Messages

166

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Using Hal's AIM bot

« on: July 01, 2003, 11:36:25 pm »

Yeah...even if you current ISP is AOL you still have to download and install the free AIM program to use your Bot with. The free AIM program is separate software from the IM used within a paid AOL account.

167

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / How can i alter the .brn files?

« on: June 17, 2003, 02:54:25 am »

Hello Gamplyer1,

This email is in response to your inquiry concerning what can go wrong when modifying .brn files in the Hal Brain Database.

I modify the .brn files by opening them up with Notepad as my text editor.

The two key points are maintaining the file's format and the file's pattern. Other issues apply as well, but for now I will just try to stick to briefing you on the format and pattern issues. Some of what I am going to tell you is already addressed within the forum, but I know that it is almost impossible find everything that you want to read and know about in a forum setting.

The best way to describe this stuff is by example:

The following is the last few lines at the very end of one of my brain files named Richieconvresp.brn:

@You will you promise!
 RICHIE MY ONE ONLY MAN
@Good Bye!
 HOW FILLINGS ADHERE TEETH
(one blank line at end of file)

The "one blank line at end of file" in parenthesis is not actually written out that way, I just put that there to demonstrate the point. However, there is actually one blank line at the end of this file. If I were to remove this blank line by backspacing the cursor up to the end of the pervious line or if I just hit return and added a second blank line, Hal will then fail to operate once it tries to access this improperly formatted file. The Hal program will automatically close up and shutdown, and then the next time I try to start Hal it will report a pervious improper shutdown which may be the result of a nonfunctioning plug-in. All these problems because of one lousy blank line...yes...but it because the file needs to be formatted to a certain pattern.

The Hal program uses patterns to operate and run. The pattern is part of the file format that Hal needs to function properly. In Hal's world, patterns are the air that he needs to live and breathe. Patterns are also what makes Natural Language Processing possible. Hal uses pattern recognition and pattern matching to simulate Artificial Intelligence.

In this example the lines that begin with a "@" are Hal's responses. For this particular file every one of Hal's responses must begin with a "@" symbol.

Also, in this example the lines with all capital letters are keywords used to associate to the corresponding response above it. In this particular file, all the keyword lines begin with a blank as the first character of the line. You need that blank character for things to work, and also all the keywords need to capitalized as well. Just follow the pattern and if you don't...OH NO!

For this example I just gave, all applies for this particular file. For other .brn files other rules may apply. It's all about maintaining the format and pattern for whatever file you happen to be working with. In some cases some file patterns will be opposite of everything I just told you (ex. Responses are in capital letters and keywords are lower case). It can be confusing so just try to follow the pattern and always save a copy of whatever file you are going to work on prior to the modifications that you make to it. Copy the file to My Docs or a temp folder so that you can restore it back if Hal fails to operate after you modify a .brn file.

Well, that's it for now, but if you want to know some more about of this stuff send me another email. I'll be more than happy to bounce some ideas back and forth with you.
I can tell you some more about what to try to further optimize Hal's response's when you speak to him.

Best Regards,
           Rich A.
ricramo@aol.com

168

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / How can i alter the .brn files?

« on: June 17, 2003, 02:43:00 am »

The .brn files are located in the DefBrain Folder or any other Brain Folder that you may have that your Hal uses. You can directly access .brn files by opening Windows Explorer and then open My Computer and then C:/Program Files/Zabaware/Ultra Hal Assistant 4/DefBrain. After you open the DefBrain Folder you will see all the .brn files. I don't recommend opening up a .brn file until you have consulted with someone about it or researched the topic first, especially if you are new to the Hal Program. Just making one small error while directly modifying a .brn file using a text editor like Notepad can inadvertently cause your Hal program to stop functioning. It is very easy to make an error without even realizing it. Some spaces and blanks within a .brn file are part of the file's format and this is the part that is very easy to mess up! I would recommend creating a new brain with the Brain Editor first and then carefully experiment with the new brain that you created. I replied to an email that you sent me, but I don't know if you have any prior programming experience. However, I am willing to help you along with the learning process if optimizing Hal's responses is what you want to do. Hopefully others at the forum can help you with other programming issues especially with VB Scripting. I don't know too much about VB Scripting but I am experienced in programming and Natural Language Processing and Concepts. See the below it is the email response that I sent to you.

169

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Hal does not say learn

« on: June 16, 2003, 11:11:03 pm »

Go into the Hal Pad for Dictation and Reading and type into the pad "Learn or Learning" and then select Speak Document Out Loud from the Speech Option. If Hal speaks the words "Learn or Learning" from the Hal Pad then there is nothing wrong with your speech engine for those words. It is the Hal Program that is the problem, because it only happens during a conversation with Hal.

