Conversation with Ferris (Megahal)

Continuing my experiments with Megahal - here is a conversation with the brain called "ferris" ..

Here's the conversation transcript :

MegaHAL: Hi, ferris. How's your bod.
User:    can you help me write a blog about artificial intelligence?
MegaHAL: I was a habit. The guy's so conditioned to grief that if you
MegaHAL: could help out.
User:    how do you differ from Eliza?
MegaHAL: Ferris? How do you differ from eliza?
User:    I would say Eliza is more like a doctor - megahal is more a
User:    program that will create new sentences 
MegaHAL: You must be honest here, i love driving it. I want to stay home
MegaHAL: and that he is, in fact, very ill. I debated whether or not i
MegaHAL: should call the doctor.
User:    Eliza for example would look after some keyword list and will
User:    be triggered for an answer
 MegaHAL: Just answer me one question! Is it swelling up? Kim said it was
MegaHAL: like to do and all will be triggered for an answer.
User:    no what megahal is doing is more like building new sentences
User:    from the one the user will type into it 
MegaHAL: One of the new jersey state police but i thought i might get
MegaHAL: busted.
User:    sometime it makes sense, sometime it doesn't - but it is rarely
User:    the same answer that will pop up for the same question
MegaHAL: Because it is rarely the same answer that will pop up for some
MegaHAL: good times? It's a beautiful day, we've won our freedom, we're
MegaHAL: traveling down one of american's most scenic polluted waterways
MegaHAL: and you freaked.
User:    now, if I ask again how do you differ from Eliza?
MegaHAL: I could see them not wanting his brother was going to have to
MegaHAL: ask you for a twenty five year old clod with b.o. Likes me.
User:    see, the answer is totally different
MegaHAL: Because it is the answer.
User:    and then ... something strange like this happen
MegaHAL: See what a finski can do to a car like this happen.
User:    This is very much like training a pet
MegaHAL: The adult mind is a problem! For him it's a problem for you.
MegaHAL: But it's a beautiful day.
User:    at first, it does pretty much what he wants and then he starts
User:    to behave
MegaHAL: He looks at someone like me and i had a meeting first thing
MegaHAL: this morning. Why he has to be a problem. Nothing's a problem
MegaHAL: for you. But it's a problem. Let's crack open the odometer and
MegaHAL: roll it back home where it belongs.

More about Artificial Intelligence

What is Megahal

MegaHAL is a "conversation simulator": a computer program which responds in natural language to what you type, written by Jason Hutchens.

Conversation with Megahal

User:    can you help me write a blog about Artificial intelligence?
MegaHAL: I feel like you are a nice person.
User:    So far, the only program I knew that would simulate
User:    conversation would have been Eliza
MegaHAL: Conversation are good for the mind.
User:    but lately I discovered MegaHAL, and since then I have been
User:    training a few Artificial intelligences
MegaHAL: Only the unknown can be discovered.
User:    the first thing to do is to download megahal at
User:    http://sourceforge.net/projects/megahal/files/
MegaHAL: But lately i discovered MegaHAL, and since then i have been
MegaHAL: training a few artificial intelligences.
User:    then after extracting the source, just go into megahal's folder
User:    and type "make"
MegaHAL: Yet mystery and reality emerge from the same source.
User:    you will then have a executable file 'megahal' with a size of
User:    around 70kb
MegaHAL: I have quite a reputation.
User:    next you can start from scratch and train your artificial
User:    intelligence by typing things to her
MegaHAL: Can you help me write a blog about artificial intelligence?
User:    or you can download already trained artificial intelligences
User:    like Bishop from the movie Alien 2
MegaHAL: Yet mystery and reality emerge from the movie alien 2.
User:    other Artificial intelligences features Ferris Bueller, C3po,
User:    Data (from Startrek), Bill Clinton, and more
MegaHAL: So far, the only program i knew that would simulate
MegaHAL: conversation would have been training a few artificial
MegaHAL: intelligences.
User:    the download link for additional "brains" is
User:    http://megahal.alioth.debian.org/download/old/
MegaHAL: The first thing to do is to download megahal at
MegaHAL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/megahal/files.
User:    basically after unpacking a new Artificial intelligence of
User:    Ferris Bueller for example into a folder named "ferris"
MegaHAL: Can you help me write a blog about artificial intelligence?
User:    to talk to Ferris Bueller just type "./megahal -d ferris/"
MegaHAL: To talk to ferris bueller for example into a folder named
MegaHAL: "ferris.
User:    megahal will load the trainer file and create a new brain, then
User:    the conversation can start
MegaHAL: Conversation are good for the mind.

