Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Thursday 12 April 2001, 4:47 PM
Rupert Goodwins' diary
Thursday
12/04/01
Good lord. What new sanity is this? Fuelled with the thrill of killing one mutant undesirable, and drunk with the plaudits of former foes, Microsoft barely paused to wipe the congealed blood from the corporate hatchet before plunging it deep into the grey, slimy flesh of Clippy.
Clippy. You know. That squirming, gurning, smug little paperclip that set up home in the bottom right hand corner of Office screens around the world and would NOT go away. Oh, he was hated. People threatened him with all manner of painful punishment. Exorcisms were conducted, program files patched, endless how-to instructions appeared on the Net, but somehow he just kept coming back.
No more. His time on this earth is done. Microsoft claims that Office XP is so easy to use you don't need that sort of help, but then we all know that XP won't be that easy to use and his sort of help you never needed. I prefer to think that the severed head of a paperclip that Bill Gates found on the pillow one morning was motivation enough...
12/04/01
Good lord. What new sanity is this? Fuelled with the thrill of killing one mutant undesirable, and drunk with the plaudits of former foes, Microsoft barely paused to wipe the congealed blood from the corporate hatchet before plunging it deep into the grey, slimy flesh of Clippy.
Clippy. You know. That squirming, gurning, smug little paperclip that set up home in the bottom right hand corner of Office screens around the world and would NOT go away. Oh, he was hated. People threatened him with all manner of painful punishment. Exorcisms were conducted, program files patched, endless how-to instructions appeared on the Net, but somehow he just kept coming back.
No more. His time on this earth is done. Microsoft claims that Office XP is so easy to use you don't need that sort of help, but then we all know that XP won't be that easy to use and his sort of help you never needed. I prefer to think that the severed head of a paperclip that Bill Gates found on the pillow one morning was motivation enough...
Previous
