Is this REALLY necessary?

Curtis

Tuesday, May 6, 2003 at 6:09 PM

Portable toilets with high-speed Internet connections will begin appearing sometime this summer, according to Reuters. These are the brainchild of the marketing people at Microsoft's MSN division. (All I can say is, this is what happens when marketing people get drunk.)

Buk	Tuesday, May 13, 2003 at 8:05 AM

UPDATE - Both CNN and the AP are reporting today that the "iLoo" project (Internet enabled portable toilets)was a hoax, perpetrated by the MSN's UK division. (All I can say is, this is what happens when marketing people sober up the next day.)

Buk	Tuesday, May 13, 2003 at 8:42 PM

UPDATE - It's not a hoax after all, they really did plan to build an Internet enabled portable toilet, according to reports from both Reuters and the AP.

Lisa Gurry, a product manager for MSN says "We jumped the gun basically yesterday in confirming that it was a hoax, and in fact it was not." She added "We're going to be taking a good look at our communication processes internally."

It was a real project, but is no more. Embarrassed MSN executives, who only learned of the project from news reports, have canceled it saying, it "wasn't the best extension of our brand."

Buk	Tuesday, May 13, 2003 at 8:49 PM

Quotes...

"Corporate headquarters ... looked at it and decided maybe this wasn't a good idea."

-- Lisa Gurry, MSN product manager

"Knowing Microsoft, though, it probably won't be perfected until Version 2.0"

-- the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft's home town newspaper

"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'."

-- Russ Cooper, computer security specialist