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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff dot com Either everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren Obama. Today we're going

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Speaker 1: to talk about something that a listeners sent in. This

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Speaker 1: is JP from New Jersey who wrote, Hey, Jonathan and Lauren,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to see if you guys would consider doing

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Speaker 1: a podcast about history success, parentheses, Sara kas and closed

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Speaker 1: their entheses, and eventual downfall of Microsoft. Bob keep up

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Speaker 1: the great shows. Thanks JP. We're gonna tackle Bob and

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Speaker 1: we're gonna wrestle him to the ground and probably give

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Speaker 1: him noogies. But then so did the rest of the world. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you don't know what Bob is, don't feel badly

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Speaker 1: about it. It was one of the biggest flops in

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Speaker 1: Microsoft history, I think, one of the biggest flops and

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Speaker 1: kind of history period. Time did this list of the

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Speaker 1: fifty worst inventions ever Time Magazine. Time Magazine, Yeah, back

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Speaker 1: in back, and Bob was on there. I mean, along

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Speaker 1: with like tanning beds and hydrogen blimps. Yeah, hydrogen blimps

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Speaker 1: not such a great thing Microsoft. Bob possibly worse. It's

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Speaker 1: killed killed fewer people killed fewer people, but people dreams

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Speaker 1: died that day when Microsoft Bob came out that this

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Speaker 1: was an interface for Windows three point one, and then

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Speaker 1: later came out, yeah it was. It was also for

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Speaker 1: Windows in t So here's the thing, here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: We're talking about era where the personal computer is starting

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Speaker 1: to get some serious traction but still is not in

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Speaker 1: most homes. In fact, Microsoft, when they were talking about

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Speaker 1: designing Bob and the launch of Bob, they were predicting

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Speaker 1: that by I think it was seven that PCs would

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Speaker 1: be in forty six percent of households, and and and

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Speaker 1: this was that this was a forty six percent in

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Speaker 1: the incredible future. The idea of being is a really

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Speaker 1: big number that Microsoft is crazy to think that that

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Speaker 1: many people would have computers. Well, the problem that Microsoft

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Speaker 1: had identified as something that they needed to solve with

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Speaker 1: brute force is that that someone who is unfamiliar with

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Speaker 1: computers might find the operation of such a device to

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Speaker 1: be intimidating and difficult, and the learning curve might be

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Speaker 1: too too steep for your average person who was not

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Speaker 1: already familiar with computers. And certainly before Windows three point

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Speaker 1: one came out, when it was just doss on say

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Speaker 1: just doss operation. You know, I'm simply saying that it

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Speaker 1: was perhaps not the most friendly thing to greet a

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Speaker 1: person just just lines of code on a screen. I

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Speaker 1: didn't need a friend, I needed an operating system. That's

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Speaker 1: what Does gave me. And that's kind of that is

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Speaker 1: kind of what what McIntosh was doing at the time.

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Speaker 1: And and and Apple was was kind of kicking a

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Speaker 1: lot of button that arena because they were giving people

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Speaker 1: something more friendly, more user friendly, and a little bit

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Speaker 1: more intuitive, right and keep in minding of course, Apple

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Speaker 1: had a big jump on other computers because the Apple

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Speaker 1: to a very popular personal computer among mostly hobbyists and

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Speaker 1: people who were interested in computers. Because again that was

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Speaker 1: that was in the line command days, we had the

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Speaker 1: type stuff in is when Apple introduced the Macintosh and

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Speaker 1: the graphics user interface. Apple of course was not the

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Speaker 1: the company to invent the graphic excuser interface, but they

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Speaker 1: were the first ones to really successfully implement it in

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Speaker 1: a personal computer platform, and people liked it. It was

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Speaker 1: one of those things where things just made more sense.

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Speaker 1: It was it was it was a little more intuitive

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Speaker 1: than having to type and memorize all these different commands

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Speaker 1: that you would type into just get your computer to

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Speaker 1: do stuff. Well, Microsoft wanted to kind of um create

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Speaker 1: its own graphic unit user interface, and that was the

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Speaker 1: genesis of the Windows program. But even then they thought,

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Speaker 1: there's gotta be a way of making this simpler for

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Speaker 1: the average person. Now, to really look at the development

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Speaker 1: of Bob, you have to go back a few years

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Speaker 1: before Bob was a thing. And so back in nine

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Speaker 1: Microsoft launched a program called Microsoft Publisher. It's a desktop

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Speaker 1: publishing program and it was the first program from Microsoft

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Speaker 1: that included Wizards. Now, wizards are not you know, it's

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Speaker 1: not Harry Potter coming out and waving a wan saying

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Speaker 1: regard um leviosa or a laho mora or uh avauta cadavera.

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Speaker 1: It's instead a little a little help pop up. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's supposed to guide you through a complicated process step

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Speaker 1: by step. So this was a big help for someone

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Speaker 1: who maybe was not familiar with this particular process or

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Speaker 1: along on the directions as opposed to having to thumb

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Speaker 1: through a four page manual, right and and and Microsoft

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Speaker 1: Publisher was was pretty popular. It was designed by Karen

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Speaker 1: Fries and Barry Lynnette, Yeah, and Karen Fryes is going

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Speaker 1: to become important in a little bit and uh. And

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Speaker 1: right when when they were you know, they had finished

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Speaker 1: with publisher, it was out in the world, it was

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Speaker 1: doing great, and they were like, what else can we do?

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Speaker 1: What is our next project? We want to keep helping newbs.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure if Neubs was a yeah, no, but

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Speaker 1: that's that's that's exactly you know, we're going to translate

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Speaker 1: it for the kids of today. We're really the kids

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Speaker 1: of about six seven years ago. But anyway, yes, uh,

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Speaker 1: they wanted to continue to develop software that would help

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Speaker 1: people who otherwise would be unfamiliar and maybe intimidated by software.

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Speaker 1: So that's when they started to look into the possibility

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Speaker 1: of developing a full graphics user interface designed with these

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Speaker 1: nudes in mind. Originally they were calling it Data Wizard,

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Speaker 1: and then that eventually had the code name Utopia, but

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Speaker 1: by the time it was finally going to launch, it

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Speaker 1: had of course changed to Microsoft Bob is designed as

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Speaker 1: an alternative interface, as as Lauren said earlier, for Windows

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Speaker 1: three point one and even Windows and Team It's supported

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Speaker 1: programs designed for Bob, so it supported its own programs

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Speaker 1: designed for that operating system or rather that user interface. Uh.

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Speaker 1: It also supported Windows programs and supported DOS programs. So

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Speaker 1: the idea was that this would be able to support

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Speaker 1: anything that a person would want to run on a PC.

