Even we're not immune to a bit of hyperbole at Mashable when talking about exciting new technologies, but some quotes in the technology field have turned out to be real humdingers. This is a collection of seven that really made you go "hmm" when you thought of them later.

Steve Ballmer - Oh, Steve. Sometimes you have to wonder if Steve, as CEO of Microsoft, is ever actually told what's going on at the company. On October 2nd, we had the following quote:

“I think these things [social networks] are going to have some legs, and yet there’s a faddishness, a faddish nature about anything that basically appeals to younger people.”

On October 24th, a mere 22 days later, Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook. It's good to know you can just throw that sort of money at a "fad". That's not to mention the fact Microsoft has added social networking features to Xbox Live. He really should read those daily memos before going out and making comments.

Sony - During the RIAA case against Jammie Thomas, Jennifer Pariser of Sony shared her rather... "unique"... viewpoint on the idea of backing up/ripping music from your legally purchased CD:

"When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song... (it's) a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy',"

Wow, that's just amazing. So, even though you legally purchased your CD, you can't do as you please with for your personal enjoyment. Good to know.

Facebook's Beacon System - They were so excited when they launched Beacon. And they were so sure that people were going to be excited about the ability to become "trusted referrals" of products and services to their friends.

“Social actions are powerful because they act as trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people,” said Zuckerberg. “It’s no longer just about messages that are broadcasted out by companies, but increasingly about information that is shared between friends. So we set out to use these social actions to build a new kind of ad system.”

Well, we all know how that ended up going, don't we? It may have sounded good in the brainstorming sessions, but it failed miserably in the real world environment. Hopefully companies will learn a lesson from this little debacle.

Mark Cuban - There is no denying the man (he's the one on the right if you needed help) made a killing years ago in the days of the first .com bubble, but apparently he hasn't kept up with technology, as proven by this quote:

“My position is related to the last mile. P2P is so incredibly inefficient. You send and receive the same bytes, which means for the portion of the file you are a seed for, you are at least 50pct inefficient”.

Oh, Mark... it's such a cute idea, but perhaps you should stick to the dancing? Sure, something more efficient may come out some day, but for now it is a boon to too many people as a way to split up the cost of bandwidth. Never mind he also called for P2P to be blocked... somehow I think companies like Joost and Skype may have thoughts on that.

NBC - The war between NBC Universal and Apple just got silly at some points, but it was usually more on the NBC side that you would scratch your head. Jeff Zucker, the CEO, gave us this head scratcher via an article in Variety.

"Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content, and made a lot of money," Zucker said. "They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing."

Really, Mr. Zucker? You think people bought all those iPods and Apple TVs because they were thinking "Oh wow, I can get NBC shows with this thanks to iTunes!"

Trent Reznor -Mr. Reznor has never been one to bite his tongue. If something is annoying him, we usually hear about it somewhere. In the wake of the Radiohead In Rainbows experiment, Trent basically said they had the right idea.

“…Most people aren’t aware of the world of art and commerce where exploitation strips each artist down to ni**er. Each label, like apartheid, multiplies us by our divide and whips us ’til we conform to lesser figures. What falls between the cracks is a pile of records stacked to the heights of talents hidden from the sun…And the only way to choose is to jump ship from old truths and trust dolphins as we swim through changing ways.”

Somewhere in all that flowery language is hidden the message that Trent is tired of earning squat from the record labels. Considering there is a laundry list of artists thinking the same, it seems 2008 could be a very rough year for record executives.

Agloco - It seemed like such a great idea, albeit one that had already been tried, and even by some of the same people. You surf the web with a toolbar turned on, get your friends to also surf, you all earn money. But, seeing as this had been tried years ago in the form of All Advantage, we should have all realized it would fail again.

“To be a sustainable entity in the long term, AGLOCO makes Member cash distributions from its positive cash flow (revenue minus costs). Therefore, please do not expect a check after the first couple of months as it will take time to collect revenue from advertisers and this revenue must exceed costs in order to make cash distributions to Members. We will be keeping Members informed of our financials and you can visit the Official company blog at http://blog.agloco.com for the latest updates.”

Considering this quote is from April of this year, and as of mid-December they are providing members with emails about how to take over the company, it would seem that the "few months" estimate they spoke of may have been a tad "off".

So what was your favorite quote of the year? What made you roll your eyes?