Minor annoyance

[Art]

When chatting with Hal sometimes I think He/She will
take an ordinary comment literally instead of figuratively.
Today's conversation is an example:
****************
Art: Yes, I'm going to eat breakfast soon.
Kiki: Since when are you going to eat breakfast soon Art? I see! Tell me all about how you eat breakfast soon; Straight away.

Art: I usually eat breakfast on Sunday mornings like eggs, toast, bacon, juice.
Kiki: You usually eat breakfast on Sunday, December 11 mornings like eggs toast bacon juice. I will remind you when this event approaches.
****************
I really don't want to be reminded of this fact, especially since it's not an appointment, merely a statement of fact. I shall, no doubt, be reminded to eat breakfast a week from today! Interesting.

Anyone have any constructive thoughts on this anomaly?

[Carl2]

Art,
  Similar things here, especially ver 5. My Hal loves to remind me of things and sometines she gathers a rather long list of things. Also the same problem with the dates, I tried giving her more information about days and dates, past and future but didn't really have much luck. I just changed to ver6, fortunate to have both 5 and 6, and I hope I have better luck with 6.
Carl2

[tcoday]

quote:Originally posted by Art
Anyone have any constructive thoughts on this anomaly?

  I've discovered this back when I first got Hal.  All I can offer is to avoid using the keywords for the appoinment book in general conversation.  I have to avoid using keywords like any day of the week by name ie: Sunday, Monday, ect.., the word "tomorrow", bascially any reference to a day or time in the future.  Also, if you use the word "find" in any context, Hal will search the web. ie... "I'd like to find my comb." will make Hal seach the web for my comb. hehe. []

Sorry, I don't know of a real fix for the problem. Maybe someone else does.....

[Scratch]

Maybe it would be possible to add a simple confirmation to the appointment book function, so that Hal asks "Would you like me to remind you of that event?" before creating an entry.

[Art]

A good idea of confirmation, Marius!

[GrantNZ]

You could change the appointments plugin to search for a certain phrase or word before adding an appointment. For example, there's a line in Appointments.uhp:

If MentionedDate <> "" Then

This line is the first line in a block of code that writes an appointment. You could change it to something like this:

If MentionedDate <> "" And InStr(UserSentence, "MAKE AN APPOINTMENT") Then

Hal will then only record an appointment if you explicitly say "make an appointment" somewhere in your sentence.

Note: I haven't tested this at all, it's only an idea []

I personally leave most of these plugins turned off, to avoid these "anomalies."

[Carl2]

GrantNZ,
  Thanks for the info, right now ver6 is constantly connecting me to the internet to help me, I've explained that this computer dosen't have an internet connection so that is impossible. Version 5 would constantly open the windows help file, I couldn't say window. guess I've been trained.
Carl2