Weblog

The input of math, physics and computer science formulae has long been a chore. But now it is ... still a chore for those who don't know how to write formulae using the document markup language LaTeX. And simple for those who do.

Just enclose the formula you want to show up in a flashcard, note or comment by {$ ... $} and it will render neatly. For an overview of the most common used symbols see Wikipedia.

A few examples:

This ...	Renders as ...
{$ \omega $}
{$ 2 + 2 = 5 $}
{$ a^2 + b^2 = c^2 $}
{$ \frac{1}{x} $}
{$ \sum_{i=1}^{n} \left( \frac{1}{r} \right)^{\ell_i} \leq 1. $}
{$ \Omega = \sum_{p \in P} 2^{-|p|}. $}
{$ \left\lfloor \mathrm{mod}\left(\left\lfloor {y \over 17} \right\rfloor 2^{-17 \lfloor x \rfloor - \mathrm{mod}(\lfloor y\rfloor, 17)},2\right)\right\rfloor $}

During the last few weeks I enrolled in Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück, got attacked by E.Coli bacteria and found a nice flat in Osnabrück. I have changed a few details at Mindpicnic but nothing major.

Talking about my flat: Google Sketchup is a great piece of design software. Even people like me who haven't done any 3D modelling can draw a model of their house and add furniture easily.

I have a few days left before looking for real furniture will take up all my time. I'll try to fix the most important bugs and hopefully get to add some new functionality. As always: Send your wishes for new features and other changes to andreas@mindpicnic.com or post directly into our ticket tracking system.

Most of the time it is during learning when I discover a mistake in one of my flashcards. Nonetheless I have always been against including some kind of edit link in Mindpicnic's learn mode — the learn mode should offer as little distraction as possible.

Today Robin reminded me that it would in fact be a nice thing if there was an easy way to correct mistakes instantly. Here's a compromise: From now on there is a "edit flashcard" link during learning. The link is hidden until you double click on the answer of a flashcard.

I haven't written a weblog entry for three weeks — you could almost think that major changes are coming and that working on these changes consumed all of my time. And you would be right.

In fact it is now much easier to use Mindpicnic together with your friends. Here is what's new:

• The possibility to create study groups. Study groups make it easy to share courses with like-minded people and to discuss your progress with your friends. This makes sense both for students who share a real classroom anyway and for those who just share common interests.
• For pro users: Private study groups that can be protected by a password.
• Inviting friends to courses and groups per e-mail. Now it's possible to share not only public but also private courses with others.

Anything else? I have changed the restriction for free accounts from 20 lessons to 30 lessons, fixed a few bugs and changed the design a little.

The text formatting (e.g. bold or italic) for flashcards, notes and comments has changed. You can no longer use HTML and the (slow and buggy) visual editor for notes is gone, too.

Instead you are now able to use simple characters to format your text: *Bold* becomes Bold, _italic_ becomes italic. If you would like to know how links, lists and images work, read my summary on the formatting help page.

This change will cause some older texts to be displayed improperly. If you stumble upon a display error in somebody else's course it would be nice if you notified them, e.g. via the new contact form.

Ida Maria recently found a small mistake in a course and asked herself: Is there a better way to notify the creator of the course than by public comment?

If you are logged in you will see a brand new contact form on each user page. You can use this form to send short messages, e.g. questions regarding a course or a thank you note. If you don't want to receive any e-mails you can disable this option under preferences.

Even if you have been using Mindpicnic for some time there might still be a few things that you do not know. Now you can change this: The course How Mindpicnic works teaches you ...

• how to learn vocabulary effectivly.
• how to keep track of your study progress.
• how to create your own study material.

For new users this course will be added to the learn schedule automatically. If you have any suggestions what could be improved, please let me know.

Did you forget your Mindpicnic password? If you can't log in anymore you can now reset your password at www.mindpicnic.com/password/.

If you activate the option "Notify by mail" under preferences you will be notified when other users ...

• reply to your comments.
• write an entry in your guestbook (which can be found on the user pages, e.g. here).
• write comments about lessons and courses you create.

This option is off by default.

Dominik suggested that entering special characters, e.g. from foreign languages, math or typography, should be easier. That's why you can now create foreign language flashcards without switching your keyboard layout or using copy/paste all the time. Give it a try!

Also new: The keyboard shortcut Alt+S makes clicking the "Save, next"-button unnecessary.

Are the courses and lessons you create at Mindpicnic safe? What if our data center burns down? We have daily backups, but don't take my word for it: Now you are able to save all your data yourself.

Those of you who have already created courses will see a new link at the Create page that exports the complete course data to a xml file.

A small project I had on my mind for quite some time: The Google Maps Quiz. Mindpicnic shows you a randomly chosen satellite image of some part of the earth and you guess where this part is located. Have fun!

If you'd like to see more courses than are available at mindpicnic.com right now (and you don't feel like creating courses yourself), check out mindpicnic.de. Your account works for all Mindpicnic sites. You can start studying a course at the German site and continue at the English site.

By the way, the site search finds courses and lessons no matter which site they belong to.

About a month after Mindpicnic Germany went live it looks like the English edition is ready, too. I'm sure there are a lot of things that could be improved and the translation (which I did myself) isn't really professional but I hope it will do for now. If you have any wishes, found bugs or want to know more just drop me a mail.

I apologize that I didn't get to create an English version of the Mindpicnic Intro Course in time — I hope you can figure it out on your own (the support page might be helpful)!