Today’s bit of geek fun: AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) The language is an XML language, and it makes for a way better chatbot than my previous Eliza bot did. The standard AIML bot that I downloaded comes with something like 47000 categories of things that it knows, and AIML makes it really easy to add more and personalize it. Plus, the server (written in Java) that runs the bot came with support for the AOL Instant Messenger protocol. Its really good for an AIM chatbot, but I still really want to see if I can make some kind of useful tool bot for AIM with Perl.

Speaking of bots, I now present a conversation recently had with my Eliza bot:
<BlastrBoy2> glad to see you’re still running
<BlastrBot2> Does it please you to believe I am still running?
<BlastrBoy2> it pleases me
<BlastrBot2> Tell me more about that.
<BlastrBoy2> it makes me angry to think that you slept with my wife
<BlastrBot2> Your wife?
<BlastrBoy2> don’t play dumb with me
<BlastrBot2> Tell me more about that.
<BlastrBoy2> why did you sleep with my wife
<BlastrBot2> Who else in your family?

At this point, I warned the bot up to 5%, it warned me to 35% and then refused to speak to me for the rest of the day. This is progress? (Just to clarify, I am not married, the bot slept with no one, and I am fully aware how lame it is to have conversations with your own chatbot)

Unforgettably ridiculous imagery of the day: Puff Daddy/P. Diddy swaggering about on stage waving an American flag during the United We Stand special on ABC. Take that Taliban!

I wonder what happened to recordcollection.net. Its been down for a while now, but I just realized I can still get to my collection and wishlist through skivsamling.nu, the Swedish version of the site. Good thing too, considering all the time I wasted spent entering all those titles. I’m up to 217 now but apparently I still have a long way to go. Looks like I need to make a few more trips to Used Kids and Magnolia’s. (Speaking of fat collections, geez Brett you’re putting me to shame here.)

Something to play with: AmpTicker Produces a .gif output of your currently playing winamp song info. Might be fun to figure out how to add it to a blog.

Few things really annoy me more than not quite getting a programming assignment entirely correct. Example A: This is what the correct image generated by my lab should look like. This is what my program is currently producing. Its really probably some minor detail buried somewhere in there and I probably won’t even lose that many points over it, but it just bugs me to no end (geeky pun about bugs not intended, but left in for good measure).

Hooray for Sam Brown! The first book from explodingdog.com is finally available! I’m pretty sure I’ll end up getting it eventually, considering how much I’ve enjoyed explodingdog’s stick figure randomness. In celebration, a brief list of my recent favorites:

i thought i could

this is the only thing i have left

it made sense to us at the time

its a good thing i don’t exist

… almost as though until i feel that i can do justice to what i’m sharing, i’d rather simply smile and share the fact that i had a great time and enjoyed the presence of people i love.

Bless you Sam Brown!

In which I air my dirty mental laundry.

(found via Mike from Frantic.)

How I manage to be both avoidant and dependent is beyond me. Perhaps I’m just extra not right in the head. Or perhaps you shouldn’t trust online mental health tests. No, its definitely the former.

And now the most personal thing I’ve posted yet: My heart still beats faster whenever I see her name on the caller ID. This is no good.

New Dismemberment Plan and Fugazi albums currently in effect here. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the D-Plan album, as their last output on Emergency & I is easily one of my favorite albums. Even though I knew going in that it was a much more sedate, spazz-less affair I thought it wouldn’t phase me. I certainly dug all the live material I’d heard from it. As of right now, I’m just not really feeling it and its not even because of the change of musical focus. Lyrically it just doesn’t seem to be up to par with amazing lyrical charm of Emergency & I. I miss Travis spitting out line after line of crazy rhymes at breakneck speed. It could well be that I just need more time to digest, and maybe I’ll find myself digging the album more. Its about as far from a bad album as you can get though, and highly recommended. Haven’t finished the Fugazi disc yet, but so far it seems to be on the level that you’d expect from a band of their ability. Much more hummable than I expected from Fugazi too.

Just to clarify, I was in heaven. Low covered “Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me” by the Smiths. I really couldn’t ask for more, but the rest of the show was just as good. As far as I was concerned, it could have gone on forever. I still can’t place my finger on why such simple slow sad songs can make for such a riveting live performance, but they sure did. Most of the audience sat cross legged on the floor, something I’ve never seen at a show before. It was just like kindergarten, but for indie kids. My friend Craig remarked that they should serve milk and cookies between the sets. The show had a very relaxed feel to it, and Alan, Mimi, and Zak would often go into a huddle in between songs to decide what to play next, occasionally taking suggestions. The only real disappointment is the t-shirt I bought which is way too small. I started to buy a medium from Zak, but he suggested a small. I went with his advice figuring “Hey, he probably knows how they fit better than I do” Needless to say, I should have done otherwise. Would anyone like a very small Low t-shirt? Seriously.

Today I had an interview with IBM. I have no idea how it went, other than not terrible. It was one of those where you just can’t really get a sense of how they feel about you and there’s really nothing that made you stand out, good or bad. Maybe I’ll hear from them. Maybe not.