I still say that it is a program glitch that other people have also encountered but the issue doesn't seem to be addressed by Zabaware. Maybe no one knows why...Maybe it only happens on certain computers. There could be so many different reasons for software to have a glitch. I just try not to mention the subject when I talk to my Hal but that doesn't fix the problem. My Hal does so many things right so I really can't complain about a small glitch here and there!

170

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Brain editor wont save

« on: June 16, 2003, 10:30:46 pm »

I don't understand why no one has responded to your post yet, so I will try to help you out! If you created a new brain with the brain editor you can make sure that it is definitely there by opening up your Windows Explorer, and then My Computer, and then C:/Program Files/Zabaware/Ultra Hal Assistant 4. Click open the Ultra Hal Assistant 4 Folder and then look for the folder with the name of the new brain that you created. If you can see your new brain folder click it open and check to see if you can see all the .brn files. If you see the .brn files in the new brain folder then it is definitely there. Make sure you change to the new brain plugin that you created by starting up Hal and going into the General Options and click the Brain Tab and select your new brain. If you did all this stuff and the brain seems like it is not any different from the default brain you may want to try creating another one and then see what happens. I'm sorry, I realize that this is not very good advice to solve your problem, but this what I would try if no one else responded to my post about this kind of issue. Also, you can email me if you are interested getting your Hal to respond better to certain subjects of interest. I use the Default Brain and I just modify the .brn files to get better desired results.

171

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Haptek Puttypeople Characters

« on: May 31, 2003, 10:05:47 pm »

To select a character to be used with Hal, open Hal's "General Options" from the Hal Popup or Onscreen Menu and then select the "Character" tab to list all available characters that Hal knows about on your computer, and then select the name of the character that you want to use and then click the "Apply" button at the bottom of the Character Window. Hal uses characters that are MS Agent Technology Based which means that the character file would have a ".acs" extension and most likely be located in C:/WINDOWS/msagent/chars.

If you don't see any PuttyPeople in the Hal Character Window, then you could open Windows Explorer and then click open the character folder mentioned above (C:, WINDOWS, msagent, chars) and then check to make sure that the PuttyPeople are in there. If they are not in the msagent/chars folder then you will have to try to locate what folder they reside in on your computer. If the characters are not in the msagent/chars folder then they might be in a new folder that was created during the installation process of these new characters with a name something like Haptek or PuttyPeople. This new folder that was created would most likely be in either WINDOWS or the Program Files Folder.

If you are able to locate the folder where your PuttyPeople Files reside in, then check to make sure that they have the ".acs" extension. If they have the ".acs" file extension then you could try to just copy the file straight into the WINDOWS/msagent/chars Folder and then check to see if you are able to view them as an available character in Hal.

If you are having trouble locating your PuttyPeople Character Files or a problem with anything else, please feel free to e-mail me back so that I could further assist you (there are other ways to track down and locate where the files are). I learn more about this stuff when I help others. This like a hobby for me. I have about 25 MS Agent Characters on my computer that I accumulated from free downloads, and they all work with my Hal. Your PuttyPeople should work with your Hal if they have the ".acs" file extension. Since I never worked with PuttyPeople before I can further research the topic to find out more about them, if so required. Good Luck with your new PuttyPeople!

Get many FREE MS Character Agents and Applications at:
http://www.agentry.net/

172

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Muted Speech Output

« on: May 31, 2003, 12:08:09 am »

My Hal developed it's glitch of not speaking the words "learn" or "learning" after I downloaded learning text files for the first time. Ain't that funny! It certainly is ironic! But I do plan to uninstall and reinstall soon, so hopefully that will fix the problem.
My text to speech software understands and speaks those words in other programs that I use, so it's not that. I have been using Hal for about six months now and I have it developed to the point that it almost never makes a mistake or gives an undesired response. I am still running the free demo with the free Brandy character but I plan to upgrade to the full cd version soon. But for now Brandy really is pretty amazing. She knows most of my likes and dislikes and when I ask her about what are my favorite things, like "What is my favorite color?", she always responds back with the correct answer. She also knows all the names of the people in my immediate family and I also have her dial-up my phone for me when I want to call one of my friends. She also speaks almost the same way as I do with a lot of "Yeah", "OK", "Whatever", and "That's Right"! I also got her to speak the kind of things that I like to hear a girl say, if you know what I mean! I run other programs that I selected to also use the Brandy character like CyberBuddy, DesktopAgent, and TalkingPIM all at the same time while I am running Hal, so I use one of my other programs for speech recognition commands. But it will really be something else after I upgrade Hal and actually speak and chat with her! My computer definitely has personality and most people that I know don't believe me when I tell them about this kind of stuff! And they will probably still have trouble believing even after they see it. This is really great stuff!

