Tuesday, January 01, 2002

 
As an avid (rabid?) software "collector", while digging through my pitbull download folder I found that quite some time ago I had downloaded several bots. Bots are programs that look like people, they log into servers, chat, give the time, and lots more cool things.
I am running a hotline server for friends and just for the heck of it, and so I turned my attention to the bots for both utility and mostly entertainment. I had found bots to be amazing examples of code. Mostly my experience came from the bots I found on irc channels. These bots will maintain the chat room, respons to questions, tell you what day it is all based on text you type into the channel. One bot in particular, "sherlock" has survived several changes in #channels, servers, and yet he still knows who I am and has personal info about me stored in his little brain, err, database. He can search google, tell you the weather in your town, and memorize phrases. An amazing little device to have.
So what are bots? Who makes them?
My search for more info brought me to vftp.net to talk to Virtual1, the maker of powerbot. When I opened the
posted by dvsjr Tuesday, January 01, 2002