Talking with an Artificial Intelligence

MegaHALv8
Copyright (C) 1998 Jason Hutchens
Start at: [2014/09/24 18:41:28]
MegaHAL: Suggest you find it, using the flight recorder's data.  Find it
MegaHAL: and deal with it, hudson...because we need you and the answer's
MegaHAL: always 'don't ask.
User:    so now you are bishop
MegaHAL: I have no nickname. You can call me bishop.
User:    great
MegaHAL: Greetings to you, human!  Welcome on this space ship.
User:    tell me about ripley
MegaHAL: You just try to be hosts for more of you, ripley. I thought you
MegaHAL: would be smarter than this.
User:    I always wanted to have an interview with Bishop
MegaHAL: Now you just lie here and you are bishop.
User:    cool
MegaHAL: Hudson, stay cool.  Vasquez.
User:    how many are on this ship?
MegaHAL: I am an android.  Really, is there any species like this
MegaHAL: 'hostile organism' or alien ship.  And by the up-link tower
MegaHAL: down at the processing station...sublevel 'c' under the south
MegaHAL: lock by the warriors.  She is the center of their lives, quite
MegaHAL: literally the  mother of their society.
User:    come on there is Ripley, Hudson, Gorman, you, Vasquez and ?
MegaHAL: Vasquez, hudson, meet me at the beginning.
User:    Hicks?
MegaHAL: This operation is under military jurisdiction and hicks is next
MegaHAL: in chain of command.  Right.
User:    so you are 6
MegaHAL: I get the fuck out of this place.  I want this to go back out
MegaHAL: there?  They won't tell me one thing. That you're going out
MegaHAL: there and you are 6.
User:    but then there's the alien too
MegaHAL: I told them to be some kinda consultant... (Exaggerated) ...she
MegaHAL: was an alien ship and on that planetoid is an alien ship and on
MegaHAL: that planetoid is an alien once.
User:    which make you 7 altogether
MegaHAL: We got sonic eeelectronic ballbreakers, we got knives...sharp
MegaHAL: sticks.
User:    do you have a tumblr account ?
MegaHAL: I need some slack, man.  How come they send us straight back
MegaHAL: out there?  They won't tell me what the fuck out of your
MegaHAL: account.
User:    or a blog of some sort?
MegaHAL: Just a...precaution.  You know.
User:    for logging all events on the ship
MegaHAL: For logging all events on the plans. I don't know which species
MegaHAL: is worse.  You don't talk much do you?  That's okay by me.
MegaHAL: Most people do a lot of talking and they wind up like those
MegaHAL: others.  You'll take care of it won't you, it wasn't
MegaHAL: indigenous. There was an alien ship and on that ship are
MegaHAL: thousands of eggs.  Thousands. Do you believe this.
User:    that's a hell of an omelette, if you ask me
MegaHAL: I heard you and the answer's always 'don't ask.
User:    anyway first question - what is it you do here?
MegaHAL: What's the question.
User:    what do you do ?
MegaHAL: You never said anything about an android being here!  Why not.
User:    you are the android
MegaHAL: I feel like a fifth wheel here.  Is there anything i can locate
MegaHAL: you anywhere in the middle of nowhere, we look.  They don't say
MegaHAL: why, and i am an android.  Really, is there any doubt.
User:    okay, that's settle
MegaHAL: It's okay, baby.  We made it.
User:    second question : what is your mission out there?
MegaHAL: What's the question.
User:    what is your mission on this ship?
MegaHAL: My name is a us marine ship.
User:    okay ... weird answer but okay
MegaHAL: Because it is the answer.
User:    last question
MegaHAL: Anyway first question - what is it you do here?
User:    I'm interviewing you
MegaHAL: An ant of termite colony, for example, is ruled by a single
MegaHAL: female, a queen, which is the question of the telemetry mast.
MegaHAL: Immediate dust off on my 'clear,' then stay on station.
User:    last question - how do you see yourself in like .. 4 years from
User:    now
MegaHAL: I suggest you study the disks ripley has been kind enough to
MegaHAL: handle this...fifty-seven years.
User:    thanks
MegaHAL: This is absurd!  You don't have to.  The people who live there
MegaHAL: checked it out here, but so far...zip.
User:    I know, thanks for the interview
MegaHAL: Now you just lie here and you know how you were responsible for
MegaHAL: the interview.
User:    we'll talk later okay
MegaHAL: It's okay, it's okay.  It's over... You're going to have to
MegaHAL: talk.

