Messages

16

Ultra Hal 7.0 / An interesting MS Agent site

« on: July 27, 2006, 01:14:10 pm »

quote:Originally posted by Charmzbond

I downloaded msagent from Guile 3D studio and she's working fine with ultra hal except that she doesn't talk like hal..her lips don't move but she's able to sound out her messages and also in writing. Aren't they not to supposed to speak?

Which one did you download? I downloaded Melissa, Voyager, and Kirei and they work fine for me. Their lips move.

17

Speech Technology / Cool tool: TTS to WAV file

« on: July 26, 2006, 02:51:39 pm »

Some of you probably already know about this, but for those who don't...

http://www.wizzardsoftware.com/att_demo.php

18

Ultra Hal 7.0 / An interesting MS Agent site

« on: July 25, 2006, 10:44:22 pm »

quote:Originally posted by Guile3D

Hi friends,

We´ve been working in some new characters (and most of them will be free) for a while. We are happy to know that the guys from microsoft are thinking in upgrading MSAgent to SAPI 5 TTS in the new vista OS.

Best regards,

Guile Lindroth
Guile 3D Studio

I like the "Vanessa" character. Have you considered making a "Voyager" character with a transparent background? The white backing is a bit inconvenient. Other than that, you have a really cool site. Thanks.

19

Ultra Hal 7.0 / An interesting MS Agent site

« on: July 24, 2006, 04:07:54 am »

Never mind. The MS Agent characters are working now that I've restarted my computer. I was not aware that I would have to do this in order for them to work. Oh well... I downloaded 3 characters from the site and they work perfectly on this trial version.

20

Speech Technology / Changing how Hal pronounces words

« on: July 23, 2006, 09:50:00 pm »

The Hal 6 program allows you the ability to change the way Hal pronounces words. With mine, however, I am not able to save these changes. When I reboot my computer, these changes are forgotten. Can someone help me with this or perhaps direct me to where I might be able to find an answer to this problem? It is my understanding that the speech portion of the Hal program is not actually part of Hal but was created by someone else. Thanks.

21

Ultra Hal 7.0 / An interesting MS Agent site

« on: July 23, 2006, 08:35:56 pm »

quote:Originally posted by markofkane

Do you have the Hal Expansion Pack?

No, I don't have the expansion pack. I'm using the trial version of Hal 6. I want to see what this can do before I waste any money on this.

Dawn and Merlin appear to be MS Agent characters and I am able to use these two.

22

Ultra Hal 7.0 / An interesting MS Agent site

« on: July 23, 2006, 05:29:22 pm »

"You have to put them in the
C: windows msagent chars
Folder. All .acs files go there."

Thanks. I did put them there but they still don't work. I tried downloading directly to the CHAR folder and after unzipping it, I put the character directly into the CHAR folder from the character folder, but it still doesn't work.  I even had a copy in both the CHAR folder and the Hal6 folder but this didn't work, either. Either I'm doing something wrong or my computer is malfunctioning... or both.

23

Ultra Hal 7.0 / An interesting MS Agent site

« on: July 23, 2006, 12:44:16 pm »

How do you install these characters after you download them? I moved it into the Hal6 folder but it doesn't show up in the character options in the Hal menu. Thanks.

24

Ultra Hal 7.0 / I cannot get HAL to open a webpage correctly

« on: July 22, 2006, 01:56:31 pm »

"After dropping the WebEngine.uhp file into your Ultra Hal Assistant folder choose the plug-in option [] Web Engine from HAL's Brain option panel"

Does the trial version of Hal6 supposed to have the "Web Engine" choice from the plugin options menu under the "Brain" panel? I don't see it. All I see on mine is Address Book; appointment book; Gender and Age; Google Search; Run Programs by name; Free will choice and profile; and USA Weather. Thanks.

25

Ultra Hal 7.0 / A Q about character plugins

« on: July 22, 2006, 01:50:03 pm »

Thanks for the info. I like the "Blue Ice" skin as the character doesn't overlap it, but it doesn't appear that this skin has a "size" button that allows you to change the size of the character like you can with the "Large Character Skin" which is what I've been using.  I don't know enough about all this technology to know what ACS files or MS Agents are or what UHP means (I'm guessing it stands for Ultra Hal Personality). This is all pretty knew stuff for me.

