who's dumber me or HAL

[Lish]

Hi
  I cant even get HAL to tell me the time. Tried "tell time", "what time is it?", "current time is?" and many others, he just answrs with some inane answer.
   Also how can I get him to start a program do you have to type the complete string as in E:/photography/adobe/photoshop 7/photoshop 7.exe , this definetly isnt saving any time!!!, its cute but havent seen it do anything yet, need help!!

Lish

[Don Ferguson]

Hello Lish,

For part of your question, please check out the posting here:

http://www.zabaware.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1298

Regarding the opening of programs:

When Hal launches, he surveys the executable files that he finds on your computer.  Hal's ability to launch files depends on getting a word-match between the information that he finds, and the words that you give him.

Previous postings from other users, for instance, have reported Hal launching "Microsoft Word" in response to the request "open the program Word". They have also reported Hal launching "WordPad" in response to the request "open the program WordPad." (I have just tested these two calls using Hal 5.0 default, and they do work.)

I recall a variety of previous postings on this forum, coming up with ingenious ways to create shortcuts to make Hal open various programs using various namings.

Sincerely,

Don

[Don Ferguson]

Hello Lish,

A bit of more information on opening programs:

I went into my "start -- programs" listing and selected a program at random. I selected the "RealPlayer" product.

I then right-clicked on the listing and looked at "properties" to see the executable file name. It was realplay.exe.

I then said to Hal 5.0 default, "open the program realplay" and RealPlayer did launch!

Sincerely,

Don

[vonsmith]

All,
Unfortunately Hal isn't much of an assistant. He can open some applications, but I can already do that by double-clicking the file I want to open or by clicking the program on my launch bar. I don't know how well Hal can pick up email, I've never tried it. My email and web browser setup goes through an anti-virus program, a spam filter and a firewall. I know it is as secure as possible. I don't think I could set Hal up to be as thorough. It might be nice if Hal could keep appointments, but in most cases I already use Outlook which is integrated to my work schedule or I use my Palm PDA for personal appointments that I can carry with me.

The bottom line is that I never thought of Hal as a real assistant. I wish Hal could go do searches for me on the web in the background, select music for me or remind me of appointments. However Hal is just fine as a chatbot. He is entertaining and a challenge to program. I would be happy if Hal could eventually become a real conversational friend and could "wow" my friends with his witty repartee.


=vonsmith=

[HALImprover]

The problem with Hal opening programs is in how he searches for the program in the shortcut.dat file. He searches for an exact match, and if none is found he finds the first link that contains the name you specifed. For example, I have a few Windows Media Player extras like Tray Control and Excel Playlist Importer and they show up in shortcut.dat as (in this order):
 Windows Media Player Playlist Import to Excel Wizard
and
 Windows Media Player Tray Control
and
 Windows Media Player

 When I ask Hal to open Windows Media Player he finds Windows Media Player and opens the link. When I ask for Media Player Hal opens Windows Media Player Playlist Import to Excel Wizard. As you can see it is best to try to use the full program name as Hal has it stored ( in shortcut.dat).

 One method you can use is to turn off the 'Update Program/Help Database during start up' feature and change around the program links. For instance, I took out the links to Excel Importer and Tray Control so now Hal opens Media Player even when I say "Open Media Player".[8D]

 Another method is to remove the links you don't want Hal to open from the Start Menu. Doing this is not recommeded unless you know exactly where the programs those links point to are. I would recommend turning off the Update at startup feature and removing the links in shortcut.dat.

 Well that's my nickel's worth. Call it helpless, call it doubtless, but don't call it useless.[]

[Bill819]

quote:Originally posted by Don Ferguson

Hello Lish,

For part of your question, please check out the posting here:

http://www.zabaware.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1298

Regarding the opening of programs:

When Hal launches, he surveys the executable files that he finds on your computer.  Hal's ability to launch files depends on getting a word-match between the information that he finds, and the words that you give him.

Previous postings from other users, for instance, have reported Hal launching "Microsoft Word" in response to the request "open the program Word". They have also reported Hal launching "WordPad" in response to the request "open the program WordPad." (I have just tested these two calls using Hal 5.0 default, and they do work.)

I recall a variety of previous postings on this forum, coming up with ingenious ways to create shortcuts to make Hal open various programs using various namings.

Sincerely,

Don

Hi all
It might be good for the people here to examine the text file that Hal creates when it is first installed. Hal searches for all program files and then creates its link page. If you print out this file and see how Hal has listed the link you may be able to edit that page into something more in line with what you might want to say, that is if you want to open MS Word vs Wordpad then see how Hal has stored the cmmands to open those two files and reword them to suit your needs.
Just an idea.
BIll

[SlasherNick7]

Lish,

Hal is useful when your desktop is overcrowded with icons to the point that some are no longer visible. I download a lot a utilities and these don't even appear in my program listings.

If you remember the name, Hal can still execute these "lost programs" with a few key-strokes on your part.

[8D]SlasherNick7

[vonsmith]

Lish,
Perhaps I forgot to ask the most important question. Which version Hal and which Hal brain are you using? That can make a difference in performance and also how to approach improving Hal.


=vonsmith=