A Siri challenger emerges. Meet Evi.

[40hz]

Interetsting news from MIT's Technology Review (Link to full article here.)

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[techidave]

It looks like we have cloned a whole new species!  Maybe we should ask ourselves about this new kind of monstors! 

[40hz]

^William Gibson called them "ghosts" (indulging in a little wordplay on 'ghost in the machine') in his book Mona Lisa Overdrive.

A ghost was a personal assistant visible only to the person it belonged to. It was the ultimate personal info assistant. It could look things up, find things out, remind you of appointments, make excuses for you...basically the personal secretary every busy person could have ever hoped for.

Evi ain't that by a long shot. 

My personal dream is getting something like the Librarian in Neal Stephenson's sci-fi masterpiece Snow Crash. If you haven't read this book yet - do so!

Stephenson posited a world where knowledge workers "goggle-in" to a computer generated 3D world called the Metaverse. (After you read this book you'll swear this was where Second Life got its inspiration from.) The Metaverse is a mashup of everything you'd ever do online. It's the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, Steam, online shopping, web-enabled remote access and control, YouTube, NetFlix, Google, and several other things that haven't been engineered yet. And you interact with it by putting on goggles and using a 3D avatar instead of a keyboard and mouse. No brain implants required. This technology uses eye-tracking and other kinesthetic cues picked up by a camera mounted in every laptop which allows you to control your online avatar. After you get used to it, it becomes almost subconscious and automatic. Like walking or swimming or riding a bike.

Very cool. And very doable - even with today's technology.

Note: Google has the whole book up online. To get a sample of what the Librarian is, go here, navigate back to page 106 and start reading from where it says: He is no longer connected to the network by a fiber optic cable... and start reading.

[4wd]

Maybe we should ask ourselves about this new kind of monstors! 

No need, we can ask Evi.

[mahesh2k]

Someone please come up with Ask Jenny 

[40hz]

Someone please come up with Ask Jenny 

Sounds good.

Better than what some government types may be hoping for instead:

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[Edvard]

A ghost was a personal assistant visible only to the person it belonged to. It was the ultimate personal info assistant. It could look things up, find things out, remind you of appointments, make excuses for you...basically the personal secretary every busy person could have ever hoped for.

Hmmm... Evi + Google's new cross-service searching? 

[CCpotter]

This sounds a lot of fun, i'm gonna try it on my phone now

[Fred Nerd]

I got it and had a play with it. Its fun.
A bit useless in reality. I asked it how I could get a date with Taylor Swift and it only gave me her website

I have had an idea for a long time of what is needed and wanted to code it myself but I'm never going to be good enough.
I was a voice recognition keyboard.
NOT to recognise words, but to be totally local and recognise letters. When driving its not too hard to touch 'reply', then dictate, n-o-t-space-t-o-n-i-g-h-t-commar-space-t-r-y-space-t-o-m-o-r-r-o-w-space-eight-colon-three-zero.
Surely this wouldn't be too hard to code.

Anyone want to try?

[Innuendo]

A bit useless in reality. I asked it how I could get a date with Taylor Swift and it only gave me her website

Don't give up, Fred!!! She's patiently waiting for you to find a way to communicate with her!

[Innuendo]

The first visit, I am glad to join this forum. After a lot of exchanges..

Welcome to the forum! I hope you find it to be as friendly a place as I have over the years.

[Tuxman]

Siri?
Android?

Well: Alicoid.

[Fred Nerd]

A bit useless in reality. I asked it how I could get a date with Taylor Swift and it only gave me her website

Don't give up, Fred!!! She's patiently waiting for you to find a way to communicate with her!

There were those 2 college guys who set up www.ahugfromtaylorswift.com and she heard about it and ended up doing meeting them. But thats been done now, so I need something else.

Hey, I might get a song written about me. I'll make sure it includes a DC reference.. The royalties would pay hosting for a long time.

[Deozaan]

There were those 2 college guys who set up www.ahugfromtaylorswift.com and she heard about it and ended up doing meeting them. But thats been done now, so I need something else.

I can't believe you haven't thought up www.akissfromtaylorswift.com yet!

* Deozaan registers the domain.

You snooze you lose! It's mine now.