Why I will never join facebook

Be a part of a "tribe"

facebook isn't the first social group that ever existed - before facebook was bolt.com (or recently orkut.com), or even now many other underdogs like hi5.com, Netlog, Tagged, Bebo co-exist, even with the previous leader of the pack which is unable to regain popularity myspace.com...

Social group website, works more or less the same way ... you create an account, you post photos, videos, links and interact with "your tribe" - be it your close family, your co-workers, or simply people that are sharing more or less the same hobbies.

Now being successful as a social group is not easy - you have to provide an attractive website, with ease of use, you have to be aware that some people will post things that are not "politically correct" or might even be illegal (in some way - like links to download of mp3 or 'bootleg' movies etc ...).

And even in many instance, the most annoying of all, porn - the all invasive porn that will find the way into any sort of network to spread.

That's the reason you will have this 'report button' - and that link will suddenly disappear, and sometime users account...

Now for the social group provider, the only thing that really count (at the beginning) is to spread like wildfire, so the first case of "porn invasion" or abuse from users will be ignored. Because the step after acquiring a large user base, is the step where user get trapped with this particular website.

Enter the Trap

After your friends, co-workers, etc ... are trapped, then basically this website will become the way you will interact with them by chat, or messages left on their timeline, the problem is that on this platform - you are under surveillance, under scrutiny of marketers, business poll, advertisers, and psychologists that are trying to manipulate, control, and brain-wash people.

And at some stage, you will have to make this choice to stay in because the interaction with your "tribe" is more important - or you will just figure out, that enough is enough and wasting your time in being part of an experiment to turn you into a lab rat, is definitely going too far.

The tactics they're is using to give the impression that it constantly grows - is that you can't ever delete your facebook account, it will stay there "deactivated" ... ready for you to reactivate it (because they know you will be back anyway).

At first (like in any abusive relationship), the partner is showing all his "attractive" side, and wants you to be part of what looks like an interesting and passionate symbiotic relationship - and as soon as you are part of it, it decides (without your accord) that well, some things should be different, and then it starts doing thing in secret, and you will feel more and more like you have been duped, you have been foolish to even start dating this asshole, but it's too late ... now he has all your stuffs, and the more you wait the harder it will get.

And that's the reason you will never find me on facebook.

Image Credit :
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/2019.html
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/2017.html

Additional Credit :
http://www.moreofit.com/similar-to/www.hi5.com/Top_10_Sites_Like_Hi5/

An offer you couldn't refuse

Interviews are welcome

I feel like it would be beneficial to open my blog to other people and allow them to have a place to post about their services or hobbies.

If you are an artist, freelance, cosplayer, linux developer, aspirant designer, comics writer, reiki master, spiritual healer, clairvoyant etc ... and be interested to post an interview on my blog. Here are the questions template I would use - send the completed interview to my email address

Questions

These would be the questions (feel free to modify them, as you like)

1. Can you give a short bio ?
2. What got you into "your field of expertise" ?
3. What are the required qualities of a "person in your field of expertise" ?
4. What are your visions of "your field of expertise" for the next years ?
5. What do you wish "your field of expertise" would be in the future ?

