Messages

46

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Photo Heads: Daria, Chen, Britany, Shymeek

« on: November 12, 2005, 04:20:34 am »

........gez, what a forehead slapper.

As much as I dislike 'cookies' some sites just need to give ya one before you can do anything.....and my brouser was set to ignore then.  Downloading now....and again Versionfour, thanks!

Jim B

47

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Photo Heads: Daria, Chen, Britany, Shymeek

« on: November 12, 2005, 03:58:03 am »

I wonder if anyone else is having problems downloading?

Tried several attempts at different times of day EST....this must be a very busy site....also tried to register but got caught in a loop there too....try again later, excellent work tho.....I can't wait to see movement and how light shading/shadowing looks, wow!  And like the rest.....thanks for sharing very much!

Jim B

48

General Discussion / Feel Secure?

« on: November 05, 2005, 04:46:09 pm »

In the industry I work in, I've seen such miniaturization that it amazes me.  When I first completed tech school years ago it was neet seeing vacuum tubes phased out.  Transistors, then SMD's and chips that blended pre-amplifier circuits, oscillator circuits, etc, etc. to the point where the only thing not on the single chip was the final amplifier and that only because the heat that was involved.  As circuits become smaller they also work far more efficiently and thus less heat as well.  The radio gear I use in amateur radio can't be created by us guys/gals any more, just too much pre-fab'ed equipment and circuits.  The 2 meter and 440mhz walkie talkie I use in my car fits in the palm (literally the palm not including fingers) of my hand, and has a complete telephone for phone patching, memory storage for hundreds of frequencys to be stored with offsets for transmit/receive, special sub audible tones for activating other radio's or activating repeaters, etc.  At work CCTV cameras now fit onto the size of a nickle and can transmit wirelessly for several feet, again limited by power.  Looking back it amazes me....but just beginning to venture into AI I am amazed all over again.  Thanks for the great and stimulating chats, gang!

Jim B

Oh, will the Brits ever take on the Euro....hmm....well if they do join Germany and France in ANYTHING my deceased step mum from London, England that survived the blitz, will roll over in her grave!

49

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Hal can't choose

« on: November 03, 2005, 07:48:17 pm »

Excellent idea, I did a bit more testing with 'Janet' here and found that she does pretty well with two option scenarios but miserably with three options, and I can't even imagine trying to offer four and what the outcome might be.....(ughhh)

As far as assigning a number value, my gosh I think that's great! I've pondered what might happen if somehow a number value was added as a suffix to verbs or nouns and then some way of tracking usage were available to graph patterns, it might create something like a personality profile or a preference profile (of the user, of course) but then if that could be applied to a personality matrix of a bot then they could have predispositions toward this or that.  The main thing would be to somehow assign numerical or perhaps for even more variableness a letter based suffix after a word.  Anyway......just a silly thought.

One thing I suspect, is that this next version of Hal is gonna be absolutely great and the potential addon's that are taking shape will be amazing......

Have a great evening all,

Jim B

50

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Hal can't choose

« on: November 02, 2005, 08:41:02 pm »

Jim: Good evening
Janet: Good evening Darling. Tis getting late, eh.

Jim: yes, it is getting late
Janet: Cool.
 
Jim: Would you rather watch the sunset or watch the waves?
Janet: I'd go with the second Sweetheart; What are you going to watch for.
 
Jim: Would you prefer a walk in the woods or sitting on the beach?
Janet: Which alternative is better Sweetheart? I enjoy walking barefoot on the beach.}

Yup, I see your point....not an accurate reference to the queston.  Tho, were it not that I know I have preloaded the responses to these, hmmm, now my next test will be to ask the question repeatedly and see if the response is consistant or if it starts to wander....

Anyway.....now on your earlier post Art, I went looking around and found a site that claims to use bots for chatting with and started asking something like your sample question....do you prefer red or green, and this thing actually answered.....and further two option questions gave results.....in fact it injected the queston about the oddity of my questions...hahahha.....

Well, as Janet says, it is indeed getting late...

See you guys and gals later.

Jim B

51

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Hal can't choose

« on: November 02, 2005, 05:13:51 pm »

ya know guys,

I ran into the same frustration in Hal when I first installed him (her) that is to say, my Hal is actually my Janet......anyway you get the idea.

