Hi Resolve,

Perhaps you changed something since my last post. I went home after reviewing at work, synch'd up and lo and behold internet access seemed to be working. Instead of 1604 it started where the pc version left off. Sweet! Thanks for that.

Two other points:

1. The font size is a bit too small to recognize all the kanji easily. I found the font settings and adjusted them and the sample window adjusted nicely, but when I exited the format screen to continue, nothing changed. Did I miss a step?

2. In my deck, I entered a numbered list for easy look-up. I also added all of the primitives beginning with an asterik as presented in the book. Yesterday when I used the cell phone there was no question displayed, only a "show answer" link. Clicked it and the English word displayed along with 0-4. Other words with asteriks displayed fine, but for some reason it doesn't show "antique". I'm not sure about after this point. I've continued the pc version, but haven't synch'd up yet to see what happens. Is there a specific format I must follow for importing? Can you think of a case where questions would be blank if not blank in the deck? I saved to csv, opened with word and saved to tsv and UNI 8 then imported to anki.

The biggest difference between Anki and Memory Lifter for me,other than the timed reviews, is that I don't have to input the words. Not remembering the exact form of the word or typos counted as a failed card and sent them back to box 1. With Anki I'm flying! Thanks again for all your effort!

Aikiboy Wrote:2. In my deck, I entered a numbered list for easy look-up. I also added all of the primitives beginning with an asterik as presented in the book. Yesterday when I used the cell phone there was no question displayed, only a "show answer" link. Clicked it and the English word displayed along with 0-4. Other words with asteriks displayed fine, but for some reason it doesn't show "antique". I'm not sure about after this point. I've continued the pc version, but haven't synch'd up yet to see what happens. Is there a specific format I must follow for importing? Can you think of a case where questions would be blank if not blank in the deck? I saved to csv, opened with word and saved to tsv and UNI 8 then imported to anki.

Maybe your cell phone doesn't have a font for those special characters?

For myself, I don't bother to add entries for the primitives themselves. They occur in enough kanji that they take care of themselves.

yorkii Wrote:3. (this is a big one for me [if i can get it to work!!]) The syncing between multiple machines and Japanese mobile phone based support is awesome!

Since I found out about the deck add feature, syncing has worked brilliantly for me. It's becoming harder to imagine how I ever lived without it. Unfortunately, my phone isn't equipped to access the mobile version

Aikiboy Wrote:The biggest difference between Anki and Memory Lifter for me,other than the timed reviews, is that I don't have to input the words. Not remembering the exact form of the word or typos counted as a failed card and sent them back to box 1. With Anki I'm flying! Thanks again for all your effort!

Hah, it's been so long since I used MemoryLifter, I'd forgotten how obnoxious that was. Let's hear it for self-evaluation!

Vosmiura, my cell not having the character is a thought. It's a Japanese cell phone though so you'd think it'd be set. But you never know. I wish I hadn't been exhausted and fallen asleep yesterday or I could have checked to see if the pc showed it on-line. And if I hadn't added the primitives, life would have been a lot easier! Some of them don't exist alone so I had to be a little creative.

Jimmy, Memory Lifter got me to 1220 so I don't wanna knock it too much. But you're right, compared to Anki, it's a hassle. I've used Anki twice now and I'm on 616. I should be back up to 1220 by the weekend.

Resolve, an odd thing happened. After the disappearing kanji, antique, I passed it on the pc and sync'd up just now. Then I checked on-line and it's thrown me to 1604 again. Advice?

I imported all of my Mnemosyne items several days ago, but it seems that I haven't been shown many items for review after the initial run-through as I was being shown by Mnemosyne. Could this be because I knew most of the items I imported very well (similar to how supermemo, if you import easy items, will push the reviews far into the future)?

Also, what is the best way to take advantage of Anki's scheduling (based on a timer, cards not expiring at midnight)? Should I review once a day, or multiple times during the day? Either is possible for me, so I would like to do the one that would lead to the best retention.

Clearly, Anki releasing a few cards at a time throughout the day is one of the great strengths of the program. It allows you to avoid getting overwhelmed with cards and furthermore gives you the chance to focus on just a few and learn them better, so I recommend that approach.

I don't know anything about Supermemo's algorithms besides what's been said here, but it sounds like Supermemo tries to predict how to schedule cards while Anki's scheduling is pretty straightforward. 4 sends the card 8-10 days into the future, which would keep them off your back for a while. You can use the graphs to see what kind of reviewing days you have down the road.

Hey Resolve, did you notice there is already a for profit language flashcard program for Palm OS called Anki? You might want to consider any implications of that.

ergerg: I should have an importer done today or tomorrow

yorkii: syncing from your work computer still looks broken. I'll reply to your email later. You said there were two things you like better about Mnemosyne. Could you be more specific? The 'easy interface' to edit the current card uses a multi-line edit box I assume? That'll be part of the new card interface in a future version of Anki.

Aikiboy: The font size in the program should be the same as in the preview window provided you clicked "ok". At the moment it's not possible to change the font size on the cell phone version.

You said that it 'jumped' out of order? Adding new cards on your local machine causes them to be inserted in a random position on the server side - so if you added some new cards recently they will be in a random position on the server. But you mentioned the same card number you had before. Did you use the '/deck/add' command to add your local deck to the server?