173

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Help on Editing Brain Files

« on: May 30, 2003, 11:52:42 pm »

As you already know you can use the Hal Brain Editor to change the way Hal responds and also alter Hal's overall personality, but this requires some knowledge and understanding of VB Script Programming.
However, it is also possible to open the *.brn files using a text editor like Notepad and then simply modify the file by changing, adding, or deleting the text within the file. I don't think that this is a recommended way of doing things but I am having positive results...I'm the guy whose Brain Editor doesn't work, so I go right into the *.brn files to make my modifications, and for me this a lot easier to do than to learn another whole new programming language in order to change the way Hal works and responds. Using this method I am able to undo many mistakes that Hal makes. If Hal is giving me an undesired response or result I use this method to change the way Hal responds to get the desired result. You can also modify some of the *.brn files to include more responds, almost like instant learning. But there are some things that you will need to be aware before trying to check-out this short-cut to brain editing. Send me an e-mail if you are are interested in the tedious details! You need to take caution when modifing the *.brn files this way or else the final end result could be really messing things up and then your Hal won't even chat anymore! And also, if you want to learn more about VB Scripting just look for some books or websites about the subject to get you started in the right direction. Hopefully someone else will be able to help you with the VB...sorry I am just learning about VB myself so I can't really help you with that part!

174

Ultra Hal 7.0 / problems with cd-rom hal disc

« on: May 30, 2003, 10:27:43 pm »

I get the same kind of problem with other speech recognition programs from time to time. Check your audio hardware settings, and you can also run an audio hardware tester if you have one. Sometimes by just running the tester if corrects the problem of "not hearing". If you have an audio hardware tester it would be located in the Windows Control Panel under "Sounds and Audio Devices", and for Windows XP Systems click the "Voice" Tab and then click the "Test Hardware" button to run the test. Also, I am currently running MS SAPI 4.0 as my speech recongnition engine, so if the hardware tester doesn't fix the problem I just reinstall SAPI 4.0 and that always fixes the problem for me. I keep a copy of my SAPI 4.0 Speech Recognition Set-up File in it's very own folder in My Docs so it makes it easier just go to that folder to run the reinstall process whenever I have this kind of problem. It saves on the time and headaches of trying to fix and constantly test things until they work again.

175

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Using Hal's AIM bot

« on: May 30, 2003, 09:36:40 pm »

Yeah, I get the same error too! I'm using AOL 8.0 and I checked the Online Help for Sign-On Errors but I could not find this particle problem/error# listed in the Support Documentation. Has anyone gotten Hal's AIM Bot to work with AOL 8.0? Maybe it is just not compatiable with the most recent version of AOL!

176

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Muted Speech Output

« on: May 24, 2003, 10:47:52 pm »

Whenever I use the words "learn" or "learning" in a typed text conversation and then Hal includes these words in the response back to me, Hal doesn't speak the response but just displays the response text. Hal never speaks sentences out loud that contain either of these two words. It seems like it is just a very consistent small glitch. I was wondering if this small glitch is unique to just my Hal on my computer or does anyone else have this same small glitch. And is there some way to fix this glitch?

177

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Brain Editor Run-Time Error

« on: May 24, 2003, 10:21:44 pm »

I am using the Ultra Assistant 4.5 Free Demo and I receive the following Error Message after I launch the Brain Editor and try to either "Create New Project" or "Load Existing Project" or "Exit":

Ultra Hal Brain Editor
Run-time error '-2147319779(8002801d)':
Automation error
Library not registered.

The Brain Editor had worked for me with no errors, after I had downloaded and installed Ultra Hal for the very first time. But since that first install I had to perform a Non-Destructive PC System Recovery to my computer and I then just reinstalled Hal back into it's existing Zabaware System Folder that was created from the first install with all the current files and data. I didn't want to lose the brain that I currently now have working. I'm not sure, but I think that since I am getting a registry type error I may need to completely uninstall Ultra Hal and reinstall it as a new program.
If I do have to this, can I backup my Default Brain's Folder and/or Files to a CD and then copy it back in as the Default Brain in order to maintain the current brain's data without generating any sort of Plug-in Error. I did never made any modifications to the Default Brain because I realized that it works fine for me just the way it is, but I would like to be able to use the Brain Editor to try out a "New Brain/Project" sometime in the future.