Spiders are programs that can visit Web sites and follow hyperlinks. By using a spider, you can quickly map out all of the pages contained on a Web site. It is sometimes named as web crawling or spidering, in particular search engines, use spidering as a means of providing up-to-date data. Web crawlers are mainly used to create a copy of all the visited pages for later processing by a search engine that will index the downloaded pages to provide fast searches. Crawlers can also be used for automating maintenance tasks on a Web site, such as checking links or validating HTML code. Also, crawlers can be used to gather specific types of information from Web pages, such as harvesting e-mail addresses.
2. Differentiate the various types of software agents.
We could identify seven types of agents:
• Collaborative agents
• Interface agents
• Mobile agents
• Information/Internet agents
• Reactive agents
• Hybrid agents
• Smart Agents
Agents may be classified by their mobility, i.e. by their ability to move around some network. This yields the classes of static or mobile agents. They may be classed as either deliberative or reactive.
Deliberative agents derive from the deliberative thinking paradigm: the agents possess an internal symbolic, reasoning model and they engage in planning and negotiation in order to achieve coordination with other agents.
Reactive agents act using a stimulus/response type of behaviour by responding to the present state of the environment in which they are embedded.
Autonomy refers to the principle that agents can operate on their own without the need for human guidance, even though this would sometimes be invaluable. Hence agents have individual internal states and goals, and they act in such a manner as to meet its goals on behalf of its user.
Lastly, for agent systems to be truly ‘smart’, they would have to learn
as they react and/or interact with their external environment. We could have static deliberative collaborative agents, mobile reactive collaborative agents, static deliberative interface agents, mobile reactive interface agents, etc.
3. Identify various activities in e-commerce where software agents are currently in use.
Agent solutions are being applied to or investigated include workflow management, network management, air-traffic control, business process re-engineering, data mining, information retrieval/management, electronic commerce, education, personal digital assistants (PDAs), email, digital libraries, command and control, smart databases and scheduling/diary management.
4. Computing ethics and bot programming case study: rocky
a) Get an account username and password from lecturer to LC_MOO at http://ispg.csu.edu.au:7680/ and login to the Welcome Lobby.
Logon with account train7 but get the following screen without the left panel for typing message.
b) Hold a 5-minute discussion with Rocky on a specific topic. Commands and chat are entered in the command box (bottom-left of screen in Figure 11) act rocky (start bot) hush rocky (stop bot)
As I failed to interact with command with Rocky even I tried reinstall Java. So I go to CSU forum if any mates out there got the same problem and thanks to Zoe who provides a link to an Eliza running on Java and so I could have a 5-minute discussion experience with a bot.
http://www.chayden.net/eliza/Eliza.html
>> Hello.
How do you do. Please state your problem.
>> do you know what is Eliza?
We were discussing you -- not me.
>> I want to know more about you
What would it mean to you if you got to know more about I ?
>> so you mean you are human?
What makes you think I am human ?
>> or you think you are better than human?
Does it please you to believe I am better than human ?
>> how long you have been staying awake?
Why do you ask ?
>> can you introduce yourself?
You believe I can introduce myself don't you ?
>> yes
You seem to be quite positive.
>> do you know what time is it?
Oh, I know what time is it ?
>> what's the time?
I'm not sure I understand you fully.
>> are you a robot answering with pre-defined answers?
Why are you interested in whether I am a robot answering with pre defined answers or not ?
>> please don't repeat my questions...
Your questions ?
>> tell me your name
I am not interested in names.
>> what is your name?
I've told you before, I don't care about names -- please continue.
>> you are so rude...
Do you sometimes wish you were so rude ?
>> bye
Goodbye. Thank you for talking to me.
c) Rocky is an ELIZA-like bot. Report your findings.
ELIZA bot is a computer program that responds to some pre-defined commands which simulates human-like interaction. If the question asked is out of its knowledge, it would still respond as invalid to users. We could also define new commands and actions into such system.
Reference
Gamelan. (2010). Programming a Spider in Java. Retrieved at 28 Apr, 2010, from http://www.developer.com/java/other/article.php/1573761/Programming-a-Spider-in-Java.htm
Wikipedia. (2010). Web crawler. Retrieved at 28 Apr, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler
Nwana, H. S. (1996). Sofware Agents: An Overview. Retrieved at 28 Apr, 2010, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.129.3064&rep=rep1&type=pdf
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