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Speaker 1: So but but you know, through through this filter that

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Speaker 1: would allow people who are unfamiliar with computers to to

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Speaker 1: set everything up the way they would want it, you know,

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Speaker 1: with with minimum complication. Right. So, so Karen Fries became

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Speaker 1: the the project lead for this particular project. The lead

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Speaker 1: developer was a guy named Gabe Newell. Do you recognize

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Speaker 1: that name? Gabe Newbell. Newell was one of the co

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Speaker 1: founders of Valve. Yeah. So Gabe Newell also, uh, someone

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Speaker 1: who in his post Microsoft years, which are the last

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Speaker 1: like two and a half decades, has been, um, well,

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Speaker 1: I guess I should they the last two decades, has

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Speaker 1: been more than a little critical of his old company. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He's He's definitely leveled some pretty hefty criticisms against some

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Speaker 1: major Microsoft releases. But he worked on on Microsoft Bob.

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Speaker 1: Maybe that's what kind of left a certain, uh bad

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Speaker 1: taste in his mouth or something. I can see that. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And the the person at Microsoft who was kind of

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Speaker 1: overseeing the whole thing. Who was guiding it was uh. Well,

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Speaker 1: when she first started working on the project, her name

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Speaker 1: was Melinda French, but then kind of in the middle

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Speaker 1: of it, she became Melinda Gates. Yes, so Bill Gates's wife.

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Speaker 1: Melinda was the head of the whole marketing marketing side.

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Speaker 1: But also, you know, she was essentially kind of like

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Speaker 1: the face. She was a cheerleader and it certainly yeah,

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Speaker 1: which which led some people to suggest, perhaps snarkily or

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Speaker 1: maybe not even perhaps snarkily definitely that the reason why

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Speaker 1: Bob went as far as it did was because of

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Speaker 1: who was behind it, as opposed to the merits of

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Speaker 1: the operating system. But let's be fair, the idea behind

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Speaker 1: Bob was solid. It was a solid idea of let's

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Speaker 1: create something that is very accessible and intuitive and comforting,

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Speaker 1: and and they try to use some really hard data

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Speaker 1: to support their design decisions. They actually uh contacted a

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Speaker 1: couple of professors from Stanford to act as project consultants,

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Speaker 1: Clifford Nas and Byron Reeves, and they their their area

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Speaker 1: of specially it was figuring out, well, how how do

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Speaker 1: people communicate, how do they access information, how do they

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Speaker 1: process information? And their point of view is that the

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Speaker 1: more natural you can make an interaction, the more readily

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Speaker 1: someone will understand it and adapt and want to interact

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Speaker 1: with it. Exactly, So you have to create an environment

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Speaker 1: that it just it feels natural and makes sense. Now,

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Speaker 1: that's obviously a very a very clear motivation. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we we've seen that in products since I think the

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Speaker 1: iPad is a great example of that. It was a

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Speaker 1: design where it's very intuitive to use. You give an

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Speaker 1: iPad to a kid, that kid masters the iPad and

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Speaker 1: no time flat, without ever having to ask how something works. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they've they've they've done those those great studies in in

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Speaker 1: Africa with kids who can't even read, have never been

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Speaker 1: exposed to anything like this before, and they just take

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Speaker 1: off with it. Yeah. So I mean that that's sort

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Speaker 1: of the idea here. They wanted to design something that

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Speaker 1: had that same sort of approach and appeal so that

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Speaker 1: they could help people who otherwise would be intimidated by computers.

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Speaker 1: So on January seven, Bill Gates took the stage at

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Speaker 1: c E S and unveiled Bob. He showed off also

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Speaker 1: a future project that was Bob related, called p D,

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Speaker 1: which was a c G I parrot that could respond

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Speaker 1: to verbal requests. And then on March thirty one, they

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Speaker 1: released Microsoft Bob Ah. The full retail price if you're

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Speaker 1: buying the full thing was as but it mostly sold

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Speaker 1: that around ninety, which still pretty expensive soft. Yeah yeah,

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Speaker 1: and by comparison today, due to inflation, that that would

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Speaker 1: be worth about a hundred and forty so whereas Windows

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Speaker 1: eight costs about ninety on the market. Yeah, yeah, so

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Speaker 1: it definitely was a little expensive. It said on the

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Speaker 1: box that did not come with a manual, but it

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Speaker 1: came with a manual, or at least it was called

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Speaker 1: Bob's Magazine, so it was trying to be packaged not

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Speaker 1: as manual, but it was a twenty nine page list

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Speaker 1: of instructions. And uh, did you hear about Microsoft Press

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Speaker 1: and the book that they published. I did not what happened?

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Speaker 1: They published a book called At Home with Bob At

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Speaker 1: Home with Bob, which was a companion guide, and it

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Speaker 1: was two hundred and ten pages long. Goodness, migracious, that's

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Speaker 1: a lot of guide for something that doesn't need a

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Speaker 1: guy tot all. Yeah, that's when you don't need a guide,

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Speaker 1: you go wholeheartedly down to your Microsoft I teased them.

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Speaker 1: I certainly couldn't build a graphics user interface at all.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about what Bob was really like? What? What, how? How? How?

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Speaker 1: What kind of operating our user interface was it? Just

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Speaker 1: just for perspective, real quick, um, Bob was was dead

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Speaker 1: in the water by early To give you an idea

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Speaker 1: of how well this went, Microsoft pulled the plug in

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Speaker 1: nineties six. So when it went less than a full

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Speaker 1: year before, Microsoft said all right, this is this is

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Speaker 1: not gonna work. And we'll get into why they made

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Speaker 1: that decision. And some people might even argue that it

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Speaker 1: was kind of a like the deck was stacked against them,

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Speaker 1: that that Bob was not as horrible as it but

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Speaker 1: it was given credit for I disagree for one major reason,

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Speaker 1: but I'll get into that in the in a little

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Speaker 1: bit later in the podcast. So, so here we have

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Speaker 1: the idea. The whole idea is let's create a graphics

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Speaker 1: user interface. It's very relatable and easy to use and

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Speaker 1: and intuitive. How did Microsoft go about it? What was Bob?

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Speaker 1: Bob was a it was a how it was? It was?

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Speaker 1: You you enter Bob's house, and in Bob's house there

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Speaker 1: are visual representations of everything that you would hypothetically want

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Speaker 1: to do with your computer exactly, Like like there's a

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Speaker 1: there's a living room that you're looking into, right, so

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Speaker 1: and so Instead of a desktop where you have icons

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Speaker 1: that you click on, you're looking into a clip art

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Speaker 1: living room. Vector graphics. Yes, two and fifty six colors,

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Speaker 1: super fancy. Yeah. If if you don't, if you've never

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Speaker 1: seen pictures, link them, it's spectacular. Anyone who's used any

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Speaker 1: of the old Microsoft Office products that had lots and

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Speaker 1: lots of clip art in them, and you've looked through

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Speaker 1: those clip arts and you've thought, wow, that's what Bob

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Speaker 1: was made up of. And there was a lot of

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Speaker 1: animation involved. Every everything was kind of cute. See, yes,

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Speaker 1: everything was very cartoonish. And you have a personal assistant,

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Speaker 1: a series of personal assistants, and the one that it

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Speaker 1: came the standard one, the one that would just be

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Speaker 1: there as soon as you started up, was Rover Retriever.

