Eugene Goostman, the chatbot

Eugene Goostman, PrincetonAI

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Gizmag reports, "Eugene Goostman chatbot passes Turing Test." O.K.  Why does a chatbot have a full name and how did it pass such an important-sounding test?  Here's more on the Turing test.

The entry for Eugene in Wikipedia says:

Eugene Goostman is an artificial intelligence chatterbot. First developed by a group of three programmers; the Russian-born Vladimir Veselov, Ukranian-born Eugene Demchenko, and Russian-born Sergey Ulasen in Saint Petersburg in 2001, Goostman is portrayed as a 13-year old Ukranian boy in an effort to make his personality and knowledge level believable to users.

Time Magazine has published an "Interview with Eugene Goostman," in which the author notes:

Chatbot Eugene Goostman supposedly passed the legendary Turing Test on Sunday, tricking 33% of a panel of judges into believing he was a real boy during the course of a five-minute chat conversation.

The milestone conveniently occurred 60 years to the day after Alan Turing passed away; Turing bet that by the year 2000, computers would be intelligent enough to trick humans into thinking they were real 30% of the time.

You can talk with Eugene yourself by surfing to his homepage at Princeton ai (Artificial Intelligence).

Searching on 'artificial virtual assistant', you'll find a number of companies that offer their services.  IKEA features one, Ask Anna, on its Customer Service Contact Center page.

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Anna, Automated Online Assistant, IKEA

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-- Marge

DIY book storage

With school back in session the eternal struggle with keeping your books in order and yet accessible resumes.  The stack of board-brick-board design is always an option, but there are other options too.  Keep in mind that you'll be attending classes, doing homework (hopefully), and want to have a bit of a social life as well -- so best to keep the amount of work spent on setting up the book storage to a minimum.

Starting with the stack option, here's an example posted by The Crazy Craft Lady (the shelves are in the back, Pippa's in front).  Best not to make the shelves more that 4 tiers high for safety's sake.
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Stacked shelves, TheCrazyCraftLady.com

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Bookends are an alternative to shelves and there are lots of do-it-yourself projects for bookends online, but many of them look like they would be more annoying than functional. Steve Ramsey at Woodworking for Mere Mortals offers instructions for bookends that really work.  They also look like a lot of work to make.
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Bookends that really work, WoodworkingForMereMortals.com

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With all this in mind, I'm opting for modular storage that can be stacked on the floor or on a desk or table top.

By far the simplest, most elegant design is Miso's X-shelf, found at Inhabitat.  As far as I can tell this shelf is not offered for retail sale, so you'll have to build it.  Looks pretty simple though -- a number of boards with slots in the middle and the short edges mitered.  You might want to connect each X in some way; possibly with brass flat braces and brass screws.  Take a look:
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Miso X-shelf, Inhabitat.com

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A spice rack from Ikea might work for a few oft-used books, but it will have to be hung on the wall and there is likely a weight limit.  Still, it's only $3.99 (shipping to San Francisco is $11.00);  at Amazon the item costs $13.31.
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Ikea Spice Rack, Ikea.com

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My final suggestion is modular storage cubes/systems.  To me iCube is the most interesting. Amazon carries a fair selection of the brand, but I'm not seeing plain cubes without a center divider except in the four-cube kit for $76.57 (black).  Individual cubes (with center shelves) average $15-16).
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Remember to put the heavier stuff toward the bottom of the stack.

-- Marge