Dumb moment in tech

It had to be Micro$oft

[dnimrodx]

Found this @ CNN.com [cnn.com]

(Business 2.0) -- The year is just getting started, and that can mean only one thing: It's time to reflect on the most shameful, dishonest, and just plain stupid tech moments of 2003.

Microsoft: In the crapper?
Part 1 The PC in the WC. On April 30, Microsoft U.K. issues a press release touting a new product called the iLoo, an Internet-enabled toilet equipped with a Wi-Fi broadband connection, a plasma flat screen, a waterproof keyboard, and sponsored toilet paper festooned with Web addresses. According to the release, the iLoo will "allow instant logging on."

Part 2 Johnny on the spot.Twelve days later, after much snickering in morning newspapers and on late-night talk shows, Microsoft flacks back in Redmond come up with a clever strategy for damage control. The iLoo, says spokeswoman Kathy Gill, was merely an "April Fool-like joke."

Part 3 Something doesn't smell right. The next day, realizing that nobody's buying the April-Fool's-joke-29-days-after-April-Fool's-Day explanation, Microsoft calls back reporters and admits that it had told an iLulu: The project was indeed real but has subsequently been killed. "We jumped the gun basically yesterday in confirming that it was a hoax," says MSN group product manager Lisa Gurry. "In fact, it was not."

Think they'll buy the April Fool's joke thing again?
Michael Hanscom, a temp worker at Microsoft's in-house print shop, is fired after posting to his blog a photo that showed workers at the facility taking delivery of several Apple G5 computers. His supervisor insists that Hanscom was fired not for showing the company relying on the product of its chief rival, but for revealing the location of one of its shipping and receiving departments.

[dnimrodx]

I mean,
In a world without walls and fences, who needs windows and gates?

_{Only Micro$oft...}

[bcolflesh]

You realize that was all a hoax, right?:

snopes.com/computer/internet/iloo.asp

Hanscom was fired for breaking his contract (and US law) - he's lucky they didn't press charges - check the archived discussion on /.

[dnimrodx]

No, actually that's not what CNN claims.

The article is about the 'Dumb and dumber moments in tech' of the year 2003.

Check it out here:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/02/05/bus2.feat.dumbest.moments/index.html [cnn.com]

d#Nimrod ;)

[bcolflesh]

I just sent a correction, if it goes through this will be the 147th story I've had corrected on CNN.com (The Fake News Network).

[dnimrodx]

I just sent a correction, if it goes through this will be the 147th story I've had corrected on CNN.com (The Fake News Network).

That is quite impressive . . .

BTW, i did not know about the story at all... i've just read it today. :)