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Microsoft's iLoo Project A Hoax
minesweeper writes "It appears that the 'iLoo,' a portable toilet with Internet access designed by Microsoft, was actually just a hoax issued by its MSN division in the United Kingdom. In addition to receiving press here on Slashdot, the fake release was also covered by The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, and Reuters. See a diagram of the iLoo here."
and if you were unfortunate enough to have fallen for it, your picture and whatever it was you did in there will soon be posted on the internet for the world to see. Trusted computing my arse
this sig steers like a cow. and i can prove it
unfortunately.. it turns out Longhorn wasn't a hoax. :(
sooo, not only do microsoft talk shit, they talk shit about making things that deal with shit, which end up being as useful as shit, because, in the end, its all shit... :-)
Does that mean the iLoo has gone down the toilet?
So what are the chances MicroSoft thought this was a legit idea upon releasing the concept, only to backpedal and say it was a "joke" a few days later? Seems like and odd joke to me...
click here (don't be afraid, it's not one of those links that are on-topic to this story in their own special way...)
Although having a Portable PC in a Porta-potty doesn't make much sense, it seems like a somewhat good idea in a permament environment.
I mean realistically your going to be sitting down anyway and since your basicially a captive audience you might as well read up on the news or sports while your there. It's better than reading the writing on the wall.
Of course a paper would be just as good, but something like this built into a wall would be more up to date. It doesn't really need to be interactive either. just run headlines, Sport Scores and Stock Market tickers.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
The Open Source communities efforts to build a better shitter?
Come on, when has MS ever hit a release date?
I guess this means I should cancel my GNUPoo project over at SourceForge.
After all, iLoo was already trademarked by Apple, the new toilet from Microsoft will be called Microsoft Shit 1.0.
Here is the Google Cache for the iLoo.
How can your own company hoax itself?!?! This wasn't just some Onion article or fake email everyone sent out. It was a bloody press release! And it was NOT an April Fools Trick as it dates May 2nd.
Gee everybody was fooled into believing the iLoo was real because Microsoft issues a press release saying it was building the darn thing. Really pulled one over on us...
MAYBE the truth is that Microsoft recieved so much bad press over it that they decided to pull the iLoo and pretend it was a joke. If that is the case, aren't there regulations against such things?
Brian...would I have ever thought I would see /. ranked right up there with the big boys:
/. headlines. Hell, he might even stop bitching at me about wasting time reading all that geek drivel, now that he realizes he's been in good company all along.
In addition to receiving press here on Slashdot, the fake release was also covered by The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, and Reuters.
What prestige! I bet my boss wouldn't even notice if I swapped out his beloved Journal with a copy of today's
This time, SFgate is wrong. It's not a hoax. Read the article. It's a legitimate experiment to build a prototype for the Glastonbury festival. It's just that it got so much attention that an embarrassed Microsoft had to say that it wasn't officially sanctioned communication. This does not mean it's a hoax. The SFgate chose a poor headline, especially after the reporter verified that the project was true.
bp
It *could* be just P.R. damage control designed to counter how silly MS was looking. The CNN article I read indicated that the legitimacy of the toilet was attested to by several other MS staffers.