Buckeye State Blog - PalinBot Glitch Explained - Comments

Quite perceptive, JeanLR...

Notrol — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:31:21 -0700

The IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system has always been the most challenging programming problem.

While the physical movement was charted easily with multiple sensors attached to actors' faces and body structures and was translated to servo movements for several standard movements- "walking", "the smile", "the beauty queen" (a sideways turn to emphasize the "breast", or the RAM modules), the IVR system always required specific voice prompts to elicit the appropriate comment.

Even though the programmers were able to consult with the NewsCorp development team (Fox and Friends, Hannity and Colmes), the random question that could be posed by an unscripted question could have forced the IVR system to return to it's core programming resulting in the PalinBot responding:

"I'm sorry, I didn't get that." "You can say, pay bill, review account, or representative"

The "workaround" for this was to devise a system for the default which would generate a series of pre-recorded statements, prefaced with an intro of "I'm not going to answer that, but I want to talk about... {stringvar []} .

As I watched the PalinBot's public appearance this morning at a campaign stop in Florida, it's obvious that the programmer's have just put the PalinBot on "random access" with a pre-determined timeframe to the "end program" command.

(side note) The programmers have told me that the "beauty queen" movement was suggested by Rich Lowry as he giggled nervously about "Random Access Mammary" modules....

"I watched it with the sound off"- Palin

JeanLR — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:27:49 -0700

"I didn't hear a word she said, but it was spot on!" - Sarah Palin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3NHI_l1Mf8

you betcha, wink wink! Aren't I just PRECIOUS!! wink! Gosh darn it all! That lady I watched on the tee-vee looked like ME!~ doggone it, aren't we having FUN America?!! golly!

When the debate moderator asks me a gotcha question like 'what do I read' I'll turn the sound down inside my head and say whatever I want! . . oh yeah, MAVERICK! wink wink!! I'm looking at YOU, Joe SixPack! or other made-up Amercan demographic! you betcha!

As a conservative...

Randy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:35:51 -0700

I find this funny. I also enjoy Tina Fey's skits portraying Gov. Palin. And somehow, I think Gov. Palin enjoys the comedy as well.

What, me worry?

PalinBot Glitch Explained

Notrol — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:24:36 -0700

In this photo, courtesy of AP, the photographer has captured what appeared to be a "wink". This was first thought to be a glitch in the programming of the PalinBot which caused an actuator servo to respond in an uncoordinated way.

What programmers finally concluded was that a student in the audience who was "liveblogging" on a Blackberry was inadvertently pressing a key sequence that was picked up by the antenna located on the PalinBot's lapel. This antenna (often referred to as the "United Snakes flagpin" or the "Dollar Sign") was susceptible to stray signals from the Blackberry's transmitter.

In further developments, US CERT teams have debunked the claims from the hacking community that a trojan horse program dubbed "Poledance.A" had been inserted into the code of the PalinBot. Rumors of this being the reason for PalinBot operators keeping the PalinBot from any public appearances (after the discovery of the hoax virus "Lipstick.Les" during the Couric interview) have been denied by the campaign.