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The Secret Origins of Clippy: Microsoft’s Bizarre Animated Character Patents
technologizer.com - 1/2/2009
The Secret Origins of Clippy: Microsoft’s Bizarre Animated Character Patents
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Of all the peculiar ideas that Microsoft has pursued over its almost 34 years in business, I can’t think of many that are more inexplicable than its long-standing interest in using animated characters to provide help to users of its software products–an aberration best known in the ...
fudzilla.com - 12/31/2008
Fudzilla: Microsoft getting ready to lay off 17% of staff
— fudzilla.com — Image Worldwide cutbacks The rumor that Microsoft was set to lay off people on January 15th, 2009... is no longer a rumor but a fact. Staff at Microsoft have been informed that the company is readying major layoffs to its worldwide operations and it's ... (more) Fudzilla: Microsoft getting ready to lay off 17% of staff

Comments vote down Joystiq found this 12/31/2008found this
Tough Love For Microsoft Search
searchengineland.com - 12/31/2008
Tough Love For Microsoft Search
— searchengineland.com — Back in June, I spoke at Microsoft as part of a regular series for those involved with... its webmaster tools group and anyone generally interested in search. My talk was called “Tough Love For Microsoft Search,” and I covered various reasons why I felt ... (more) Tough Love For Microsoft Search

Comments vote down Technology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk found this 12/31/2008found this

Blog Reactions

Technologizer:  How Microsoft’s Clippy Got That Way

TechBlog:  Linkpost | 1.3.2009

p2pnet news:  From Clippy to the Virgin Mary

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How Microsoft’s Clippy Got That Way
Technologizer — clippypatents-teaser Think that Microsoft Office’s Clippy was a joke? Microsoft didn’t– Google Patents holds proof of the serious effort that the company poured into ever-unpopular animated “helpers” like Clippy, Microsoft Bob, and the Search Assistant. The whole idea remains baffling, but the drawings that Microsoft filed are weirdly fascinating. I’ve assembled a gallery of highlights. View Secret Origins of Clippy slideshow

The Newsstand That Spawned Microsoft is Set to Close
Technologizer — ... . You gotta assume they would have heard about the Altair one way or another, and it’s therefore silly to posit that if Allen hadn’t stopped to to browse at Out of Town, there would have been no Microsoft, no DOS, no Windows, no Microsoft Mouse, no Microsoft Office, no Microsoft Bob, no MSN, no Clippy , no MSNBC, no Xbox, no Zune, no Gates Foundation, and not a single Blue Screen of Death. But it is Twilight Zone-ish fun to toy with that notion. Within about five years of Allen’s purchase, incidentally, Out of Town played a major role in my own obsession with PCs–for many ...

Linkpost | 1.3.2009
TechBlog — ... - Was it Microsoft itself? • The Secret Origins of Clippy: Microsoft's Bizarre Animated Character Patents - Why is Microsoft obsessed with using cartoon characters to present user help? • ...

From Clippy to the Virgin Mary
p2pnet news — ... For example item five, the ‘Intelligent User Assistance Facility,’ was filed in 1996, he says in Technologizer’s 15-part The Secret Origins of Clippy: Microsoft’s Bizarre Animated Character Patents. ...

24 Hours to Go Until the Macworld Expo Keynote
Technologizer — ... Developers: Don’t Compete With Us? A Few Details About Palm’s New Phone? | Technologizer on Can Nova Save Palm? A Letter From Steve Jobs | Technologizer on Twelve Questions About the Apple-Macworld Expo Breakup Jeff on Microsoft May Have Made $1.5 Billion from Vista Capable Program 14 Microsoft’s WEIRD Animated Characters Patents You Have NEVER Seen Before! | NO BUNS NO LIFE on The Secret Origins of Clippy: Microsoft’s Bizarre Animated Character ...

Live Coverage of Phil Schiller’s Macworld Expo 2009 Keynote
Technologizer — ... Coming Soon to an iPhone Near You Seven Things Windows 7 Needs To Accomplish Sorry, Mr. President Elect: Twitter Gets Hacked Technologizer Community Groups * Windows * Apple/Mac * Linux * Firefox * Google * Digital Photography * Social Networking * Games * Vintage Computing * HDTV/Internet TV Top Posts Patentmania: The Golden Age of Electronic Games The Secret Origins of Clippy: Microsoft's Bizarre Animated Character Patents Apple ...

holdouts
Technologizer — ... * Google * Digital Photography * Social Networking * Games * Vintage Computing * HDTV/Internet TV Top Posts Technologizer's First Annual Game Awards Is Swoopo Nothing More Than a Well-Designed Gimmick? Circuit City Under Siege Apple Patentmania: 31 Years of Big Ideas iFrauds: The Fakest iPods Ever! The T-Grid: BlackBerry Storm vs. iPhone 3G Windows 7: Download It if You Dare The Secret Origins of Clippy: Microsoft's Bizarre Animated Character Patents Needed for Chrome: The ...

Ten of Microsoft’s Ten Thousand Patents
Technologizer — ... or another–either because they’re of things we’re all familiar with, or because they depict stuff that never went anywhere. Microsoft is, of course, a software company first and foremost–and most software patent drawings are mundane diagrams, even when they depict something new and significant. So the ten images that follow skew towards Microsoft’s sideline business of hardware. I like ‘em anyway–and I didn’t repeat any pictures from our gallery of patents relating to anthropomorphic “assistants.” You can view the ...

A funny Microsoft ad? Yes
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) — ... He had a free hand and a big checkbook, and the video that resulted is hip, clever, and fun to watch. We even get a quick glance of Clippy's grave. ...

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