Obsolete Your Idols

I was fiddling around for something to do with a Yahoo API and so now the MUD chatbot returns (simple) websearch results. Isn’t that nice? I think it’s nice.

#!/usr/bin/perl

# mudbot by Shannon Prickett 
# connect a pandorabots.com chatbot with a particular TinyMUCK, Pegasus.

package mudbot;

use Smart::Comments;
use Modern::Perl;
use Net::Telnet;
use Net::AIML;
use DB_File;
use WWW::Mechanize;

use vars qw{$being_quiet %global_exit $mud_connection $mud_conversation $mud_host $mud_name
            $mud_pass $mud_port $mud_sent $pid $robot %room_name $yahoo_id};
use subs qw{setup sometimes speak};

$mud_host       = 'ginka.armageddon.org';
$mud_port       = '4242';
$mud_name       = 'Somebot';
$mud_pass       = 'YRMEME';
$being_quiet    = 0;
$pid            = $$;

tie %room_name, 'DB_File', 'mapfile' or
    die "can't tie to mapfile: $!\n";

$robot          = Net::AIML->new( botid => 'BOTIDGOESHERE' ); 

$mud_connection = new Net::Telnet( Host => $mud_host, Port => $mud_port )
                    or die "Can't connect to $mud_host $mud_port: $!";

$yahoo_id = 'LALALALA';
setup( $mud_connection );

TALKLOOP: while (1) {
    ### TALKLOOP start

    my $atme = 0;
    my $prematch = '';
    my $postmatch = '';
    my $who_said;

    my ($stub_said, $what_said) =
        $mud_connection->waitfor(   Match => '/ says, ".*"/',
                                    Errmode => 'return', );

    next TALKLOOP unless defined $what_said;

    $stub_said =~ qr{ START \d+ .+ \b(\w+)\b }msx;
    $who_said = $1;

    $what_said =~ s{says, \"(.*)\"}{$1}g;

    ### Got: $who_said
    ### Got: $what_said

    if ($what_said =~ qr{$mud_name}msxi){
        ### saw my name
        $atme = 1;
    }

    $what_said =~ s{$mud_name}{}g;

    if ( ($atme) && ($what_said =~ qr{QUIT}) ) {
        $mud_connection->print("QUIT");
        exit;
    }

    if ( ($atme) && ($what_said =~ qr{be quiet}) ) {
        if ($being_quiet) {
            $mud_connection->print("say Maximum verbosity achieved.");
            $being_quiet = 0;
        } else
        {
            $mud_connection->print("say Shutting up now.");
            $being_quiet = 1;
        }
    }

    if ( ($atme) && ($what_said =~ qr{search for ([\w\s]+)}) ) {
        ### requested to search
        my $terms = $1;
        ### got: $terms

        my @terms = split ' ', $terms;
        my $querystring = join '+', @terms;

        if (sometimes( )) {
            $mud_connection->print("say Found http://lmgtfy.com/?q=$querystring");
        } else
        {
            my $web_connect = WWW::Mechanize->new( autocheck => 1);
            $web_connect->get( "http://boss.yahooapis.com/ysearch/web/v1/$querystring?appid=$yahoo_id&format=xml");

            my $results = $web_connect->content();
            if (defined $results) {
                speak( 'Found some URLs:' );
            }
            my @lines = split /\n/, $results;
            for my $line ( @lines ) {
            ### got: $line
                if ($line =~ qr{(.+)}) {
                    my $output = $1;
                    speak( $output );
                }
            }
        }

        next TALKLOOP;
    }

    if ( ($atme) && ($what_said =~ qr{explore}) ) {
        $mud_connection->print("say OK, going to poke around now.");
        sleep 3;
        $mud_connection->print('home');
        goto EXPLORELOOP;
    }

    if ($being_quiet) {
        next TALKLOOP;
    }

    my $response = $robot->tell($what_said);
    if ($atme) {
        print "response: $response\n";
        speak( $response );
    }
    else {
        if ( !$being_quiet && (sometimes()) ) {
            print "jumping in with $response\n";
            speak( $response );
        }
    }
}

EXPLORELOOP: while (1) {
    ### exploring

    my ($name, $desc);

    $mud_connection->print('look');
    my $startmark   = $mud_connection->getline( );
    $name           = $mud_connection->getline( );
    while (my $line = $mud_connection->getline( Errmode => 'return', )) {
        $desc .= $line;
    }

    $mud_connection->waitfor( Match => '/END$pid/', Errmode => 'return');
    chomp $name;
    chomp $desc;

    ### got: $name
    ### got: $desc

    $room_name{$name} = $desc;

    sleep 10;

    $mud_connection->print('out');
}

sub setup {
    my $mc = shift;

    $mc->dump_log('/home/binder/src/mb/logfile');