Please then add any of your links you'd like to share

Example of an interview with Katybear - found here.

P.S : As the editor I keep the right to decline posting or review part of the interview - or to discontinue this service anytime.

The service is free but donation are welcome.
See static page for more details http://alashazam.blogspot.com/p/open-for-interview.html

First step with Python

Why learning a programming language is a good thing?

With the raise of the personal computer back in the 90s, users had only one thing to do most of the time and that was programming - because back in the old days of gw-basic, ms-dos, borland C, and Turbo Pascal  - there was not many games, and the internet was not yet a real thing.

The big thing at that time was to develop programs, these could be ms-dos batch files, because users wanted to automate some tasks, or to tweak their autoexec.bat to optimize their system.
Or was it Pascal file, because that's what was taught in school, where IT class were all about learning algorithms, and how to draw fractals, and solve the Tower of Hanoi kind of things.

Back in the days, one page of code could get you a game (might it be Tetris, or Snake, or Arkanoid) - the game were simple and there was more fun in the programming than in the gaming itself.

Nowadays, programs are back to the programmers - most users won't even try to read a source code.

There might be an exception to this with Linux Users - because sometime they have to look under the hood and understand what is going astray with their system after an update...

Back to the question - why is it a good thing to learn a programming language?

Because it sets you free ... with as little as 4 or 5 days of learning you would have started to understand your computer from the inside, you would learn what a compiler is, how and why sometime your computer seems to freeze - and other very useful troubleshooting technique.

For quick little thing, Python can be used as a more advanced scripting language than will take the user further than what the Linux shell will usually get them.

Another cool thing is when you don't have a calculator close at hand - you open a terminal window and type "python" and do your calculation ... it's very handy.

Why Python as a first language?

Educators recommend Python as the beginner language of choice because it is simple and yet has great capabilities. Python code is easy to read and setup good programming style (like indenting), without being too strict on the syntax (compare to c++ or Java who requires to add a semicolon at the end of each line).

Python is included on Linux OS - usually Python 2.7 ; it is include on mac system too.

Without any addition you can have access to many library - to manage text, math, time, and many more. And after you have mastered all these you can then access additional libraries that will open your code to graphical interface (if you're running Linux - these additional libraries are easily installed using synaptic - for example for games e.g: sudo apt-get install pyGames )

Another good thing with Python is the overwhelming list of free documentations, resources, video tutorials and help you will find on the internet.

Highly recommended :

• Dive Into Python
• Codecademy.com/tracks/python
• Learnpython.org

Torus Trooper ... how do I start the game !?

I'm a linux supporter and this sunday, I wanted to play a game ; because I had heard of Kenta Cho - I wanted to try for the first time one of his game (which also exists for Windows platform).

His games are known to be very nice graphically, and pretty compact (6mb).

It started really nicely, launching synaptic typing "torus" in the search field
selecting the torus-trooper and clicking apply - that was easy ...

Launched the game from the linuxmint menu and then I was stuck on the game screen - I could select N, X or E nothing could launch the games...
I pressed space bar, return key, tab, Home, F1 ... the usual ... nothing could launch that game it seems.

I opened a terminal - typed : 

$ torus-trooper --help
Error: Usage: torus-trooper [-brightness [0-100]] [-luminosity [0-100]] [-window] [-fullscreen] [-res x y] [-nosound]

And that's where I got the idea of going back to the source program,
since Linux is an open platform why not having a look at the source ? (I couldn't find any documentation and wanted to play that game ...)

still on the terminal I typed :

  $  apt-get source torus-trooper

Then opened the  folder with the sources file and then I finally got my answer ... in a ... readme file :

 - How to operate.
-- Movement     Arrow / Num / [WASD]   / Joystick
Hold an up key to increase speed.
-- Shot         [Z][L-Ctrl][.]         / Trigger 1, 4, 5, 8
Hold a shot key to open automatic fire.
-- Charge shot  [X][L-Alt][L-Shift][/] / Trigger 2, 3, 6, 7
Hold a charge shot key to charge energy.
A charge shot is released when you release a key.
A charge shot penetrates enemies and wipes out bullets.
A score multiplier is increased according to a number of
destroying enemies and bullets.
A charge shot acts as a regenerative break.
-- Pause        [P]

It was the Z or left control key ... and then I could play and score
I like Linux, you've got a game in a game - isn't it cool ?!

