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Welcome to the Fool's Workshop. This site is dedicated to various projects I have worked on in my spare time from 1999-2004 which I hope might possibly be useful to others. All software, information, and scripts found on this site are free for anyone to use, and in those cases where I have provided the source code, is also open source. Since 2004 most projects here have not continued in active development and support is limited.

Foolish Projects

 
A Fool's House of Cards
An online repository of vocabulary glossaries.
(Web; Freeware; Open Source) Incomplete

This project, currently in active development, builds on the below Jii-chan project and the JavaScript flashcard script by offering an online repository of glossaries for direct review online. A user management system and database integration will allow for a number of powerful features to be added at a later time.

House of Cards Home (still in progress)

OWL's Workshop for Language Study
A Complete online solution for Language Instructors.
(Web; Freeware; Open Source)

OWLS is a project currently under development and will see its first implementation through Sutaitai.com. The Workshop allows instructors to easily post readings, glossaries, and various JavaScript exercises directly online through their site. The scripts are available for download but support will be limited until January when I get stable internet access.

More Info | Download | Online Help

 
Jii-chan's Kanji Flashcards
Review over 2,000 Kanji flashcards online.
(Web; Freeware; Open Source)

Jii-chan lets you review 107 lessons of Kanji directly online using the JSFlash JavaScript engine. The lessons are ordered in descending order of frequency of the characters in Japanese and uses entries from the KANJIDIC dictionary database.

Jii-chan's Home | More Info | Online Help | Kanji Site Links | News

The Hangul Helper
Learn and review Hangul
(Web; Freeware) Incomplete

The Hangul Helper is a site for learning Hangul, the unique Korean writing system in a rich environment which allows students to easily view and practice hangul in a number of ways.

 
Pinyin to Unicode 1.0
Online Conversion for Syllable-final tone pinyin to Unicode.
(Web; Freeware; Open Source)

This conversion utility allows anyone who wants to quickly create Unicode pinyin, complete with tone marks, to do so online via this handy utility. The results are shown both as text and as HTML.

Converter Home

The Katakana Quizer
Learn and review Katakana
(Web; Freeware) Incomplete

The Katakana Quizer is a site for learning Katakana, a Japanese syllabary in a rich environment which allows students to easily view and practice these characters in a number of ways.

 
JavaScript Flashcards
A Client-Side Web Application for Flashcard Review
(Web; Freeware; Open Source)

JSFlash is a single JavaScript file which functions as a self-contained environment for the review of flashcards in a browser.

More Info | Download

 

Foolish Programs

 
Flashcard Wizard 1.2
Flashcard software with unique
interval study features (Mac OS 9; Freeware)

Flashcard Wizard 1.2 is now available for download for Mac OS 9. Development has been discontinued.

More Info | Download | Awards | Version History | Online Help

Pinyin Font Converter 1.5
Conversion utility for many
Chinese pinyin fonts. (Mac OS 9; Freeware; Open Source)

Pinyin Font Converter 1.5 is available for download. A PC version of this application is in development. See also the Pinyin to Unicode Converter now online. A Mac OS X version is not planned.

More Info | Download | Version History

 
Fool's Lexicon 1.1
Chinese & Japanese Dictionary Client
for EDICT/CEDICT (Mac OS 9; Freeware; Open Source)

Fool's Lexicon is a client for the Japanese EDICT dictionary and the Chinese CEDICT dictionary. The application has special copy and export features and may have multiple searches open.

More Info | Download | Version History

Fun Scripts and Programs
You may also download other small scripts
and programs that I have designed.

Visit the Fun page for a list of other scripts and programs I have posted.

Template.pl

Language: Perl OS: *nix, Mac OS X, anything with Perl installed
Convert HTML header/footer files for use as JavaScript templates.

PinyinToUnicode.php
Language: PHP OS: *nix, Mac OS X, anything with PHP installed
Convert syllable-final pinyin tone numbers to unicode pinyin text.


