Steve Ballmer Remembers His Roots

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has never forgotten where he came from. Ballmer spent part of last week at Focus: Hope, a civil and human rights organization based in Detroit that offers machinist and technology training. Thanks partially to Balmer, who is from Detroit, more than $7 million has found its way to Detroit charities, $5 million of it to Focus: Hope. Ballmer's father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn. His mother was raised in Detroit, near Focus: HOPE's headquarters on Oakman Boulevard. The most interesting thing? After he was done with the philanthropy, the $12 billion dollar man morphed into the tech support guy.

After announcing the donation, Ballmer toured a computer classroom and became the ultimate help desk for students.

He offered a few troubleshooting suggestions to a woman whose computer often crashed while shutting down, promised a Microsoft technician would visit a man whose pop-up blocker wouldn't stop risque ads from appearing and gave out his secretary's phone number when he couldn't immediately solve another woman's e-mail problem.