Microsoft Office users in the 1990s likely have less-than-kind memories of "Clippit," also known as "Clippy," one of the assistants introduced in Microsoft Office 1997. The assistant concept was the result of a "tragic misunderstanding of a truly profound bit of scientific research" into how humans interact with computers, prompting Microsoft to attempt anthropomorphizing the experience of computing, to prevent users from-among other things-reacting violently by hitting a computer when it does not perform as expected.
[...]Now, the Microsoft Office team has revived Clippy as an app to provide animated Clippy stickers in chats in Microsoft Teams, the Slack competitor bundled with Microsoft Office 365. Microsoft Teams absorbed Microsoft's previous workplace collaboration software, Skype for Business, in 2017. Skype for Business was introduced in 2015 as a rebranded version of Lync, which was introduced in 2010 as a rebranded Office Communicator.
[...]The Clippy app is thankfully not included by default. It is available on GitHub, available for Office 365 tenant administrators to deploy for their organization. Clippy is depicted in various situations, including "Happy Hour," as well as holding a coffee cup in front of its face(?), reminiscent of 2000-era Paul Thurott aesthetic.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:03PM (9 children)
My life has not been complete since Microsoft killed off Clippy.
He was a good friend, and helped me write many letters. I miss him.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:19PM
Microsoft Reanimates Corpse of Maligned Office Assistant "Clippy" as Teams Snicker App
I could understand why the teams would be snickering. But didn't parse until I recognized the word properly.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:36PM (2 children)
Good thing all that effort in helping him find new work [wikipedia.org] paid off, then!
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:59PM
Hey, Clippy! Remember the '60s?
Yeah!
Then you weren't there!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by drussell on Thursday March 21 2019, @04:24AM
Shouldn't that be something more like "Revenge of the Clippy?" :)
(Score: 5, Funny) by Fluffeh on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:49PM (3 children)
For any Red Dwarf fans out there, it is my belief that Clippy was modelled on Toastie the Toaster. Always doing what he's been told to do, not helping in that process in any way shape or form.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:52PM (2 children)
Talkie Toaster [youtube.com], you smeghead!
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:07PM
Toasty McToastface seems a good compromise to me.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Friday March 22 2019, @01:32AM
Well Yes. I was shooting from the hip there. Guess my luck virus had worn off [youtube.com]. That makes Mr Flibble very cross.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 21 2019, @02:18AM
Except it was a 'her' (grin)
(point: a nod to 'anthropomorphizing the experience')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:22PM (5 children)
Hey, how about this . . .
Make the computer perform as expected and needed. Then they wouldn't react violently. If you're getting a violent reaction, then you're not doing it right. Clippy is not the answer. Clippy is a band-aid type solution.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:38PM (3 children)
Running natural language parser ... done.
"It seems that you've reacted violently and now need a band-aid. Would you like some help in ordering one from Microsoft's clone of Amazon.com?"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:38PM (2 children)
You left out the part about where I must have gotten 'triggered' first. I think that's what they're calling it now.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:59PM (1 child)
Hoo boy, Clippy upgraded and now SJW-enabled. Hey, you could have your choice of SJW Clippy or Tay AI bot [theverge.com] Clippy! I knew that research project would eventually result in something useful.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 21 2019, @01:02AM
krishnoid: "Whaaa! Clippy, I want to complain about SJWs!"
Clippy: "I rose from the dead for this? Hold on, I'll go get Alexa."
(Score: 3, Informative) by SomeGuy on Wednesday March 20 2019, @10:13PM
But then they would have to back down from that bad decision to use that horrid ribbon interface.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:44PM (4 children)
Clippy was nothing more than a reanimated Microsoft Bob [wikipedia.org].
Bob predated the office assistant and was designed for "Least Common Denominator" type of user. Microsoft Bob came to fruition as an abstraction layer on top of Windows 3.1 (which of course was an abstraction layer on top of DOS,) to
bloat the system even moremake the system even easier for non-techies.Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:00PM (2 children)
And Microsoft Bob failed so badly that the lead on it was forced to marry Bill Gates!! True story!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:39PM
Talk about failing upward.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Wednesday March 20 2019, @10:54PM
Could have been worse... they could have worked at Facebook =)
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday March 21 2019, @07:31PM
Oh man, I remember that thing. I used to LOVE Microsoft Bob! Of course, I was about five years old at the time...it came with one of the family's first PCs. I think it was supposed to be an interface but we just treated it as a rather boring game :)
(Score: 4, Touché) by edIII on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:09PM (1 child)
Isn't the corpse of a paper clip still a paper clip?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:13PM
FOUL, FOUL MAGICK
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Funny) by anotherblackhat on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:26PM (2 children)
From memory of a "Wait, wait don't tell me" show.
Gee there are a lot of trees out here.
Is that a Cannoli?
It looks like you're digging a grave, would you like some help with that?
Is this a personal grave, or a business grave?
That looks like a baseball bat, do you want help learning to play baseball?
(Score: 1) by redneckmother on Thursday March 21 2019, @04:06AM (1 child)
Nice guess, but it's actually a garrote. Thanks for playing!
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 21 2019, @11:28AM
does word provide assistance in learning how to garrote a paperclip? or a cloud?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by krishnoid on Wednesday March 20 2019, @10:11PM (1 child)
It would work out great if users did that. But do they? No -- they take it out on the monitor, keyboard and mouse, the most reliable pieces of the computing experience. The computer itself is working fine too -- what we really want is to encourage people to hit the *software*.
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Thursday March 21 2019, @06:01PM
- Jeff Pesis
(Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday March 21 2019, @01:51AM (2 children)
To my dismay the widget isn't showing up in teams for me and the GitHub link is a 404. I am sad now.
(I work for Microsoft. Yes, I know that makes my opinion invalid.)
(Score: 4, Informative) by Rivenaleem on Thursday March 21 2019, @12:02PM (1 child)
Hi, it seems like you are having trouble finding the clippy app on GitHub. I was able to find this for you: https://github.com/mampgmbh/microsoft-teams-clippy-app [github.com]
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday March 28 2019, @05:26PM
...and now that one is gone too. Why didn't I fork it when I had a chance? :(
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 21 2019, @05:45PM
It looks like you are trying to bring back a bit of history we'd all as soon forget.
Would you like help with that?