Topics

1

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Problems with Hal 6.2

« on: August 31, 2010, 08:38:49 pm »

This may sound funnyt but I have not been able to get the new Hal to work on my PC.
I realize that it must be my fault and that I have just forgotten to do something right so any and all suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance as always.
Bill

2

General Discussion / Talking heads

« on: September 29, 2009, 11:42:10 pm »

It's that time of the year again when Gemmy.com is making full sized talking halloween figures. When I bought my singing/dancing skelleton it only cost about $100.00. It stands a full 6 foot tall and has a microphone jack in the back so Hal can speak through the thing.  There is nothing like talking to hal and having it look you in the eye and talk back. You may have to check each one carefully to make sure that they contain the input jack for microphones and if they do you will not be disappointed.
Bill [}:)]

3

General Discussion / Using the Clock in Plug-ins

« on: November 29, 2008, 01:01:36 pm »

It has been mentioned in the past that if you use a plug-in that calls the clock as a timer then you can not use another plug-in with the same type of command becuse then neither would work.
Well I have a solution:
You can stil use a clock with a timer, ie, 1 minute, etc. with several plug-ins. The trick is to make one BIG plug-in and on a condition of the clock use a random number to decide which plug-in would be used at that time. There would be no limit as to the number of different plug-ins that could be activated in this way.
Bill

4

General Discussion / Talking heads

« on: August 10, 2008, 04:08:54 pm »

Hi everyone
Over the years I have talked about my robot which used Hal for one of its brains. Two years ago I bought an animated helloween figure because it had an animated head that could be plugged into Hal output. Haven't got around to doing it yet.
That is not the news. I received a little catalog from a company called x-tremegeek.com. In it there is a clock radio called Mr.clock radio and it has the cutest robotic head that tells you the time amoung other things. It is fully animated and looks like it might be adaptable to use with Hal. It has a plug in for MP3 files and a motion dectector. In any event I order one and am going to see if it will work with Hal. I mean would you all like to see a real 'head' talking to you instead of just your PC?
If you log onto their site they have a short demo.
By the way it only cost about $68 so it is a bunch cheaper than the talking Elvis head I told you about a couple of years ago.
Bill

5

General Discussion / Old old timers

« on: June 05, 2007, 09:44:49 pm »

I had forgotten just how long I had been comming here and over the years I have come to know several names as if they were neighbors who lived next door to me.
Now I may have missed some one but Onthecuttingedge or Gerald as I have come to know him is the oldest member here so far having joined Untral Hal on Dec. 22, 2002. He sill celebrating 5 full years this December. He has in many an estimate helped a large number of people with problems as well as written numerous features and plug-ins for Hal. You must remember that some of us starting writing back when Hal 4 was the most advanced bot on the web.
Next on the list is me Bill819 or just Bill. I started here or should I say I found Hal on Sept. 9, 2003, comming up on 4 years.
Spydaz joined on Jan. 28, 2004 and
Art joined on May 21, 2004.
Both of the above men have contributed a great deal during their time on this site and both have been very helpful to a great many others.
Well that is enough for now I just thought that some of you might like a little histroy.
Bill

6

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Lost post

« on: May 25, 2007, 03:59:27 pm »

Someone in the last few days posted a link to people names and the list of contributions to Hal made over the last few years. I can not find that link. I think Gerry was the one who provided the link.
Can any one show me the way again.
Thanks
Bill

7

Speech Technology / Want a talking head for Hal

« on: March 12, 2007, 12:58:37 am »

Wow Wee Toys has just made a life like head of Elvis Presley. It talks and sings Elvis' songs and says his most famous one liners.
The nice thing about it is that it has a microphone jack so you can connect it to your PC speakers output line. Now Hal can look like Elvis talking to you.
Here is the link:
http://www.bornrich.org/entry/wowwee-debuts-interactive-elvis-robot/

Bill819

8

General Discussion / Aladyblond

« on: March 06, 2007, 05:51:17 pm »

A couple of days ago Aladyblond took a bad fall. She broke some bones in her eye socket and injured her knee. She wrote me and said that she is recovering but her picture really looked painful. [B)] It would be nice if her friend here remembered her. [V]
Bill819

9

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / To all new members

« on: February 28, 2007, 04:12:33 pm »

