey, Bill, did you see Tiger make that putt?" Bill would hear this at his beach cabin someplace in the remote Northwest (laughter) and be able to reply: "Hey, Steve, did you see that it was a Nike One ball?" and, says Ballmer, "I should be able to click on it and buy it right there, order it up."

Ballmer also expects to be able to see video of his old high school's basketball game, saying consumer-generated media has only stratched the surface. (I hope one day I can locate video some relative has put up of an ancestor that I never otherwise would have seen. That would be so cool.)

Ballmer also says that every device will be a one-to-one relationship between the medium and the consumer. "Every device will be personalized by the user and in the marketing messages coming down," he says, adding by way of example, "I really only want to see people who I know have done something that has to do with insurance in the last 30 days. You will really be able to be very targeted and very relavent to everyone."

Ballmer also suggested that he and his wife could be sitting in their living room one Sunday afternoon watching, say, the Seattle Seahawks and talking about new tile for the kitchen. Up on that interactive TV would come an advertisement for ... right, tiles.

This is probably something we'll be seeing by Christmas next, I bet.