Show HN: MemStash - Commit things to memory

by sinak • 14 years ago

170 75 14 years ago

sohailk4• 14 years ago

Hey everybody, we just built this webapp at the techcrunch disrupt hackathon. It's a little rough around the edges but we're just looking to get some feedback from the HN community. Thanks!

maximveksler• 14 years ago

Wonderful idea. Thank you.

Bootvis• 14 years ago

Sounds very useful and I want to try this but the sign up requires the use of a cell phone. I'm afraid this will not work here in the Netherlands, is this correct?

If this is so, could you make an app or use WhatsApp or e-mail or whatever so I can try?

sinak7• 14 years ago

Try entering 999-999-9999. At the moment SMS is disabled while we're waiting for Twilio API approval, but email should work!

Edit: We'll also try and make phone optional in the next hour or so ...

jf• 14 years ago

Happy to help here! Please email me.

Edit: Found an account for you and for BC, approved both. Let us know if we can do anything else to help.

bc13238• 14 years ago

Bootvis - Phone is now optional on signup. Check it out!

Swizec• 14 years ago

This is marvelous idea! I forget everything.

But, I have to ask, how do you stop yourselves from becoming annoying? Also, the fact that 90% of the time these aren't reminders, but distractions.

Also, I don't have a phone plan. Just an iphone that's used as a wifi device. Now what?

sinak7• 14 years ago

Yeah it's a tricky balance - it's 3 notifications per item you "stash," so it isn't too bad. But our plan is to make a mobile app with push notifications so we can control the notifications and make them intelligently timed.

vishvananda• 14 years ago

> Also, I don't have a phone plan. Just an iphone that's used as a wifi device. Now what?

https://voice.google.com

BCM43• 14 years ago

I think that this relies on specific timing for receiving the messages though, so if the phone is not constantly on wifi you miss a part of it.

jfoster• 14 years ago

Is that actually common in any part of the world?

bc13238• 14 years ago

Phone is now optional - you can get just emails instead

vmind2• 14 years ago

So, is this based around a Spaced Repetition system, or just some standardly spaced reminders? Would this be an alternative to Anki? Or is it just meant to solidify some small set of facts using reminders?

sinak7• 14 years ago

You know, our plan is to eventually make this Anki-as-a-service. It's dumbed-down spaced repetition as it stands, but the long-term vision is to try and make a more mass-market friendly Anki. It's all pretty basic since we built this thing in 24 hours ... but hopefully more to come soon.

vmind2• 14 years ago

Sounds like a good plan, SRS is definitely under-used for how powerful it can be as a memory tool, so it's good to see some more development in the space.

choxi• 14 years ago

not a criticism, just noticed this looks like rdio's landing page. glad to see someone else liked theirs as much as i do

sinak7• 14 years ago

Yep we totally "drew inspiration" from Rdio. Good catch.

brador• 14 years ago

Love the concept and that page shrinks beautifully.

Small typo: Every forgotten somebody's name? should be Ever.

sohailk4• 14 years ago

Thanks! Still a few issues with the site responsiveness that I'll need to sort out - at least once I get some sleep!

And I'll get that typo sorted out, heh.

adeubank• 14 years ago

I feel I should point out that the header in the mast container has white text and on my browser, with a window size width greater than 1600 px, it overlaps with the white in the image making part of it hard to read. Other than that, job well done :)

dan-k• 14 years ago

One more: "Whether your learning a foreign language..." should be you're.

bc13238• 14 years ago

Typos fixed.

unreal37• 14 years ago

I love seeing things built in 24 hours. Great job on that.

The idea is so-so. There is probably a low upper-limit to the number of things you want to remember this way. More than 5 text messages like this a day will get a bit annoying I think.

Take a look at memrise.com. They see to have the learning things through repetition thing down.

Great job though, and keep working on it.

sinak7• 14 years ago

Yep, Memrise is awesome. We think that spaced repetition has the potential to be more mainstream ... it's quite an empowering use of technology, and there are lots of similar cognitive enhancing tricks that are in the same vein. You're right - more than 5 text messages isn't great, but down the line we're hoping to create mobile apps to make the reminder process much more streamlined.

ehsanu1• 14 years ago

In a similar vein, try out the space repetition software, Mnenmosyne: http://www.mnemosyne-proj.org/

I'll add to that a good article spaced repetition: http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition

dbaupp• 14 years ago

Also, Anki: http://ankisrs.net/

zenocon• 14 years ago

I just skimmed Anki & mnemosyne as well as MemStash. Early constructive criticism: I think all of these tools would benefit from a web-based demo that doesn't require a download & install or a signup / login.

