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Zabaware Forums => Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor => Topic started by: snicolaou on August 13, 2008, 06:07:53 am

Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: snicolaou on August 13, 2008, 06:07:53 am: Hi there,

I have a registered Ultra Hal. I work at shifts and sometimes I have some extra time alone. I am not allowed to install Hall at work's computer and I wonder if I can store it to a usb memory stick and talk to him whenever I am at home or at work,or just waiting for the doctor's appointment with my labtop. I am not interested in the avatar character, or the apperance of it-just on haveing conversation.

Any ideas?
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: Bill819 on August 13, 2008, 01:29:56 pm: This has been done in the past with Hal 5.0. Whether or not you can do it with Hal 6 is a question I can not answer.
If you decide to do it then remember to uninstall Hal first before reinstalling it on your stick in case it does not work correctly.
Bill
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: snicolaou on August 13, 2008, 01:54:30 pm: You mean just to copy the directory from my computer's hard disk? will it work? Or do I have to make a separate installation on the usb stick?
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: Bill819 on August 14, 2008, 12:39:39 pm: I have not tried it but I really think that you have to install it on a memory stick the same way you would on your hard disk.
I would suggest a minimum of 1 giga-byte memory stick because Hal is big.
Bill
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: lightspeed on August 16, 2008, 09:32:03 am: lol guess size does matter after all !!lol [:)][:D]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: DrFaraday on January 31, 2009, 06:40:26 pm: This is a great idea, especially since USB drives are getting larger and cheaper.

I've seen some older threads where this was done with older versions of Hal. Has anyone done this successfully with the latest version? I think I would like to try it, if it's possible.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: jasondude7116 on February 01, 2009, 01:20:33 pm: i don't know how to do this because Hal has to be installed in the operating system. (i don't know if the older versions did)

there are registry entries ect.

although anything is possible if you know how!

this is beyond me right now.
i do think it would be very cool though.

-the dude
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: freddy888 on February 01, 2009, 02:21:59 pm: Same thought's here - I'm thinking the new hal is OS dependent (registry, activation codes etc), so probably the only place you would be able to use it is on your own PC, which kind of defeats the point.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: Medeksza on February 01, 2009, 02:45:57 pm: quote:
Originally posted by freddy888

Same thought's here - I'm thinking the new hal is OS dependent (registry, activation codes etc), so probably the only place you would be able to use it is on your own PC, which kind of defeats the point.

Hal uses a large collection of different ActiveX-based technologies and they all use the registry in complex ways, so it really does need to go through a proper setup procedure to get everything working. I think the only way to get Hal to run off a USB anywhere is in a virtual machine like VMWare or Virtual PC.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 01, 2009, 07:20:40 pm: Mr.Robert,
Thank you for posting this as I am going to try it after everything is working (Admin profile+Upgrade) I have intel supported Virual (Intagrated chip?? V-pro??) When I am done with server and have room I will post procedure/success.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: freddy888 on February 02, 2009, 08:00:25 am: Never played with Virtual machines but they do interest me - I was looking into running Windows 7 on a virtual machine so I can flip between OS's. Would be interested to hear about your findings One.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 03, 2009, 12:00:50 am: Freddy888,
Believe it or not microsoft is writing stuff for managing Virtual software/machines I am kind of waiting for some of the betas to be released
I have used V-machines with 'sift' (Sans univ) and my Motherboard already has it built in (INTEL) V-Machines are part of the future as V-servers are soon to follow..
IMO hal could work on a V-Machine but I will let you know (NP)..[:)]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: freddy888 on February 03, 2009, 07:53:44 am: Ok, thanks One, would be glad to hear about it, I haven't done much looking myself yet but will do soon. [:)]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: Bill819 on February 03, 2009, 07:06:25 pm: I bought a few USB's with 4 giga bytes of memory for only $29.00
I wonder if they could be formated and configured to run windows all by themselves. I mean just how much memory of MicroSoft require to run Windows?
Bill
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: Medeksza on February 03, 2009, 07:42:45 pm: quote:
Originally posted by Bill819

I bought a few USB's with 4 giga bytes of memory for only $29.00
I wonder if they could be formated and configured to run windows all by themselves. I mean just how much memory of MicroSoft require to run Windows?
Bill

