If you want occupation for an hour, drink. If you want occupation for a day, read. If you want occupation for a month, marry. If you want occupation for a lifetime, teach an AI to recognize every combination of dates and times in the English language.
—Ancient Chinese Proverb, trans. Roxton.
March and April have been slow months for Mervyn. This is partly because I took a holiday in Cornwall and partly because I have started a new and more demanding job that doesn't leave me as much time and energy as I was hitherto accustomed, but mostly because I have been working solely and solidly on date and time recognition. Though Roxton's mills grind slowly, they grind exceeding small: Mervyn now recognizes almost any date and time range you care to mention.
For example, here's me asking Mervyn what events I have from tomorrow to the Thursday after next (today is the 19th):
And here's me asking Google the same question:
It hasn't a clue what I'm on about. Of course, this is hardly a fair comparison - Google does much more than date recognition, and of course they could surpass Mervyn in an afternoon if they wanted to - but beating Google at anything is a nice achievement, nevertheless.
I think, and hope, that the date recognition is now solid enough that I can leave it alone for the present and return to work on actual functionality. Next on the list is finishing the "new event" procedure, and then building on that to produce similar behaviour for creating "to-do" items and reminders.
For example, here's me asking Mervyn what events I have from tomorrow to the Thursday after next (today is the 19th):
 |
| Yes, I have no social life. This is because I spend every waking moment feeding my brain to C#. |
I think, and hope, that the date recognition is now solid enough that I can leave it alone for the present and return to work on actual functionality. Next on the list is finishing the "new event" procedure, and then building on that to produce similar behaviour for creating "to-do" items and reminders.