Whether you are trying to study for your RHCE, MCSE, Solaris, Linux+ or some University exams or maybe even trying to learn a new language, having some flashcards can be extremely helpful – for both short-term and long-term learning.
I have a pretty good system setup: cross-platform, remote learning.
I have played with both Jmemorize and now Granule – Granule is written in C++ & GTK and Jmemorize is Java both run on different platforms and are based on the ‘famous’ Leitner system. Jmemorize has some fancy graphs and Granule doesn’t. Both use XML as their file format.
My setup is Ubuntu at home: apt-get install granule
a no-brainer
Windows is harder to install – it’s not hard, I just love saying that.
1. Download the zip file to your “Program Files” folder
2. unzip it.
3. Go into c:\Program Files\Granule-1.2.4-1-win32\bin\
4. Right-click -> Send to Desktop
5. Drag it into your Programs bar (so that it is indexed by Launchy)
Now the good part is that I use Mindquarry Collaboration server but this could easily work if you’re already using CVS or Subversion source control server. Basically, save your files that you created into your mindquarry team folder and synchronise.
Now, I synchronise the Mindquarry server every day when I arrive and leave the office and the same when I am finished at home. That way, I am free to continually add data that I want to practice memorising.
In my case, I am trying to increase my spanish vocabulary and subscribe to a few “Word a Day” RSS Feeds. I add each example to Granule each day and go through the whole set. Now, what I would really like is to be able to set them to use a transparent OSD (on screen display) every minute or so with a new word and 30 seconds later, it’s answer. I think that could help greatly.
Granule have some english dictionary words available for download here, if you also want to increase your english vocabulary, which is something I think we could all do with.
**UPDATE**
Considering my interest in Python and WXPython as well as the fact that Granule has corrupted the odd xml file where it saves it’s data, I thought I might also add that Pyflashcard is another alternative that runs on both Windows & Linux and maybe even a Mac. Read more about it on the author’s site.
Technorati Tags: mindquarry, version control, flashcard, leitner, learning
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Another nice approach for learning flashcards is OpenCards ( http://www.opencards.info ). It is implemented as an extension for OpenOffice Impress.
OpenCards just picks up the slide titles of an Impress presentation and uses them as flashcards fronts. The slide contents are used as flashcard backs, which means that anything what can be put on an Impress slide can be used for flashcard learning.
Cheers, Watzlaw