Messages

Hi,

I don't know if this is much help, but I read somewhere that .htr files are zipped with .bzip2 (or possibly .b2zip) it is primarily a Linux application but I think there is a windows version on sourceforge.net

Hi Rich_A [:)]
Have you/could you [:D]
Create a script that will tun on "mic - button" in Hal, so that you could ask hal "open microphone" and speech recognition would be enabled, it would be VERY much appreciated...

Thankyou very much in advance ....

   -Geminii-

Thankyou, should have done better research [:I]
XTF 1.2 now working [:)]

We combined Alice with Hal because we are not exactly programmers (still learning) and already had experience with Alice, so it seemed the logical choice for adding to Hals dictionary and general knowledge-base regarding specific questions and responses (p.s it seems that some but not all of Hals tags eg. <TIME> work in the aiml)

Where it is true that the goal of AI is to make it seem more human, to the point that it is indistinguishable from just another person you are chatting to, but for example specific tasks or situations, would'nt having an AI with the personality of a human - but the capability of a computer be an advantage?
For example..

user>hi.
holly>how is it going?
user>fine, there is something bothering me though.
holly>what is that?
user>I think I have forgotten something.
holly>Like what?
user>I am not sure.
holly>Well you have your brothers birthday in 2 weeks time, and you have a project due in 1 month 2 weeks and 3 days time, is it one of these?
user>no, non of those.
holly>Then your on your own mate :)

Sorry, gone slightly off topic [:)]

Can't wait till your new XTF brain - excellent work so far ..

Thankyou for your advice.

Thankyou Vonsmith [:)]
Will do, hoping to create a personality that will seem both human and "computer-like".
Can't wait for the new XTF brain, will it still be able to be combined with the alicebot brain? we created a new AIMl set with additional dictionary refrences and game, local folders, homework, CD collection etc .. using the "define _" base and the "srai _" tags, would be great if we could still use them, we are still using the XTF 1.0, for some reason we could not get Alice to work with XTF 1.2

With thanx -Geminii-

Hi
Wondering if anyone has or could help with a birthdayage script, we have the one by Glenn "hal age script" which will give you her age in years when asked, but would it be possible to have her give you "years months days"
even better if she could give you hours and minutes as well [:)]

Thankyou for any help you can give.

Thankyou .. ..
Just updated the hdd - no problems at all now  [:)]
I appreciate all the help ..
James P - tried what you suggested - everything is fine - thankyou.

p.s. homework = a- so it's all turned out well in the end [:D]

Hi all  [:)]

Sorry about the delay in replying - PC died in a major way (not related to hal)
Only just got back online today .. ..

>Bill19 - sorry we ment the main Q&A brain file .. ..

>Art - no virus/troj/spyware that we can find - but have suspicions ..
running:
Mcafee antivirus(free definitions upgrade expired 4 months ago)
TDS3 - (old trial ver - cant affort upgrade yet)
Lavasoft Adaware

Yes - running XP home edition with service pack 1

Yes tried re-installing hal

Only minimum apps booting at startup

>onthecuttingedge2005 - have checked all files and all have the .brn extention

specs:-
Motherboard - sorry brothers PC - dont think he would be happy if i messed
around - i will ask him when he gets back.
CPU: 2.6ghz
RAM:512mb / 258mb in use (average)
Video: Nvidia Geforce4 MX
Gfx card speed: 270mhz
HDD:x2
Samsung 70gb / 85% capacity
Seagate 30gb / 95% capacity
DirectX8.1 and Opengl capability
Sound card: Realtek AC97
> accelerated ?
Monitor: standard CRT
Hal Ver: 5.0.57
Def Brain folder size: 19.2mb
CHkDsk: weekly
Defrag: monthly
Registry: we both leave that alone (dont know enough to try)
Spy/Ad/Mal: weekly
OS:win XP home - Sp1 and some other updates from Micro$ofts site

>spydaz - just tried that now - working fine !!  - thankyou  [:D]

>James P - thankyou - will try it in the morn
= loaded down with homework at mo  [:(]

[Download Attachment:]

Hi  [:)]

We are having problems with the brain editor ..

The problem is with the

>Tools:-
>main knowledge database:-
>question and answer brain:-

freezes on the pictured screen (attached file)
worked fine the first 3 or 5 times used then .. ..
left it to load for 5 hours - thought it had crashed..
tried again and left it for over 9 hours - no luck,
tried it again and left it from wednesday morn till friday,
still no joy .. ..

(task manager shows 1 - 3 % cpu usage)

when we click ok we get :
the file is currently in binary.
in order to save your changes is needs to be recompiled.

If we click - yes - we get :

"run-time error '55'
File already open

we click "ok" and everything closes down.

If we click - No - then :

screen closes - "would you like to save changes made to the entire project before closing it"

clicking either yes or no :

cpu usage changes to 100%
nothing happens for hours, and we get "program not responding" error message .. ..

all other brain editor functions work fine .. ..

Running xp home edition.

Hope you can help .. ..

       Thankyou .. ..

Download Attachment: screen-cap.JPG
24.02 KB

[Download Attachment:]

Hi  [:)]
Sorry took so long - please dont laugh too hard.
Afraid she is not much to look at, after all it is
only a testbed for ideas and our first attempt.
Had to remove the faceplate after an accident
and we dont have a picture with it on [:(] .. ..
will post another pic when it is repaired if any1
is interested.. ..
Feel realy ashamed of this effort - so probably will.
thankyou again for all the help  [:)]
     Hope to hear more of your thoughts soon.

               Geminii.

Pic info :-
A = webcam
B = sensor from a smoke alarm
C = voice-sync mouth opening
D = speaker and mouth drive
E = face plate contacts
(which hides the horror of this)
F = connection to neck motor
(sort of working)
G = the helmet of a hairdryer :)
H = microphone

all due for a massive overhaull..

Download Attachment: EMILY TESTBED.jpg
21.8 KB

Hi all  [:)]

Sorry took so long since last post - still not back (on friends PC at moment)
something came up here, could be up 2 a week before we get back,
will post a pic asap..

Till then .. ..

Resolved the shut down issue.

WIN XP

first you create a shortcut to Shutdown.exe located in the system32 folder.
then click on properties.
in the target box add the extention "-s"
like this "C:/WINDOWS/system32/shutdown.exe -s"
the "-s" will force a shutdown rather than the "would you like the computer to ..." dialog.
then create a shortcut to the shortcut in the "shortcut.dat" file located in the
zabaware folder - not forgetting to add ".lnk" to the end of the shortcut or it will not work.
we placed ours in the same folder as shortcut.dat and the shortcut looks like this ...
"C:/Program Files/Zabaware/Ultra Hal Assistant 5/Shortcut to shutdown.exe.lnk"
and an appropriate command eg. "shut down sequence"
so the whole thing should look like...

SHUT DOWN SEQUENCE
"C:/Program Files/Zabaware/Ultra Hal Assistant 5/Shortcut to shutdown.exe.lnk"

And save.
Now when we say "start shutdown sequence"
Hal will begin a 20 second timer, after which she will shut down.
[change the forward slash to back slash because the forum won't display back slash]

Now we have a very important question,
thankyou very much for the means to have Hal start full screen as the pc is turned on,
but we really need to know if there is a way to have it load with the mic button ON,
is there a way to do this.
  Thankyou all,

               Geminii.

Thankyou again to all of you  :)
Sure Don will do (in Manchester for a few days will have to be when we get back)
Have looked around for the snowmen or Santas but non of the shops i have tried here in england seem to have heard of them let alone stock them  :(  but will keep trying.
Thanks Maverick will start searching now  :)

We have some questions [:I]

Does anybody know what .exe we can create a short cut for so we can command R.Emily to shut down - 98 & XP.

Is there a script so that we could insert a floppy disk or CD or just a local file and ask R.Emily to read the file to us (would be a text file)

Is there a script for announcing the time every hour (like a speaking clock)

Appreciating all the help .. ..
   Have fun
         Geminii

Thankyou Don Ferguson and Psych  :)
Very grateful for your quick responses.
Psych opened brain editor, used search to find the script and replaced it with the one you gave, worked like a charm, no problems at all, thankyou :)
Don Ferguson, Firstly we toyed with the idea of using a monitor as the head - but unfortunately only spare monitor is an old CRT, and as we are planning to make R.Emily [bot name] as portable (and maybe in the future mobile) as possible, and money is too short to splash for a newer smaller/flat panel, the idea had to be put on hold for now.
We asked around the local shops and in town, but the only shops that still had window dummies said "sorry no can do" - still on the look out - but doubtful  :(
So we resorted to a combination of biscuit tins and bean cans, a square hole for the mouth, the square of tin cut was then tacked to a spring lever we made form an old cassette deck and using a motor and an old pc speaker amp set too high the mouth moves to sound emitted.
(sort of a shoddy version of Rosie from the Jetsons) not very original - but it is only a testbed.
Microphone ears, answerphone speaker mouth, torch bulb covers for eyes (hides the fact there is only one rather battered webcam for an eye) neck is a metal core from a wire reel.
We have planned a little ahead but most of the construction is on a "have idea - will modify"
basis.
At the moment we are debating on a head and torso or a lone head as in 790 from lexx.
In essence, too many ideas and plans to settle on anything as yet - but soon.. .. ..
The webcam eye is pretty poor quality, looking for an app that will sound an alert when motion is detected, so we can exchange the wav for another, a recording of R.Emily saying "can i be of assistance" of "can i be of any help?"
Afraid our programming skills are not anywhere near advanced enough to give the robot any advanced functions, but hopefully in time  :)
As this project is continually evolving, any help and suggestions will help mould it, the options we are considering are too numerous to type, any suggestions, opinions and advice would be very welcome, this is a long term project still in it's infancy and we are willing to listen and learn.

Hi.
We have built a robot head - not much - just a prototype .. ..
but we have built a basic pc to put inside in the hope of running
Ultra Hal as the brain (other than basic actions just a chatbot shell)
We were hoping that there was a way to have Hal start up in
full-screen when PC turned on (not minimized to sys-tray)
not very gifted in the programming area and would appreciate any help.

P.S. Don Ferguson and Vonsmith  we have read all your messages and truly appreciate all you have done for the zabaware community,
If you have any advice for us, we are more than willing to listen.

Running Full version of Ultra Hal 5.0

Thankyou all  [:)]

It is a new problem with the Appointment book.
Regarding the dates and jumping to 2005, we were
able to change the English time format after installing
a non oem version of XP and it will now accept 2004.
But now it keeps adding "on 12:00" to every entry.
for eg

usr] "hal i have an appointment on tuesday at 4:00pm"
hal] "you have an appointment on tuesday on 12:00 at 4:00pm
     I will remind you when this time is near"

usr] "hal remind me to watch friends on friday at 9pm"
hal] "i will remind you to watch friends on friday on 12:00 at 9pm"
[?]

Could you please help as we went to a lot of trouble to get hal to accept 2004 dates, this new problem is a bit of hair ripper.
Thankyou

Hi Bill,
Tried entering by hand anyway - but it would not accept it.
Cannot find any other option boxes relating to this problem, so it looks like we will have to live without Hal's Appointment Book [:(]
Will keep trying and will let you know if an answer is found.
Thankyou for your help...