European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 10, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Its Bob your Little Helper software interface designed to make computing easier for novices by Elizabeth Corcoran Washington Post Las vegas a Microsoft corp. Showed off its lighthearted Side saturday when chairman Bill Gates introduced his newest product a computer software package called  the company that made hundreds of millions of dollars by Selling software based on often confusing character symbols Microsoft Boh Radical change. Bob is a software interface designed to make it easy for novices to perform eight common tasks on their personal computers including letter writing electronic Matt scheduling and Bill paying without having to read an instruction manual. Quot there a no reason Why people have to be intimidated by software at All said Karen Fries one of bobs key designers. Even Gates who confesses to mostly using electronic mail and Complex spread Sheet programs seemed to agree most people relate Best to computers when a Friend sits Down next to them and shows them All the tricks Gates said during a presentation at the annual consumer electronics show. Bob can be a kind of electronic buddy he said. A that s Why we Call this next generation of software the a social interface a he said. Gates later said in an interview that 12 major projects under development at Microsoft include similar social interface elements. Bob did not begin As a strategic Microsoft plan. For Fries who sat in the first Row of the audience watching Gates presentation the weekend event marked the culmination of three years of grueling work 7 the project began when Fries and project manager Barry Linnett finished another Microsoft product called publisher which boasted the company a first a wizards Quot wizards Are special routines built into programs that help people accomplish tasks. For instance if someone is trying to design a greeting card a wizard might offer up the kinds of designs a and formatting tools used in most cards even before there a no reason Why people have to be intimidated by software at  a Karen Fries a Bob Quot designer the user began looking for such tools. In Early 1991, Fries and Linnett began pelting Gates and other Microsoft executives with memos arguing that the company needed to find ways to make software easier to  were one approach. Fries and Linnett also proposed creating Quot guides a or what Gates said he called a clowns a that would help users More. Around the same time a growing number of computer researchers at places including Apple computer inc. And the Massachusetts institution of technology were dabbling with ways to create similar software agents that could do such tasks. Debates continue about what such agents should look like and what they should do yet Fries and Linnett decided they liked animated cartoon characters. To their ideas met with mixed read ions within Microsoft where  Pride themselves on the ability to write  software code Patty Stonesifer senior vice president of Microsoft s consumer division a which is responsible for Bob said that the first time she saw a. Demonstration of the guides Quot it took me that beat of 10 to say a what is this  Quot gales said a it was Clear from the very beginning that Fries and Linnett were aiming at something with a huge  but making such assistance work with More conventional programs such As word processing was Tricky a i kept saying a so is that Clown always going to be there a a a Gates recalled. Yet when the two designers tested their guides on people outside of Microsoft they discovered that users often became very fond of them a people were acting like these characters were real a Fries said. About a year into the project two Stanford University communications professors Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves gave a talk at Microsoft about How people relate to their computers. Nass Anil Reeves also helped coax Gates into believing that there arc social rules or ways that people act with inanimate objects such As cars or computers. When they explained their in comics to Gates f Ries recalled Quot it was like that Light bulb thing. Gates said. A so like people arc polite to their computers a Quot. With the help from Nass and Reeves the Microsoft designers became More thoughtful Iti creating their guides. They tried out the characters on hundreds of potential users. What resulted were a dozen general characters that amount to virtual pets. As a result Bob looks completely different from any other Microsoft product. Technically Bob is an application that acts like a table cloth on top of Microsoft windows operating system software. Instead of the no nonsense collection of tiny windows icons that represent programs or files Bob users see a picture of a front door with a Knocker. A Friendly dog named Rover snoozes in the Corner of the screen. With the Click of a computer mouse Button the door opens into a colourful cartoon picture of