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Speaker 1: The personal assistance would later come into play in versions

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Speaker 1: of Microsoft Office, like Microsoft Office nineties seven. We'll get

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Speaker 1: into that too. So, um, anyway, you're that your guide

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Speaker 1: when you first start off as Rover Retriever. You could

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Speaker 1: change him later and I think that'll be fun to

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Speaker 1: talk about when we get into the features list. It's exciting. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I got I got a couple of things I want

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Speaker 1: to say about some of those those guys. But before

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Speaker 1: we do that, I want to I want to talk

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Speaker 1: about what it was like to first enter. So so

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna I'm gonna paint you a picture with words.

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Speaker 1: So you you activate Microsoft Bob. You know, you've installed

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Speaker 1: it on your computer, assuming your computer could run it.

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Speaker 1: We'll get into that too, And when it first starts,

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Speaker 1: you are greeted by the sight of a big red door.

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Speaker 1: And in the center of that big red door is

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Speaker 1: a gold door knocker, and that door knocker says Microsoft

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Speaker 1: Bob on it. So you have to click on the knocker,

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Speaker 1: which then makes the knocker knock on the door. And

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Speaker 1: you didn't have to have a sound card with Bob,

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Speaker 1: but it was recommended because there were many noises, so

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Speaker 1: many noises, including one such your personal assistant would occasionally

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Speaker 1: make at you. But you would knock on the door

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Speaker 1: and Rover retriever shows up and says, uh, hey, s

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Speaker 1: you're trying to break into my house. Actually, he says,

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Speaker 1: I know you're coming in. Uh click on who you

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Speaker 1: are and a little list pops up. Now on your

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Speaker 1: first visit, there's no one. You can't select a name

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Speaker 1: because you haven't gotten and registered one yet, so the

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Speaker 1: only choice that's there is guest. So guest was there

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Speaker 1: so that you could let a friend log in without

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Speaker 1: having to create a full account and use your computer

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Speaker 1: to do whatever, the same way that Windows works today. Right,

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Speaker 1: so you could click guests. But if you did click guests, uh,

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Speaker 1: then you would get another message from Rover whould say,

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Speaker 1: are you sure you don't want to go ahead and

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Speaker 1: create a profile? Well I didn't really see that option earlier,

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Speaker 1: but sure, why not? Let's let's let's make a profile.

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Speaker 1: So Rover would then ask if you are new to

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Speaker 1: the home or if you had once been on the

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Speaker 1: list but now can no longer find your name on

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Speaker 1: the list because one of the things you can do

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Speaker 1: is add and remove people, or really you can remove

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Speaker 1: people from the list once you've joined it. So this

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Speaker 1: would be something like, let's say that you know you've

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Speaker 1: kicked your no good son out of the house because

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Speaker 1: he's thirty four and really he needs to go and

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Speaker 1: make his own way in the world. Now, I'm just

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Speaker 1: using this as a hypothetical. I don't have a kid,

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Speaker 1: and if I had a kid, it was thirty four.

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Speaker 1: I have a lot of explained to do. Anyway, So

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Speaker 1: you kicked your thirty four year old son out of

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Speaker 1: the house, and you've changed it. You've removed him from

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Speaker 1: Microsoft Bob, so if he does come back, he's not

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Speaker 1: gonna be able to use the computer. That would be

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Speaker 1: the reason for that, right, So you would have to

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Speaker 1: answer that question like are you new or were you

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Speaker 1: essentially kicked off? So let's say that you're new. You know,

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Speaker 1: this is your first time using Bob. You haven't alienated

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Speaker 1: yourself from your friends and family yet, So you click

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Speaker 1: on new. Then it asks you to enter in your

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Speaker 1: first name, your preferred name, your last name, your hometown,

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Speaker 1: your birthday, and your gender, which you could set to

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Speaker 1: not telling. But every yea, every single field required you

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Speaker 1: gotta film and and this will come back later because

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Speaker 1: these little these little cartoon guides needed to know things

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Speaker 1: about you so that they could talk to you about Stuffy. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they did, So you filled this part out. Now you're

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Speaker 1: prompted to create a password for your account. And one

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Speaker 1: of the funny things I thought about this was that

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Speaker 1: it actually explains to you what the asterisks are as

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Speaker 1: you type in your password. You know how the password

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Speaker 1: field starts filling up with asterisks, because if it showed

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Speaker 1: you in plain text what the password was, that wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be very secure. Yeah, someone staying behind you could see it,

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Speaker 1: and so it actually explains that concept in But again,

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Speaker 1: Bob's design for people who are brand new to compute, right, No, no,

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Speaker 1: I I can see someone, um you know, for for example,

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Speaker 1: my grandmother plays a lot of solitaire, but is mostly

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Speaker 1: confused about other things on computers that could be useful. Right,

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Speaker 1: So so yeah, if you're sitting there thinking, wait, I

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Speaker 1: didn't hit the asterisk button, why is that popping up,

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Speaker 1: it would actually explain it to me. It sounds silly

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Speaker 1: simply because I've been using computers for so long it's

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Speaker 1: hard for me to even imagine that. But then again,

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Speaker 1: I was not the target market for Bob. Uh, I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure who was. So then after that point, after

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Speaker 1: you created it, you had to type in your password

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Speaker 1: a second time. Uh, And if you misstype the password

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Speaker 1: the second time, you would get a prompt telling you

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Speaker 1: that it did not match the first password, and you

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Speaker 1: had to try again that's going to become really important

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Speaker 1: in a little while. So next you would then, once

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Speaker 1: you get through the password creation process, you would enter

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Speaker 1: in your actual address and time zone, so not just

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Speaker 1: your hometown, your full address. And again it's required, so

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Speaker 1: you had to put the whole thing in there and

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Speaker 1: the time zone that you are in. Then you would

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Speaker 1: have to create at least one private room. So remember

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Speaker 1: Bob is a house. Most of those rooms in that

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Speaker 1: house are public when it starts off, which means that

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Speaker 1: anyone who joins on your computer can access those public rooms.

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Speaker 1: But if you wanted to create a private room where

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Speaker 1: only your stuff would be, like you know, programs that

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Speaker 1: you only want to have access to, you could do that.