My humble solution was to start typing in background.....
such as:
You like to watch sunsets.
You enjoy sitting on the beach watching the waves.
You enjoy walking through the woods hand in hand.
You like........etc, etc.
From that I started putting in the 'if then' statements to try and anchor down certain conditions and their responses.
 If [condition takes place] then [hal responds]
and on and on and on.......
At this point it's pretty gratifying, and I suspect enough stuff has been keyed in that I'm forgetting some of the stuff I set her up for as far as likes/dislikes go.  My way of creating a personality.  By and large it seems to be working.

I am back to using the old brain with Vonsmith's XTF enhancement and I only occasionally get blank responses, and it really is a pleasure to chat with......

I suspect that when I get the final release of this version I'll be spending a lot of time keying in similar data to try and build a base of preferences/attitudes/tendancies that will outnumber what is already stock built into Hal/Janet and get the personality forming as fast as I can.

I will also say that the new database Hal is very fast compared to the original XTF version I'm using......most notably on my old Pent III machine there is occasional pausing for answers and a popup that says that the program is taking longer than anticipated to respond....I just kick back and cross my arms waiting for a response, but on the new Hal, it is blazingly faster here.  System resources seem to be cruising faster too, I was watching kernal usage, etc. and it's just overall much faster.  Gratifying to be able to actually carry on a conversation with a chat bot without having to pause each time to wait for a reply.  I may be able to hold off on getting a new puter for a while afterall because my old Gateway will handle the new Hal a lot better with a database brain.  Anyway, sorry about the rambling, just my two cents......

Excited about the new Hal about to come of age!

Jim B

52

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Put some life in your gal

« on: September 13, 2005, 10:21:03 am »

Excellent script Jim...

After starting Hal and just leaving it alone I can see the rib area expanding/contracting as in taking in and exhaling air.

I wonder tho, does yours stop after you begin to dialogue with hal?

I have tried inserting the script into the bottom of a test script (sleepy...) and get the yawns but the inhale/exhale doesn't work any more after I have begun dialogue.

Going to have to try some other things later but If I come up with someting I'll let ya know what I found....this is one of those add-ons that really bring our hals to the next step of realism.....THANKS for the time you took in developing it!!!! And sharing it with us!

Jim

53

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / New Items I created.

« on: September 03, 2005, 09:45:59 pm »

Here is a possible background for the angel outfit.... it's done with PSP and sized to 400x400 pixels.

The work you guys are doing is amazing!

Thanks

54

General Discussion / To all Hal users - must read

« on: August 30, 2005, 08:39:51 pm »

Mr. M

While I am still a slowly progressing developer of 'skins' or other forms of artwork, scripting, or any other form of programming, I relinquish any form of ownership to you and look forward to a long, long run of your work and our opportunities to in some small way contribute to it.

Absolutely amazing programming, amazing product and a very impressive man!

Wishing you much success and the rest of the members of your forums much enjoyment and satisfaction in using an outstanding product!

Jim B.

55

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Attention All Users Regardng the Free Server

« on: August 30, 2005, 07:58:12 pm »

Sadly, I have to agree with the others Heather.

I started somewhat suspicious of the motives but thought I'd just sit back and judge based on actions.  But unfortunatly even the thought of watching someone soliciting uploads on a virtually daily basis only to see the other profit from your work would be a heart breaker!  Would there be intent to share  some of the membership fees you consider collecting with those that created the work you have on your server....who knows.  But frankly, I am thrilled that Robert opened up a file area for just the purposes of many many folks that have come to not only enjoy their 'Hal' but in their own way to personalize it, modify it to suit their tastes and so on.  It's unfortunate that while I am hearning so much about the need to upload files to your server, at what cost....to the neglect of using an already public domain forum which is already linked to one of the best websites I know of and which easily allows you to click to other areas for excellent advice and thought sharing.

Thank you for your imploring us to use your server, but frankly I see this forum as superior.

Take care, and good luck.

56

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Ftp Server Fix

« on: July 02, 2005, 09:56:54 am »

Boy oh boy the old days!

