So http://t.co/LVkLz35eRS exists, which reminded me of the woman who talked to Clippy. This is a true story.
— Colin Birge (@WoS) December 18, 2013
What a lot of people didn?t realize was that Clippy, by default, sent anything you asked it to Microsoft, anonymized.
— Colin Birge (@WoS) December 18, 2013
No evil intent. We had no idea who asked what. It was a way of knowing what we?d screwed up. Lots of queries on a topic? Bad feature design.
— Colin Birge (@WoS) December 18, 2013
One day one of the PMs in charge of monitoring Clippy?s logs found a story, told in fragments.
— Colin Birge (@WoS) December 18, 2013
Somebody, probably a woman in the US Midwest, was typing a sentence at a time. Clippy would answer nonsensically. She?d type another one.
— Colin Birge (@WoS) December 18, 2013
She?d lost her job. Her boyfriend was beating her. She was so lonely, and so afraid. All her waking nightmares, told to a paperclip.
— Colin Birge (@WoS) December 18, 2013
We couldn?t help. We didn?t know who she was. We?d gone to great lengths to make sure that we COULD not know who she was.
— Colin Birge (@WoS) December 18, 2013
So we read her story. One sentence after another. Soul-searing honesty, told to a little paperclip that could never, ever answer her.
— Colin Birge (@WoS) December 18, 2013
I often wonder what happened to that woman. I hope she?s okay. I hope she?s happy.
— Colin Birge (@WoS) December 18, 2013
colis de noel d'un géant de l'agroalimentaire aux députés, pour nous aider à légiférer ? #lobby #DirectAN pic.twitter.com/kVqtX7Mmde
— Catherine LEMORTON (@CathLEMORTON) December 19, 2013