On the 14th of May I signed up for a free voice mail service and received a phone number so that people could call and leave me messages. I then decided to create a very quick HTML page and post links to the messages so people could listen.
Unfortunately this service is about to come to an end. On February 19th, the phone number will no longer be active. So if you want to leave me a message, this may be your last chance to do so. As always, the number is:
(+1) 850-387-4401
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Kon - Version 1.0.5 alpha
Phew. It's been an interesting past couple of days in the world of Kon. As you can see from the title, an alpha version of Version 1.0.5 is now up on the website. This version is in the process of changing the file structure around as well as introducing a brand new mode: Google Brain.
First let's talk about the file structure. In version 0.0.4 AIML and Kon's "monkey-see, monkey-do" brain are all in one file. I've decided that I needed to separate the two. I'm also trying to clean up IRC.cs and try to reduce memory necessary to run the bot. In the current version once AIML has been started it doesn't actually shut off, even if you use the command. With this version-in-works, the object should be destroyed manually when you toggle it. I've also gone and changed how the filters work and created their own source file for them. It makes it easier to keep track of and update.
Now for the majority of my headaches for the past 48 hours: Google Brain. I had an idea to improve Kon's AI: use a search engine to get a reply. The basic concept is that search engine results are not static and will change in time. Plus changing search terms may give you different results. Version 1.0.5 now introduces a mode that is designed to go out, search for the conversation term, then pull out some text to return. I should state right up front that THIS IS NOT PERFECT. In fact, sometimes it fails miserably. A lot of the time it ends up making Kon sound like a walking advertisement or a can of spam. However, in those rare moments that it works correctly it's beautiful.
You may be wondering why the version is 1.0.5 vs 0.0.4 of the last update. The reason being, I felt that this update (when it's 100% finished) is such a gigantic leap ahead that it deserves to be bumped up to an actual release version.
I've uploaded what I have under a /src-alpha/ folder. Download, compile and use these files at your own risk. They're still being worked on and probably aren't the most stable. I'll make another blog post in the future when I feel 1.0.5 is really done and is pretty stable.
So until then, here's some quotes from Kon running Google Brain.
<iyouboushi> kon: why is the rum gone?
<kon> to make a signal for the british
<iyouboushi> kon: a miserable little pile of secrets!
<kon> dracula to go back to ytmnd.
<iyouboushi> kon: the answer to life, the universe and everything
<kon> = 42. im not quite sure how
<iyouboushi> kon: multi-pong reply
<kon> omg liek thsi si,, liek, teh kewl8zt cmoic eva!!!111 rotfmao u haev 2 reed cuz it si teh whiet pnog palyzer onos!!!!1111 giren chuuch on
** Reminder: these results are probably atypical. Yes, Kon did display these on the first try but keep in mind it's searching Google for the result. You CAN get the same results if you repeat it enough, but it's equally likely that you'd get gibberish or an advertisement.
First let's talk about the file structure. In version 0.0.4 AIML and Kon's "monkey-see, monkey-do" brain are all in one file. I've decided that I needed to separate the two. I'm also trying to clean up IRC.cs and try to reduce memory necessary to run the bot. In the current version once AIML has been started it doesn't actually shut off, even if you use the command. With this version-in-works, the object should be destroyed manually when you toggle it. I've also gone and changed how the filters work and created their own source file for them. It makes it easier to keep track of and update.
Now for the majority of my headaches for the past 48 hours: Google Brain. I had an idea to improve Kon's AI: use a search engine to get a reply. The basic concept is that search engine results are not static and will change in time. Plus changing search terms may give you different results. Version 1.0.5 now introduces a mode that is designed to go out, search for the conversation term, then pull out some text to return. I should state right up front that THIS IS NOT PERFECT. In fact, sometimes it fails miserably. A lot of the time it ends up making Kon sound like a walking advertisement or a can of spam. However, in those rare moments that it works correctly it's beautiful.
