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The Secret Origins of Microsoft Office's Clippy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the melinda-has-a-lot-to-answer-for dept.

Harry writes "Most folks think that Microsoft Office's Clippy, Microsoft Bob, and Windows XP's Search Assistant dog were perverse jokes — but a dozen years' worth of patent filings shows that Microsoft took the concept of animated software 'helpers' really, really seriously, even long after everyone else realized it was a bad idea. And the drawings those patents contain are weirdly fascinating." The article, a slide show really, spreads over 15 pages.

1 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WAT by Z00L00K · · Score: 0, Troll

    ESPECIALLY the first version of the clip (or it's cousin) that ever originated and did completely lock the UI when you started word until you killed it.

    First time that happened I expected to be able to type right away and thought that Word/Windows just had one of it's usual bombings and therefore a reboot, cleaning of temp directory and checkdisk was done.

    When I tried again it was still stuck - and then I discovered this (censored expression) clip that was there asking me about if I was going to make a suicide letter or whatever...

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.