After much criticism from annual report guru Sid Cato (especially for its Aptiva computer, which he "found most unusable for my needs"), he praised Big Blue for its "website-to-end-all-websites" -- what Cato called an unprecedented, pioneering effort to educate stockholders about annuals. The website, he said, is "A public service if there ever was one."

Cato also named the year's first winner of his negative SCRAMMS citation -- an acronym for Sid Cato Rails Against the Mirror, Mirror Syndrome. ("Who's the fairest of us all?" "You are, boss! You are!") Glen H. Hiner, chief executive of Owens Corning, is pictured in his annual five times -- "hanging out, hugging a Botswana baby, digging a ditch," as well as with the board and leading off the letter to shareholders. This year, Cato observed, "he only referred to himself once in the first person -- as contrasted to an 'almost-exhausting' 14 times a year earlier in the letter to shareholders. Too much."