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Speaker 1: Um So, if if you wanted to access a private room,

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Speaker 1: you would have to be logged in under that I

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Speaker 1: d so uh Lauren would not be able to go

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Speaker 1: into my room because of that, except we'll talk about

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Speaker 1: how she totally could do that pretty soon. And then

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Speaker 1: finally the last step would be that you would it

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Speaker 1: would ask you if it wanted to import other programs

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Speaker 1: besides the Bob programs that came standard with Microsoft Bob.

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Speaker 1: So I would ask if you wanted to import Dawson

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Speaker 1: Windows programs. Uh. That step is absolutely necessary. If you

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Speaker 1: had completely lost your mind to decide to use Bob

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Speaker 1: as your graphics user interface for everything and say I'm

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Speaker 1: not using any other interface at all, just Bob, you

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Speaker 1: would need to be able to import those other programs.

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Speaker 1: So that's the that's the process of creating your Bob account.

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Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the the the different features

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Speaker 1: of Bob, the software that came with it, some of

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Speaker 1: these uh, some of these assistants everything. Once that door

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Speaker 1: opens and uh, and I'll start off with the big

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Speaker 1: security flaw right after we take a short break, all

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Speaker 1: right back to Bob. So you know I mentioned that

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Speaker 1: there was a big security flaw. So Lauren, UM, let's

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Speaker 1: say that you you have got Microsoft Bob. I've got

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Speaker 1: a profile on there. Password, You've created a profile, You've

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Speaker 1: created a password. Whenever you need to log in, you

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00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,440
Speaker 1: have to put your password in and you have one

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Speaker 1: of the one of the pieces of software and we'll

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Speaker 1: talk more about them in a minute, but one of

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Speaker 1: the pieces of software there's is Bob is Bob's Checkbook.

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Speaker 1: The idea that's a financial software so that you can

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Speaker 1: you know manage your home finances. So presumably there could

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Speaker 1: be some pretty pretty private information in that. And let's

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Speaker 1: say you've you've thought of that, and you've actually put

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Speaker 1: that particular program in your private, private room. So yeah,

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00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:10,440
Speaker 1: it's not in the public room, so I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: just happen across it. If it were in a public room,

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Speaker 1: that would be bad. Um. But you've created your password

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Speaker 1: and everything, and then I think, huh, I really want

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Speaker 1: to learn what Lauren's bank account number is, so I

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Speaker 1: try and log in as Lauren. When you try and

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Speaker 1: log in and you don't have the right password, after

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Speaker 1: three attempts, it says, I, you know that's not the

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Speaker 1: right password. Do you want to reset your password? And

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Speaker 1: you say yes. Instead of it then taking you to

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Speaker 1: like sending an email or linking you somehow, there's because

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00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:46,440
Speaker 1: it's looking for nubs. It's saying, well, I guess I'll

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00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,520
Speaker 1: just let you reset your password right now. So I

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00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:51,199
Speaker 1: could then reset Lauren's password, so not only would I

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Speaker 1: have access to her account, I would lock her out

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Speaker 1: have access to my account anymore. Wow, that's until you

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Speaker 1: tried to enter the password three times, and then you

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Speaker 1: could reset yourself, and so it essentially just become the

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00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:02,879
Speaker 1: two of us resetting that password over and over and

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Speaker 1: over again until you gave up and said, I do

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Speaker 1: not want this on my computer. Huge, huge security flaw.

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00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:13,320
Speaker 1: Nothing is private. Well yeah, that's uh, that's at the idea.

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00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:14,960
Speaker 1: I had not heard about that part of it, and

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00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:17,280
Speaker 1: that is very special. And I wouldn't even need to

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Speaker 1: have an account. I mean, all I would need is

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00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:22,240
Speaker 1: access to your computer because just going in as a guest,

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Speaker 1: I could do that. And uh yeah, so there was

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Speaker 1: no such thing as privacy or security with Bob. It

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00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:33,880
Speaker 1: had this just ridiculously massive vulnerability. Uh. And you might

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00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,000
Speaker 1: as well not even have a password system at that point,

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00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,120
Speaker 1: because if all it takes is three failed log ins

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00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:41,240
Speaker 1: and then you can reset the password, that's that's like

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00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,360
Speaker 1: having no password at all. Uh. Same sort of problems

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00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:49,640
Speaker 1: existed with removing people from a list. So let's say that, um,

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Speaker 1: let's let's have an interesting hypothetical situation here. Let's say

400
00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:55,640
Speaker 1: that for some reason, how stuff works decides to switch

401
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:58,679
Speaker 1: completely over to Microsoft Bob and we all have a

402
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:04,600
Speaker 1: shared environment. That sounds like the worst thing. And we'll

403
00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:06,840
Speaker 1: talk about more reasons why there's for us in a second.

404
00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:08,840
Speaker 1: But all right, so we have a shared environment. One

405
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:12,719
Speaker 1: of the things anyone can do, whether they are logged

406
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:16,680
Speaker 1: into Microsoft Bob or not, is remove someone from that list.

407
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:20,160
Speaker 1: So I could go in and say, Josh, creepy hands Clark,

408
00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:25,280
Speaker 1: you do not get access to the computer anymore. Delete Josh,

409
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 1: even as a guest could say, guess what, Jonathan, neither

410
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:31,880
Speaker 1: can you delete? Or guess what job that I'm gonna

411
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:35,639
Speaker 1: log in as you password, password, password reset? You know,

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00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 1: it's just ridiculous and um. And part of the supposed

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Speaker 1: appeal of Bob was that you could change the decor

414
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,000
Speaker 1: of any room. Right, you can make a room look

415
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:49,359
Speaker 1: the way you wanted based upon the clippard that you're

416
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:53,399
Speaker 1: haun available. They had windows in these rooms, so you

417
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:56,000
Speaker 1: can change the scenery outside. Yeah, you can make it

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00:22:56,080 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: like a space or field pretty unset. Yeah. Again, keep

419
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,119
Speaker 1: in mind this is all clip art based stuff. But

420
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:06,840
Speaker 1: that meant that anyone else could do the same thing,

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00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,160
Speaker 1: especially especially in the public rooms. So public rooms, anyone

422
00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 1: could go in there, move stuff around, change the layout,

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Speaker 1: delete things, put new things in, which means that if

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00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:19,720
Speaker 1: Lauren lugs in and she says, oh, this doesn't make

425
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 1: any sense, I'm gonna rearrange everything so that makes sense

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00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:25,040
Speaker 1: to to the way my brain works. And she lays

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00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:26,880
Speaker 1: that out and an eyeglog and I'm like, this doesn't

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00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:28,359
Speaker 1: make any sense, and I change it all around so

429
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:30,400
Speaker 1: it makes sense to me. Lauren lugs back in. It's

430
00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:32,760
Speaker 1: changed completely from the last time she used it, and

431
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:35,760
Speaker 1: it's going every time someone uses it and changes it,

432
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:38,359
Speaker 1: it's going to be affective. Now in the example I'm using,

433
00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:42,080
Speaker 1: I'm suggesting that somehow we all have a networked user

434
00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:46,560
Speaker 1: interface that is as persistent across all our computers. In reality,

435
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:49,680
Speaker 1: we're talking about one machine one one PC in a home.