You may be wondering why the version is 1.0.5 vs 0.0.4 of the last update. The reason being, I felt that this update (when it's 100% finished) is such a gigantic leap ahead that it deserves to be bumped up to an actual release version.
I've uploaded what I have under a /src-alpha/ folder. Download, compile and use these files at your own risk. They're still being worked on and probably aren't the most stable. I'll make another blog post in the future when I feel 1.0.5 is really done and is pretty stable.
So until then, here's some quotes from Kon running Google Brain.
<iyouboushi> kon: why is the rum gone?
<kon> to make a signal for the british
<iyouboushi> kon: a miserable little pile of secrets!
<kon> dracula to go back to ytmnd.
<iyouboushi> kon: the answer to life, the universe and everything
<kon> = 42. im not quite sure how
<iyouboushi> kon: multi-pong reply
<kon> omg liek thsi si,, liek, teh kewl8zt cmoic eva!!!111 rotfmao u haev 2 reed cuz it si teh whiet pnog palyzer onos!!!!1111 giren chuuch on
** Reminder: these results are probably atypical. Yes, Kon did display these on the first try but keep in mind it's searching Google for the result. You CAN get the same results if you repeat it enough, but it's equally likely that you'd get gibberish or an advertisement.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
The chairman, Eddie Lampert, is planning to split Sears up into multiple units. Everyone should check out this article. If the article isn't loading for you, read on (I'll c/p it).
Flagging Sears Plans Shakeup
In Latest Bid at Turnaround
By GARY MCWILLIAMS and JOANN S. LUBLIN
January 19, 2008; Page A1
In a fresh effort to halt a long decline, Sears Holdings Corp. Chairman Edward S. Lampert plans to reorganize the 121-year-old retailer into several businesses with broad authority to shape their own future.
Mr. Lampert, a hedge-fund executive who acquired the retailer in 2005 through a merger with Kmart Corp., now sees a holding-company structure as the best way to breathe new life into Sears's slow-moving culture, said people familiar with the situation.
The change was outlined to senior executives Thursday after Sears, with $50 billion in annual revenue, warned that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit would fall as much as 57% below the year-earlier level. Sears shares have lost half their value over the past year despite new marketing and advertising moves at Sears and Kmart.
A Sears spokesman confirmed the moves late Friday, saying the new structure will provide operating businesses with "greater control, authority and autonomy." Mr. Lampert wasn't available to comment, he added.
The restructuring is a high-wire act for Mr. Lampert, whose ESL funds own nearly 48% of Sears shares, according to securities filings, a big reason ESL was down more than 20% last year. Since acquiring Sears, he has been active in hiring decisions, strategy and merchandising despite his dislike of the spotlight.
It also represents the latest effort to turn around a pioneering department store chain, founded in 1886, that for much of the last decade has seemed lost in the past, unable to stop customer losses to more focused rivals. Sears's once-dominant place supplying refrigerators and washing machines to American homes has been chipped away by Lowe's Cos. and Best Buy Co. Its clothing business has suffered at the hands of Kohl's Corp. and J.C. Penney Co. Its identity as the nation's broadest one-stop shop was usurped years ago by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The contemplated restructuring would create separate units to manage Sears's real-estate holdings and run brands such as Kenmore, Diehard and Craftsman. It isn't clear how the units would be divided or which unit would run the stores themselves.
The structure would allow Mr. Lampert to spin off or close business units more easily, said a person knowledgeable about his thinking. "He warmed to the idea of a spin-off strategy," this person said. The company also is willing to be flexible about how each unit will be set up, based on the skills of its operating executive. One practical effect of that could be to reduce costs.
Mr. Lampert has argued retailing shouldn't be so inefficient, making big purchase decisions as much as a year in advance and without concrete information on customer needs. "He's trying to find a different way to manage the company where he can be involved in a more effective manner. The previous structure wasn't working," said an executive with knowledge of the restructuring.