As an example, I watched the Anki intro video http://youtu.be/c0dI2VyLDWw and I found myself wanting to try my hand at state capitals immediately, but not enough to download and install the software.

Building a quick web playground that lets the user try quick quizzes may capture people and hook them in -- at least it would for me.

peteretep• 14 years ago

I wrote an article on SRS as well, with some reference to using it for geeky coding things:

http://www.writemoretests.com/2012/02/how-to-remember-everyt...

jasondenizac• 14 years ago

Very cool job getting this to number 1 in real-time for your demo presentation.

sinak7• 14 years ago

Yeah, that was ridiculously awesome! Just in time :).

SammyGuergachi• 14 years ago

Really? Are we still using bookmarks for app executions? I personally find terrible UX to mix real bookmarks with your extensions/apps

sohailk4• 14 years ago

any suggestions for better implementation? we're for sure looking for ways to improve.

mpobrien• 14 years ago

I love it. Instead of MMS though, reminders via instant message (gchat/aim/whatever) would be nice.

bc13238• 14 years ago

Great idea! on the list now

lywald• 14 years ago

Whether your learning a foreign language

In the front page, it's "you're"

bc13238• 14 years ago

I'm going to blame that on 24 hours of no sleep too. We'll get it fixed write away ;)

shazam• 14 years ago

I see what you did there

ISeemToBeAVerb3• 14 years ago

As someone who is intensely interested in memory and mnemonics, I always welcome new tools. The site looks great for being build in 24 hrs and I like the idea of a web-based tool for memorization. However, I do think the offer could use some work. As some other people have pointed out, SMS, email and Push notifications might get out of hand very quickly.

I think you have to consider that most people are using tools like Anki to memorize larger sets of data rather than the names of a few people or a nice quote. Tools like push notifications and text messages are just not an efficient way to digest that much information. I wouldn't mind getting a quote pushed out to me a few times in a day, but compound that by 100 or more items to memorize and suddenly your phone is blowing up every 3 seconds. No bueno.

If I were in your shoes, I would do away with the push, email and SMS notifications altogether. I like the idea of clipping items from around the web, because that actually solves one of the biggest pains of using Anki, which is organizing and typing all your items into the program (assuming there isn't already a stack available). You could even allow users to "clip" to a specific notebook to better organize their items.

Instead of sending notifications, I'd create a spaced-repetition mobile app and/or web app that allowed users to access their clipped items. That way, users can access your tool at their own discretion, but still get the benefit of having a tool to gather their information.

Anyhow, that's my 2 cents. Great job and good luck!

sinak7• 14 years ago

Yeah, really our main constraint was the 24 hours, and getting this to MVP stage. Really interested in getting more feedback though. If you take a look at the comments under http://lesswrong.com/lw/e26/who_wants_to_start_an_important_... with my username and you can read a little about how this kinda developed. We're still trying to figure out whether there's a compelling and sticky feature set that we can build a meaningful, mainstream service around.

ISeemToBeAVerb3• 14 years ago

I think there is potential here. As I mentioned above, Anki has a few quirks that make it cumbersome to use on occasion. My top three complaints, accompanied by potential solutions, would be as follows:

01. Getting information into Anki. You've already got this covered pretty well. The ability to clip notes from around the web or add them via other methods is wonderful. Think of a tool like Evernote or Clip.to

02. Poor Quality Decks. Let's face it, finding a good pre-made deck in Anki can be a challenge. You can easily solve this, simply offer your users a variety of high quality decks. The better the quality of the decks, the more value. It can take a REALLY long time to make a good deck, I'd gladly pay a modest fee for a well made deck that saves me hours of prep time.

03. Bad Design & UI. I love Anki, but she isn't the prettiest girl in the room and she isn't always easy to get along with. A little bit of elegant design and thoughtful UI would go a looong way in boosting the perceived value of your product.

v2rev12• 14 years ago

I've been interested in this for a long while especially in memory models for forgetting patterns beyond simplistic SR expanding schedules.