436
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,439
Speaker 1: But if it's a family PC and everyone logs into it,

437
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:55,560
Speaker 1: then the kids could sit there and say like, I

438
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,720
Speaker 1: don't like that chair, delete and uh. Same thing for

439
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:02,159
Speaker 1: the programs. The programs will be represented by various objects

440
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,359
Speaker 1: right right. Either the main ones were by objects in

441
00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:08,399
Speaker 1: the room, and anything that you added in from Windows

442
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 1: or daughter, etcetera would be a little file box with

443
00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:12,959
Speaker 1: an icon on the front of it. Right, So if

444
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:16,240
Speaker 1: you wanted to to activate any of those, uh, those

445
00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 1: main programs, you would have to click on the icon,

446
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:21,640
Speaker 1: but you could actually change the size of the icon.

447
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:25,560
Speaker 1: So if you're if you thought, you know, that checkbook

448
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 1: needs to be three times the size that it currently is,

449
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:31,399
Speaker 1: you could totally do that. So it was chaos. You know,

450
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:33,920
Speaker 1: if you had more than one user using that computer,

451
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 1: there was no guarantee that your experience was going to

452
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:40,320
Speaker 1: be remotely similar from one instance to the next, So

453
00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:43,880
Speaker 1: that was a big issue as well. Um, that's also

454
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 1: less intuitive. I mean, if you're if you're designing this

455
00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 1: for someone who really doesn't know what they're doing, I

456
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:51,439
Speaker 1: can't imagine that that would be helpful. Yeah, and uh

457
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,960
Speaker 1: and once you had that that profile created in your

458
00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:58,280
Speaker 1: inside the Home of Microsoft Bob, you had the opportunity

459
00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,080
Speaker 1: to take the home tour. The home tour did not

460
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,760
Speaker 1: leave the room you were in, so whatever room you

461
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 1: were in, you would stay in there for the home

462
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,640
Speaker 1: tour and it would get go through about sixteen prompts

463
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:14,440
Speaker 1: of information. Uh. So we had someone on Facebook asked

464
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:18,960
Speaker 1: us a question specifically saying, is this where Clippy came from? Yes?

465
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,879
Speaker 1: And no. The assistance that you could get in Bob

466
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 1: were acting very much in the same way that Clippy

467
00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 1: on Microsoft Office ninety seven and word would perform. You know,

468
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:31,639
Speaker 1: that like, I see you're trying to write a resume,

469
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 1: would you like some help? Same sort of thing was

470
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:36,560
Speaker 1: in Bob. In fact, that was one of the few

471
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,640
Speaker 1: things to carry over into other Microsoft products. Yeah. Also,

472
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,439
Speaker 1: the dog from the Windows XP search function was basically

473
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:47,879
Speaker 1: retriever U there. When we talk about some of the

474
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 1: other personal assistants, you'll recognize that at least one of

475
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:53,240
Speaker 1: them did make it into Microsoft Office. A Clippy was

476
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:57,280
Speaker 1: not in Bob, but he Clippy, in his own little way,

477
00:25:57,359 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 1: was hated just as much as Bob was. Um. So yeah,

478
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:02,399
Speaker 1: you could uh and and you would have to go

479
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 1: from room to room inside Bob in order to access

480
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 1: all the different programs, and that was not always the

481
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,200
Speaker 1: most intuitive thing to do, which was unfortunate considering that

482
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 1: the whole purpose of Bob was to make using computers

483
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:18,160
Speaker 1: even easier. Um and so yeah, you could just sit

484
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 1: there and change out clip art to your heart's content.

485
00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:22,200
Speaker 1: So I guess we can talk a little bit about

486
00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 1: about the actual requirements the software and and sort of

487
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 1: a little bit more about the navigation that once you're

488
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,760
Speaker 1: in Bob. Um. I'm still reeling over the fact that

489
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 1: essentially everyone had administrative rights on Bob no matter what,

490
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:39,919
Speaker 1: whether they were logged in or not. That's kind of crazy,

491
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,159
Speaker 1: all right, Okay, So so the so the programs that

492
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 1: came native to Bob included a household Manager UM, which

493
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 1: was kind of kind of kind of life tips and

494
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 1: home organizational kind of things like if you needed it

495
00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: to do list or something like that. I think that

496
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,400
Speaker 1: that was part of that function. Yeah, you could also

497
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,520
Speaker 1: do that out of the calendar as well. Um. It

498
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,440
Speaker 1: did have a note on it that the textual information

499
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,760
Speaker 1: may not be accurate or complete, and it's not intended

500
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 1: to replace consultation with a professional, which really entertains me

501
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,720
Speaker 1: because I'm like, yeah, we're just we just wrote some stuff. Anyway,

502
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 1: there was the Bob letter Writer, Yes, we should help

503
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 1: you write letter. I see you're trying to write a letter,

504
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 1: And that was very much like Clippy, to the point

505
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:22,159
Speaker 1: where you could tell Bob what sort of letter you

506
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:24,560
Speaker 1: were writing and to what sort of person you were writing,

507
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,120
Speaker 1: and it would fill out. It would auto fill out

508
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:31,960
Speaker 1: an entire letters very awful, might not at all related

509
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: to what you want to say. Um. I almost only

510
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: want to communicate in those now, just to see how

511
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: how far I could get using only Bob created letters. Uh,

512
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,480
Speaker 1: and and just see if I could communicate my point

513
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 1: across through auto film messages. So Lauren, you've got something

514
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:53,239
Speaker 1: to look forward to in the upcoming week. Thank you,

515
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 1: Thank you Microsoft for making this possible. Um No, I'm sorry, Microsoft,

516
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 1: Please don't please don't kill me. Um. There's a financial

517
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 1: guide Bob Checkbook, which was also compatible with Microsoft's money software. Right.

518
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: Uh that calendar that Jonathan mentioned, an address book. You

519
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,399
Speaker 1: could sign up for a Bob email account. I totally

520
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 1: wish I had one of those. This was this was

521
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 1: It was an extra charge at the time and went

522
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:22,880
Speaker 1: only through a proprietary email client. You couldn't just sign

523
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: up any email client that you want to take through

524
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 1: the system. Still. And then Geo Safari the game. It

525
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 1: was a little game with an education. There were a

526
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,280
Speaker 1: couple of There are a couple of of little assistance

527
00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:38,400
Speaker 1: that would pop up for specific programs, and one of

528
00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:40,680
Speaker 1: them was a little elephant guy who would pop up

529
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:42,560
Speaker 1: in Geo Safari. So while you're playing the game, this

530
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,440
Speaker 1: little elephant dude shows up and asks you questions about

531
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: various areas or even not just geography, but also animals.