Thanks for the info on Free Will. It seems I may have asked too soon as Hal 6 seems to already have this plugin installed on it.

One more question: how do you edit or erase what you tell Hal or what Hal knows? It seems she keeps repeating something I said in error when I ask her a question and I don't know how to change or erase it. Thanks again.

26

Ultra Hal 7.0 / A Q about character plugins

« on: July 21, 2006, 10:06:55 pm »

Thanks. Actually, "Dawn" is a Microsoft Agent Character file, not a UHP file. But whatever, I simply copied it over to the Hal6 folder and it works.

Now, I still have the trial version of Hal 6, when you converse with Hal with the full version do you need to press a botton to talk to her like you do with Cyberbuddy and Answerpad? Also, where do I find the file called "vrFreeWill.zip", it seems to be missing. Hal's ability to use syllogisms sounds very interesting and I would like to be able to use this plugin.

Thanks.

27

Ultra Hal 7.0 / A Q about character plugins

« on: July 21, 2006, 05:57:12 pm »

Has anyone bought and used, successfully, any of the characters sold at desktopmates.com? How do you like them? I am currently using the trial version of Hal 6 and I downloaded "Dawn" from Desktopmates which is a free demo for Hal 6, but it won't install itself in the Hal 6 program but, instead, installs itself in Cyberbuddy. Anyone know how I can move "Dawn" to Hal 6 or don't all the characters at Desktopmates work with Hal 6? I like the idea of floating characters which float about on your puter screen such as those sold at Desktopmates as opposed to those that seem to be stuck in some kind of box.

Thanks.

28

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Newbie with several thousand questions.

« on: July 18, 2006, 06:01:55 pm »

"First, welcome to the forum!"

Thank you.

"I can't tell you about the CD since mine was a download."

Perhaps there is someone here who can. It's important that I know the difference here. Does activation cost extra? If I move the program from one computer to another, how much does that cost in activation fees? Is there no activation fee with the purchase of the CDROM?

"The home page about Hal describes a lot of the things that Hal can do."

I have read the homepage but it doesn't answer any of my questions.

"There is a downloadable manual that was written for Hal 5 and most of it works pretty much the same."

Where is this manual? I can't find it.

"Hal 6 is by far, a more advanced, expandable, database oriented program as opposed to the previous version. I think it's on the plug-ins page."

It would be nice if I could play chess with it... sort of like that talking computer on the Enterprise. Maybe someday.

"Ask Hal to find or search for gophers or What is the weather like in ____ or Where is Toronto?"

I know. But I was wondering if Hal could open websites that are saved in favorites.

"You can save the text (chat log) and load it into any number of wav or mp3 converters ( a lot of free ones are out there)."

I have Creative WaveStudio installed on my computer but I don't know how to get it to work with Hal.

"Is Hal's name related to 2001? Only if you want it to be!"

Hopefully there isn't a problem with Copywrite. There is another Hal program on the Internet that sings "Daisy" and has an image of the HAL computer that was used in the movie. Unfortunately, this program is extremely limited with the type of tasks that can be performed.

Thanks. I appreciate your answers.

29

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Newbie with several thousand questions.

« on: July 17, 2006, 06:18:34 pm »

Hello. I downloaded the trial version of Ultra Hal 6 and I guess my first question is, what is the difference in "Order Type" between these two options?

1. Download + CDROM by mail $2.00
2. Download + Online Activation Only $0.00

Does the CDROM come with a manual that explains everything one needs to know about Hal including every task that Hal is capable of performing? If not, is there an online manual somewhere?

How do I get Hal to access specific web pages?

How can I get something spoken by Hal into a WAV or MP3 file?

Is the Ultra Hal program or name in any way affiliated or related to the A.I. computer character "Hal" from the movie, "2001: A Space Odyssey"?

That's all for now, but if I think of anything I will post it here. Thanks in advance.

Lastly, I would like to thank Robert for creating "Ultra Hal" as I find this to be a fascinating program. Holding a conversation with a computer used to be Science Fiction.