I'm definitively still here and check the forums regularly. Here are the tentative plans for Zabaware for the near future:
1. Around April 2010 Zabaware will receive tax credits from the state of Pennsylvania that will provide enough funds to finally finish the Zabaware Ogre-based 3D character engine once and for all.
2. Zabaware is currently applying for another Pennsylvania state grant where they are specifically looking for companies to create intelligent robots. If granted work on this project would begin May 2010 and end in February 2011. The robot's hardware will most likely be based on the 914 PC-Bot (
www.whiteboxrobotics) and robot brain on Ultra Hal.
3. Either as part of the robot project or its own project if grant is not received I will begin work on recreating Hal's brain from the ground up to break free of its VB6/VBscript legacy code. I have chosen C++/LUA as the replacement. The overall new brain code will follow the basic overall design as the current Hal 6.x but with some key changes to improve Hal's learning ability and ability to keep on topic. Also I plan on licensing it under the OSL 3.0 license, a type of open source license.
Between now and April I am working under contract for a local insurance company doing database work so my time spent on Zabaware will be more limited during this period. I do have time set aside for Zabaware and I spend most available time I have on customers orders and customer support. But I am also actively observing and tweaking Hal based on his interactions in Second Life and making small improvements to his script and brain.