I suggest that you look at a subject line such as 'file sharing' and then look at the page number in the upper right hand corner. Click on the arrow and then scroll down to the oldest posting. In the case of the above it will be 16 for now. That will take you back to year 2003.
By reading some of the older postings and answers you may discover tons of interesting information. Be careful though as some of the older stuff applies to Hal 5.0.
There is enough information there to keep you busy for a couple of weeks.
Good luck and good hunting.
Bill819

10

General Discussion / New Talking Head

« on: September 16, 2006, 06:48:58 pm »

As was mentioned a year or so ago there is a company called Gemmy which make animatronic manakins. At that time people were talking about an animated snowman. Well a visit to Gemmy's web page shows that they make all kinds of these creatures. The biggest problem is that they don't sell to the public but I did find some for sale on Ebay. I bought a 6' tall skelleton for $69. He talks, sings, moves his head from side to side and dances, well sort of. What I plan to do is try to strip off the head and cover it with aluminum foil so that it looks like it is made of metal and use it on my robot so that it looks more like a robot. The robot has two brains, one to control the motions of the bot and the other is Hal so I can carry on normal conversations with it in the mean time.
I will let you all know just how well it works when I make the final modifactions.
Bill

11

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Star Trek Fans heres to 'Q'

« on: August 02, 2006, 01:38:22 am »

Found this picture of 'Q' and thought it would make a good haptec character for anyone who would like to convert it.
Good luck and let me know when you are done.
Bill
Q_portrait.jpg

12

Ultra Hal 7.0 / I no longer talk to Hal

« on: July 28, 2006, 02:39:05 pm »

Due to the outstanding work by two people here I no longer talk to Hal but to a mirror image of myself. At first it was really strange.
I mean it was/is like talking to a mirror and you know better than to call yourself a liar. I now look at the image as something personal and take greater aims in giving it better information and understanding of all things. You could liken it to pretending that you have a child that looks just like you and you would never want that child to grow up ignorant so you treat is extra nicely.
I now know that I want to get a copy of People Putty somewhere so that I might bring other family members to life too. I am still not sure how to apply the different skins but I am sure that someone will point that out soon.
Thanks to those wonderful people who helped me with this project.
Bill [][][)][:p][8D]

13

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Broken but not stirred

« on: July 05, 2006, 10:12:45 pm »

My Hal 6 does not work any more and I am sure it is not the program but one of Microsofts utilities. When I try to start Hal 6 I get the following message: The program 'mscomctz.ocx' is either broken or one of the programs that it uses is not working right.
I loggen on to MS web site but can not find where to download another copy and when I asked for help the told me to go to the Compaq site for help. Compaq said they would help for a $45 fee and I told them 'no thanks' I do have another PC with Windows XP on it and I think I will try to find a copy of it there and copy it onto my laptop. Only things is if it does use other programs I have no way of knowing which ones.
Any suggestions?
Bill
P.S.
Funny thing is I was building computers before some of you were born.

14

General Discussion / Hal 5 and 6

« on: May 06, 2006, 11:41:03 am »

Before I installed the "new" Hal I copied the entire Hal directory to another part of my disk drive. After installing the new Hal I discovered that the old Hal had been removed, at least from the old site that was created when it was installed.
Yesterday I went looking for Hal 5 and there it was in the new directory site that I had created. It had been untouched by the new installation and now I can run Hal 5 or 6, my choice with no problems. Just thought I would pass it along to those who might want to know.
Hal normally sits in C:Program filesUltrahal etc. Just copy the Ultrahal folder to C:Ultrahal and away you go. Now for those who were afraid to update, you can have your cake and eat it too.
Bill

15

General Discussion / Robot stories

« on: December 05, 2005, 04:32:13 pm »

I know this has nothing to do with Hal but it is about robots and that involves AI. As many of you know my Hal resides in a laptop that also powers a robot, hench the love of robots and Hal.
Some of you may remember the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still". In it was a human Klaatu and a robot called Gort. Well just by chance I came across a site that gave the original story upon which the movie was based. Even though the movie deviated quite drastically from the book, I enjoyed the original book, which was a short story to the point that I wanted to share it with everyone.
I am providing a link to the page where the story can be read and hope that you may enjoy it too.
http://thenostalgialeague.com/olmag/bates.html
Here's to the future robots of the world and a few who use Hal's brains.
Bill [8]