G'day Mate (Mk III)

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February 24, 2003

iLoo Reflushed

Let's imagine that you had a big company that made crappy products and somebody put out a story about the iLoo. There are a few different responses that you could use. You could ignore it and wait for it to go away. You could jump up and down and lose your temper. Or you could make a complete fool out of yourself.

Apparently the iLoo story which appeared via Microslosh UK was supposed to be an April Fools prank. Small problem with this scenario - it wasn't released in April. In fact there was no indication at all that this was a prank. Everything (including official spokespersons) was consistent with it being a real story. Nevertheless, Microslash expect you to believe that they got their months (and days) mixed up and released an April Fools story in May.

The real story is probably more like this:
Microserf 1: A lot of people are making fun of our new iLoo.
Microserf 2: I don't care, I like surfing while I am on the throne for my 5 minutes alloted toilet break every third day.
Microserf 1: Yes but people are laughing at us.
Microserf 2: Just tell them it was an April Fool's joke.
Microserf 1: But it's not April.
Microserf 2: It is if we say it is!

Oh well, no more potty jokes about crappy software please!

Followup story from AtAT as well (much funnier than anything I can do):

Remember the MSN iLoo? Well, faithful viewer Enrique Gomez tipped us off to an Associated Press article in which Microsoft claims that the whole project was just a hoax, despite the fact that the company's own PR people have repeatedly confirmed that it's real. The thing is, if it was a hoax, it still originated from Microsoft-- there's the official press release, after all, which at broadcast time had yet to be yanked from microsoft.com. Maybe faithful viewer Pat Chekal was right last week when he surmised that it was just an April Fools joke that didn't make it out the door until May; "only five weeks late-- that's way ahead of the usual Microsoft delivery lag." That's certainly possible, we suppose, but to us this whole "it was a hoax" thing smells like classic Microsoft revisionism, à la "those faked tapes we entered into evidence were actually just meant to be an 'illustration.'" After all, if you announced a product that spawned a solid week of ridicule from every sentient being on the planet, wouldn't you like to pretend it was all a joke?

Another variation can be found at "The Register". Also at ABCNews.

Posted by Peskie at February 24, 2003 12:00 PM

Comments

Posted by: Gday Mate - Archive at May 15, 2003 06:05 AM