Walter Loeb, a retail consultant, said the plan flies in the face of most retailers' strategy of designing a cohesive image for their business. "He's looking to turn it around by using a different approach," said Mr. Loeb. "I think it's risky."
Sears's turnaround efforts have been hurt by a revolving door of senior executives at its Sears and Kmart retail units. John C. Walden, Sears's chief customer officer, who was hired away from Best Buy less than a year ago, resigned this week, a Sears spokesman confirmed. Mr. Walden couldn't be reached for comment.
Details on how many businesses would be created and who would oversee the units were unclear. Aylwin B. Lewis, the company's 53-year-old chief executive, has been involved in developing the new organization but his position after the revamping isn't clear. Some retail experts have suggested that the company abandon its Kmart brand and convert the stores to Sears.
Mr. Lampert, a 45-year-old billionaire hedge-fund manager who is often compared to famed investor Warren Buffett, wants Sears to have a structure similar to Mr. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. conglomerate. Mr. Buffett typically gives chief executives of his business units broad latitude. The Berkshire holding company has only a small staff.
Sears's dramatic profit decline comes amid rising customer complaints about its stores and service. Susan R. Russell, a Maine-based consultant to nonprofits and longtime Sears customer, says recent instances of poor service have sent her shopping elsewhere. Sears initially refused to honor a warranty for an oven that was delivered damaged, and another time it required hours on the phone and two service visits to replace a dishwasher rack covered by a warranty. "They value people's time at zero. That's outrageous," Ms. Russell said.
Mr. Lampert has been thinking about splitting up the company for some time, say people familiar with the change. He has been interviewing seasoned retail executives for positions atop the holding company, and for what might be as many as three dozen independent business units. The heads of the new business units are expected to include some existing Sears executives as well as outsiders.
As general partner of the Greenwich, Conn.-based ESL Investments hedge fund, Mr. Lampert has been careful not to be seen as running the company. He left Sears's Hoffman Estates, Ill., headquarters Wednesday, a day before the revamping was outlined by executive vice presidents Dev Mukherjee and Corwin Yulinsky.
Messrs. Mukherjee and Yulinsky described the plan to executives Thursday morning, saying it would allow the company to unlock the value of its real estate, proprietary brands, and online units by managing each as separate entities. The executive over Kenmore, for instance, could strike sales or licensing deals with other retailers, said a person who attended the meeting.
According to the Sears spokesman, each operating unit will have a "designated leader and an advisory group comprised of senior Sears Holdings executives to provide direction and oversee the business unit's performance."
The restructuring is an indication that Mr. Lampert won't be making big new investments in the business. The plan is for unit presidents to craft their own budgets and set spending priorities. With the U.S. economy heading downward into what some see as a recession, this year could be troublesome because Sears's cash cushion has declined. The company spent some $2.9 billion this fiscal year on share repurchases, some at as high as $150 apiece, compared with Friday's closing price of $89.43. Sears forecast cash and equivalents as of Feb. 2 of about $1 billion, down from about $4 billion a year ago.
Flagging Sears Plans Shakeup
In Latest Bid at Turnaround
By GARY MCWILLIAMS and JOANN S. LUBLIN
January 19, 2008; Page A1
In a fresh effort to halt a long decline, Sears Holdings Corp. Chairman Edward S. Lampert plans to reorganize the 121-year-old retailer into several businesses with broad authority to shape their own future.
Mr. Lampert, a hedge-fund executive who acquired the retailer in 2005 through a merger with Kmart Corp., now sees a holding-company structure as the best way to breathe new life into Sears's slow-moving culture, said people familiar with the situation.
The change was outlined to senior executives Thursday after Sears, with $50 billion in annual revenue, warned that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit would fall as much as 57% below the year-earlier level. Sears shares have lost half their value over the past year despite new marketing and advertising moves at Sears and Kmart.