JimmySeal: even if your phone doesn't support flash, you should still be able to use the simple html version (the second link in the email sent to your phone)

snozle: a difference of 6-12 hours doesn't matter much if you've already waited 3-5 days. The only time it would make a difference is on cards you reviewed again tomorrow. I don't think it makes much of a difference if you study at multiple times during the day, or just once a day. Choose whatever suits you!

dingomick: I'm aware of the Palm version. I'm not immediately concerned because a) the name was come up with before I knew there was a Palm version b) the Palm version is dead and c) I don't believe you can trademark a word which is in the dictionary. Let me know if I'm wrong here!

Hey resolve,

I've tried the low-tech version but for some reason I experience 文字化け with any Question or Answer that has Asian characters in it. This makes sense for my cards that have non-Japanese kanji, but even my purely Japanese ones are garbled. I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure what can be done about it. Perhaps setting the content-type in a <meta> tag would fix it, but even if that's the case, that would increase the packet load for people whose phones are already displaying the page ok.

Hi Jimmy,

Could you try again? I changed the default encoding to something more likely to be supported by the majority of cell phones out there.

Oh, awesome. It works now, and it looks like I can see trad. Chinese characters too, just not Simplified ones, but that's probably because my phone lacks the font to display them.

Thanks.

By the way, for those working with multiple decks, the web/phone versions of Anki display the last deck that you've synchronized. So if you want to review a certain deck on a certain excursion, just synchronize that deck from the client before you leave your home.

resolve Wrote:You said there were two things you like better about Mnemosyne. Could you be more specific? The 'easy interface' to edit the current card uses a multi-line edit box I assume? That'll be part of the new card interface in a future version of Anki.

yea, pretty much that.

I think i was quite specific in mentioning that you could grab text from websites and in Mnemo the layout is the same... that was the big thing. line breaks, alligning text to the left is also something i like to use...

yorkii Wrote:

resolve Wrote:You said there were two things you like better about Mnemosyne. Could you be more specific? The 'easy interface' to edit the current card uses a multi-line edit box I assume? That'll be part of the new card interface in a future version of Anki.

yea, pretty much that.

I think i was quite specific in mentioning that you could grab text from websites and in Mnemo the layout is the same... that was the big thing. line breaks, alligning text to the left is also something i like to use...

I've tried copying and dragging text from websites to Mnemosyne and everything defaults to one font/size, and in black. Not that I plan to use Mnemosyne again, but it's strange that you can make it copy stuff accurately and I can't.

i just mean the layout is pretty much the same.

the font is the same. all black

Ah, I see. As in line breaks. Yea, I guess Anki isn't doing that yet.

Hi Resolve, thanks for the reply.

Yes, I hit okay for the font size change, but it certainly isn't the same as it is in the sample window. I jacked it up in increments up to 80 with no change. It's only difficult to make out the really crowded kanji though.

I only have one deck. I loaded it on the pc first, sync'd later, and then used the link you gave me to add the deck to the server. It's kinda weird because it seems like it's alternating between sync'd and not. Waiting for dinner at a restaurant i tried the cell again and it looked spot on. Apparently did 19 cards(that's what it said later) before I couldn't connect and turned it off. I got home and sync'd and it was good, sent and received. Did a bunch more and synched again before exiting. Sent me back to 1604 from cell, BUT I noticed the remaining cards from my one deck was the same, 997. So, it seems something's working. Maybe it's alternating between sync'd and random?

At any rate, notebook anki is getting me back on track at hyperspeed! 1124, yeah anki!

Hi Aikiboy,

I just had a look at your server deck. It's completely out of order at the moment, indicating that it was added via syncing. Would you like me to delete it so you can add your local, ordered version via the /deck/add line I gave you earlier? Note that when you look at the cards in 'edit cards' the list is sorted in alphabetical order, and doesn't represent the actual order of the deck.

yorkii: line breaks are supported, but disabled at the moment because the current syncing protocol is line-based. This restriction will go away in the future. I'll consider trying to support to make left-justified cards, too.

Resolve-d! Yes, please delete the deck and I'll re-enter it. I've disconnected the synch options temporarily. Thanks for the help!

Okay, your old deck is deleted. Please log in, then use http://anki.repose.cx/deck/add to 'upload new file', and upload your correctly ordered local deck. Good luck!

Hi resolve, I had some trouble uploading the deck. I tried to upload my txt file and a csv file with no luck, then I exported my deck and uploaded it perfectly. And 30 seconds later I realized that my local deck must have another name and when I synch everything will get screwed up. Hindsight, wonderful. I'm going to re-synch just to see, but if you wouldn't mind re-deleting at your convenience, I can load the correct deck later. Thanks for your patience. :/

Why not just upload it under a different file name?

Yeah, you can do that, but I've deleted it for you this time. The uploading facility only supports Anki decks at the moment. Good luck!

Jimmy, that's what I did, uploaded under a different file name. Since I made huge progress this week, I wanted my one deck to remain synched. By uploading my deck under a different name it started at card one. I synched and the server deck was added to my pc and not updated at all. I was afraid I doubled my pc deck, but was able to exit without saving and keep my original deck unchanged.

Hopefully, I've worked out the bugs in my brain now.

Okay, finally done. 0.2.8 is now available on the website.

What's new:

- mnemosyne import support
- improved text import that allows you to choose whether to randomize, and supports kanji+kana
- a new cumulative due graph
- a new sync protocol which allows newlines
- newlines and rich text are now allowed when editing cards
- move the configuration file and add support for 'plugins' to alter the way anki behaves
- add a lock file to prevent multiple loads
- base graphs on the start of a day, not current time (prevents them being split in half during the day)
- remove timeout when syncing (fixes osx bug)
- fix 3+4 sample deck (sometimes the furigana was displayed in the question)
- miscellaneous fixes

Please let me know how you go!