532
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 1: So I actually watched a video of this demonstrated where

533
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 1: a person was playing it, and it gave you pairs

534
00:28:57,080 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 1: of animals and explained their relationship to each other. So

535
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,960
Speaker 1: shark and fish would be predator and prey, uh. And

536
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: then a what was the one like a shark and

537
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: a lamprey would be a partner animal partnership, so a

538
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: symbiotic relationship. And then like a deer and a tick,

539
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 1: which would be a parasite parasitic relationship. And then what

540
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 1: it would do is it would show you two animals

541
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:22,040
Speaker 1: and you had to figure out which of those three

542
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 1: categories those two animals would would fall into that that

543
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,960
Speaker 1: pair would fall into. So that was an example of

544
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 1: that GeoSafari game. But most of the game, from what

545
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 1: I understand, was really more of geography than uh than biology,

546
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: right anyway, So that was one of those little assistances

547
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:39,479
Speaker 1: that would pop up for a specific instance. But there

548
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,360
Speaker 1: were other assistants as well, right, Yeah, we had I've

549
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 1: got a whole list here. We've got blithe the firefly, hopper,

550
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:51,760
Speaker 1: the bunny, or be the globe ruby. Uh. It was

551
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: it was basically an angry bird before before angry birds

552
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 1: were a thing. Um Shelly the turtle, speaker, the the

553
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 1: a speaker. It was a little a little icon of

554
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 1: a of a like a noise making computer speak. Um,

555
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: Chaos the cat, Java the dinosaur. I think, Scus the rat.

556
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 1: Scuse the mouse. It was a mouse, not a rat. Hey, no,

557
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:19,240
Speaker 1: just goes a link to a blind dot digger the worm.

558
00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 1: Um and William Shakespeare are the ones you forgot. The

559
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 1: most important one of the two important ones. There's the dot.

560
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,040
Speaker 1: The dot. It was a giant red dot, okay, with

561
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 1: the big smiley face. But the most important one was

562
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:39,480
Speaker 1: Bode Laire, the French gargoyle. How could you leave out

563
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:41,960
Speaker 1: bode Laire, the French gargoyle? I had I had heard

564
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 1: tell of a gargoyle, but I didn't have its name,

565
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,120
Speaker 1: and I didn't I didn't want to. His name was

566
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 1: Bode Laire. Well, he's a gargoyle who was French. Yeah.

567
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 1: And each of these, each of these assistants had its

568
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 1: own kind of personality in a way, in the sense

569
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:58,080
Speaker 1: that it would some of them would be a little

570
00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: more active than others, so Um would would be faster

571
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 1: to jump in and offer suggestions than others. Apparently, Scuzzie

572
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 1: the mouse was really apathetic just just didn't care. Botelaire

573
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,840
Speaker 1: was supposedly very quiet unless you specifically clicked on bodel

574
00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 1: Aire to to get some help. Some of them were

575
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 1: a little more proactive, right, And they all had different

576
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 1: different words that they would use. They had a different vocabulary,

577
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 1: and for example, one of the words that Rover really

578
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:28,160
Speaker 1: liked using was scrumptious, as as in, I'm just one

579
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:30,600
Speaker 1: of a scrumptious gang of personal guides here to help

580
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 1: you find your way in the home dog. Uh blythe

581
00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: would say OI a lot, I'm not joking back off

582
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: like that kind of thing. Yeah, because I read up

583
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,320
Speaker 1: on these. Um yeah, So so anyway, they if you,

584
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 1: if this sounds to you like this would be even

585
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 1: more obnoxious than Clippy, you're pretty much on the right track.

586
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: That does the feedback in fact that many people well

587
00:31:57,240 --> 00:31:59,360
Speaker 1: I mean obviously Clippy didn't exist yet as a as

588
00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 1: a point of ref yeah, uh and uh, you know,

589
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: you have that personal assistant going with you wherever, so

590
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: you could actually there was one choice that was invisible,

591
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 1: and invisible was essentially no personal assistant. You could still

592
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 1: get help if you really needed it, but you didn't

593
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 1: have that that little animated character who was almost always

594
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,040
Speaker 1: in the lower right hand corner of your screen. Uh.

595
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,440
Speaker 1: And and these were characters that also like if if

596
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 1: you were idle for an extended time, characters like like

597
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:34,160
Speaker 1: Rover or Chaos would go to sleep. And yeah, and

598
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:36,640
Speaker 1: occasionally they would interact with other stuff in the room

599
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 1: to kind of be amusing. But I think I would

600
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:44,360
Speaker 1: have considered it distracting personally, but absolutely uh and then uh, yeah,

601
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 1: it also had a I thought it was nice that

602
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: that Bob came with some productivity software like letter Writer,

603
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:52,000
Speaker 1: in the sense that you didn't already have to go

604
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 1: out and buy other software suites. You could do some

605
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 1: basic computing stuff in Bob. It's uh, it's unfortunate that

606
00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 1: most of the navigation looked pretty complex. Actually it would.

607
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 1: It would pull up these these dialogue windows with lots

608
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: of different choices. Yeah, I mean, I mean like RPG

609
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: level choice. I mean like like seven different choices on

610
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: all these menus. Right, so you see, you know, basic

611
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 1: menu design, you want to try and keep it as

612
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:17,960
Speaker 1: simple as possible. But some of these menus had seven

613
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 1: or more choices on them, and and now all of

614
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:24,280
Speaker 1: them were intuitive, like you couldn't really be like one

615
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 1: of them might be change something like, well that's not

616
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: specific at all, what does that mean? And if you

617
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:30,960
Speaker 1: clicked on it would allow you to do things like

618
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:34,240
Speaker 1: change the the view of the room, so whatever is

619
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: in the wind, whatever's appearing in the window, or change

620
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 1: which programs are there or or or move to a

621
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 1: different room. Um, you could add doorways, you could add rooms.

622
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 1: Uh and uh you might think this, uh, this, this

623
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 1: program probably didn't meet with too much success or acclaim

624
00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:57,440
Speaker 1: and you'd you'd be right, you'd be correct entirely. It.

625
00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 1: According to pc Data, a retail research firm, only around

626
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,440
Speaker 1: fifty eight thousand copies of Bob were ever sold. Um.

