Messages

1

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Hal Reminder/Alarm Clock...Redux

« on: November 12, 2009, 09:38:30 am »

Thank you, Ted. I'm afraid, though, that Hal and I must part company. I cannot afford to dedicate any more time to getting him to do what I need him to do.

It is an awesome program, and it is obvious that Robert et al put a *considerable* amount of work into the software, it just doesn't meet my needs.

Best to you,
Marah

2

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Hal Reminder/Alarm Clock...Redux

« on: November 11, 2009, 03:57:04 pm »

Hey, all.
I need Hal to remind me of many things daily, which he does well. What I need to have him do, however, is remind me ONCE and then delete it from his calendar. As a writer, having two hour, one hour, half hour, fifteen minutes, five minutes and on the tic reminders are VERY distracting and cut my productivity way down.

And I know I'm missing something fundamentally simple, because I think it's in a calendar command already, and I just can't find it. In other words, if I use the word "today" for the reminder (Finish article today at 15:00), then he does the above multiple reminders. Is there one command or one type of appointment that I can plug into his calendar that can tell him to "just remind me once and then delete it."? He doesn't respond well to ANY other calendar commands other than "today" for some reason. I'd love to be able to say something like "Finish article at 15:00" or "Time's up, chica! Hope you finished!" and have him understand that I mean today, remind me once, and be done with it!

Ted had mentioned that there may be a new alarm clock plugin for Theta (Hal) that will allow him to do this, but I cannot find it anywhere. Can anyone help or give me Dick and Jane instructions on how to talk to Hal such that he does what I want him to do?

The reminders are the reason I got him, and I want to buy him along with speech recognition, but I'm not going to make that investment unless he can meet my needs. The conversational aspect is somewhat secondary, although we've had some interesting conversations over the past few days.

Thank you.

Marah

3

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Can Hal open a .doc file?

« on: November 04, 2009, 04:01:29 pm »

Ted: I hope that things are going well for you, and that the crises are resolved happily.

Richard (it IS Richard, isn't it?): I went to Amanda Interactive and tried to read your docs, but it was tough to switch gears from the medical articles I've been writing to Hal Windows. Although now that I think about it, they are both brain related. I will try again when I break for the day. I'm very interested in whatever I can do to boost Theta's (Hal's) interactivity and scheduling. I'm kind of holding off teaching Theta and the whole conversational thing until after I'm done working 20 hours a day. [xx(]

ETA: Hopefully I can get all of this streamlined so that I don't have to assassinate my third run at Hal! I downloaded all of the Greta plugins as well, yesterday. I haven't figured out how to get them interfaced, however.  I dig a sharp learning curve!

Marah

4

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Can Hal open a .doc file?

« on: November 03, 2009, 04:19:04 pm »

Thank you Ted. And thank YOU, Robert!! Worked like a charm. Now if I could get Hal to remind me every two hours to stop writing and take a break, that would be awesome! Well, if he could make coffee - that would rock, and you would be a rich genius!  [8D]  (FWIW, I know you're a genius. I do hope you're rich.)

Is there anyone who can do a plug-in (or perhaps one exists already) where I can tell Hal, "I'm starting an article. Rattle my cage in two hours"?  Or do I just want the moon, stars and the whole dang galaxy? Okay, I DO want all that, but I don't think it's an unreasonable goal. []

I'm a happy girl. Thanks again.

Marah

5

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Reminders

« on: October 19, 2009, 12:11:29 pm »

Ted,
Thank you for your help. Hal and I talked, and now we have come to a meeting of the minds, as it were. One thing I wish he could do (and maybe does, although I haven't found it yet) is to wait for acknowledgement of a reminder before he dumps it from the calendar. That way, I know for sure I haven't missed a reminder.

I thought about exiting Hal when I step away from the computer, and that way, he lists all the appts that he is keeping track of for me for the day. I haven't implemented yet. We'll see.

Thanks again, Ted.

6

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Can Hal open a .doc file?

« on: October 18, 2009, 04:28:01 pm »

I downloaded Hal yesterday, have happily gone through the learning curve, but I've been searching the forums for the past four hours, and I cannot find anything that will tell Hal to open a file.

I have my writertemplate.doc on my desktop. Rather than having Hal call OpenOfficeSwriter, I want him to simply call my template so I can get right to work. Is there a way to do this?

I am not programming literate, unfortunately, so do please couch your reply in "Dick and Jane" terms. []  I have successfully edited Hal's brain, changes some parameters, so he and I are getting along swimmingly, except for this one issue. This is one of those "gosh darnit, I am GOING to make this work" situations. Thanks for any help you can offer.

If I can get this settled, I am going to recommend Hal to my Writers Forum, as they are always looking for time saving, productivity management and reminder solutions. And next pay day, I shall be buying the full version, and I'm very excited. I have spent many hours scouring the web for a solution to my short term memory loss problem, looking for a program that can remind me of anything at any time, and Hal certainly fills the bill. it truly is a joy to find a program that is not only versatile, but FUN.

Thank you from a new convert, Robert!

7

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Reminders

« on: October 18, 2009, 12:26:45 am »

Hal just doesn't get me. Or, rather, I just don't get him. I really like the concept of spoken reminders. I have severe short term memory loss, and I really need, very badly, reminders for almost everything.  I am a writer, and I would like Hal to remind me to "finish the article" or "finish your article" at XXXX (deadline time).

I have scoured the forum, and can't really find what I am doing wrong.  I have asked him to "remind me to finish the article at 11:46 pm" and "remind me to finish the article on 10/18/09 at 11:56 pm" and he parrots back, but then doesn't remind me. He and I are having serious communication difficulties. And yes, I know that it's ME rather than he.

I really need this function for so many things, and I know it can be done, but I just can't find a way to do it. And I'm afraid to break him!

I did, per several posts I found here, go into his appointment book and added "article" (minus the quotes) to the database. But he still isn't telling me. What do I DO?

I like him; he gets sarcasm. I want to keep him. My research has shown that he's the right way to go for me, especially considering my disability. Any help? Thanks, guys!
Marah