Steve Ballmer is no longer “Monkey Boy,” at least according to the cover of the issues of Bloomberg Businessweek that hits newsstands on Friday.

The magazine has a long cover story on how Ballmer has quietly rebooted the software maker.

It’s a good read, with writer Ashlee Vance interviewing Ballmer over a pork chop and wedge salad at an unnamed Bellevue, Wash., steakhouse. During the conversation, Ballmer addresses both the challenges Microsoft faces as well as what it has been like for him trying to lead in the shadow of Bill Gates.

“The fact of the matter is that the new guy will never quite look exactly like the visionary founder no matter how hard they try,” Ballmer said, according to an advance copy we got our hands on. The full article should be on the magazine’s Web site in just a bit. (Update: It’s up now, here.)

Ballmer reflects on things he might have done better as well as where the company is going, including a critical “reset” this year, as the company debuts Windows 8 — arguably the most significant shakeup of Windows in its history.

In the piece, Netflix chief — and Microsoft board member — Reed Hastings calls Ballmer “the most honest, self-critical, self-aware person I have ever met.”

“I think he embodies a key quality of a great leader, which is he cares more about the company than himself,” Hastings said. “He’s willing to be open and drive improvement instead of being defensive.”

It also notes that, despite the criticism of where Microsoft has fallen short, he has managed to create greater annual profit growth in his tenure (16.4 percent) than either GE chief Jack Welch (11.2 percent) or IBM’s Lou Gerstner Jr. (2 percent).

There are a few newsy nuggets as well, such as the fact that Microsoft plans to open 75 more of its own retail stores over the next three years. It currently has 14.

So, should we give the Monkey Boy thing a rest?

Ballmer did use his “Developers, developers” line this week, though without the enthusiasm of the original. So I think we’ll keep calling him Monkey Boy.

Since I know you want the videos, here you go.

The classic:

And here’s this week’s iteration, as captured by yours truly, on an iPhone:

Correction: The article hits newsstands on Friday, not Thursday. In any case, you can read it online in just a bit, I’m told.

BoomTown scrambled the All Things Digital jet (aka, United Airlines, Seat 7A) late last night to get up to Microsoft’s big event for its online advertising clients today.

Called “Imagine 2011: Marketing Leadership Summit” and held at its Redmond, Wa. HQ, the two-day gathering is designed to wow peeps by trotting out a spate of strategery concepts those who buy advertising on Microsoft’s various digital offerings from its Bing search service to MSN to Xbox to Windows Phone 7.

Some program topics: “Elsewhere USA,” “Teens Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out” and “Audience Buying Goes Real-Time: True or False?”

Presumably the goal of all this heavy-duty thinkery is to get these marketers to buy more ads from Microsoft by warning them about being left behind on the platform as the train chugs inevitably off to the digital future.

And just in case that doesn’t work, there will be a free concert tonight featuring the hipster band Train for the Imagine 2011 attendees at Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project venue to open those ad wallets.

Hey, Geek Mister: Stop sending all those digital marketing bucks to Google and Facebook and give them to us!

Before a panoply of various social, design and anthropology experts pontificated, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the day with his patented loud and lovable Ed McMahon act, complete with the booming catchphrases.

Hey-Yo!

“You have to move forward or die!” (About the Web.)

“If you wanna get big, you have to think big!” (About the Windows 7 Phone smartphone deal with Nokia.)

I love the U.S. government, I don’t want to give it a hard time.” (About its crappy Web site, not the antitrust conviction thing.)

Ballmer outlined some key trends, which are not new to anyone paying attention over the last five years: Location; social; pervasive displays; ubiquitous connectivity; computers everywhere; cloud; data; and natural user interaction

He also joked about how there were 10 fake Steve Ballmers on Facebook, all using Steve Ballmer photos. Imagine that!

You’d think Microsoft’s badillion-dollar investment in the social networking site would get you a verified account!

Status: Monkey boy mad!

Actually, pissed off is more related to the fact that the person who conceived and organized the Imagine 2011 event was former global ad sales head Carolyn Everson.

But, she left the company in mid-February after only six months, for essentially the same job at Microsoft partner Facebook.

Since then Microsoft and Facebook have been wrangling over the talent raid, including Microsoft even considering legal action to block the move.

Nonetheless, the show must go on and it did in a pretty classy way.

But not without another road bump in today’s action–the news that Microsoft’s own marketing head, longtime company veteran Mich Mathews, was leaving the software giant later this year.

The departure had the halls buzzing about what happened and who will be taking over the big job with a $1 billion marketing budget.

Maybe some external CMO sitting right there in the audience or perhaps some internal Microsoft candidate such as Yusuf Mehdi or Capossela?

I suppose it’s time for some strategery stat!

Until it is all figured out, here is the music video for Train’s hit song, “Hey, Soul Sister”: