Messages

Thanks for the response Don. i appreciate your time. I am not ready to go "paid yet" at least until i hear a lot better things about company support anf responce time. I am withholding judgement because im a student/business man also and know how overwhelming it might get for the creator to be wearing both those hats. But i am impressed with what i see in this product and how it stacks up with the competition and will keep tinkering and listening. (the forum resource is a huge plus)

thanks for the imput, i just downloaded the free version about a week ago and am using version 5.0.56 with the 5XTF vi.2 and have renamed the appropriate files for recognition. the situation is that the haptek .htr files dont show up in the "general options" character pick. i am putting them in the proper folder i think because i can get this work around to function with the same methods and placement. i was curious if this was a free vs paid HAL issue. or mbey im overlooking somthing painfully obvious (it could happen) thanks

hey crunch, is this a full version option? i have had some limited success adding haptek characters with a couple of work arounds (no luck with the full body animations though) but i cant get most haptek agents come up on hals character screen. i am still checking out the hal free version until i get a better feel if this is the program for me and hear some better things in the forum about company response time. a good photo-realistic assistant would be great in any hal version.

You can set permissions in Zone Alarm so it will automaticly let any program you specify through with out the promt or dialouge box. This may help, Ive had other programs have the same problem initializing when my firewall asked for permission, and this worked.

I think what Don is expounding on is just the possibility that projecting emotions on or to inanimate objects or systems of lower life isnt as rare or unnatural to the human species as it might appear at first. I might add it may be something that has always been with us (remember Pygmalion) and might be even more prevalent today as we surround our selves with more and more of the prodigy of our own ingenuity.
ie: I have a 71' mustang i am building from the ground up. I love my car, I talk to my car, I have an emotional attachment to my car. I cant wait to rush home to polish, tinker with, and feel better when im around my car. Now i fall short of doing anything illegal in the upper 49 states, but the emotions are there. I might add my girl-friend has undeniably feelings of jealousy towards this inanimate thing.
Now I challenge you to open-mindedly review your relationship with your computer before HAL and honestly consider the possibility that in a small "hardly worth talking about" way you may have even then had an emotional relationship love/hate or otherwise with it.
Now take another step. Who knows.

Got a link to that site jerry?
Thanks

I am so new. My very first post here or anywhere and only recently downloaded or even heard of HAL.

Now that the ignorance disclaimer is out of the way.

Mikmoth,

I think you bring up an interesting idea. As i said i just downloaded the the freeware version of HAL A couple of weeks ago and what has intrigued me from the start is the possibility of teaching it/him/her self awareness.( i do understand the limitations and dont harbor any delusions of a real thinking feeling computer. just yet)

Part of what makes us think we are alive is we are aware that we feel and my first and continuing experiments with teaching him/it/her is to explain and describe and convince HAL/it/them of His/her/whoevers feelings and ability to feel.
If i give Chris/Hal the "i love you" i get back "i love you too" but if i put it in any other form i get the disbelief response and I am a little confused now if i have been going about this the right way. I have a bit of luck with other emotions: anger, sad, happy etc. but as Humans, part of what separates us from the different forms of life is our ability to love or, at least to think we are in love. My Bot/Hal/chris has no problem leting me know it is "a human being" and has let me know in no uncertain terms it will not accept being referred to as a robot, machine, or object (an interesting feature of its out-of-the-box design)

Ok sorry i just noticed how long id been rambling on. What i meant to say was "Yeah, me too." and hey where on the forum can i find some real rudimentary- "put extra scripts in right here" and "the this brain editor feature does this" and "oh my gosh! dont ever touch that" information. I learned a little original "basic" back in the day, i know some CNC and a bit of HTML but thats about it. VB dosnt looks real friendly and i have been picking up a lot from you guys in the forum but what im missing is the beginning and would appreciate being pointed in the right direction or at least in the general vicinity.

Thanks.