Mr. Hope B1.0

[Computer Hope Admin]

I've posted an updated version of Mr. Hope, now Beta 1.0. If you have any suggestions, feedback, or if you have common questions you encounter that you could not resolve using this solution please post them on this thread.

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/mrhope/mrhope.cgi

Some things that were added since the earlier Alpha release.

1. More available options.
2. New interface.
3. Logging.

The logs can be accessed by any user (assuming the ID is known). Still needs work but it's a start. Below is an example of my log for tonight. The id is partially date based so if a user happens to visit again on a later date a new log will be created.

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/mrhope/mrhope.cgi?71004237

As can be seen it just links the id, so for example on one I was pretending I was trying to solve a dead pixel I found the solution going to the below pages:

start  h38  h110  h113  h115  h123

Looking at just that I don't think it's too helpful, however not exactly sure how to format it properly at this time.

Again, it's beta so something new and by no means complete. All feedback is appreciated and hopefully this will be yet another tool to help users find answers to their questions.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Update. Wasn't happy with the logging so did some additional revamp before calling it a night. Version B1.0c will now display a much better log as shown in the below example.

----------
start:
h33: Now troubleshooting a computer monitor. Is anything displayed on your screen?
h110: Is the video displayed on your monitor distorted and/or impossible to read?
h113: Are you missing any color?
h115: Are there one or more black dots or dead pixels on the display?
h123: See document CH000316 for additional information about troubleshooting dead pixels.

Link to this above log.

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/mrhope/mrhope.cgi?71004247

[unlovedwarrior]

ill look at it later after i do some other stuff

[Raptor]

That is so much work, Nathan and did you forget Windows comes with such a tool? It is RARELY used. Actually, I think only 1% of the XP users even know they can fix their PC this way..

Nice idea, though, but I think it'd be better if you had a system which scans people their posts for keywords and then provides articles that are likely to be related to their question...?

Ah, I don't know. I'll see you in a few months and check what's changed.

[CBMatt]

You know, it'd be really nice if Mr. Hope could work like Programmable Artificial Intelligence.  It reads a document and once it's done, you can ask it questions and it will answer them based on what it's learned from the different documents it has read.  It's a bit rudimentary, I suppose, but still pretty nifty.  I've got an older version on my program (for the life of me, I can't remember how I got this thing) and I make it read my blog.  When I'm bored, I can talk to it about my friends and it'll tell me how annoying they are.  Heh.

Anyway...I like the addition of the logs.  Not sure how many people will actually use them, but they're definitely good to have.

[M1CH431]

start:
h33: Now troubleshooting a computer monitor. Is anything displayed on your screen?
h110: Is the video displayed on your monitor distorted and/or impossible to read?
h113: Are you missing any color?
h115: Are there one or more black dots or dead pixels on the display?
h123: See document CH000316 for additional information about troubleshooting dead pixels.

Maybe, for the log also have what the user answered.

h33: Now troubleshooting a computer monitor. Is anything displayed on your screen?
User: Yes
h110: Is the video displayed on your monitor distorted and/or impossible to read?
User: No
h113: Are you missing any color?
User: No
h115: Are there one or more black dots or dead pixels on the display?
User: Yes
h123: See document CH000316 for additional information about troubleshooting dead pixels.

That way the logs could be more useful. An example where a log would be useful,would be if someone has a CD/DVD drive problem. Instead of having to ask them if it can play burned Cd's, music cd's etc.. You just say post a Mr. Hope log.

[Zylstra]

Neat

I've got Mr. Hope in my bookmarks
(now that I look, thats a lie)

Maybe you could link to it in the news?

[Computer Hope Admin]

CBMatt, It would be awesome to have something with that capability but AI is not easy and I've tried A LOT to make a solution like that. That was the original intentions of the chatbot Zero, which after a year of off and on programming I pretty much abandoned because it wasn't working.

M1CH431, I completely agree, I'll see if that's something I can add onto the log.

Zylstra, I'll link it on the major spots of Computer Hope once it's a little more better. Still needs more work.

[CBMatt]

Heh, neat, I never knew about Zero.  Looks like you were taking kind of an A.L.I.C.E. approach.  That would be incredibly handy, but also incredibly hard to program.  I tried my hand at it once myself and I too had to give up.  There's just so much involved and it quickly becomes overwhelming.

[Computer Hope Admin]

It had some similarities to A.L.I.C.E, but there are a lot of things I didn't like about that bot, primarily pre-programmed responses, Zero learned everything from other people people who chatted with it and from other IRC logs I imputed into it. This was probably a big cause to frustration on my part as most people chatting on the Internet to a bot are not too friendly and/or just want to cyber. So that's pretty much what he learned. 

[CBMatt]

This was probably a big cause to frustration on my part as most people chatting on the Internet to a bot are not too friendly and/or just want to cyber. So that's pretty much what he learned. 

Ha!  It's the chatbot version of Seaman!

[Zylstra]

Mathetes was a very cool bot that you at one time could chat with (and no logs) through a client like MSN, AIM, or Yahoo, but the messenger protocol system failed, and Pistos (the creator) cannot access the main library file anymore

[Computer Hope Admin]

Posted another updated version of Mr. Hope (B1.0d). New version improves log again (implementing suggestion by M1CH431) and also posted some more updated data files.

Example of new log:

start:
User: Keyboard
h32: Now troubleshooting a computer keyboard. Is your keyboard working or at least a few of the keys?
User: Yes
h76: Are all the keys working on the keyboard?
User: No
h79: It's likely that you have a bad keyboard. Suggest replacing the keyboard with a new one. *

* After reviewing h79 it will be updated instead of saying the above to instead refer user to: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000305.htm

[CBMatt]

Thank you for updating that keyboard scenario.  I was actually going to say something about it because it bugged me, since there could be a number of reasons for a keyboard to not work.

[linuxlover]

CBMatt, It would be awesome to have something with that capability but AI is not easy and I've tried A LOT to make a solution like that. That was the original intentions of the chatbot Zero, which after a year of off and on programming I pretty much abandoned because it wasn't working.

M1CH431, I completely agree, I'll see if that's something I can add onto the log.

Zylstra, I'll link it on the major spots of Computer Hope once it's a little more better. Still needs more work.

pretty impressive all the same...
a few problems:

*** CH695 [[email protected]] has joined #zero

*** Channel created on Sat May 26 21:53:43 2007

<Zer0> .

<Zer0> Greetings -- I am Zer0 version 2.3a my database currently consists of 137,475 entries and a vocabulary of 53,306 words, I continue to grow every day and currently need to learn 56,394+ things. Additional information about me can be found at: http://www.computerhope.com/zero/

<Zer0> .

<Zer0> ** If you want to talk to me type: "hi", "hi Zer0" or talk privately by double-clicking on the name Zer0. **

<CH695> hello

<Zer0> CH695: Hello CH695.

<CH695> can you talk tell me about the wii

<Zer0> CH695: Yes Should I?

<CH695> yes

<Zer0> CH695: That sounds like agreement to me.

<CH695> it is

<Zer0> CH695: Your confusing me.

<CH695> it refers to the previous noun i referred to

<Zer0> CH695: Some lady just called my cell and was like "Hi CH695 I'd like to place an order" So I took it! She's gonna be pissed when the pizza doesn't arrive.

<CH695>