627
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: By contrast, uh moved like two point seven five million

628
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:13,759
Speaker 1: copies in retail the first month. Yeah, so fifty eight

629
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:17,319
Speaker 1: thousand for the almost the year that it existed. And

630
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:20,840
Speaker 1: that's it. Um. Also, Microsoft kind of shot itself in

631
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:25,560
Speaker 1: the foot. They distributed copies review copies to journalists back

632
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 1: in December, right with with an embargo on reviews until

633
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:35,279
Speaker 1: only until after CES, not until the product launched, right

634
00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 1: and so at c S. Bill Gates gets up talks

635
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: about it, but at that point the embargo lifts which

636
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: means that the journalists are allowed to write their thoughts

637
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:46,839
Speaker 1: on Microsoft Bob. And they did and some of them

638
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:52,399
Speaker 1: were how they did, Yeah, there's yeah one one. One

639
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 1: guy said that uh much much of the behavior of

640
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 1: these of these characters that are running around helping you

641
00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 1: out will be unappealing to people. Seriously bent I'm getting

642
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 1: a lot of their PCs or two adults of any

643
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 1: kind for that matter, essentially saying that anyone who's not

644
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:08,560
Speaker 1: a kid is going to hate this, right and that

645
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 1: that is the thing, you know, that's I feel like,

646
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: even if if I were completely new to computers had

647
00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:14,360
Speaker 1: never used your scene one, if I had a cartoon

648
00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 1: talking to me about what I wanted to do, I've

649
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:19,800
Speaker 1: it doesn't. It feels like it's a toy. It feels

650
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 1: like it's it feels like it's a toy. It feels

651
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:24,239
Speaker 1: like it's talking down to you. Um and I mean

652
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:28,040
Speaker 1: to be fair. When Microsoft was showing off the assistance

653
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 1: way back with publisher there were the response was very positive.

654
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:35,040
Speaker 1: People were saying, this is fantastic because these these programs

655
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: are getting so complicated that I just don't know how

656
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: to do some of the things that you know, I

657
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 1: occasionally need to do, but I don't do so frequently

658
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:44,960
Speaker 1: that I've memorized the path to do this, and I

659
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:49,280
Speaker 1: want this for everything. And Microsoft heard those those cries

660
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:51,240
Speaker 1: and ran with it to the point where people realize

661
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,759
Speaker 1: they didn't really want it for everything. They wanted it

662
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:59,799
Speaker 1: for stuff that was beyond an easy couple of cliques, right,

663
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,120
Speaker 1: And and that's that is where a lot of the

664
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:04,759
Speaker 1: later Wizards came out of And you know, I mean,

665
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 1: we still have that on computers and it can still

666
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:11,400
Speaker 1: be useful. Um. And I think that they were. Some

667
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: of their test audiences supposedly reacted very well to it. Um.

668
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 1: According to an article in PC World, um Fries had

669
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 1: Karen fries had remembered one man's response early on to

670
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:26,960
Speaker 1: to a to a little duck helper quote. This guy

671
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 1: was very emotional about it. He grabbed my arm. He said,

672
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:31,759
Speaker 1: save all the money on the manuals and just give

673
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:33,759
Speaker 1: me this duck to always be there and tell me

674
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 1: what to do. Yeah. Which again they ran with that,

675
00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 1: and unfortunately I think they took it to too far

676
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:43,279
Speaker 1: of an extreme. Also, Bob was a bit of a

677
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:49,160
Speaker 1: resource hog. Uh. Keep in mind, in order to run it,

678
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 1: you were Uh, the suggested minimum system requirements were to

679
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:56,080
Speaker 1: have a forty six CPU. Well I remember those days.

680
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:57,880
Speaker 1: I actually had a two eighty six way back in

681
00:36:57,920 --> 00:36:59,919
Speaker 1: the day. If you had a three day six, yeah,

682
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:03,440
Speaker 1: oh super fast. You had to have thirty megabytes of

683
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 1: free disk space. Again, that doesn't sound like much, but

684
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:07,959
Speaker 1: it was no. I mean at the time a thirty

685
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: tea card drive was large and uh, and eight megabytes

686
00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:13,560
Speaker 1: of memory, which was about twice as much as what

687
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:18,279
Speaker 1: most of the computers had. So for the time, you

688
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,759
Speaker 1: had to have a very powerful machine to be able

689
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,600
Speaker 1: to just run this and so and so. Yeah, and

690
00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 1: so you're talking someone who's who's never used computers before

691
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:29,879
Speaker 1: but has a better one than most other people. Yeah,

692
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:32,600
Speaker 1: they would have to go and spend a good amount

693
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:35,480
Speaker 1: of money. Uh. They did come standard on one of

694
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:39,799
Speaker 1: the Gateway computers. Um, the Bob was the standard user

695
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,800
Speaker 1: in their face for that machine. It's also fortunate for

696
00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:45,000
Speaker 1: that Gateway it had a different layout to it looked

697
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 1: more like a barn than a house. Um. Beyond that,

698
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:50,839
Speaker 1: it was the same stuff. I just I just face

699
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: palmed at that very idea excellent. I don't really have

700
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 1: anything more to say about about that part of it,

701
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:01,239
Speaker 1: but also they there's some other there's another legacy that

702
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: Bob left us. Although it's interesting it was not actually

703
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 1: used in Bob, but it was created for Bob and

704
00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:10,120
Speaker 1: it has lived on in infamy ever since. It's something

705
00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:14,160
Speaker 1: that is perhaps even more hated than Bob itself, maybe

706
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:17,239
Speaker 1: only because it's been persistent. Right we are, we are

707
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,920
Speaker 1: talking about the font comics stands, comic sands. That was

708
00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,400
Speaker 1: a font that was designed specifically for Bob, and it

709
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:26,319
Speaker 1: wasn't used in Bob, but that was then incorporated in

710
00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:31,960
Speaker 1: future Microsoft releases and and this this font has received

711
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:34,520
Speaker 1: a lot of hate, a lot of hate. Well it

712
00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:37,840
Speaker 1: was it was created originally because Microsoft designer Vincent Connair

713
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 1: saw a beta of Bob and thought that time's new

714
00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:43,200
Speaker 1: rooman was that was the font being used in it

715
00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:44,880
Speaker 1: at the time. And he was like, there's a disconnect

716
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:49,719
Speaker 1: between this fun, bubbly image that we're presenting and very

717
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 1: terse formal font, and so let's make something that looks

718
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:56,040
Speaker 1: like it came straight out of a comic book and

719
00:38:56,080 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 1: then reaping the rewards and echo aids for generations to come.

720
00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:04,399
Speaker 1: You know what, I don't hate comic sands I'll come

721
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:06,880
Speaker 1: out and say it. I don't particularly love it, but

722
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:08,879
Speaker 1: I don't hate it. I know people, though, who have

723
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:14,160
Speaker 1: a violent reaction to I hate it. In business emails, yes,

724
00:39:14,239 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 1: if I get a business email from someone, it's in

725
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:19,360
Speaker 1: comic sense. It's hard to take that email seriously. You know,

726
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:22,359
Speaker 1: if it starts off with hey, bozo, I'll go ahead

727
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 1: and read it, though, because then I'm like, all right,

728
00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:26,239
Speaker 1: now you're on Now you're speaking my language. I got you.

