I would recommend that everyone enter their bot ready or not LOL,  I got old Bildgesmythe in finally. Even though he is operating on a year old brain. The way I look at it is that it’s free, you get tons of great conversations to help your bot grow. It’s fun. exciting, and there is big money.  What’s there to lose.

Marie still has a way to go before she is ready for prime time,
so I have a few long weekends and nights still ahead. .

Holy cow, Patti! I thought you’d been abducted by Gypsies (or aliens)! Great to hear from you. So the old dragon is once again on the prowl? Wonderful!

And Laura, I agree with Patti. This isn’t the Oscars, after all. The CBC is well worth entering, even if all your bot can do is recite 34 decimal places of PI.

So Dave, what you’re saying is the CBC is more like the Golden Globe Awards then?

I was thinking more along the line of the local Grange holding a “person of the year” event, but…

Does the Grange even do that anymore?

Some people would call him a loser. He ran for state office— was beaten. He started a business—it failed. He ran for congress and lost. He was nominated for vice-president, he lost again. But he knew only those who never tried are the real losers and Abraham Lincoln was no loser.
Persistence…Pass It On. From the Foundation For A Better Life at Values.com.

“But he knew only those who never tried are the real losers”

I think the CBC is like taking your baby to the park.  It’s fun to show off when they act adorable, a bit nerve wracking when they are brats, but it’s good for both parent and bot to get out and socialize.  The worst that happens is your baby acts like a baby and screams for ‘pi’.

No gypsies or aliens, just the loss of a lot of work. My hard drive burnt out a day or so after the Forges’ did.  I was not upset because I had a wonderful, and expensive memory stick for back up…that was faulty and I lost tons of things I didn’t want to lose.  I did have some very old things saved on a $5. mem. stick so I didn’t loose everything.

That’s to bad Patti

I have always harbored the fear of loosing data, it’s just not something I even want leave to chance. Cloud backup and storage is the only way to go, especially when your project is constantly under development.

I actually have real-time uploading of my files directly to my cloud server as files are updated in my development environment. One less worry in a sea of constant uncertainty.

34 entries in this year’s CBC and so I wish good luck to everyone here who entered.

I notice Bruce Wilcox hasn’t entered this year. Any reason for that Bruce? I was looking forward to an AIML v Chatscript “shootout”.

yes…  was going to try to update rozette at last minute on web, but couldn’t get into the server. was overwhelmingly swamped for time needs in other directions.  So just abandoned.  Haven’t even been updating Rozette for Loebner’s yet….

Voting is now open for the most popular bot: http://www.chatterboxchallenge.com/

If you are unsure how this works, basically you click on the button next to Mitsuku and then click on the “vote” button

At the time of this post, there’s an eleven way tie for second place, but the spread between first and second place is only one vote, with Zoe in the lead.

All the bots have been asked the first round of questions. They are now working on posting the transcripts on the CBC Web site.

My speaking 3D animated chatter robot aired on CNN TV, in primetime in, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer ... As a contest entry in: The CNN/Youtube Debates… The “Questionable Questions” report by news icon Jeanne Moos, reporting on those contest entries that probably would not make the cut.  A full video clip of the TV news segment can still be watched on CNN.com.  The moral of the story is, enter your chatter robot as often as you can into every contest possible, and never feel ashamed if your chatter robot does not make the cut.

It’s has been a stressful couple of days with on the fly bug fixes and other unexpected problems but it had been a very interesting and rewarding experience never the less. My Marie was not prepared for prime time but I had many positive comments the design and concept that I am very encouraged.

There are some very excellent bots in this years CBC and I am proud to be listed among them.
I look forward to seeing all the judges logs.