You can speak to Hal by saying his name, or using the @ character. For example: Hal: ping and @ping are equivalent.
You can only get one response every couple of minutes, depending on the channel. If Hal is ignoring you, just wait a bit before trying again. Don't flood, or you'll just get kicked.
Commands (some may not be available in certain channels):
- Break
- Shows when the next #trivia break is due or how long the current break has remaining.
Example: break. - BTS
- Looks up Opera bugs in Remco's bug database.
Example: bts 326007. - Coin
- Flips a coin to make a random choice. Chooses from heads or tails, or you can specify choices yourself (wrap each choice in "quotes" if you want spaces).
Example: coin work play. - Country
- Shows which country a two-letter country code belongs to, or vice versa.
Example: country au. - Eightball
- Asks the magic eightball a yes or no question.
Example: eightball will it rain today? - Help
- Lists the commands available to you, or 'HELP command' shows help about a specific command.
Example: help coin. - Message
- Gives someone a message the next time they join the channel (if they join sometime within the next week). Note that the message will be given publicly, and if someone else joins the channel while using that person's nick, the message will be sent to them instead. So if you want a more secure and private message, use MemoServ instead.
Example: message Fred Hi there! - Ping
- Sends a ping to you or someone else, and times how long it takes for it to return. Basically measures the person's latency to the IRC server.
Example: ping. - Remind
- Reminds you to do something after a certain time period. Just speak in plain English.
Example: remind me to get lunch in half an hour. - Seen
- Shows when someone was last seen on IRC. Note that this shows when they were last seen, globally, not in any specific channel. You can also specify a hostname (or nick!ident@hostname), and you can use wildcards.
Example: seen Nikita. - Time
- Shows the current time in a certain city (full list), or in GMT/UTC.
Hal will remember the location you used and use that in future if you don't specify one. If you add a * before the location, that will be set as your default and other locations you use from then on (without an asterisk) will not erase it.
You can also use someone's nick instead of a location to get the time in that person's saved location.
Example: time sydney. - Version
- Sends a version request to you or someone else and displays the IRC client they are using.
Example: version. - Weather
- Shows the current weather for a specific city.
US users: Use your zipcode.
Rest of the world: Use city, country.
If your location isn't working, search for it on http://mobile.wunderground.com/. If the term you enter into the search box takes you to the right location, that same term will also work for Hal.
You can also use station xxx, xxx being the station number that can be seen in the URL of the page. For example, station 94767.
Hal will remember the location you used and use that in future if you don't specify one. If you add a * before the location, that will be set as your default and other locations you use from then on (without an asterisk) will not erase it.
You can also use someone's nick instead of a location to get the weather in that person's saved location.
Example: weather sydney, australia. - Whois
- Shows /whois information about someone, including their country of origin if available. If the person is no longer online, shows /whowas information instead.
Example: whois Nikita.