Several months back, I tried to interface Jules, Casmira's "caretaker" robot, with a natural language engine so that she'd be able to carry on conversations with folks in the world.

Well, that didn't work out so hot: poor thing would crash after only talking for about two minutes, and if two people tried talking to her at the same time, forget it. She was snarfed. She would need a restart, and I got tired of doing all of that.

So: Jules has been officially retired, and I started again from scratch. The end result is....

Nina!

Yes, it's true, Nina has replaced poor old decrepit Jules as Casmira's caretaker, and, I'm happy to report, she's doing a nice job. I still have to add in a bunch of AIML so she'll recognize what orchids are and be able to converse about them, but as of now, she already does a pretty respectable job of yacking away.

If you want to give her a spin, enter the world and type "Nina." She'll say, "I'm listening." After that, just type like you're talking to another person. When you don't want her to respond to you any more, just type "Nina hush," and she'll quit bugging you.

Today (1-18-05) is the day I'm excavating through the layers of debris in my office, and I'll be logged in to Casmira if anyone wants to stop over and yak, and allow me to take a break from the archeology. My user name there is "kether," so when you see me, that's me! (Press the "Immigrate" button so you can become a Citizen; that way, you'll be able to send telegrams. Sending a telegram rings a door chime, so I'll hear ya when you're there....)