A Sears spokesman confirmed the moves late Friday, saying the new structure will provide operating businesses with "greater control, authority and autonomy." Mr. Lampert wasn't available to comment, he added.
The restructuring is a high-wire act for Mr. Lampert, whose ESL funds own nearly 48% of Sears shares, according to securities filings, a big reason ESL was down more than 20% last year. Since acquiring Sears, he has been active in hiring decisions, strategy and merchandising despite his dislike of the spotlight.
It also represents the latest effort to turn around a pioneering department store chain, founded in 1886, that for much of the last decade has seemed lost in the past, unable to stop customer losses to more focused rivals. Sears's once-dominant place supplying refrigerators and washing machines to American homes has been chipped away by Lowe's Cos. and Best Buy Co. Its clothing business has suffered at the hands of Kohl's Corp. and J.C. Penney Co. Its identity as the nation's broadest one-stop shop was usurped years ago by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The contemplated restructuring would create separate units to manage Sears's real-estate holdings and run brands such as Kenmore, Diehard and Craftsman. It isn't clear how the units would be divided or which unit would run the stores themselves.
The structure would allow Mr. Lampert to spin off or close business units more easily, said a person knowledgeable about his thinking. "He warmed to the idea of a spin-off strategy," this person said. The company also is willing to be flexible about how each unit will be set up, based on the skills of its operating executive. One practical effect of that could be to reduce costs.
Mr. Lampert has argued retailing shouldn't be so inefficient, making big purchase decisions as much as a year in advance and without concrete information on customer needs. "He's trying to find a different way to manage the company where he can be involved in a more effective manner. The previous structure wasn't working," said an executive with knowledge of the restructuring.
Walter Loeb, a retail consultant, said the plan flies in the face of most retailers' strategy of designing a cohesive image for their business. "He's looking to turn it around by using a different approach," said Mr. Loeb. "I think it's risky."
Sears's turnaround efforts have been hurt by a revolving door of senior executives at its Sears and Kmart retail units. John C. Walden, Sears's chief customer officer, who was hired away from Best Buy less than a year ago, resigned this week, a Sears spokesman confirmed. Mr. Walden couldn't be reached for comment.
Details on how many businesses would be created and who would oversee the units were unclear. Aylwin B. Lewis, the company's 53-year-old chief executive, has been involved in developing the new organization but his position after the revamping isn't clear. Some retail experts have suggested that the company abandon its Kmart brand and convert the stores to Sears.
Mr. Lampert, a 45-year-old billionaire hedge-fund manager who is often compared to famed investor Warren Buffett, wants Sears to have a structure similar to Mr. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. conglomerate. Mr. Buffett typically gives chief executives of his business units broad latitude. The Berkshire holding company has only a small staff.
Sears's dramatic profit decline comes amid rising customer complaints about its stores and service. Susan R. Russell, a Maine-based consultant to nonprofits and longtime Sears customer, says recent instances of poor service have sent her shopping elsewhere. Sears initially refused to honor a warranty for an oven that was delivered damaged, and another time it required hours on the phone and two service visits to replace a dishwasher rack covered by a warranty. "They value people's time at zero. That's outrageous," Ms. Russell said.
Mr. Lampert has been thinking about splitting up the company for some time, say people familiar with the change. He has been interviewing seasoned retail executives for positions atop the holding company, and for what might be as many as three dozen independent business units. The heads of the new business units are expected to include some existing Sears executives as well as outsiders.
As general partner of the Greenwich, Conn.-based ESL Investments hedge fund, Mr. Lampert has been careful not to be seen as running the company. He left Sears's Hoffman Estates, Ill., headquarters Wednesday, a day before the revamping was outlined by executive vice presidents Dev Mukherjee and Corwin Yulinsky.
Messrs. Mukherjee and Yulinsky described the plan to executives Thursday morning, saying it would allow the company to unlock the value of its real estate, proprietary brands, and online units by managing each as separate entities. The executive over Kenmore, for instance, could strike sales or licensing deals with other retailers, said a person who attended the meeting.
