Microsoft Kills Santa, Blames Children
By raincoaster
Typical!
In a bid to take over where the Post Office leaves off (North Pole, postal code H0H 0H0) Microsoft this year introduced a Santa Claus MSN bot to chat with people via instant messenger, for kids who, presumably, have better things to do than wait in line at the mall to talk to Santa.
Then they killed Santa.
From The Register:
Here’s the whopper that Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn told AP: “It’s not like if you say, ‘Hello Santa’, he’s going to throw inappropriate stuff at you.”
Erm, yes it is, Adam. It’s pretty much exactly like that. When we innocently asked him to eat something, Santa said: “It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else.”
The slapdash job Microsoft did on the supposedly festive chat agent was revealed when Reg reader Iain’s nieces offered Santa some pizza. According to Microsoft the girls were “pushing this thing to make it do things it wasn’t supposed to do”.
Yep, Santabot was taken out behind the sled and shot faster than you can say “Old Yeller.”
Well, you can leave him cookies and milk if you insist, but it’s clear to astute readers what Santa really wants this year!
Maybe he could settle for a Mac??
December 11th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
That is pretty scary. Since when does pizza equal er, something else?
December 11th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Quite so. I’d like to have a chat with the person who programmed that bot. As would Bill Gates, I imagine!