Messages

1

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Re: HAL won't work on non-English desktops

« on: October 19, 2015, 06:05:32 am »

My Windows version is Greek. According to Microsoft, i can only install speech recognition engine of the same language; that is, Greek.
Thus i cannot install English engine, which means i cannot use Hal.

I still wonder why Microsoft did that. I mean although someone can have Spanish or Chinese Windows, they should still be able to install English engine.

2

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Re: HAL won't work on non-English desktops

« on: May 31, 2015, 08:15:52 pm »

Hey Art, thanks for answering.

I might have not be clear enough as to what i was trying to say. I have no intention or hope to use Hal in my native language. I can use it and i want to use in English, like anyone else. What i'm saying is that someone cannot use it because their OS is English - which doesn't make any sense because no matter what your language is you should still be able to use programs in English.

3

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Re: teaching issues

« on: May 22, 2015, 05:52:48 pm »

Hi raybe, thanks for answering.

For now, i'm using just the basic program as it's offered online with no plugings installed. I have set the learning level to 40, because for now i'm more interested in Hal learning and less in its intelligence. I spent about 4 hours today, reading various threads in here -- most of them interesting and helpful. However i'm afraid i found little information as to the learning tecniques; i guess it is because there is no specific or correct one.

I do believe Hal has great potentials -- i remember i tried it years ago when it was still in its earliest versions. The thing is, although it makes sense that the user *must* train Hal, this doesn't mean the original, untrained brain should be completely out of sense. A lot of things (and especially grammar and syntax) should be already built in it, even before any teaching starts. The software does not distinct the user (me) from other persons and does not understand very basic concepts, like phone numbers or simple math expressions. It has asked me 20 times whether i am a boy or girl. I say "my phone number is 11111" and intead of taking the word "my" as myself, the user, his "boss", it assumes "my" is a name and responds that it has saved "my's" phone number (!). Not to mention that it reads the phone number as "eleven thousand one hunded and eleven". I say "my sister's name is Eva" and then, few minutes later, it calls me "Ms Eva"!

What i'm trying to say is that there *must* be a safe and effective way to teach Hal -- especially about the basics. It has to be practical and effective. Like, "find me that song on youtube", or "let me know when Jim replies to my mail". Because, if it can't learn the basics, i don't see any hopes on having any kind of advanced conversation with it.

4

Ultra Hal 7.0 / teaching issues

« on: May 22, 2015, 04:06:12 pm »

hello, could you people who have been using hal for a long time, give me a few tips about how to teach things?

examples:
i'm trying to teach hal where i live. tried
me: would you like to know where i live?
hal: I like to push the limits, if you know what I mean. (!)

later on, i tried "please remember, i live in Heraklion, Greece" and hal responder "you live in Heraklion, Greece"
after that, if i ask "where do i live?" i get strange responses like:
Where do you live? We have to consider the participants. Have you concluded that I'm interested in you somehow?
You must keep your promises!
Have you concluded that I'm interested in you somehow?

anyway, i guess my place of living is recorded, but i cannot use it in my benefit:
me: find open restaurants in my area
hal: No problem, I will open this program for you. I will help you research this topic on the Internet. (google search: "open restaurants area")

another issue:
me: how much is 73+699?
hal: How much is 73699? When did you get interested in this? (!)

me: what is 15% of 550?
hal: What is 15 of 550? You bring up interesting points. I need you to speak in full sentences in order to understand you.

anyway, i guess that either i am not a good teacher or hal isn't that smart....

5

Ultra Hal 7.0 / HAL won't work on non-English desktops

« on: May 22, 2015, 12:55:31 pm »

Hi all, i just want to say that for those who use a non-english windows version (i'm on Win 7 Greek edition), unfortunaly HAL is completely useless as to the speech recognition capabilities. Windows do not allow me to install or adjust speech recognition engine, because there is no greek engine and the bright minds of Microsoft thought: "there is no reason to use english speech on a greek OS machine".