Ideas

Sounds interesting, however if I had a choice. I would go for a Pamela Anderson version rather than a Cat lol.

Interesting. I have seen plug ins that add some sort of weird cat thing to climb around on your OS. Not my bag, because I'm not into clutter on my desktop, but I bet kids would like it.

Not my cup of tea. I think I second CharonV on this one, she has no fleas.

Well it's not specifically just one animation/function. For instance, one could make an addon with a model of a person, with new sounds/voices. So you could have your Pamela Anderson, maybe even with strip features. :p

In addition to my latest comment, know that's not my plans as far as what's included with the product. I'm aiming for an E for Everyone type of rating. What other people do... well... to each their own. :) I plan for the system to be HIGHLY customizable though in terms of 3rd party addons, and the interface will most likely be customizable with XML as well.

Been done:
http://www.nabaztag.com

I personally hate this idea, like some hated the idea of ads on ring tones. MS Word has that stupid cat, dog, paper clip. Jesus, I hate that.

But that's just me. Sorry to vent. Market this to lonely women. Or is that offensive?

People buy the darndest thing's. Furby kid's of the past will get one for Christmas.

I think Pamela may have something worse than fleas!

Virtual pets have been around for a while. My wife used to have a bunch of these programs:

http://www.petz.com/

Before we got our own real-life version anyway and a small child. ;)

lots out there... how are you going to be different?

I don't see any virtual pets with artificial intelligence and the ability to manipulate the computer, as well as a learning capability. o.0

For a very basic idea of what I have in mind, refer to: Ultra HAL

weblin?

We'd waste too much time! Maybe it could work well for children in daycare. But I'd prefer a daycare where children could learn instead of waste their time...

Stevenw9 - did you actually try the virtual petz? They do have a memory and require you to do certain things to look after them.

'They do have a memory and require you to do certain things to look after them.'

I'm not talking about memory, i'm talking about the program adaptively and dynamically learning.

'We'd waste too much time! Maybe it could work well for children in daycare. But I'd prefer a daycare where children could learn instead of waste their time...'

So you're telling me you don't believe in the effects of A.I. ... okay. Just because it's cute doesn't mean it doesn't have a teaching factor. Just like any person can become a teacher with the right teaching, any computer based program can be to.

Cat's don't do that much. They eat, sleep, mess up their trays, fight, sit on your lap, scratch you and chase their shadows. Dogs eat, vomit, eat their vomit, mess up the garden, chase things and drool.

Virtual petz does all of that. I'm not sure I understand the requirement for "adaptively and dynamically learning". With so few behaviours, I don't think it's particularly complicated to link them to various desktop actions if that is what you're after.

I like the idea but I just don't think you're going to add anything amazing above what the existing packages already do. Can you describe some of the learned behaviours that would make this package unique?

I'm with Landsky in hopping that you're not proposing creating more clippies or another friggin' annoying search dog like on Windows XP. :)

I really think you need to try out virtual petz. You haven't demonstrated above that you've actually researched (used) the existing programs in this arena.

Do you know of some sort of new super breed of pet that can write pulitzer prize winners or help me finish off my business plan? :) Now that would be cool.

Not one person so far has understood the idea.

I will be reintroducing it later, this one is now scrapped.