    $mc->waitfor('/connect\s+guest\s+guest/');
    $mc->print("connect $mud_name $mud_pass");

    $mc->waitfor('/Vote to ban the MisInformation SuperHighway/');
    $mc->print('@desc me=Just a Perl toy of Binder\'s.');

    $mc->print("OUTPUTPREFIX START$pid");
    $mc->print("OUTPUTSUFFIX END$pid");

    $mc->waitfor('/Description set/');
    $mc->print("home\nout\nvillage");
}

sub sometimes {
    return (rand() > .75);
}

sub speak {
    my $response = shift;
    my @lines = split /\n/, $response;
    for my $line (@lines) {
        $mud_connection->print("say $line");
    }
}

I’ve now sunk a number of hours into it and added some functionality, none of which really works yet. But in the interest of keeping things going, here’s where things stand now. Explore doesn’t quite work, and there are still weird undef matches in the dialogue. But I pulled out all of Expect.pm and went to Smart::Comments.


#!/usr/bin/perl

sub speak {
my $response = shift;
my @lines = split /\n/, $response;
for my $line (@lines) {
$mud_connection->print("say $line");
}
}


I was feeling restless so I looked at what Google Webmaster Tools had to say about this blog. Mostly it thought my title tags weren’t interesting enough, which was true. So I took the tip from Perishable Press on making title tags without Yet Another Plugin.

Humans shouldn’t notice anything exciting but perhaps the Googlebot will be thrilled.

And the bot is now both more and less annoying. Updated code below.

#!/usr/bin/perl

# mudbot by Shannon Prickett 
# connect a pandorabots.com chatbot with a particular TinyMUCK, Pegasus.

package mudbot;
use Modern::Perl;
use Net::Telnet;
use Net::AIML;
use Expect;

use vars qw{$mud_connection $mud_conversation $mud_host $mud_name $mud_pass $mud_port $mud_sent $robot};

$mud_host = 'ginka.armageddon.org';
$mud_port = '4242';
$mud_name = 'Somebot';
$mud_pass = 'YRMEME';

$robot = Net::AIML->new( botid => 'GETTHISNUMBERFROMPANDORABOTS' ); 

$mud_connection = new Net::Telnet( Host => $mud_host, Port => $mud_port )
    or die "Can't connect to $mud_host $mud_port: $!";

$mud_conversation = Expect->exp_init($mud_connection);

$mud_conversation->log_group(1);
$mud_conversation->log_user(1);
$mud_conversation->log_stdout(1);
$mud_conversation->log_file("/home/binder/src/mb/logfile", 'w');

$mud_conversation->expect(30,   '-re', qr{connect       # pretty standard MUCK greeting
                                    \s+
                                    guest
                                    \s+
                                    guest}msx,
                                sub {
                                    my $fh = shift;
                                    $fh->send("connect $mud_name $mud_pass\n");
                                    });

$mud_conversation->expect(30, 'Vote to ban the MisInformation SuperHighway',
                            sub {
                                my $fh = shift;
                                $fh->send("\@desc me=Just a Perl toy of Binder's.\n");
                                });

$mud_conversation->expect(30, 'Description set',
                            sub {
                                my $fh = shift;
                                $fh->send("home\nout\nvillage\n");
                                });

TALKLOOP: while (1) {
    print "TALKLOOP start\n";

    my $being_quiet = 0;
    my $atme = 0;
    my $prematch = '';
    my $postmatch = '';

    my $index = $mud_conversation->expect( 60, '-re', qr{ says, "} );  

    $prematch = $mud_conversation->before();
    $postmatch = $mud_conversation->after();
    $mud_conversation->clear_accum();

    next TALKLOOP unless $prematch;

    $postmatch =~ s{\"}{};
    print "$prematch said $postmatch\n";

    if ($postmatch =~ qr{$mud_name}){
        print "saw my name\n";
        $postmatch =~ s{$mud_name}{Persephone}g;
        $atme = 1;
    }

    if ( ($atme) && ($postmatch =~ qr{QUIT}) ) {
        $mud_conversation->send("QUIT\n");
        exit;
    }

    if ( ($atme) && ($postmatch =~ qr{be quiet}) ) {
        if ($being_quiet) {
            $mud_conversation->send("say Maximum verbosity achieved.\n");
            $being_quiet = 0;
        } else
        {
            $mud_conversation->send("say Shutting up now.\n");
            $being_quiet = 1;
        }
    }

    if ($being_quiet) {
        next TALKLOOP;
    }

    if ($atme) {
        my $response = $robot->tell($postmatch);
        print "response: $response\n";
        $mud_conversation->send("say $response\n");
    }
    else {
        if ( !$being_quiet && (rand() > .75) ) {
            print "jumping in\n";
            my $response = $robot->tell($postmatch);
            print "response: $response\n";
            $mud_conversation->send("say $response\n");
        }
    }
}
continue {
    $mud_conversation->clear_accum();
}

I decided to scratch an itch and practice a little bit of the Manifesto of the Cult of Done tonight.  So I wrote a clunky and fragile Perl wrapper which ties a chatbot to a MUCK.  Here’s the code.