Fall 2004 - The Fool, K. M. Lawson, begins a PhD program in modern East Asian History. Active development of Fool's Workshop projects ends for the time being. No major updates to the software since. I hope to return to my tinkering with coding for the Mac and online at some point in the future. Since 2004, however, I have been working on a few other online projects such as managing Frog in a Well and digitizing the Sino-Japanese Studies journal now hosted at ChinaJapan.org.

March 29th, 2003 -
Jii-chan's Kanji Flashcards are online. A version of JSFlash which works with images instead of text is planned and will precede the release of Hangul Helper for Korean and Katakana Quizer for Japanese.

February 19th, 2003- The new JSFlash script is available for download. This script, which allows review of flashcards through a fast client-side browser script will be integrated into future releases of OWLS and form the core of a web version of Flashcard Wizard, being developed concurrently with Flashcard Wizard 2.0 for Mac OS X.

November 11th- OWLS - The OWLS scripts are available for download. I have been reluctant to release them because my lack of daily internet access in Japan prevents me from being able to provide quick support. However, after many inquiries about the releast date, they are now made available. There remain at least two JavaScript errors which only seem to display themselves (without any apparent negative effect) in Internet Explorer in Windows. More bugs may be found as others try to use the scripts. Help files are included in the download and online.

September 17th- OWLS - Sutaitai.com is live and being used in two classes by Chih-Ping Sobelman at Columbia University. The scripts themselves continue to be debugged and are being stripped down and documentation being added for use in any language course. The scripts should be available for download later this month or at the beginning of October.

July 24th, 2002 - Pinyin to Unicode Converter - I added the Pinyin to Unicode Converter today and added more information on current and upcoming projects. I have been busy with Sutaitai.com which will eventually result in the release of the The Language Workshop (the name might change). Other projects in the wings include The Katakana Quizer and The Hangul Helper.

March 13th, 2002 - Adding Fun Scripts - I will begin posting small scripts and programs I have written which might conceivably be useful to others. Further development on Flashcard Wizard and Fool's Lexicon is on hold until this summer, following my graduation.

April 15th, 2001 - Fool's Lexicon Released. This new application is a client for two popular dictionaries (available with the download of Fool's Lexicon). The program has special copy and export features, multiple searches, and autopaste. Copied or exported entries can be easily imported or pasted into Flashcard Wizard. I added two features (word and term searches) and fixed two bugs after initial tests on 1.0 brought immediately useful comments, thus the 1.1 release so early.

January 14th, 2001 - Flashcard Wizard is now Freeware. All features have been unlocked and shareware payments are no longer required. The program is now completely Freeware! You can still register the program but any payments made will be posted as donations to the educational charity described here. Furthermore, the new version of Flaschard Wizard currently under development (2.0) is being completely redesigned and will be released under the GPL Open Source license upon completion.

January 14th, 2001 - Flashcard Wizard 1.2 has been released. New export features, bug fixes, and a few other tweaks are among the changes. See the version history for more information.

October 22nd, 2000 - The Set Library is growing. There are now 29 Spanish language vocabulary sets available for download thanks to Stacy Boyle. These are available with other sets for download either as Flashcard Wizard files or as text files for use in other applications and databases.

September 8th, 2000 - Flashcard Wizard has had over 3,000 downloads! Please register your copy to promote further development. Quiz and multiple-entry flashcard features are the aim for the next Mac version of the application.

August 28th, 2000 - Flashcard Wizard 1.0 released!

August 28th, 2000 - Welcome to the new Fool's Workshop website. I have replaced the older design for two reasons. First, mouse rollovers and decorative graphics slowed access considerably for some (connecting from China was terrible). Secondly, the way the page encapsulated the text in an oval area placed very annoying restrictions on the amount of content I could provide on each page. This new look is designed to be simple, clean, fast to load, and flexible in its display of content. If you dislike what you see, send me an

  Software, web design, and other foolishness by Konrad M Lawson.
Updated: May 11, 2008
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