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George W Window Companion

Program Idea: George W Program w/ Soundbytes
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So I was using Linux the other day, and ran this program "Amore". If you're unfamiliar it's a program where you can choose a mascot, or little animal to sit on your windows. They get board, roll their eyes, yawn, walk around, etc. Well that got me to thinking:

What about a George W. window companion? He could sit there, legs dangling over your window, with an oversized head, ventriloquist dummy style... complete with slotted mouth... well -- maybe, could just do a regular head, kind of like SouthPark: Sadam

The kicker would be the soundbytes, add your own .wav or .mp3 files, just put them in the folder and he'll play one at random (or in a list) every so often, or every time you click on him. Bushisms, quotes, made up words... anything.

It would be a novelty program anyhow, so could just modify the code from Amore, it's open source. I haven't had much experience with doing anything multimedia, so I think it's beyond my scope, I'm only doing VB stuff at this point -- but it's the timing that'll make this thing funny (though the head & sounds could be changed to whoever, I'd imagine -- paris hilton, arnold, jessica simpson) so if someone can complete this before I get around to learning C -- it'd be such an awesome thing to have.

So if you're bored, are skilled in C (or whatever Amore is coded in) take a look at it, see how much effort it would be and modify accordingly. If someone needs to I can do sound tech duty and make up some wav files, mp3s, etc. Just let me know size limitations and the like.

Serin, Mar 13 2005

Some advice http://timfarley.ho...g.com/half_faq.html
useful for new bakers, see Rule 11: Avoid the taboos [Zircon, Mar 13 2005]

Max Headroom http://en.wikipedia...tes_into_the_Future
[not_morrison_rm, Jun 14 2011]

[link]






       looks like I'm on point for this one. Strange. Welcome to the halfbakery Serin. I could be wrong but you may not get the best reception with this. Take a look over the help file and have a lurk for a while to see what is appreciated here.
Nice touch trying to actually put your idea into action at the end there though.
also see link
Zircon, Mar 13 2005
  

       Ok -- so I'm thinking... Political? Not so! It's a universal idea that could be modified for any purpose/party, hence the inclusion of non-political possibilities at the end. How much more non-political can you get with Paris Hilton?   

       I just wanted a program that I couldn't write. Oh I'll learn though... I'll learn, and I'll show YOU ALL!   

       (but seriously if anyone else wants to do it, I'll help)   

       ;)
Serin, Mar 13 2005
  

       I think the idea of the generalized-version of Amore is a good idea. I've had lots of these kind of programs over the years, and I'm sure there would be some really great ones if there was a simple platform for building them.   

       Anyone else have the old sheep/ram program?
ironfroggy, Mar 14 2005
  

       Hi [Serin], pleased to make your 'quaintence. I hate little animated creatures that wander around your workspace, but if the soundbites and body were easily configurable I would be very tempted. The Bush idea is funny for the same reasons that Dan Quayle would have been funny back then, but if you could make it user-configurable to whoever you wanted it would be fantastic. I'd install myself constantly asking stupid questions so that my other half wouldn't get lonely while I'm at work. Then again she might kill me.
wagster, Mar 14 2005
  

       It would be even better if we could have the animation of W move its lips to sing along to the songs playing in your computer. [+]
Pericles, Mar 15 2005
  

       <Take a look over the help file and have a lurk for a while to see what is appreciated here. >   

       This has been said to many newbies. The thing is, I just don't believe anyone would join this site without doing so. Imagined study has clearly shown that all newbies study the entire site before daring to enter.   

       [Serin] and the others just have interpretations and opinions of their own.
zeno, Mar 15 2005
  

       There can be little doubtification that such a software programme would fill a much-needed gap in the market.
Basepair, Mar 15 2005
  

       <gwb>"The time has come for us to hitch our dreams to a deeper horizon, and to follow it wherever we may lead them. Let not our antedecendents say that we failed to shoulder the chance to rid the world of the end of terrorism. Let them not say that we saw the broad oceans before us, yet turned back at the foothills. Let not the parents of our children's children look back on the future and say that we let opportunity slip the surly bonds of earth.   

       My fellow Americans, the ball lies squarely in our beliefs as a nation, and we shall not rest until our ambitions are conquered.<|gwb>
MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 12 2011
  

       For the first time since Event Zero, our Universal Translation software is experiencing problems with the preceeding paragraph.   

       Even more strangely, the error message returned consists entirely of a stream of non-printing characters.   

       You wanna run that one by us again ?
8th of 7, Jun 12 2011
  

       That was clearly the result of pointing a Markov giberish generater at a corpus of transcribed presidential speeches (or [MB]'s simulation of what the result would look like).   

       All that's needed now is to run it through a speech synthesizer, and pair it with an animated caricature on the desktop. Shouldn't be hard to get the caricature to move its mouth and wave its arms along with the words.
mouseposture, Jun 12 2011
  

       But, but, but, how would it be possible to distinguish between that and the "real" George W. Bush ?
8th of 7, Jun 12 2011
  

       GWB is actually a gifted orator, able to memorize long speeches, word for word, with little effort. However, all his speeches were written by a Markov gibberish generator, because that's what tested well in focus groups.
mouseposture, Jun 12 2011
  

       "My hovercraft is full of eels"
8th of 7, Jun 12 2011
  

       If this could do Max Headroom, I'd be interested.   

       //GWB is actually a gifted orator, able to memorize long speeches// I have the same problem, I have a photographic memory, but usually the lens cap got left on, or there's a thumb in the way.
not_morrison_rm, Jun 13 2011
  

       // photographic memory //   

       You mean it takes a while to develop, and when it does, none of it's quite as good as you hoped, some parts are rather blurred, and you've an uneasy feeling that something's missing from the picture?
8th of 7, Jun 13 2011
  

       ewwww   

       this reminds me of my renaming famous people so they could actually be useful osama bin ORT Freecyclebama DHAclinton The difference being that the PrezoClippy could have an entire sequence of things that would actually benefit the viewer.   

       like "although it is part of the construction code only two thirds of buildings have electrically connected smoke alarms. If you see a new house that lacks this it is possible that other parts of the house may not meet code"   

       or   

       "everyone loathes unemployment benefits. apparently people on unemployment are actually happier after their benefits run out, briefly extending them to 2 years was actually a bummer for the people yet perhaps a benefit to the economy. Get off them if you can, you will feel better"   

       or   

       as a (complex contested) result of NCLB did you know you can look up the performance of your kids school online, psst, dont tell the district I told you, but you can transfer your kids to the best schools at your city"   

       anyway the prez-o-app could actually say useful things outside of reaction to current events that reflected their beliefs   

       the downside is that it just smells like orwell to have a cute politician app onscreen.
beanangel, Jun 13 2011
  

       //just smells like orwell to have a cute politician app onscreen.//   

       Max Headroom.. "very handy , all those politicians heads in little boxes on tv" if I remember the quote correctly. Right, that's it, see link to MH..   

       //You mean it takes a while to develop, and when it does, none of it's quite as good as you hoped, some parts are rather blurred, and you've an uneasy feeling that something's missing from the picture?//   

       Erm, nope, there's just a big thumb in the way.
not_morrison_rm, Jun 14 2011
  
      
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