729
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:29,839
Speaker 1: Now we're on the same page. There's some sort of weird, ironic,

730
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,720
Speaker 1: sarcastic email, and now I need to know what it says.

731
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:34,320
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think. I don't think I

732
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,360
Speaker 1: want to become a kind of hipster who uses comic

733
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:40,080
Speaker 1: fans on on purpose in an ironic way. Yeah, you

734
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:42,839
Speaker 1: don't want your emails to have a giant mustache, now

735
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:45,520
Speaker 1: I do not. That's fair, alright, So, um, do you

736
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:48,080
Speaker 1: have anything else you want to say about Bob before

737
00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:50,319
Speaker 1: we wrap it up? I think I think that is

738
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:55,560
Speaker 1: the complete breadth and depth that it's. It's it's funny

739
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 1: that we were even able to do an episode on this.

740
00:39:58,160 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 1: When I first thought about I was thinking, am I

741
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:01,239
Speaker 1: really gonna be able to talk about a product that

742
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 1: only was out on the market for less than a year.

743
00:40:04,239 --> 00:40:06,920
Speaker 1: It turns out, yes we were because there was a

744
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,759
Speaker 1: lot too. There were a lot of good ideas that

745
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,520
Speaker 1: went into the development of Bob. They just didn't get

746
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:16,120
Speaker 1: implemented in a way that was really useful. Actually, I

747
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 1: do have one more story. I'm sorry completely loued a

748
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,640
Speaker 1: second ago about about the legacy of Bob. According to

749
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:24,720
Speaker 1: Raymond Chen for tech Net magazine, I know this story

750
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:28,080
Speaker 1: when when when Windows XP came out, it came out

751
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:31,400
Speaker 1: on CD and there were maybe about thirty megabytes of

752
00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:34,800
Speaker 1: capacity left over on the CD, so thirty megabytes of

753
00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:37,600
Speaker 1: free space, free space, sure, and they wanted to fill

754
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:39,800
Speaker 1: it up with some encrypted data that would be checked

755
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:41,920
Speaker 1: by the set up program as part of the installation

756
00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:45,680
Speaker 1: and verification process. Um, just just to you know, make

757
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:48,560
Speaker 1: make it a little bit more difficult for pirates to

758
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 1: download it, right, But by adding thirty megabytes to the

759
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:55,520
Speaker 1: to the size of the file, you would increase the

760
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:58,960
Speaker 1: download time significantly. Because remember this is back in this

761
00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 1: is not broadband time. We're talking about using a dial

762
00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:03,840
Speaker 1: up modem. So if you're using a dial up modem

763
00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:06,600
Speaker 1: to try and pirate software. Thirty megabytes might be the

764
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:09,040
Speaker 1: difference between I'll go and do it or no, I'm

765
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 1: not gonna do it. Um but so, but so instead

766
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:16,440
Speaker 1: of putting just random gobbledygook into that extra thirty megs,

767
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,839
Speaker 1: he um whoever was doing it, I'm not sure if

768
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:22,000
Speaker 1: it was. If it could have it could have been

769
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:24,640
Speaker 1: a brave woman in our in our technical industry, um

770
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:28,520
Speaker 1: uh used used the entirety of Bob. Yeah, I've heard

771
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 1: and encrypted it and scrambled it with a keyboard mash

772
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,759
Speaker 1: encryption key. I've heard that. I've heard that story. I've

773
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:37,319
Speaker 1: also heard that it might be apocryphal, So do take

774
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:38,840
Speaker 1: that with a grain of salt. But it is a

775
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:41,120
Speaker 1: fun story to say that, Hey, I need to fill

776
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: up this thirty megabytes of space, how big Bob? Thirty

777
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:47,319
Speaker 1: megabytes done? We got it, you need it, you need

778
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:49,480
Speaker 1: to fill it up with gibberish. I've got Bob. We've

779
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 1: got so much. That just hurts even more than yeah yeah, sweetheart.

780
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:56,560
Speaker 1: Well that that kind of wraps up our discussion on Bob.

781
00:41:56,880 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 1: Before we sign off, I do want to say something.

782
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:02,960
Speaker 1: We've how stuff works. We've recently launched some YouTube channels

783
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:06,000
Speaker 1: of the various shows that are here at How Stuff Works.

784
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:09,040
Speaker 1: We've got some podcasts that are now doing video shows

785
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:12,759
Speaker 1: and they're amazing. They're fantastic. We don't really we don't

786
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:16,880
Speaker 1: have a tech stuff one yet yet guys making a

787
00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:19,239
Speaker 1: face of terror, but we have and there are the

788
00:42:19,239 --> 00:42:21,080
Speaker 1: ones that have come out already. We're looking at them

789
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:22,640
Speaker 1: and we're thinking, Wow, we've got a lot to live

790
00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:24,920
Speaker 1: up to. So one I want to recommend to you

791
00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 1: guys is the Stuff to Blow your Mind channel and

792
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:29,920
Speaker 1: uh and to check this out, you need to go

793
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:34,720
Speaker 1: to www dot YouTube dot com slash Mind Stuff Show

794
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:37,080
Speaker 1: and you're gonna be able to see Robert and Julie

795
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:40,240
Speaker 1: of of Stuff to Blow your Mind doing some amazing videos.

796
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:42,719
Speaker 1: They're really creative and they're really a lot of fun.

797
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,799
Speaker 1: And it got one about slime that I'm particularly partial to. Yeah, Yeah,

798
00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:48,760
Speaker 1: we've been pretty knee deep in the slime thing recently

799
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:51,720
Speaker 1: and we've seen them, Like I love seeing them shoot

800
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:54,640
Speaker 1: because we can actually see them shooting throughout the day

801
00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:57,000
Speaker 1: as we go through the various little bits at the

802
00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:59,880
Speaker 1: office here there, which is kind of fun. And whenever

803
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:01,759
Speaker 1: you see like the beakers and test tubes that you're

804
00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:04,880
Speaker 1: thinking something good is happening. So I highly recommend you

805
00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,120
Speaker 1: guys go and check that out. And if you have

806
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,480
Speaker 1: any suggestions for us to cover a certain topic here

807
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 1: on tech Stuff, let us know. Write us an email

808
00:43:13,920 --> 00:43:17,920
Speaker 1: or address as tech stuff at discovery dot com, or

809
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:20,440
Speaker 1: drop us a line on Twitter or Facebook. You can

810
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 1: find us there with the handle text stuff H s

811
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:26,440
Speaker 1: W and Lauren and I will talk to you again.

812
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:34,440
Speaker 1: Really shon for more on this and thousands of other topics.

813
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:45,480
Speaker 1: Does it has stuff works dot com