Vigor's evil assistant! (licensing details at the bottom)

Summary: News about Clippy and about Apple's 'antennagate', which are said to have caused damage to Microsoft's and Apple's reputation, respectively

Thomas Claburn has this new gallery of "Top 10 Most Hated Tech Mascots Ever". At number 1: "Clippy"

Introduced to the world in Microsoft Office '97 for Windows, Clippit the Office Assistant, AKA Clippy, has been declared "one of the worst software design blunders in the annals of computing," by Smithsonian Magazine. And similar sentiments have been expressed in countless other publications, blogs, and videos. Everyone hates Clippy, and such unanimity is rare online. Really, we should be thankful for Clippy as the source of endless mirth.

Here is another new poll of interest (regarding Apple):

About 20 percent of mobile phone users said the antenna problem on the iPhone 4 caused them not to buy one. But more than 60 percent said it was because of Apple's exclusive carrier contract with AT&T--and that they couldn't use carrier Verizon Wireless--that they didn't want the handset.

Apple is believed to have lost executives due to the antenna problem. Apple has been good at taking BSD-licensed code, hacking on it (for proprietary products), and then mass-marketing it using billions of dollars in spendings on brand names. 'Antennagate' helped show that despite all the hype, Apple's products fail just like everything else. ⬆

____

Copyright (c) 2000
Joel Ray Holveck.  All rights reserved.





Copyright (c) 1996, 1997
Sleepycat Software.  All rights reserved.





Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996
Keith Bostic.  All rights reserved.





Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
     The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.





Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
   must display the following acknowledgement:
This product includes software developed by the University of
California, Berkeley and its contributors.
4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
   may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
   without specific prior written permission.





THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.