Hi Tristan!

Imagine how disappointed I was to wake up. Have to get a life when you

dream about reading email.

Regards,

Pete

At 08:54 AM 12/5/2003 +0000, you wrote:

>Very good, you actually had me going then until I got to the end!

>

>That would be nice!

>

>Tristan

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On

>Behalf Of Pete Theisen

>Sent: 05 December 2003 06:41

>To: profoxtech@leafe.com

>Subject: Holiday Gift from Paul McNett and Ed Leafe

>

>Hi Everybody!

>

>Found myself reading email yesterday AM after work, well past my bedtime,

>when I saw this evocative post: "Holiday Gift from Paul McNett and Ed

>Leafe". I was thinking I have to break off and get some sleep to be at least

>*awake* for my afternoon appointment, but, oh, I have to read this one . . .

>

>It was a URL. It loaded like the wind - no graphics, all text. It was a web

>app called "The Thing". A little text description was to the effect that

>Paul and Ed hoped we would like this holiday gift to the community - an

>online application checker/translator, along with the holiday wish that this

>would help people get work done, understand all the stuff we have to

>understand and maybe even make money. All thought of sleep suddenly

>vanished.

>

>There was an "input box" labeled "paste your code or text here", a dropdown

>"identify the best description of your input" the choices were FoxPro code,

>.net code, Python code, pseudocode, other code, text, [OT] and Sheep.

>

>Then there was an "output" dropdown labeled "select your desired output"

>and those choices were correct FoxPro code, correct .net code, correct

>Python code, correct other code, good text, logical, intelligent [OT] and

>Sheep. Then there was an "output display window".

>

>Finally there were a series of controls, test, create .exe, create Windows

>setup file, create Linux package, create web application. I thought, I have

>to *try* this right now.

>

>So I did! First I plunked in my eight year's work of failed FoxPro code,

>chose correct Python code and out it came, in seconds! I pressed the test

>control and the program sprang upon the screen, just as I had always dreamed

>that it someday would. I played with it for a few minutes and found to my

>delight that it was just what I had always wanted, everything worked and

>worked ever so well.

>

>Then, I popped in one of the most overbearing ad-hominem [OT] posts I could

>find on my hard drive, chose logical, intelligent [OT] and out came a most

>reasoned, objective version. Remarkable considering that Paul avoids [OT]

>and Ed has a point of view that is usually to the D side, but there it was.

>

>Then I popped in the Gettysburg address, and it came back unchanged. I got

>to thinking, this is not just software, this is *artificial intelligence*

>and they are just giving it to the world for a holiday present!

>

>Well, before I did anything else I created a directory to receive my

>completed project, courtesy of Paul and Ed. Just as I was about to press

>"create web application" the power to the house went out long enough to

>crash the old clunker. I don't use my home computer very often and I haven't

>bothered with a UPS, bad me. When I rebooted and got back to Eudora, the

>post, the URL, all of it was gone, checked the archives - no sign. I started

>to post a message about "what was that URL . . . " Then I woke up in bed,

>I'd dreamed the whole thing.

>

>Regards,

>

>Pete

>

>

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