#!/usr/bin/perl

# mudbot by Shannon Prickett 
# connect a pandorabots.com chatbot with a particular TinyMUCK, Pegasus.

package mudbot;
use Modern::Perl;
use Net::Telnet;
use Net::AIML;
use Expect;

use vars qw{$mud_connection $mud_conversation $mud_host $mud_name $mud_pass $mud_port $mud_sent $robot};

$mud_host = 'ginka.armageddon.org';
$mud_port = '4242';
$mud_name = 'Somebot';
$mud_pass = 'YRMEME';

$robot = Net::AIML->new( botid => 'GETTHISNUMBERFROMPANDORABOTS' ); 

$mud_connection = new Net::Telnet( Host => $mud_host, Port => $mud_port )
    or die "Can't connect to $mud_host $mud_port: $!";

$mud_conversation = Expect->exp_init($mud_connection);

$mud_conversation->log_group(1);
$mud_conversation->log_user(1);
$mud_conversation->log_stdout(1);
$mud_conversation->log_file("/home/binder/src/mb/logfile", 'w');

$mud_conversation->expect(30,   '-re', qr{connect       # pretty standard MUCK greeting
                                    \s+
                                    guest
                                    \s+
                                    guest}msx,
                                sub {
                                    my $fh = shift;
                                    $fh->send("connect $mud_name $mud_pass\n");
                                    });

$mud_conversation->expect(30, 'Vote to ban the MisInformation SuperHighway',
                            sub {
                                my $fh = shift;
                                $fh->send("\@desc me=Just a Perl toy of Binder's.\n");
                                });

$mud_conversation->expect(30, 'Description set',
                            sub {
                                my $fh = shift;
                                $fh->send("home\nout\nvillage\n");
                                });

while (1) {
    my $command;
    $mud_conversation->expect(3,
                             '-re',
                             qr{ Somebot }msx,
                             sub {  my $fh = shift;
                                    $command = $mud_conversation->after();
                                    $command =~ tr{\,\"\.\!}{}d;
                                    print "matched: $command\n";
                                    if ($command =~ qr{QUIT}) {
                                        $fh->send("QUIT\n");
                                        exit;
                                    } else
                                    {
                                        if (length($command)>3) {
                                            my $response = $robot->tell($command);
                                            $fh->send("say $response\n");
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            );
}

Check out her newly designed website! Designed and implemented by Eugie Foster.

If you go to Playfirst and throw some games in your cart and use the coupon code APRILFRIENDS you’ll get them for half price, at least until April 12th.  Share and enjoy.

If you’re reading this, as most visitors do, via the RSS feed, then you won’t notice that I finally changed to a non-default WordPress theme.  (Unless you consider having tweaked the default header block to be a darker less offensively chirpy blue color as being non-default, which no one probably should.)  But in fact I have gone to a lovely theme, which I chose because it was the top hit for ‘dark widget’ at the Theme Directory, aptly named Dark Smoke.

Sorry if this messes up your mental spatial map of where links are on the page, since this moved things around, but given the longevity of the last theme, things should stay where they are for a good long while after this.

Also I noticed a lot of 404s from old links still going to my legacy blog archive and cleaned that up a bit, so the crusty old blog is back.

This is kind of important. http://www.bidder70.org/ is the story of a guy who took a stand against corporations running over land.

I guess in terms of fiction I’ve been on a space opera kick because I also read Revelation Space recently.  That’s a nicely layered book with multiple reveals that twist the earlier understanding of how things are and send the story shooting off in a new direction.

The starting impetus is that an archeologist excavating ruins of a non-human society finds something unexpected.  Then the layers of the onion start coming off, putting the archeologist’s history in new light, the find in new light, the fundamental backdrop they operate against in new light.  This book does an excellent job of making plausible each of these successive expansions of the reader’s understanding of the situation.

Things I liked about this book

• The construction of the story
• The structure of the setting, all the players and vectors of motive in play
• The assassin character
• Knowing that there are other books in this setting which I can look forward to reading, now

Things I didn’t like about this book

• There were a few red herrings which I got invested in and which didn’t pan out
• Some of the characters who weren’t of consequence got an odd degree of screen time, while others who were significant sometimes came out of nowhere

Who might like it

• Space Opera fans, unite!
• People who enjoy the kind of detective story where the author keeps expanding the scope of concern until it’s enormous
• Fans of protagonists who are utter bastards

Who might not like it

• Those who need every last thing explained in a story
• Those who prefer character driven over concept driven narratives
• People who feel like they’ve had a glut of space opera in their diet lately