Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Got a ton of work done cleaning up our blogs!

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Well I’ve managed to keep myself quite busy for the last two days. All of our blogs, and I mean all, had their sidebars tidied up and I completely re-did my husbands blog Guitar Licks. It has a new widgetized them and if I do say so myself it looks a heck of a lot better than it did!

I’d been meaning give that site a new theme for oh … the last 6 months or so! I just didn’t have time! We’ve got 10 blogs that we write in regularly, 6 more being worked on that will be revealed soon, and of course I have my two big websites. That’s a lot of site maintenance to do let alone cleaning up sidebars, changing themes, creating graphics and so on as well as creating posts on all these sites on a regular basis!

I keep saying that this site will have a new look soon and I’ll continue to say that. Hopefully I’ll get to it over the weekend. Certainly the work that I did cleaning up the sidebars of ads and other things that might have been slowing the site down a bit will make it that much easier when I have to transfer all that info over to a new theme. Hopefully I’ll be able to widgetize the them too as that will make any future theme changes so much easier!





Ultra Hal – make your computer talk and understand commands

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Did you hear the news? Ultra Hal, created by Zabaware, won the grand prize for “most human” computer of the year – this means that they’ve basically created the Smartest artificial intelligence software ever. The award was given out at the 17th annual Loebner Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence.

Their software gives your computer a personality with the ability to speak and understand the English language. Of course this means that when talk to your computer it really can talk back!

If you’d like to try the Ultra Hal Assistant 6.1 software you can download a free 30 day trial at the Zabaware website.

Zabaware’s Ultra Hal software won the “most human” computer of the year in the 17th annual Loebner Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The contest was held in New York City hosted by philanthropist Hugh Loebner.

The Loebner Prize is an annual competition where software programs attempt to convince human judges that they are actually people. The format of the competition is called a Turing Test. In a Turing Test a judge talks with 2 “entities” simultaneously through a text-based instant messaging system. One entity is a human and the other is a computer. It is up to the judge to decide which is which by typing questions to both entities and receiving answers.

Zabaware is an Erie, Pennsylvania based company that specializes in artificial intelligence technology. The company’s mission “giving your computer the power of thought” once considered a futuristic pipe dream is becoming a 2007 reality.

It is one thing to talk to your computer it is quite another to have a conversation where you are exchanging information and the computer learns and utilizes the information in the future. Zabaware’s Ultra Hal technology and its associated brain are currently doing just that. The software can give your computer a personality using AI technology, speech recognition technology, and real-time animation. It can be used as an entertainment program, a companion, or an office assistant. It learns from conversations and evolves and improves the more it talks with a person. In addition to chat it can perform useful functions such as remembering and reminding of appointments, keeping an address book, dialing phone numbers, launching program, and more.

Zabaware’s Ultra Hal software runs on most standard Windows computers. The artificial intelligence software is available for download at www.zabaware.com as a free 30-day trial.

Don’t cry over Spilt Milk – Laugh!

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I guess I’m having a regular Linky Love fest over here today. I figured that while I was spreading the love I should also tell you about Spilt Milk – the blog.

Spilt Milk is written by Tee, a stay at home mom with two boys. Like Lisa, I know Tee from some of the forums that we both frequent.

Tee’s blog is a great site to visit when you want a laugh or when you feel like reading some inspirational stories like the story about the mother of a soldier who’s currently stationed in Iraq and how he wanted his mom to send him some silly string.

Along with humorous posts, funny videos and images you’ll find some mighty cool links such as the ones in one of her recent posts entitled Cool things to do with Google, the virtual pumpkin carving contest, or perhaps the video of the of the guitar player with no arms. I must show that post to my husband!

I really like her post with Balloon Art photos! Now that’s cool.

Poke around her site for a while. I’m sure you’ll find some things that make you laugh. Oh and as you might do with any site that you enjoy – don’t forget to bookmark her site or subscribe so you won’t miss any posts!

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings

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Hey gang, if you like my daily ramblings you might also enjoy my blogging friend Lisa’s blog My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings. I’ve known Lisa through a blogging forum that we both visit regularly for about a year now. Shame on me for not telling you about her site earlier!

Lisa is a work at home mom of two young children. You’d think that a three year old and a four month old would keep her busy enough, but she makes time to write in My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings as well as her other blog Lisa Reviews several times each day! I know life can be hectic with small children to care for so it’s amazing that she can write as much as she does!

Lisa writes about the events in her life such as preparing for the holidays, taking her little girl to the dentist for the first time, the adventures of potty training, and things like how great it would be to be able to have a virtual makeover before getting your hair cut or making a big change in your appearance.

I think I’ll get to meet Lisa in Las Vegas in November as I believe she’ll be going to the blogging conventions too. Should be fun!

So if you’re looking for a new blog to add to your daily reads check out Lisa’s two sites. I think you’ll like them.

Use a BrightBox to keep the symptoms of SAD away!

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Do you live in an the Northern Hemisphere? Do you find yourself becoming depressed, more tired that usual and or seem to lack energy through the winter months? Perhaps you even have cravings for foods that are high in carbs and sugars in the winter time?

If you suffer from any of the seasonal affective disorder symptoms I’ve listed it’s possible that you might be affected by a mild to severe form of seasonal affective disorder.

Recent studies have shown that up to 25% of the people who live above or below 30 degrees of the equator may suffer from at least a mild form of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

You may or may not realize this, but exposure to light affects our bodies sleep/awake cycles as well as the secretion of the hormone Melatonin which is secreted by our pineal gland. Our Melatonin levels can also affect the actions of our pituitary gland as well as our adrenaline, serotonin and dopamine levels.

If we are only exposed to low levels of light for a period of time our bodies can begin to secrete too much Melatonin and since Melatonin is one of the hormones that brings on the desire to sleep we might have the desire to sleep more often than normal and our moods might be affected as well.

Excuse me if I got into hormones a little too much there. I find it fascinating how our bodies can be thrown off so easily simply by not being exposed to high enough light levels! I also find this topic fascinating because I keep reptiles (box turtles at the moment) and exposure to the full spectrum of light is very important to their health as well for a variety of reasons.

The symptoms of SAD can easily be relieved through the use of SAD light therapy. In fact, the symptoms of SAD can be dramatically reduced after just a few days of light therapy.

brightbox.gif A UK company has developed and thoroughly tested the BrightBox. It’s what is known as a SAD light box. On the left you’ll see an image of their easy to use and easy to transport light box.

People who suffer from SAD can use the BrightBox for 30 minutes a day in order to keep the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder at bay. If you look through the sites gallery you’ll see people using the Brightbox in front of computers, at their desks or even at the dinner table with their family!

If you are interested in learning more about Seasonal Affective Disorder, the BrightBox and or connecting with other SAD sufferers please visit the BrightBox site.

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