AnkiMiniSync Version 0.1, an ‘offline’ sync script for AnkiMini (on the iPad)

Since I didn’t want to use the Anki Online service to sync AnkiMini on my jailbroken iPad and Anki on my Laptop I always had to copy the recent version from/to my iPad over ssh (sshfs). To automate that task a bit and save me some time I wrote this little sync script. It basically compares the two .anki decks in the local and the remote folder and replaces the older with the newer version. It does however -NOT- read the .anki file and merge the files properly. That means you can only work on one machine and then have to sync before you start working on the other one. It also means working on more than one mobile device is not possible (well, it’s possible but you’ll lose data through the sync process).

There are still some restrictions in this first version:

-Your username and directory where the Anki deck is stored must not contain any whitespaces (will be hopefully be solved in v.0.2)

-You can only sync one deck at a time (functionality to sync whole folders is planned for v.0.2)

-The .anki folder must be directly in the mounted directory of the sshfs volume

-You should have public key authentification turned on

-As far as I know this script only works on *nix systems, I have only tested it on OSX so far

If you encounter any bugs or problems besides the above don’t hesitate and write a comment! Don’t write any bug reports in the Anki support forums or to the developers of Anki (or AnkiMini), they have nothing to do with this.

Contributions to the code are always welcome of course. You are also allowed to use the code or parts of the code anywhere else, though it’d be nice to notify me somewhere along the way.

Link to ankiminisync-0.1.py

Howto: Create a bootable Linux USB flash drive (USB-stick) in Mac OSX

For Windows and Linux there’s UNetbootin, in OSX you have to rely on the terminal to create your USB flash drive.

Step 1: Download the image of the distro you want to use. In my case XUbuntu 10.04.

Step2: If there is data that you still need on your flash drive, save it on your desktop or somewhere else on your harddrive. I created a folder ‘Data’ on my desktop.

Step3: Open a terminal and type in mount . This should give you a list of mounted drives on your Mac, like this:

eubolists-macbook-pro:~ eubolist$ mount

/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)

devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)

map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)

map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)

/dev/disk0s3 on /Volumes/BOOTCAMP (fusefs, local, synchronous)

/dev/disk1s2 on /Volumes/Time Machine-Backups (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled)

/dev/disk3 on /Volumes/8GB DRIVE (msdos, local, nodev, nosuid, noowners) <– This is the one we want

Step 4: Unmount the drive: diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk3 Of course you may have to change disk3 to whatever disk your flash drive is.

Step 5: Write the image: dd if=/Users/eubolist/Downloads/xubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso of=/dev/disk3 bs=1m

Again, change the command as needed. The path to your image is in all probability different as well as the path to your flash drive.

Now you should see the light of your flash drive flashing and after a while an output that looks similar like the following:

681+1 records in
681+1 records out
714168320 bytes transferred in 225.925632 secs (3161077 bytes/sec)

If that’s the case, congrats! You should have a bootable flash drive now. If you want to, you can create another partition if you have enough space and put the data saved earlier in Step 2 back on your usb drive now.

NOTE: If you have an older PC it might still not boot from your flash drive, even if you did everything well. Some older BIOSes just don’t support booting from USB flash drives.

Anki: An Intelligent Study Card System For Any OS

A month ago I was looking for a new computer-based method to improve my study schedule. After a bit of searching in the endless depth of the web I discovered Anki, a flash card application that has several very useful features:

• It is written in Python and available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and FreeBSD – which means it runs on virtually any computer.
• There are a lot of  “Decks” (=sets of flashcards built by other users) already available on the web
• The interface is really nice and intuitive, adding sound, video or pictures to your cards is very easy, thus can be accomplished by people with little experience with computers. Also there are many options to adjust the program to your study habits.
• Anki uses spaced repetition. After each card you have to say how well you remembered it – based on that Anki will set the interval after which the card will be brought up again. With this technique facts will be pushed into your long-term memory. That means you won’t experience black outs in exams anymore as the hormone cortisol, released by your body in situations of psychological stress, only affects the short term but not the long term memory.

If that made you curious, why don’t you give it a try! Here are the download links:

Windows

Ubuntu (you can also install it with apt-get/aptitude, but the version in the repositories is pretty old)

Linux

Mac OSX

FreeBSD

Apple releases new ‘tablet netbook’ called iPad

On yesterday’s Apple-Keynote the highly anticipated Apple Tablet named iPad had been released. The usual downtime (some people also call it the ‘drumroll’) of the Apple online shop failed to appear, instead you can have a look at the iPad on http://www.apple.com/ipad/.

As it looks from there the device is rather an oversized iPod touch than a real Mac, but the name already suggests that. This comes with the advantage that you have access to thousands of apps already available in the AppStore. But nevertheless it seems to lack usb ports, which I find to be rather annoying when you want to transfer big files because with bluetooth or wifi this takes an eternety. Not to mention that bluetooth filetransfer could be blocked by the firmware like in other Apple devices. A camera is not built in but can be added via the 30-pin connector on the bottom of the device. Lastly, I really hope there will be a compatible pen available so you can eg. take hand written notes or letters.

When the iPad is available for purchase there will definitely be more articles on it. For now I’ll leave you with some impressions from the iPad:

iPad [Source: Apple]

iPad size and weight [Source: Engadget]

iPad tech specs [Source: Engadget]

iPad display [Source: Engadget]

Steve Jobs with his newest toy [Source: Engadget]

iPad in use [Source: Engadget]

iPad prices [Source: Engadget]

iPad on the dock with external keyboard [Source: Engadget]

The iPad desktop [Source: Engadget]

iPad featuring iBooks [Source: Engadget]

iPad featuring iBooks [Source: Engadget]

The iPad will feature games, such as NFS Shift [Source: Engadget]

The iPad App Store [Source: Engadget]

iPad running an iPhone app unscaled [Source: Engadget]

iPad featuring a scaled iPhone app [Source: Engadget]

Watching a movie on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

The iPad will be fully compatible to sync with Apple’s iPhoto [Source: Engadget]

mail on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

Youtube on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

iPad [Source: Engadget]

Google Maps with streetview on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

iCal on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

iPad’s generous on-screen keyboard [Source: Engadget]

Reading the newspaper on the iPad [Source: Engadget]