The Blog of H.

If you don’t know what OpenAgent is, then check out my first blog post about it. I am going to release OpenAgent on GitHub soon, but before I do, I think I should explain how it works. (Warning: programming jargon ahead!)

OpenAgent uses JavaFX to display the character. JavaFX is a framework for creating GUI applications in Java (in other words, normal windows that show on the screen).

It uses Dorkbox’s System Tray for the tray icon, to ensure it appears on all systems, and either MaryTTS (the cmu-bdl-hsmm voice) or FreeTTS (the kevin16 voice) for text-to-speech.

I retrieved the animations for Peedy the parrot (currently the only available OpenAgent character) using this MS Agent decompiler. Then, I had my little brother rename the animations and string them together.

To any Java developers perusing this post: All your other questions will be answered when I release OpenAgent on GitHub in a few days.

Here is a screenshot of OpenAgent:

I listen to Spotify a lot, and having switched to the XFCE desktop environment recently (a post about that is coming), I find it very annoying that there is no way to control media players compatible with the MPRIS media standard (like Spotify) from a widget. (Note: If you’re using GNOME, try this extension instead: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/55/media-player-indicator/)

And that is precisely why I made MediaControls. It is a small application I wrote in Java that runs in the system tray. It uses playerctl to show you the song that is currently playing and allows you to play, pause or skip tracks when you right-click it. It is very simple, yet very useful.

Some of you may remember Clippy, the annoying little paperclip who popped up at the most inconvenient times, or Bonzi, the purple gorilla who told jokes and sang songs, or even Microsoft’s Bob, their failed attempt at making computers easy to use for everyone. Some of you may hold a grudge against these annoying characters, but I love them.

What do those old programs have in common? They all used a (now obsolete) technology called Microsoft Agent, which employs animated characters as a sort of technical support to help users understand how to use programs, or just for fun.

Why am I mentioning this deprecated technology? Because I am currently working on an open-source, cross-platform replacement for Microsoft Agent, called OpenAgent, which I am writing in Java (although I am planning to implement it in other languages soon).

I am not the first, though. Kudos to Cinnamon Software for making Double Agent, which is also an open-source implementation of Microsoft Agent, designed to emulate it. I used Double Agent myself for a while, until I switched to Linux. Smore also made Clippy.js, a JavaScript version.

So why am I making OpenAgent? Because Microsoft Agent has never run on other platforms (except under emulators and compatibility layers like WINE, which isn’t good enough for me).

I want a cross-platform, native Microsoft Agent alternative. And when I say cross-platform, I mean cross-platform. I want OpenAgent to run on all platforms imaginable: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, HP webOS, ReactOS, etc. Of course, there is no programming language yet that works on every one of these platforms (except maybe JavaScript), so I will implement OpenAgent separately for all of them.

And as an homage to the original Microsoft Agent, I and my brother have begun decompiling Microsoft Agent characters and converting them to work with OpenAgent. So far, we have only finished Peedy the green parrot, but more are coming.

So for the first time ever, Microsoft Agent characters will appear on phones and tablets, and natively on Mac and Linux.

Man, it’s been a while. This blog has been sitting and collecting dust for 3 years now. From now on, I’ll be using this blog to post about new programming projects in Java, and (perhaps) badly written essays. I have already put up a new post about a reincarnation of Microsoft Agent, so look for that on the homepage.

All for now,

[Editor's note: H. and I have begun reading Everyday Law for Young Citizens, which despite his initial reluctance (law sounds boring) he loves. It was his idea to answer for himself some questions that the book asks. --Larry Sanger]

Q: Why do you think we need laws?

A: Because it helps ensure that people and all their pets are healthy and that their property (which includes their pets) has not been taken or damaged.

  Q: Why are laws important?

A: Laws are important because, again, they help ensure that people have what they have and are healthy. But why is that important? Because those things help them in certain ways. And their life is a requirement to be healthy and to have what they have.

  Q: What would daily life be like without laws?

Once upon a time, there was a field mouse. One day, he was in a field when he saw a hawk overhead. The hawk was not looking at the mouse, but still, the mouse ducked. But then the hawk noticed the mouse. The mouse scurried away. But the hawk swooped to catch the mouse. The chase was on!

After a while, of course, the mouse got tired. The hawk swooped down to catch its prey. But the mouse spoke just before the hawk got its prey in its claws. The mouse said: “Please don’t eat me!” “Why shouldn’t I?” replied the hawk. So, before the mouse could say a word, the hawk picked up the mouse in its claws and gobbled the mouse all up.

