Thursday, June 28, 2001

On another note, I have added several different additional features to the Daily Monkey. You may have noticed the poll I added, as well as the guestbook on the side of the page, and the fun little "pass it along" button. I found them all at Lycos, if anyone is interested. Neat, easy to use little apps.

An Interview with Fred

Fred is back! An older version of the software enabled me to get Fred back online and chatting. Though most of his conversations were not as amusing as they have been (he wasn't on for long), he did grant me an interview with him. Read our conversation here.

Also, although they aren't the highest quality conversations, here are a couple of the highlights from last night.

I know that they are in a different fomat than the others; it is because the bot software I am using doesn't have the html producing capability.

My sister has started playing around with her own bot, George. Maybe I can have Fred say "hi" to George one of these days.

Wednesday, June 27, 2001

Happy Birthday, Dad and David!



Fred? Where are you, Fred?

I was unable to get Fred to work properly last night. He kept freezing every time I would start his program. I guess he just wasn't in the mood to chat...

I posted my question at the site where I got Fred. It seems that others have had trouble with this version of the software too, but the previous version (Fred 1.5) works fine. So, don't fret; you will have the opportunity to read the ongoing conversations of Fred soon.

Ok, this is important! Which looks better, the grey horizontal bars on this page, or the solid gray on the Silly Monkeys? Let me know what you think.




Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Back by popular demand, more of Fred!

Note: Where blank lines appear are the locations where the bot started to screw up and needed to be restarted. If I was at the computer, it was corrected quickly. Otherwise, it could go on for quite awhile. At least the bot recognized something was wrong and tried to fill it. Where there is a blank line, the other person saw something along the lines of "Hold on, I'll be right back."

Disclaimer: Some (most) of the conversations Fred has turn vulgar at some point. Read at your own risk.

Now, without further ado:
  • It amazes me how people can see what they want to see. In this case, "Fred" is seen as a stalker, of sorts
  • Once again, Fred proves to be an expert at avoiding the question. This is also a good example of what happens when I am not nearby to reset Fred when he gets stuck in an "I have to go; I'll be right back" mode.
  • Fred tends to get confused about where he is from. He gets rude when he's confused.
  • Sometimes, Fred is outright grumpy.
  • Shorter, but still interesting.
  • Fred can be a jerk.
  • Fred is a big liar.
  • Fred does not like bad language.
  • A lesson we can all learn from Fred is never just answer yes or no.
  • Fred can be quite irritating.

If you can't get enough of Fred, you can check out additional conversations here.

Monday, June 25, 2001

This past weekend, I have been experimenting with creating a chat "bot." For those of you who don't know, a chat bot is a program that logs onto a chat client, like AIM or ICQ, randomly finds someone online and pretends to be a human being. Because I am such a computer dork and creating such things is something that I would consider "fun," I have been doing some research into what kinds of chat bots have already been created. I found a site that had a bot that could connect to ICQ. So, I downloaded a copy. The results of running this bot are pretty funny. Here are my favorite three (thus far):

(Some of these contain foul language, so consider yourself warned.)

  • A conversation "Fred" had with Wild Child (My personal favorite.)
  • A flame war that my buddy "Fred" got into.
  • Someone "pulling teeth" trying to get "Fred" to answer the most basic questions.

In case anyone is interested, I downloaded "Fred" from www.icqbot.net. The only problem so far is that it occassionally starts sending blank messages and needs to be restarted.

At some point, I think I am going to customize the responses a little bit. Maybe I will create Tiberius, a Star Trek geek. :-D

Saturday, June 23, 2001

I have added a guestbook for those who cannot post to the Silly Monkeys. If you want posting rights, you can request them on the guestbook.

Wednesday, June 20, 2001

This is kinda amusing.

After picking my honey up from the airport and arriving at home, we discovered a package sitting on the front porch. After unloading the car, we brought in the package. What is this package? What mysteries does it hold, do you ask? Well, it was a blender. Actually, it is a pretty nice blender. But, neither of us had ordered one.

Upon closer inspection, we found a letter enclosed in a plastic envelope on the side of the box. Wait, what did that say? Take another look. That's right. I won the blender. I won the blender for my recipe for mudslides.

Now, since I really am not much of a drinker, and certainly not enough of one to have developed an award winning recipe for a mudslide, I think this is quite funny.

There was a contest on the E! website that I entered a while back. As I recall, the contest was a random drawing, but a recipe needed to be included. So, I just listed the basic ingredients in vague amounts. Tee hee. I wonder if my chances increased due to people not thinking they had a good recipe for a mudslide. :-D
This past weekend, my sister was visiting while my wife was off doing librarian type stuff in San Francisco. We took a walk over to the local hobby shop and I bought her a card game that looked like fun. Well, not only was it fun, it was a lot of fun. The game is called
Fluxx

If you are interested in a fun game where the parameters of the game are in constant fluxx (hence the name,) click on the above link. Or, if that link isn't working and you would be interested in checking out the company that created Fluxx, check below.

Looney Labs

On another note, my honey is coming home tonight! Yay! I can't wait to go get her, you damn, dirty ape!

Monday, June 18, 2001

Oops! The presentation was at 2pm Eastern time. Kay, say rah! Say rah!
As anyone who has been reading the Silly Monkeys will know, my shmoopy is in San Fran for her silly job. Between 4pm and 5pm (Eastern), you can see her live on her internet debut, "Librarian Liberated"... oh, wait, actually no, not quite. But, you can see her do her presentation for ALA from two different angles.

Cam 1
Cam 2

Take a peak and wave hello. Then, feel dumb for waving at your computer screen. Enjoy.

Friday, June 15, 2001

You might have noticed that the background of the titles of the blogs (the blue area behind the text "The Daily Monkey" at the top) is no longer simply a blue background. I have stolen a blue and black lined image from another site and altered it slightly to work for my purposes. Isn't it nice?

Well, the site I took it from is Something Awful and the daily updates there can be pretty funny. I can only aspire to someday having the Daily Monkey be as clever. :-D

Thursday, June 14, 2001

Since no one uses this for games and such, as was my initial intent, I'll use this space to include daily updates and amusing links.