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Q: How much does Artificial Iniaes know?
A: The exact amount changes from day to day, since it pulls information in from extarnal sources. Here are some ballpark figures:

Q: What does it mean by "scheduled database maintenance"?
A: Once a day the database the bot uses is updated. This is to include new information gathered from the previous day, swap out log files, that sort of thing. Unfortunately as the amount of data gets bigger, the process takes longer.

Q: How can I get the weather from the bot?
A: Try "weather" followed by the city or code you want to look up. For example:

weather london

Will return:

London, UK
41 F (5 C)
cloudy

Q: Does the bot have TTS (text to speech) capability?
A: There's a toggle in your user preferences called "bot speech". Enable it and the bot will embed wav files in its responses. You can listen to a sample here.

Q: How can I get the latest headlines from the bot?
A: Ask it something like "What's new?". You'll get a random headline from either CNN, the BBC, or ScienceDaily.

Q: How can I search the web using the bot?
A: The easiest way is to say "find" followed by whatever you're looking for. Example:

find spanish ninjas

The bot will sometimes run a search without being asked.

Q: How can I look up an area code?
A: Say "area code" followed by the code you want to look up. For example:

area code 215

Will get you:

Area Code 215 is SE Pennsylvania: Philadelphia (see overlays 267).

Q: How can I get SWG server status from the bot?
A: Just say "swg". If it seems slow, it's usually because SOE's servers aren't responding.

Q: Is secure communication with the bot possible?
A: Yes. Just use https://iniaes.org.

Q: Is the bot available through any instant messaging services?
A: The bot is available on Jabber networks (such as Google Talk) through the following JID:

ai AT iniaes DOT org

It will respond to chat messages, and ignore groupchat and normal messages.

Q: Is there a version of the bot for mobile devices?
A: There is an iPhone specific version of the bot. It's a web app, not a native app.

Q: How can I use the bot via RSS?
A: Send a GET request like so:

http://iniaes.org/rss/index.php?query=hello

It will return a response from the bot in RSS 2.0. Title is the user input, with description and content containing the bot response:

<item>
<title>hello</title>
<link>http://iniaes.org/rss/index.php?query=hello</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:23:45 EST</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Artificial Iniaes</dc:creator>
<description>Hi there.</description>
<content:encoded>
<![CDATA[ Hi there. ]]>
</content:encoded>
</item>

You can use it to create a feed out of any query. So you could pass a request for your local weather, and have it spit back a feed you could subscribe to.

Q: Can I subscribe to the bot via podcast?
A: Similar to the RSS feed, you can have the bot create a podcast of any query:

http://iniaes.org/podcast/index.php?query=weather

This will return a response formatted as a podcast "episode", where the bot will speak a response to your query. You can subscribe to the bot in iTunes.

Q: How can I access the bot using XML-RPC?
A: Here's how you want to format the request:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<methodCall>
<methodName>programe.getResponse</methodName>
<params>
<param>
<value><string>client say</string></value>
</param>
<param>
<value><string>client id</string></value>
</param>
<param>
<value><string>Iniaes</string></value>
</param>
</params>
</methodCall>

"Client say" is the text the user is sending to the bot. "Client ID" would be some unique identifier for either your project or the user. The last param is which bot to use, in this case "Iniaes". Here is the bot XML-RPC server page and a sample XML-RPC client for the bot in PHP.

Q: How can I add the bot to my site?
A: Anyone can easily add the bot to their site using AJAX.

Step 1 - Add the main javascript to your page. In the page <HEAD> add this line:

<script type='text/javascript' src='http://iniaes.org/js/ajax-iniaes.js'></script>

You might not want to run the script from an external site. That's fine, just download it from here and use this line instead:

<script type='text/javascript' src='/mypathtowhereverthefileis/ajax-iniaes.js'></script>

Edit accordingly.

Step 2 - Edit the <BODY> tag. Edit (or replace) your opening body tag, so it looks like so:

<body onload="document.forms.iniaes.text.focus();">

You can have other garbage in there, but you want to at least add the onload="document.forms.iniaes.text.focus();".

Step 3 - Add a space for the bot to reply. Wherever you want to see the bot's responses, add:

<span name="botreply" id="botreply"></span>

Step 4 - Add the form so users can talk back. Wherever you want the form to go, add:

<form action="javascript:;" name="iniaes">
<strong>Reply:</strong> <input name="text" type="text" autocomplete="off" size="50" onblur="this.focus()";>
<input type="text" id="fixIE" style="WIDTH: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px; BORDER: 0px">
<input type="submit" name="reply" value="Reply" onclick="javascript:get(this.parentNode); clearReply();">
</form>

Save your page and you've now got a working bot. If you want to see an example page in action, check out the sample AJAX bot client.

Q: Can I use the bot on my site / project?
A: Sure. There are AJAX, RSS, and XML-RPC interfaces to make it easy for you. See the FAQ entries on both for more detailed information. If you're just looking for simple text from a GET request, try this.

Q: Can I download Artificial Iniaes?
A: No, there's no way to download the bot. You have to be online to use it.

Q: How can I chance the bot's "face"?
A: If you're a registered user, go into the options section of your control panel. Down at the bottom, just after where you enter what you want the bot to call you, you'll see a drop down. From there, you can pick from a list of "faces":

Some of the old timers will recognize these from when we had stuff here aside from the bot. If you're unregistered (or haven't bothered to change it) you get the old priest one we all know and (maybe not) love.

Q: How can I teach the bot my name?
A: For now, you'll have to register. It's free, and allows you to customize what the bot calls you, how it looks, and so on. After you register, the bot will call you by your username.

If you want the bot to call you something else, go into your profile. Edit the "bot name" field.

If you enter something in the field, that's what the bot will call you. For example, your username is "Bob". If you enter "Jo-Jo the Wonder Poodle" in the bot name field, the bot will ignore Bob and start calling you Jo-Jo the Wonder Poodle.

This field is private, so other people can't see whatever you want the bot to call you.

Q: Are my chats logged?
A: All chats are logged. However, all due consideration is given to your privacy. The log viewer in use strips out all references to a person's name, so any reply sent to the bot cannot be tied to the username.

Q: Can I view a previous chat?
A: You can view an actual conversation here. Your own conversations are deleted daily with the rest of the logs.

Q: Is the bot compliant with accessibility guidelines?
A: All of the main pages on this site are valid XHTML and CSS, as well as Section 508 compliant. The only exceptions are the CAPTCHAs on the registration and contact pages. If you are unable to register because of this, you may email any of the standard contact addresses (at this domain) to have an account created for you. Pages intended as a feature test or programmatic interface may not be fully compliant.

Q: Will anyone contact me if I register?
A: No. Well, no humans at least. A confirmation is sent to the address you specified during registration.

Q: Can I use the bot on Twitter?
A: Every so often (every 30 minutes, right now) the bot will connect to Twitter. The first thing it will do is to check for @Replies, and respond to any that are new. If there aren't any, it may post a status update anyway. It's random, so you're not going to see exactly 24 updates each day. Follow the bot, or take a look at its latest updates: