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the myth of the good tech giant (analognowhere.com)

submitted 2 days ago by not_IO@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev

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https://analognowhere.com/_/oumuti/

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[-] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 day ago

The entire clippy thing baffles me.

Let's use the mascot of Microsoft, a tech giant who invades every inch that they can, to say we don't like tech giants!

I don't think any company that uses AI or scrapes data gives two shits what your avatar is. It's the equivalent of changing your twitter profile to show support for the victims of something, and then carrying on as usual.

Microsoft would kill for Clippy to be remembered as a friend. Because that just sanewashes their history as a company when clippy was a thing. Yes, please ignore the anti-trust busting in Congress. Please ignore how we made computers worse for the end user by restricting what you can do on your purchased computer.

"Clippy was your friend. Clippy didn't want to steal your data. Clippy just wanted to help."

Help infantize the masses with "It looks like you're writing a document, do you want help with that? Yes, or maybe later?"

This entire clippy thing is just basically free whitewashing and advertising for Microsoft, one of the biggest players in the reasons why people use the avatar.

At least invent something new, if it's about protecting artists, instead of copying a jpg from a 90s corporate milquetoast mascot.

[-] AbeilleVegane@beehaw.org 1 points 6 hours ago

I don't interpret it as "once upon a time, Microsoft was a good company", I interpret it as "this meme-y and goofy character gave the maximum amount of assistance and intrusion I would like in the products I use". I think anyone would agree that Louis is pro-consumers and tend not to think highly of any megacorp.

[-] JamBandFan1996@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago

The thing is, we have to be reasonable with our expectations. You or I may remember that Microsoft has always been shady and anti consumer, most people don't. They remember a time when you bought things and owned them, and it didn't feel like we were being nickel and dimed quite so hard. We are not going to start an anti Microsoft (or whatever corporation) movement and actually be able to rile the masses to support that cause, but we might at least be able to get them to demand things go back to the quality they were at 30 years ago

[-] dabster291@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 day ago

I don't think any company that uses AI or scrapes data gives two shits what your avatar is.

Didn't Rossmann say the whole point of changing your profile to clippy was to show everyone participating how many people would be willing to actually fight for consumer rights?

[-] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago

So instead of fighting it they changed their profile picture. Might as well post "Down for this sort of thing, I hereby declare Facebook can't steal my posts" and then never actually do anything to help stop it.