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IBM Bob

bob.ibm.com

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Re: IBM Bob

#211

Post by hypercube33 »

mrbluecoat wrote: post #15

Totally reminds me of "HP Offers 'That Cloud Thing Everyone Is Talking About'" https://youtube.com/watch?v=9ntPxdWAWq8

It kind of is - when I looked at it 6 months ago it was just a fork of vscode with old ass versions of Claude and the only unique things were java and ibm I mcp clients or servers or something built in. For those works I'd rather just have the skill or mcp for my harness of choice. I think they weren't allowed to use external AI so they run the models in house and remade cursor. Not bad to have competition but the name is awful - as others have said it's been used before by Microsoft in the 90s to make a friendly desktop giving us the winxp search dog and clippy.

Re: IBM Bob

#212

Post by UncleSlacky »

pram wrote: post #52

I thought the image was a joke, but you really pay with Bobcoins.. lmao https://bob.ibm.com/pricing

Funny, because "bob" is slang for shillings in the old LSD pre-decimal British currency system (coins worth 5 pence in the modern system).

Re: IBM Bob

#214

Post by 9cb14c1ec0 »

SSLy wrote: post #124
Stevvo wrote: post #18

Interesting they are renting out agent skills. You can pick up "Java Modernization" at $20 a month for "Specialist workflows to help with modernizing Java applications", or "IBM i" for "Specialist modes, workflows, and skills to work with IBM i applications".

how long before some hero puts them on github?

Does anyone actually care about what IBM's skill files say?

Re: IBM Bob

#215

Post by aranelsurion »

Someone wrote: post #186
sajithdilshan wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by renting out an agent skill? How can one even rent a Skill? It’s just a markdown file

You periodically pay a fee that gives you the right to use a licensed markdown file, in the same way you can rent movies or fonts. When you stop paying but keep using the skill, that’s called pirating.

But if you point your LLM at it and say you want something like this, then it’s all ok. :) If you can’t legally copy it, just launder it through AI.

Re: IBM Bob

#218

Post by fnord77 »

Someone wrote: post #186
sajithdilshan wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by renting out an agent skill? How can one even rent a Skill? It’s just a markdown file

You periodically pay a fee that gives you the right to use a licensed markdown file, in the same way you can rent movies or fonts. When you stop paying but keep using the skill, that’s called pirating.

so it's just a prompt?

Re: IBM Bob

#219

Post by humodz »

exakoustos wrote: post #64

The "What developers say" carousel has a single Java dev and dev advocate. They got lots of quotes from managers, directors, CEOs, and an "AI strategist".

Theres even one that says "Bib [sic] is a highly reliable partner."

Re: IBM Bob

#220

Post by mrbonner »

dgacmu wrote: post #209

I laughed when I saw this; my 14yo looked over to see why I was laughing and asked "what's IBM?" indeed, child, indeed.

When I was in the final year of college in 04-05 my dream would be to work at IBM. It still had the kind of prestige of R&D in the world. Fast forward a couple of years to 08-09, I don’t recall the event but IBM perception went down and a stone. Was that when they sold the hardware business and became fully consultant?
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