• Gizmodo, Wednesday, September 8, 2010 5:16 PM

Remember Clippy, that annoying paperclip who bothered you every time you used Microsoft Office? Well, before Microsoft killed him it made a real effort to make him lovable, or at least less annoying. Gizmodo has an excerpt from the book "The Man Who Lied To His Laptop," by Stanford professor Clifford Nass (who'll be responding to comments), in which Nass recounts his efforts to make Clippy useful. This included Clippy urging users to bash Microsoft when he did something they didn't like.

But, perhaps, more intriguing than Clippy's death, is his birth. "For many years, licensing for the animated California Raisins (originally developed as an advertising gimmick by the California Raisin Advisory Board) yielded higher revenues than the actual raisin industry," explains Nass. "The campaign's success in fact helped motivate Microsoft to deploy Clippy in the first place. (Bill Gates envisioned a future of Clippy mugs, T-shirts, and other merchandise.)" God help us all.

Read the whole story at Gizmodo »