Moral:

[Editor's note: In the last year or so H. has started to learn to read Russian. He was assigned to translate a children's story, and the following is his translation, with a very little bit of editing from us. --Larry Sanger]

Fantasizers

Story translated by H. Original story by Nikolay Nosov

Valya and me are fantasizers. We always think up some kind of game.

Once, we read the story “The Three Little Pigs.” And then we started playing. First we ran around the room and shouted: “We aren’t scared of the gray wolf!”

And then Mama went to the store, and Valya said: “Petya, let’s make ourselves a house, like the one that the three pigs had in the story.”

We took the blanket from the bed and put it on the table. And then they had a house. We got in, and inside it was very dark!

Valya said: “It’s good that we have a house! We will always live here and we will never let anybody in, and if the gray wolf comes, we will chase him away.”

I said: “It’s sad that we have no windows in our house, it’s very dark!”

“It’s nothing,” said Valya. “The pigs have houses without windows.”

I asked: “But can you see me?”

“No. Can you see me?”

“No,” I said. “I don’t even see myself.”

 Then, suddenly, somebody grabbed me by the foot! I screamed! And then I climbed out from under the table. Valya followed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Somebody grabbed me by the foot,” I said. “Maybe it was the gray wolf?”

Valya got scared and ran out of the room. I followed her. We ran out into the corridor and slammed the door.

“Let’s hold the door,” I said, “so he won’t open it.”

We held the door, and then we held it some more.

Valya said: “Maybe, there’s nobody there?”

I said: “But then who grabbed me by the foot?”

“That was me,” said Valya, “I wanted to know where you were.”

“Then why did you not tell me earlier?”

“I got scared,” said Valya. “You scared me.”

We opened the door. There was nobody in the room. But we were scared to go up to the table, because the gray wolf would suddenly crawl out!

I said: “Go and take off the blanket.”

But Valya said: “No, you go!”

I said: “But there’s nobody under it.”

“But maybe there is!”

I went up to the table on my tiptoes, and pulled on the edge of the blanket, and ran to the door. The blanket fell, and there was nobody under the table. We were happy. We wanted to fix the house, but Valya said: “But maybe somebody might suddenly grab me by the foot again!”

[Editor’s note: this blog is where we’ll post some of my homeschooled son’s compositions. Generally, I don’t edit his compositions much, because they don’t require much editing, but if there is a spelling or grammar error I’ll make sure it’s fixed before posting. —Larry Sanger]

Scratch is a programming language I use on the computer. You can make lots of projects using it! I like it a lot! All you do is snap blocks together to make projects! Except you have to know what they do, and it has help screens for these purposes. It has broadcasting, showing and hiding, changing color effect, saying things, and costume changing. You can even make a movie with moving pictures, and there is also waiting, variables, and lists! I have made lots of cool projects using Scratch. In the end, I always get the programs to work like I want them to.

Scratch was made by college students at MIT. It’s hard to believe that college students could make such an amazing program!

Here is a description of one of my better programs in Scratch:

Taibo is based on an .exe program called SuperMemo, which allows you to memorize facts, because you add questions and review them again on a scheduled day. Taibo uses lists to collect the questions you make, and then it outputs one question at a time. There is an “if-else” block that sees if the user’s answer is equal to the correct answer (which is collected in another list when the user adds the question), and if it is, a sprite says, “Correct!” but if the answer isn’t correct, it says, “Incorrect.”

Well, that shows you what Scratch can do.

I think it is amazing! Here is a picture of Taibo:

[Editor's note: this blog is where we'll post some of my homeschooled son's compositions. Generally, I don't edit his compositions much, because they don't require much editing, but if there is a spelling or grammar error I'll make sure it's fixed before posting. --Larry Sanger]

I use an iPad app called Shakespeare in Bits to read Shakespeare. It explains a lot of the text, and it has videos which show the characters in action. It has the original text, and a dictionary which can define the hard words and phrases (even when a word or phrase seems easy, but it actually has a different definition). You can browse between sections or scenes using buttons. They have their own ways of designing the characters in the story (in the videos). It is very cool! It gives you things to think about.

I read it at night with Papa (we read Macbeth). We usually don’t understand some part of it. To help with this, we read No Fear Shakespeare (Shakespeare written in modern words).  It is a website, and it solves our problem of not understanding the text!