RemindererBlog

Rewrite

2010-09-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I just finished a rewrite of reminderer.net. The big picture change is that reminderer is almost completely ajax-driven. One page gets loaded at the beginning and from there, you can review and edit very quickly.

The scheduling is now completely automatic. But I'm not sure it's working right. Currently, it's scheduling my items to appear again in 65 days, which seems long.

XSS security with nonces

2010-07-05T03:33:00.001-07:00

One of the problems with Ajax is that a foreign web page can include ajax calls to a service which will be executed with the user's credentials. To prevent this, ajax calls should include a nonce, an unguessable string which is associated with the user. Ajax calls without the correct nonce are ignored.

Apparently, Wordpress does the something similar: http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/improving-security-in-wordpress-plugins-using-nonces

Recent Additions

2010-07-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

Last week I made the following improvements:

Styling changes to emphasize the habits or facts being reviewed;
Styling changes to the edit page to make it more concise and easier to read;
Keyboard shortcuts to show_habits page to advance, retreat, show next card, and edit;
Ajax security to prevent foreign pages from accessing/modifying a user's reminderer account; and
Autosave and validation on edit page.

Auto-save added to edit page

2010-06-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

Just added auto-save for the edit page.

Keyboard shortcuts added

2010-06-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

I've added keyboard shortcuts (j=next flashcard side, n=no/defeat, y=yes/victory). I modified the jquery hotkeys library and submitted a patch.

Hacker News

2010-05-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

I just asked for critique from the Hacker News community. Wonder what the reaction will be . . .

Pitching reminderer.net

2010-05-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

Here's my current pitch which I will be using on Reminderer.net 's front page:

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.

Samuel Johnson

English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784)

Add those things which you want to be reminded of to your reminderer, and never worry about them again.

I've gotten a lot of good advice over the years from books, presentations, personal conversations, and especially from myself. The problem is that I've failed to make the most of that advice by not building it into my life, by not internalizing it.

What's the use of reading Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" or Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" only to forget all the great lessons in a month?

Now, whenever I read a book or watch a presentation that I want to remember. I put the lessons I want to remember in reminderer.net. Then, as I review my reminders everyday, I begin to internalize the lessons.

How to lose weight by adopting good habits

2010-05-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

The following habits should be adopted to lose weight:

Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep has been linked to weight gain.
Exercise. According to the Mayo clinic, exercise increases your energy, improves your mood, improves sleep, helps with chronic diseases, decreases weight, improves sex, and is fun.
Drink lots of water. Water helps control hunger.
Don't eat in the evening.
Stop eating junk. Reduce or eliminate processed foods, corn syrup, and sugar.
Fast once a week. Fasting may not reduce you weight directly, but it will help you build self-control.
Set a realistic goal for weight and track it regularly. You can do this easily with reminderer.net by setting a goal like: "weight < _200_150" if you're trying to go from 200 lbs to 150 lbs. The goal will automatically be displayed for you as a number between 200 and 150 based on how much time has passed since the goal was set. The time to go from the first number to the last defaults to one year, but you can modify it by setting a date like "_200_150_20110708" which will show 200 now, steadily increasing to 150 by 2011 July 8. According to a recent study, daily weighing will help you lose more weight than weekly weighing.

Why reminderer.net?

2010-05-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

I created reminderer.net because I wanted an easy way to remind myself of habits I thought up for myself and read in books. I know that the key to self improvement is to change habits and the best way to do that is to be reminded of them often.

Reminderer.net works by keeping track of favorable responses to an item and presenting that item progressively less frequently as favorable responses accumulate. The theory is that as you learn a habit, you don't have to be reminded of it as often.