Comments on: Gary Wolf profiles SuperMemo creator in Wired

By: Gemma

Gemma — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It is supposed to handle images according to this: “SuperMemo makes it possible to learn knowledge represented as text, pictures, sounds, video, HTML and more.” The first screenshot on the above link is of a human brain divided into regions, asking what one is called.

By: Takuan

Takuan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

yeah, traffic..can you fill in?

By: boingcat

boingcat — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks #4! FSM bless open source.

By: NidSquid

NidSquid — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Very cool, thanks for the link. I’m going to play with it – I’m trying to learn Spanish.

By: RedMonkey

RedMonkey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Awesome, Skynet and BigBrother roled into one! I for one welcome our new computerized masters.

By: snifty

snifty — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a really nice (free) memorization site called quizlet.com. I don’t know if it uses any of these schmancy chrestomathic algorithms, but it’s kinna schmancy in its own right.

By: Teapunk

Teapunk — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

“They will be able to tell us when to wake, sleep, learn, and exercise; they will cue us to remember what we’ve read, help us track whom we’ve met, and remind us of our goals. Computers, in Wozniak’s scheme, will increase our intellectual capacity and enhance our rational self-control.”

Learning vocabulary is all fine and dandy (and the deity of your choice knows I’ve now forgotten more kanji than I ever knew but I can look them up really, really fast) but what’s with the quote above? Computer-facism!
What’s next – a console telling me my BMI and encouraging me to workout?

By: kpkpkp

kpkpkp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

All the telephones in the world ring simultaneously to announce my success!

By: Malgwyn

Malgwyn — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ugh. It requires IE.

By: rosco

rosco — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I read the article in Wired and was intrigued. Having briefly played with the program it seems to me it could be infinitely more useful if the “questions” could be images. Memorizing the constellations for example would be considerably more useful if you could look up at the sky and actually point them out.

Does anybody know if this kind of functionality exists in another program (or if I’m just missing something?).

By: Jordan M

Jordan M — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There's an open source project that is very similar called Mmemosyne available for Windows, MacOS and Linux. I only mention it because the SuperMemo software seems kind of dated.

By: MrScience

MrScience — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Excellent reference, #3!

By: Neuron

Neuron — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A. I’m learning Morse code right now, and this sort of functionality would be awesome. Another learning performance factor is how much time to spend on a learning task at each session. I keep thinking that I would like to do 30 minute sessions of Morse, but I fatigue sooner than that. Maybe the software could learn how I perform. I just might have to write an iPhone app to do this.

B. I’m in the early stages of developing medical record software. I envision it having a great many features, too many for the beginning user. I plan for the program to monitor how users use it, and to gently make suggestions for how they can take advantage of more advanced features.

By: nano_rog

nano_rog — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mnemosyne, handles UniCode, images, LaTeX, and sound clips. Anki handles a lot of those as well. Both are free. (Gratis AND Libre)

By: Egypt Urnash

Egypt Urnash — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Oooh, thanks for the link to the Mac rendition, Mark! I’d read the article yesterday, and thought “this sounds interesting, shame it’s Win-only.”

By: forgeweld

forgeweld — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The guy who is supposed to write something like: “I for one, welcome our new computer overlords.” is late

By: krzys300

krzys300 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

supermemo.net is free and contains loads of courses published by the users; handles multimedia, rich course standard, unicode, …

what’s more SuperMemo for iPhone is almost there, free as well http://www.supermemo.eu/supermemo_for_iphone :)