Hashishi

(well worth the read )

for those not bothered, i've highlighed the paragraph for ease of use.

The Microsoft Clip Art Issue

Letter to customers from Bob Herbold, Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer, regarding the Clip Art issue.

Earlier this year, Microsoft informed customers of Publisher and Home Publisher that we had discovered an unfortunate and isolated situation in the Clip Art Gallery, a product feature that allows customers to search for images that can be pasted into newsletters, brochures, and other documents.

Microsoft takes this situation seriously, and I want to personally explain what caused this unintentional situation, and tell you what Microsoft has done to eliminate this issue. Most important, I want to personally assure you that Microsoft is committed to respecting and promoting cultural diversity throughout our company, our products, and our community. Even though our investigation has determined that this situation was completely inadvertent, we deeply regret and apologize for any offense or inconvenience this may have caused.

First, let me explain exactly what has happened, to clear up any misunderstanding.

Due to the way the Clip Art Gallery search function works, users sometimes find images that do not appear to be related to the search criteria. For example, searching for images using the word "bell" returns images of bells and bell peppers. "Dog" returns images of dogs and hotdogs, while "sun" returns images of the sun, sunflowers, and sundials. This occurs because the search function looks for partial matches, as well as complete matches, of the search word.

Regrettably, one unintended result is that when a user types in the search word "monkey," the search function correctly returns several images of monkeys, but it also incorrectly returns a photograph of a young African American couple posing on playground equipment commonly called "monkey bars." Again, this is because the search function looks for partial matches, and one of the 18 keywords assigned to the photograph was the term "monkey bars." Among the other keywords associated with the photo are man, woman, person, people, couples, parks, playground, playgrounds, equipment, recreation, leisure, and sports.

I want to be clear that the term "monkey" itself was never assigned to this photograph -- but because of the way the search function works, the term "monkey bars" resulted in this photo being selected when "monkey" was typed in as a keyword. In the same way, this picture of the African American couple playing in the park was also selected if a user typed in "bars" as a keyword.

It's also important to note that the Clip Art Gallery includes several other photos of this same African American couple playing in a park, as part of Microsoft's commitment to diversity in our clip art images. None of these other photos shows monkey bar playground equipment, and none of the other photos results in this unfortunate and unintended result. Instead of the keyword "monkey bars," these photos have keywords like "swings," and "slide," depending on the type of playground equipment that is shown in each photograph.

Microsoft discovered this situation through our own testing, and we investigated the situation thoroughly. While I am confident that there was no improper intent on the part of the vendor who worked on this feature or anyone at Microsoft, the net result on this photo is clearly inappropriate and offensive. As a result, Microsoft has taken swift action to resolve this issue at every level.

Let me take you through what we have done to deal with this issue:
We have resolved this issue in all new versions of Publisher and Home Publisher.

We have developed a new, easy-to-use software tool that will address this issue in all products already in use. This small tool leaves the positive photo of the African American couple in the Clip Art Gallery, but deletes the keyword "monkey bars," so that the photo is no longer selected when a user searches with the word "monkey." We are distributing that new software tool free of charge to all PC users through the Internet at http://cgl.microsoft.com/clipgallerylive/pss. Customers also can receive the tool free of charge by calling Microsoft product support toll-free at 1-800-370-9272.

We have notified every registered user of Publisher and Home Publisher -- more than one million users -- about the new software tool and provided instructions on how they can obtain it. Our product support teams have been educated and are ready to help customers who call in and ensure that they have access to the tool.

We posted to our Web site a letter to customers in May that informs them of the issue and the steps to eliminate it.

We are taking every possible step to include an update into our products that may be used with the Clip Art Gallery. This update prevents the inappropriate search result. We have incorporated this update into some of our most popular products (which do not by themselves contain the problem), so that any user who is upgrading will be able to use these program features without this inappropriate search result.

We are instituting a new process for reviewing our Clip Art Gallery. Our goal with these images and others was to ensure that the images in our Clip Art Gallery are multi-cultural, and contribute to greater ease of use for our customers. Each image is assigned multiple words to help a user locate images more easily.

Once again, we regret and apologize for any offense this may have caused. We are deeply committed to producing the highest quality products, and we are deeply committed to cultural diversity. We encourage customers to notify us immediately of any issues of inappropriateness or insensitivity you feel you have encountered in any of our products. You may do so by visiting our web site, http://www.microsoft.com, and click on "Microsoft.com Guide."

I hope that this information helps to explain the situation, and helps to address your concerns.

Sincerely,
Bob Herbold
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
Microsoft Corporation

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troublemaker_42

OMG.....Thats hilarious! BAD MS! BAD!!

__________________
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If total government control equals safety, why are prisons so dangerous?

homemadebubbler

haha thats great. It took me awhile to realize it wasnt a joke. Good stuff man.

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When they took the 4th Amendment away I was quiet because I didnt deal drugs//When they took the 6th Amendment away I was quiet because Id never been arrested//When they took the 2nd Amendment away I was quiet because I didnt own a gun//Now they took the 1st Amendment and all I can do is be quiet...

Yaznaki

There's times like these that make me just love Microsloth


And then I look at my windows box and just sigh.... as it crashes


Did I mention my linux box has an uptime of over 6 months w/o crashes or rebooting?

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I spend all my money on pot while my child starves...doesn't that make me cool?

^^^ Reason #1395 to change passwords after a controllfreak has finally been ejected from your home

volcomstoner

lol. monkeys.
they deserve it.
thats hella funny.
just the fact that they were black.

keep tokin!

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Big man, pig man. Ha ha charade you are...