Text 15958, 56 rader
Skriven 2007-02-10 16:55:36 av Rich Gauszka (1:379/45)
Ärende: Clippy R.I.P  (1997-2007)
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From: "Rich Gauszka" <gauszka@dontspamhotmail.com>

Murdering bastards  <g>

http://www.appscout.com/2007/02/to_kill_a_paperclip.php
The lights dim. Roll film. The music starts gently at first--it's Boyz II Men's
"End of the Road," possibly, or perhaps Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi." The
film is a montage, candid moments from a life caught on film. Young Clippy is
being brought home from the hospital, in a box alongside the other paperclips
in his litter. Now there's his first head scratch and his first screen tap.
Next it's little Clippy looking sleepy. He's had a long day helping out
confused Office users. There's the time he rode the paper airplane away from
Outlook. Wasn't that exciting? He's such a brave little Office Assistant. Look,
there he is with all of his friends. Doesn't he look happy? There's the Albert
Einstein looking guy, and the dog, and the wizard. Is that Will Shakespeare?
The last scene is a still photo of Clippy standing proudly on his prized piece
of notebook paper. The dates "1997-2007" appear, and then simply, the words
"Goodbye Clippy." The place is packed. There's not a dry eye in the house. Tux
the Linux penguin and Sonic the Hedgehog are seated in the front row, holding
hands, bawling their eyes out.

They didn't show the bad times, of course. The vocal anti-Clippy majority and
the advent of Office XP have been omitted. And of course, neither Bill Gates
nor the Office 2007 Ribbon had the guts to show their faces here. For what it's
worth, Balmer did send a bouquet of orchids, with a note that read, simply,
"RIPPY Clippy."

We here at Appscout.com all felt a bit slighted that we didn't get an invite to
Clippy's wake. A Microsoft spokesperson said that the message got lost in the
mail, and wasn't able to recover from the fatal error. Sure the little guy
could get a bit overbearing, when we were trying to pump out stories on
deadline, but we'll never forget those late night search sessions that Clippy
initiated with glee. And yeah, Office 2007 is cool and all, but will the Ribbon
Interface really fill that paperclip-shaped void in our hearts? We sat down
with Office's Group Program Manager, Jensen Harris, in order to say goodbye to
Clippy, one last time. Eulogy after the jump.

Have a lot of people been asking about the death of Clippy, since the release
of Office 2007?

Not so much recently. He's sort of fallen out of disfavor, so this is probably
his last gasp.

Sadly, it seems like just about everyone that I've spoken with harbored some
dislike for Clippy.

Yeah. Clippy was one of those features that split users in a very passionate
way. There were actually a set of people who did like Clippy, and were sad to
see him go. Some of those were people who just like having an animated cat or
dog on their desktop, and there were people who liked the interface as a way of
getting help. There were also an equal number of people who looked at it as
interference or an annoyance, and even though it was easy to turn off,
represented something of a bad direction in interface design.

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