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The End Of The Paperclip

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ka-BLAM! dept.

A number of people have noted the demise of the paperclip assistance in Microsoft Office has been confirmed - so please stop submitting the story. The C|Net story talks about how it's going to be part of the new advertising campaign and gives the web address. The idea behind the paper clip was good - The Economist had an interview recently with the guy who wrote the original using Bayesian algorithims. It was canned because it "didn't come up often enough" MS felt. We'll see how the new help system works, I suppose.

11 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. Read the stories. by hatless · · Score: 4

    It';s not being removed from the product. It's just going to be shut off by default. Hell, I like it. I think te problem with Office Assistant is that nobody knew what it was for. When I show regular end-users how you can "ask" it plain-English help questions and get a correct response most of the time, they usually decide they like Clippy after all.

    Maybe a lot of pople still run MS office on 640x480 displays.

  2. Disabling the damn paperclip by MAXOMENOS · · Score: 5
    I shouldn't have to spend 15 minutes configuring an application that is supposed to be good as soon as it's installed.

    It takes about 30 seconds in Office 2000:

    1. Click on paperclip to bring up a dialog balloon
    2. Click on "options" button
    3. Uncheck "Use office assistant" box.

    Now it's gone indefinitely.

    To bring the paperclip back, click on Help->Show Office Assistant

    Hope this helps

    ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.

    --
    Finding God in a Dog
  3. Re:It's not really gone. by Rombuu · · Score: 5

    They're intelligence tests. Enjoying Dogma and detesting Clippy are prerequisites for intimate relations.

    Do you really have so many potential dates that you felt the need to create an elaborate filtering system?

    --

    DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
  4. Pity? I don't think so. by devphil · · Score: 5
    and you have to pity the poor VP when the *only* reaction he got from the crowd was a massive cheer when he said that clippit was off by default.

    No, I don't have to pity him. I scorn him and their "[un]usability engineers" for not listening to feedback until years after Clippy was released. For looking at the beta testers who swore and smacked the monitor every time the little fscker popped up, and writing off those testers as somehow ignorable.

    For providing a service that when used once in any any application, becomes on by default in every application (even when you've manually disabled it), those morons deserve all the laughter and ridicule they can get.

    I'm not trying to sound bitter and spiteful about the issue, it's just that I am bitter and spiteful, so that's just how I come out sounding.

    --
    You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
  5. What I want to see by babbage · · Score: 4
    Is something, anything, that shows someone bending that damn paperclip back & forth until it snaps in two. Or three. Or many, many more.

    A plugin that allows you to do this in Word would be very cathartic, but I'd be willing to settle for a Flash animation that shows the same effect.

    It looks like you're writing a letter!

    It looks like I need to BREAK YOR FUCKING SPINE!

    Too bad I've never gotten around to learning to use Flash. Hmm.....

    --
    DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
  6. Re:It's not really gone. by fantom_winter · · Score: 5
    I have a few tests. Test 1. Can they watch Dogma for the first time and listen to the dialog instead of complaining about how little action there is.

    Test 2: Do they like the #$@& Paper Clip.

    They're intelligence tests. Enjoying Dogma and detesting Clippy are prerequisites for intimate relations.

    I take it you don't date much...

  7. Well Duh by Geeky+Frignit · · Score: 4

    The virtue of Bayesian algorithms is that they are based on probabilities learned as the system is used. They would only come up when the probabilities reach a point where they show a person is having problems. So, if a person obviously knows how to use MS Office, then the paper clip guy would stay hidden as the evidence nodes of the Bayesian network wouldn't be set by proper use. Therefore the only times the Paperclip agent would show is if you are clicking around aimlessly or if you started writing in a form close to one of their templated forms (i.e. letters).

    Bayesian networks are super cool...I took a grad level course in them as an undergrad my last semester of school.

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    Tired of sitting at that karma cap? Start a flame war today! See just how low you can go!
  8. How do you make Clippy more annoying? by sparcv9 · · Score: 5

    Simple. You give him the voice of Gilbert Gottfried. Microsoft actually has 2 Flash movies on the OfficeClippy.com website, featuring Clippy with the World's most annoying voice ever. Who the Hell thought this was a good idea?

    --

    This is not a Fugazi .sig
  9. Didn't come up often enough? by dasmegabyte · · Score: 5

    What did they want?

    "It looks like you're trying to push the enter key!
    To enable AutoEnter at the end of paragraphs, please click through this ten minute wizard."

    --
    Hey freaks: now you're ju
  10. OH THANK GOD!!! by Peridriga · · Score: 5

    I can finally let just MS Word fuck up my documents instead of relying on that little paper clip to fuck it up for me...

    --- My Karma is bigger than your...
    ------ This sentence no verb

  11. Suicide Note by dev!null!4d · · Score: 5

    User typing: "Dear Loved ones, I just can't take it anymore..."
    Paper Clip Pops Up!: It looks like you are about to take your life, would you like to use?
    (Pills) (Rope) (Knife) (Gun)

    --
    ~www.devnull.co.uk