3 hours later I was level 76
- in your face Torus Trooper !!!

Quake- Rebellion a worthy Tribute

The Quake III Arena game has inspired many artists, and this video above is a Fan Film Tribute from Tritin Multimedia, directed by the "Bastille" director, Joe Goss.

The full episodes are  available on DirectorGoss channel on Youtube in HD (1080) and on their website, it is to be noted that the episodes are released as a Fan Film to the general public for free.


Visit their website for wallpaper goodies

D-Day for StarCraft ][ - About time!!!!

How would look like Scarlett Johansson, Kristen Bell, Christina Aguilera, Angelina Jolie and Heather Graham all combined ?

What if a crazy scientist would create the perfect model by combining :

Scarlett Johansson
Kristen Bell
Christina Aguilera
Angelina Jolie
Heather Graham

Well, try this for yourself with this interesting website called MorphThing.com

http://www.morphthing.com/celebrity/28116811-Scarlett-Johansson-Kristen-Bell-Christina-Aguilera-Angelina-Jolie-Heather-Graham

How To Download and Play Flash Games Offline

Some Flash games can be very addictive, and even if you're mostly playing while online, sometime you want to play them on your laptop while being disconnected (offline) - so how do you do that ?

Basically those games area big .swf file (made with an adobe application called Flash) and it's just a matter of downloading that big file on your computer to be able to play offline.

Here's how - right click view page info / go to media / find the .swf file / save as - see the video below to see the step by step process :



Or follow this article on How To Download and Play Flash Games Offline

NB : If you own a mac the link to download the Flash Player is here
But sometime you don't even need that, because your browser can play the .swf file (just right click on it and select open with "Firefox" or "Safari").

Hammer of Thyrion: Hexen II and HexenWorld

Source port to support Linux, FreeBSD, other unix, Mac OS X & Windows

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Blizzard wins $6 million in court case with MMO Glider

Another chapter of the Blizzard versus Glider story has come to a close. According to BBC News (among other sources), Blizzard just won $6 million from MDY Industries.

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Free Command & Conquer: Red Alert 1 Full Game Download (EA)

Today, August 31st, 2008 marks the 13th anniversary of the storied Command & Conquer franchise, which has sold over 25 million copies to date. And to celebrate this, we are giving away one of the original games that started it all, Command & Conquer Red Alert, for FREE.

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Review: Dragon Quest IV Dispenses Retrogaming History Lesson

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen is a charmingly old-school role-playing game, a reminder of simpler times. But it's also an interesting stop on the evolutionary journey of the Japanese RPG.

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Boxer Emulates DOS on Your Mac [Featured Mac Download]

Mac OS X only: When you're feeling nostalgic for your old school DOS games—but you've got a Mac, DOS emulator Boxer comes to the rescue. Based on previously-mentioned DOSBox, you can run DOS-based games (here are three of them, all packaged up especially for use with Boxer ... that is Commander Keen, Star Wars demo, and Ultima IV)

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Battle for Wesnoth version 1.4 released

March 8, 2008. The Battle for Wesnoth team is proud to release version 1.4 of The Battle for Wesnoth, a Free, turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme and roleplaying elements. The game is available for download now for Windows, Mac OS X, and various GNU/Linux distributions.

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Thousands of Free Video Game Soundtrack Downloads, with Mass Downloading

A great page, with thousands of free video game soundtracks, with everything from Mario, Zelda, Halo... chances are, if you can think of it, they've got it. Now if you register, you can recieve free mass downloading, as well!


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id Software Doom on iPhone!

YES, thanks to underground iPhone programmers the classic id Software Doom is now on Apple iPhone! Download your copy here!

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