According to the Sears spokesman, each operating unit will have a "designated leader and an advisory group comprised of senior Sears Holdings executives to provide direction and oversee the business unit's performance."
The restructuring is an indication that Mr. Lampert won't be making big new investments in the business. The plan is for unit presidents to craft their own budgets and set spending priorities. With the U.S. economy heading downward into what some see as a recession, this year could be troublesome because Sears's cash cushion has declined. The company spent some $2.9 billion this fiscal year on share repurchases, some at as high as $150 apiece, compared with Friday's closing price of $89.43. Sears forecast cash and equivalents as of Feb. 2 of about $1 billion, down from about $4 billion a year ago.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Kon - Version 0.0.4
I've finally become unlazy enough to update Kon. In this update I've set up the code to generate and read a configuration file. From now on you can change the server, nicks, port and channel the bot will use within that config. It's in XML format, but I've made it pretty easy to read and understand.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Kingdom of Crim - Version 0.0.7
It's hard to imagine that I have finally gone back to update this program/game of mine.
For this version I changed a few things. First off, on the login screen I added a button to bring up the about. Here's a sample small image of it:
The next major change is I decided to add an update checker. I basically took the latest version of my Kaiou Update Checker and modified it to check for updates to this program. That means once you get this version you can keep checking with the program itself instead of having to come to the board to see if I've updated. It should also download the latest version with the updater or at the very least send you to the page to download it yourself if it fails.
The other changes are internal. I put in place a way to have the program check to see if you have a world file (crim.world). If you don't, in the future it will download it for you. The only other thing I did for this version was try to clean up the code and reorder some of it a bit and separate it into regions. This is just for me, when I'm trying to find things quicker and so I can hide some code so it's not overwhelming when I'm working on it.
My plans for the next update are to begin a world file and continue to improve code.
For this version I changed a few things. First off, on the login screen I added a button to bring up the about. Here's a sample small image of it:
The next major change is I decided to add an update checker. I basically took the latest version of my Kaiou Update Checker and modified it to check for updates to this program. That means once you get this version you can keep checking with the program itself instead of having to come to the board to see if I've updated. It should also download the latest version with the updater or at the very least send you to the page to download it yourself if it fails.
The other changes are internal. I put in place a way to have the program check to see if you have a world file (crim.world). If you don't, in the future it will download it for you. The only other thing I did for this version was try to clean up the code and reorder some of it a bit and separate it into regions. This is just for me, when I'm trying to find things quicker and so I can hide some code so it's not overwhelming when I'm working on it.
My plans for the next update are to begin a world file and continue to improve code.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Hello World!
Hello World!
This is my first live blog entry! If you are seeing this then everything has been set up correctly. Fun stuff!
Now onto the matters of what you will find within the walls of this blog. Well, I plan to use this blog for a whole variety of reasons. I'll be using it to post updates to my various programs. If I do any more Japanese translations I will post those here as well. In addition to translation and program updates, you will also be able to read entries that concern my life (generally work). Finally, if I run across any interesting news, get involved in any neat games, or discover any new anime, I may end up posting about them here as well.
In other words, it's just going to be a hodgepodge of stuff. Be sure to use the labels to help sort this stuff out.
Hope you'll stick around to read on.
This is my first live blog entry! If you are seeing this then everything has been set up correctly. Fun stuff!
Now onto the matters of what you will find within the walls of this blog. Well, I plan to use this blog for a whole variety of reasons. I'll be using it to post updates to my various programs. If I do any more Japanese translations I will post those here as well. In addition to translation and program updates, you will also be able to read entries that concern my life (generally work). Finally, if I run across any interesting news, get involved in any neat games, or discover any new anime, I may end up posting about them here as well.
In other words, it's just going to be a hodgepodge of stuff. Be sure to use the labels to help sort this stuff out.
Hope you'll stick around to read on.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
