Have you tried truning off the speach recognition and using the keyboard input. I boutght the program about two months ago and I still don't have the speach recognition up and running.
It is disapointing. But if you really wanted just the speach recognition doesn't cost much more than Hal, you should pick that up. The beauty of Hal is the simulated intelligence.
Play around, chat with him (or her if you chose to set it up that way) and try to teach it how to do some things.
I'm sure that all the problems will be sorted out. There are plenty of people who post on this forum who's SR program works just fine.
This is a very complicated and expansive piece of program that is being worked on. And when you compare it to other programs of similar size and complexity $35 is a pittiance to pay the programers for the work that's been done.
If you've got any other questions just post them. When I get more help on my speech recognition (hem, hem, soon please guys) I'll help you out too.
Have fun
WholyChao
PS - you can get further troubleshooting tips for the Speech Recog. in the Trouble shooting section [at the Zabaware main menu click on "Ultra Hal Assistant", once that page opens click on "Troubleshooting"]