At 03:18 PM 5/13/2003 -0400, Wirt Atmar wrote:
> From today's Associated Press newswire:
>
>======================================
>
>REDMOND, Wash. (May 13) - Microsoft Corp. said a company news release that it
>was developing a portable toilet with Internet access, called an "iLoo,'' was
>a hoax perpetrated by its British division.

Microsoft is now saying (in Britain, I suppose Microsoft are now saying)
that the iLoo really was a legitimate project.


 From Reuters:

 =========================================================================
  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Is it a Web-surfing portable toilet or a public
relations nightmare -- or both?

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) reversed its position for the second
time in 24 hours on Tuesday over whether or not it had ever planned to
launch a portable toilet with a built-in Internet terminal in Britain this
summer.

On Monday, the world's largest software maker had said the "iLoo," which
was described in minute detail in an April 30 press release by its British
subsidiary, was a hoax and apologized for any "confusion or offense."

But on Tuesday Microsoft switched its story and said that the iLoo had been
a legitimate project by its British MSN Internet service that was
terminated after the initial announcement prompted controversy, ridicule
and disgust.

"Corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, looked at it and decided
maybe this wasn't a good idea," said Lisa Gurry, MSN group product manager.

Gurry said the iLoo had been intended as part of a public relations
campaign to promote the company's money-losing MSN service in unexpected
places. The same campaign had previously featured Web access on London park
benches and beach chairs in France.

Newspapers and news services, including Reuters, the Associated Press and
The Wall Street Journal, reported on Microsoft's initial iLoo announcement.

Reuters also ran a detailed conceptual diagram of the iLoo, which was to
have featured fast Internet access and an adjustable flat-panel display.

Public response was mixed. Letters published on Monday in one of
Microsoft's hometown newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, questioned
the hygiene of sharing a keyboard in a public toilet and whether the iLoo
was real.

"Knowing Microsoft, though, it probably won't be perfected until Version
2.0," the newspaper commented.

After Microsoft said on Monday that the project was a hoax, Reuters issued
a retraction of its story published last week.

"Don't tell me they're trying to flush the story down," said Russ Cooper, a
computer security expert and longtime Microsoft gadfly.

"The only worse thing they could have done with this PR debacle was to have
officially announced that the iLoo was going to run 'Bob' -- the failed
operating system that went down the toilet."

Microsoft, meanwhile, said its focus now was "to ensure that this type of
confusion doesn't happen again."

"Our top priority right now is making sure that a couple of misstatements
from yesterday are corrected," Gurry said. (Additional reporting by Elinor
Abreu)

--
Tom Brandt
Northtech Systems, Inc.
130 S. 1st Street, Suite 220
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1343
http://www.northtech.com/

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