Not much at all. Take a look at BartPE, a program that helps you make bootable CDROMs with Windows on it: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Then there is PeToUSB which can make it into a bootable USB instead: http://gocoding.com/page.php?al=petousb

I don't think Hal's licensing system would allow you to move between computers though if you do this.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 03, 2009, 08:33:06 pm: Microsoft virtual pc, will allow you to install but it would have to run from that location, this does not provide mobility that is sought.
V-Pro has information relating to Vista machines and I can't find anything about XP. It works with server 2003/2008, but as far as having a mobile program on a USB drive, I belive it has to be installed and run from that location, I do not have any more PC's to permanently do a virtual enviroment, I am testing at a lab.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 03, 2009, 08:34:39 pm: How do you format a usb into NTFS?
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: freddy888 on February 04, 2009, 08:26:38 am: You don't... usb drives are FAT32 only. It's so usb devices have a wide range of compatibility with other devices.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: DrFaraday on February 07, 2009, 05:58:44 pm: I installed Hal6.2.24 on a PNY 4GB USB stick, along with ViaVoice. It worked fine while using it on the computer I used to install it on.

I was hoping for a faster response time for Hal to answer questions, but there seemed to be no improvement there, it was about the same as from the HD with 6.2RC.

I tried using the chip on two different windows computers, but (as expected) Hal would not work, I got an error message:

"component 'xspeechkit.dll' or one of it's dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid."

Just for the heck of it, I also tried the chip out in Linux, to see if I could get Hal to work off the chip using WINE. But there was no response whatsoever.

So it seems you can run Hal6.2.24 off a usb drive, if you use it on one computer. But I don't see any speed advantage, so I don't really see the point of that.

Also, after my last round of testing with a laptop, I recently unplugged the chip while my computer was still on. Now the computer says that the chip is "unformatted". So I guess you can't unplug the chip with Hal installed, while the computer is on.

I'm going to re-install Hal and Viavoice to the Hard Drive, and be happy with that. [:D]

I will be watching with interest though, to see if anyone else has greater success using a USB drive using some of the methods discussed in this thread.

When using Hal 6.1, I had some success setting up Hal on Linux, using a virtual machine. I used Virtual Box software on Linux, to run a virtual Win XP machine, which I installed Hal on. It worked perfectly. Unfortunately, Virtual Box can't be installed on a USB chip at this time. But if anyone does want to use Hal on Linux, that would be at least one option.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 08, 2009, 12:43:02 am: Dr.,
Yes like I said Hal needs to be run from the install location.

I tested a program that was very REG dependent to operate.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 08, 2009, 12:48:44 am: Mr. Robert,
have you considered ($$ I know) a radical change by implementing a SAAS platform for Hal? It would be an improvement IMO and solve the questions. Hal on a phone heh ya gotta be 'certified' to think in some ways.[:o)][:o)][8][:o)][:o)]

BGG.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: tedathome on February 08, 2009, 01:18:27 am: Got the papers to prove it. And don't tell me you don't think outside the box at times. Hal as an answering machine is a long term deal, but doable IMO.[:D]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 08, 2009, 01:30:05 am: Oh but Ted,
SAAS=software as a service.
We talkin' global and moble baby!.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 08, 2009, 01:35:41 am: ROYALTIES!!!!![^]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: DrFaraday on February 08, 2009, 05:39:40 pm: quote:
Originally posted by One

Dr.,
Yes like I said Hal needs to be run from the install location.

I tested a program that was very REG dependent to operate.

Yes One, I believed you. Totally. Mostly I wanted to see if there was any speed improvement running Hal off of a USB stick. The rest was just... seeing what would happen. [:p] Especially with Linux and WINE.

