Benjamin Golub’s blog

I’ve talked an awful lot on this blog about a pet project of mine and now I’m ready to divulge. Flashcards are a wonderful way to study but I personally never wanted to sit down and write for hours on end. For some, the process of writing helps them study, but others just want the end product. A student in Math 101 might spend an hour a week writing flashcards for them self. Some other student, somewhere on this planet, has probably already created something very similar; wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all shared?

That’s why I’ve created flashcards.benjamingolub.com (note the URL will change once I come up with a good name and purchase the domain). Flashcard websites already exist; but they all charge money to use some or all of their functions and they all don’t emphasize the power of people in large groups. I’m trying to create a wiki of flashcards so to speak. When you make a deck, it is public to the world. Let’s say you are studying off of someone else’s deck and notice that it isn’t exactly correct. Simply click the link to copy their deck, make the changes to your copy, and leave them a comment explaining why yours is better. Everything will be 100% free. You will be able to print your decks without dishing out $20 a year.

To get an idea about how it works, check out a study session. Simply click the previous and next boxes to move through the deck, the random button to jump around, and the card to flip from front to back. I need to add plenty of things (comments, ratings, search, and RSS feeds are all in the works) but I wanted to release early and release often so this represents about 1 week of work. I started this project knowing next to nothing about Django, so it is a testament to the ease of use, robustness, and speed of Django that I was able to get so much done so quickly.

Please let me know if you make use of the site. Leave me any comments you have, whether they be good or bad (especially the bad ones though). Just because I think it’s the bee’s knees doesn’t mean it is, so let me know!

Note: The style will probably change drastically very soon. I promise the final product won’t be all white and blue! I just find it much harder to come up with a good design than good code.