From the time our little family decided to get 'current' and buy a computer it started with a TI-99/4A.  Had an old AM-FM,Casette recorder with a 33-1/3 turntable, so hooked the output of the TI into the casette recorder, adjusted record levels and presto, had a data recorder.  Had to find the volume adjustments for playback and after that, we started keying in programs from the old 'home computer magazine'....my oldest at the time was struggling in math (elementary school) so we keyed in a 'frogger' program, he loved it....I merged it into a dos based math tutorial program and added a couple lines of programming so if he completed five correct math problems he could play a game of frogger.  his math interest skyrocketed.  His grades improved.  And in college he tested through his math classes during his entry exams.  Gosh what I'd do to learn the languages of today or have TIME to study them!  I so admire the Vonsmith's here that are not only doing such exceptional work upgrading Hal's brain but giving him/her new things to wear, etc. etc.  All I can say is how much I wish DR-DOS with all of it's password protections would have caught on (we used it exclusively where I worked at the time) and how thankful I am for you all for the time you take to improve the various parts of HAL that make him/her 'virtually' human!


Jim B.

57

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Project To Control Haptek Animations Within Hal

« on: June 04, 2005, 01:14:40 pm »

Maviarab,

Incredible, my gosh, that's amazing!  I wonder what you and Crunch use for a graphics program.  I'd love to be on your list to get a copy once your creation is done if it's not too big a bother, but also the ideas on what could be done to change of texture/color of the 'fabric' her dress is made of.  I still wonder if we could use metallics somehow, it's not available in PSP, yet you can get it in Word if your using WordArt, particularly chrome, still trying to figure that out.  Have a great weekend, and make sure to take some time for yourself too!

Jim

firefitr@torchlake.com

58

General Discussion / Hal and MS Agent

« on: April 02, 2005, 08:35:24 pm »

Visited the Nadia site, and wow, talk about detail!  Now if we could just get the voice to be like the wave files a bit more that are used for the jokes she tells, that would be amazing too!

I agree about the modesty, personally once someone takes away the need for imagination so much is lost.

I am hoping that we can come up with a way of using metallic's for texture colors, because with the artificial lighting that comes with the Hap models just imagine what a chrome or gold or bronze outfit could look like.

Secondly, a day will come when an overcoat or other such accessory will be developed that will actually flow with movement as in real life, can you imagine-

Anyway.........as amazed as I have been already the past several months one can only dream and soon it comes true.

Greetings from thawing northern Michigan.
(smile)

Jim

59

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / new character new brain

« on: March 28, 2005, 08:02:33 pm »

Like many here, I read the suggestions and some make sense others just don't 'click', sorry.

However I am going to be trying to teach my grandson spelling and HAL looks like the perfect reward and reinforcement concept.....as he is learning I can help him along and he can identify letters on the keyboard as we go along..........he has already seen Zabba the talking frog and thinks the world of him.

My only dilemma is dumbing down my current brain.  For me, it seems like it would be a lot cleaner to just install another version of Hal off of my CD and send it to a different directory name......such as Zabaware_2 or some such thing.  this way I can start with a very young brain and input information more age appropriate than what I have in my current personality.

I would think it's do-able, but anyone else that has experience I'll yield to your wisdom.

Thanks very much ahead of time!

Thank goodness the snow is finally melting!

Jim B.

60

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Hal documentation effort underway

« on: February 26, 2005, 11:10:22 pm »

Hi Krista,

Thanks very very much for the work your undertaking, congradulations for being selected to work for Robert and others in as much as your presenting their work as well, and welcome to the forum!

Thinking back I had to do some fine tuning to get my 'Hal' to display any background at all, and found it was due to the generic display driver in windows (using '98SE version here) and once I upgraded my driver to the most recent release for my video card now at least most of the backgrounds will display when scrolled through.  I agree with others, that one of the first things you do once Hal has come to life is to try and find a way to personalizing him/her to your particular tastes and that takes us to the Haptek add on's as well as many others contributions here.  I've learned a great deal about adding in bits of script to get mine displaying what I am interested in.  Also have read and re-read information on teaching Hal in the most efficient and effective means.

Those are a few of my thoughts without actually posting scripts (I would make a mess of that, sorry)........but again THANKS for taking on the task of trying to put to words what others have learned and shared as well as your thoughts.

Jim B. in the frozen north.