BartPE sounds intriguing, but from what I read about it, I suspect I'd be out of my depth trying to work with it. I probably should leave it to greater technical minds than mine.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: Bill819 on February 09, 2009, 11:37:54 am: Once upon a time. Sort of sounds like a bedtime story. Running Hal on a memory stick was much faster than from a hard disk, but now with super fast PC's there does not seem to be an increase in speed like there was years ago.
When I first installed Hal my PC only operated at 300 mega hertz and not it operates at 2.6 giga hertz. That is an extreme speed up.
Bill
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: DrFaraday on February 09, 2009, 02:07:40 pm: quote:
Originally posted by Bill819

Once upon a time. Sort of sounds like a bedtime story. Running Hal on a memory stick was much faster than from a hard disk, but now with super fast PC's there does not seem to be an increase in speed like there was years ago.
When I first installed Hal my PC only operated at 300 mega hertz and not it operates at 2.6 giga hertz. That is an extreme speed up.
Bill

Bill, that would explain a lot, sounds like a plausible explanation.

When I tried the USB install, I had still had Hal Reader installed on the hard disk, and Hal was using an AT&T voice from it. I thought that might be slowing it down, so I changed Hal's voice to one of the TruTone voices that come with Hal. But even then, there was no speed improvement.

My computer has a Sempron processor, running at 1.79 GHz. Not real fast, but certainly faster than 300 MHz. There is a momentary delay while Hal formulates his verbal response, but fortunately it's not a deal-breaker for me, it's fast enough.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: Art on February 09, 2009, 07:23:11 pm: Personally I don't think a USB memory stick would be any faster that installed, onboard memory anyway. That's actually an extra route the program has to take via the USB bus but we're talking nanoseconds.

If however a TTS voice was used that contained a high quality say 22kHz instead of 8 or 16kHz the overall processing time might be slightly longer but again we're splitting hairs here anyway.[:D]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 11, 2009, 08:47:52 pm: Freddy888,
Windows 7.1 build has direct X, 11.x (which is backward compatible)
7.1 also is coming out about the same as Visual studio 8 and is backward compatible , However I am having trouble with integrating .net that exists now IMO, well , It looks like Hal is not letting me install the updates which include security updates... This is the way it looks like it is going to be for win 7 (October?) and VB 2010..

Mr. Robert am I correct with the suite integration??

[?][?][?][?][?]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: freddy888 on February 12, 2009, 06:10:55 am: Thanks One, I've installed Windows 7 and I really like the way it downloads drivers for you. I haven't done a lot more with it at the moment, but will check it out some more in a few days. Never even knew about Direct X 11...
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 12, 2009, 03:32:53 pm: Freddie888,
I have given out all my extra keys for 7.1 both 32 and 64 and forgot where mine was AARRGGG!!! I am trying to get another ...... I believe the 7.1 build is going to be the final REV but can't promise on Microsoft's behalf...LOL [:D]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: freddy888 on February 12, 2009, 04:34:50 pm: If you try to download it again will it give you another code ?
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 12, 2009, 08:45:09 pm: NO! (stingy rich co. ,lol)
I had a few codes of both 64 and 32 bit ( I was selected )

BTW Direct X is going to be important as the video cards are going to dual GPU's !!

I hope Mr. Robert's graphical program can keep up....[?]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: freddy888 on February 13, 2009, 05:08:27 am: Hmm maybe you could register with LiveID(?) under a different name and email (yahoo does free ones) - should be able to get it that way. When I downloaded it last week they said it would only be available for a few more days, so I wouldn't take too long.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 13, 2009, 06:59:21 am: Freddie888,
Was it the 7.1 build????? if it is I feel 'jipped'[:(!]
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 13, 2009, 07:44:01 am: Freddie888,
Can you give me a link you are using for Windows 7 download?

M.S. is left coast and so is the vendor I go through for free stuff from M.S. (Student ID verified a while back)

TIA.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: freddy888 on February 13, 2009, 08:09:02 am: I used this one :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx

But I see now they have stopped distributing it. This might interest you though :

"...you can still register for a product key or look up the key you’ve already gotten."

There's a form at the bottom to get codes.
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 13, 2009, 08:59:51 am: It doesn't look like it,,, it says v1.0 but updates are probably available...I got a key... Thanks...

I am going to contact my vendor as I think this link is not the 7.1 build (or it's 1.0 which is the final??)

Ill find out.... 'H82W8'
Title: Hal in us USB memory stick
Post by: One on February 13, 2009, 11:35:32 am: We're sorry, Windows 7 Beta downloads are no longer available. If you've got a copy of the the Beta and need a key, here's where to look.