a room throughout which books a calculator a Calendar and a half written letter and so Forth Are scattered. A. A Rover who serves As a guide is ready to offer to help the user with any chores. Users can choose other guides that Are More or less helpful Friendly aggressive or submissive. For instance a Parrot Quot named Ruby is somewhat of a grouch. A nine Dinosaur Java who claims to be jittery from drinking too much Coffee is Friendly. So far Only two non Microsoft companies Are working to Hook their software to Bob the program w hich runs with window s and requires 8 megabytes of random Access memory will cosi $99 and will be available March 31. A receives earful London apr Prince Charles has done More damage to the monarchy than any other member of the Royal family according to a poll published monday. The poll for the guardian newspaper also found that two thirds of. Respondents were opposed to royals having relationships outside marriage As Charles has admitted doing. Asked who had most damaged the monarchy 51 percent named Charles. Twenty percent picked a a Ferric a the Duchess of York arid 14 percent named Charles estranged wife Diana the Princess of Wales. Sixty six percent said the Royal family should set a moral example by not having relationships outside marriage. Charles publicly admitted last year that he had an affair after his marriage had broken Down. However 63 percent thought that Charles should still become King even if he and Diana divorce. They have been separated since december 1992, Twenty seven percent of those polled thought Britain would be better off without the Royal family up from 20 percent in 1992. Asked which members of the Royal family were doing a Good Job 72 percent named Queen Elizabeth ii Ana 67 percent mentioned her daughter Princess Anne. Royal troublemakers a newspaper asked its readers which member of the British Royal family had done the most damage to the monarchy. Prince Charles 51 % a Fernie Duchess of York. 20% Diana Princess of Wales up .14% my amp my numbers do not add source guardian newspapers amps Charles and Diana lagged behind at 35 percent each while 3 percent thought the Duchess of York the former Sarah Ferguson was doing a Good Job the poll by ice was based on interviews with 1,003 people age 15 or older conducted Between dec 14 and dec. 16. It has a margin of error of about 3 percentage Points. British comic Peter Cook Dies ml1 Cook London apr Peter Cook the tall acerbic half of a frequent comic partnership with Dudley Moore died monday his family said. He was 57. Cook died of a gastrointestinal Haemorrhage at Royal free Hospital where he was admitted last tuesday. A there is a place in society for Nasty minded rude people a Cook once said. The crack could have summarized his performing Persona. Cook achieved Fame in the 196gs in the comedy review beyond the fringe with Jonathan Miller Alan Bennett and Moore. A a Cook also appeared with Moore in the British broadcasting corp. Comedy hit not Only but also which ran in the mid-1960s and again in the Early 1970s. Cooke a film roles included the wrong Box 1965bedazzled 1967the hound of the Baske Melcs 1979derek and Clive 1981yellow card. 1983 and whoops apocalypse 1987 ,. Cook is survived by his third wife Lin Chong Cook and two daughters by his first marriage. Stowaway s mousing around wreaks havoc upon Airliner from the associated press Stockholm Sweden a mouse that scampered aboard an Sas jetliner in new York played havoc with the aircraft bound for Stockholm. The mouse supposedly got on Board the Boeing 767 in new York together with t he , a airline officials said monday when the jetliner landed in Stockholm on saturday morning an Sas team searched lire aircraft and put out mousetraps but gave up after five hours. V the plane which was due to Tel turn to new York was pulled out of service and flown to Copenhagen Denmark for another Check. Hut again rib mouse was found. A a a /. A Sas officials said monday that they were sure the tiny creature left the Boeing 767 in Stockholm. Lena Hoglund an Sas spokeswoman told a. Stockholm newspaper that the rodent posed a Quot Security risk because it could have gnawed on vital electric lines. Sex officials charged Berli prosecutors announced charges monday against seven former members of East Germany a leadership in the deaths of people fleeing the communist country the Berlin Justice department said seven former members of the politburo of the East German communist party were accused of multiple counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter at the inner German Border including the Berlin Wall. Their names were not immediately released. Suspected extremists slain Cairo Egypt a police on monday killed three suspected Muslim extremists during a raid in their hideout in Southern Egypt police officials said. The raid took place in Dairus 175 Miles South of Cairo. Police said the raid was carried out because suspects were planning attacks on Security forces in Southern Egypt. A. A