We developed http://membean.com that utilizes some of this technology and we've been able to make this a successful business albeit in a restricted domain. But as others have pointed out .. it's hard to sell this. We've managed it because of stellar content built around our engine: http://membean.com/exemplars. Without excellent content it would have been hard to get this off the ground despite us able to show that we outperform existing SRS tools.

Most recently Smart.fm tried this and failed.

rotskoff• 14 years ago

What is the timing scheme for the notifications? Do you have any information about its efficacy?

bc13238• 14 years ago

Right now its 10 min after book marking it, then 24 hours after that. We had some different schemes in mind that we'll be optimizing in the next day or so. It's a hackathon, build what you need now.

bithive123• 14 years ago

Feedback in the form of questions: Why not build this as a local app? Isn't this effectively the same thing as setting a few calendar reminders? Once I've identified something I'd like to remember, how is this faster, cheaper, or more effective than using, say, Evernote?

whalesalad2• 14 years ago

This website doesn't do well on high resolutions.

Good: http://wsld.me/JK0p

Bad: http://wsld.me/JJsc

sohailk4• 14 years ago

yeah, sorry. we've only had my 13' macbook air and we made this over the last 24 hours. I'll be fixing the responsive design once I get some sleep, heh.

whalesalad2• 14 years ago

No worries! Sorry if my comment sounded super negative, I wrote it real fast while running off to make dinner so it was short and blunt.

glenjamin• 14 years ago

Do people actually browse the web like that? Why get a massive resolution and waste it displaying websites full screen in a way that's unlikely to have been tested, and even less likely to present the information in a digestible manner?

KelsayGrammar• 14 years ago

Every forgotten? Embarrassing is misspelled, too.

bc13238• 14 years ago

fixed, thanks

dude3• 14 years ago

Sounds like Git hehe. Stash, Commit etc.

bc13238• 14 years ago

Thank you to everyone pointing out the spelling mistakes - and i mean that seriously - HN is the best QA team we could ask for!

gllen• 14 years ago

The service is not for me, but just wanted to say it's a beautifully executed responsive homepage.

toonse• 14 years ago

I want to just have it email and I'd like to remove my phone #, can't seem to figure out how.

Also a similar type thing but without the push that I've been using to learn languages (and is very slick) is http://www.memrise.com

mistercow• 14 years ago

A neat idea, but three times is definitely not going to be enough reminders in many cases, especially if you are using the service often.

gianpaj• 14 years ago

Any tips on making a bookmarklet work this well? I mean code-wise and ease of testing

fecklessyouth• 14 years ago

If you want to commit something to memory, read it, try reciting it in your head, try writing out, and as long as you can't, refer back to the original thing.

If you want to record a passing thing to later commit to memory, write it in a notebook.

raheemm• 14 years ago

Following tactics can also aid the learning process:

1. Associate new ideas to existing ideas (metaphors, problem solve, story)

2. Make it less abstract (story, diagrams, touch, smell, etc)

3. Express it (restate, teach, share, tweet, blog, etc)

tuananh• 14 years ago

very much agree with this. writing things down help a lot. as another way, keep associate things with other thing in a funny way (even if it doesn't make sense, actually that even help more). I've done those two methods and found it very effective.

gwern• 14 years ago

Good old active recall ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_recall ) and testing effect ( http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition#background-testing-... )!

sheepzstudy• 14 years ago

Hi,

I live in canada and can't seem to get sms. I tried my area code with 438 with both 438 and 1438 and they both don't seem to work. I don't receive sms notifications

wamatt• 14 years ago

Well done guys, great achievement for a 24hr project! Even has Evernote integration, neat.

timkeller• 14 years ago

Looks like the bookmarklet code was copied from Instapaper.

instakill• 14 years ago

Am I the only one that thought this was another Redis from reading the title?

manmal• 14 years ago

Stash this: "Remember to sign up to Memstash" :)

TomaszZielinski• 14 years ago

This is a great example of the concept that ideas are worthless and it's execution that is everything. I've been thinking of doing _exactly_ the same service for some.. 2 years now, mostly for myself by potentially also for the benefit of others. And voila :)

Congrats!

TenJack• 14 years ago

Save for SMS and email reminders, this looks remarkably similar to a site I built a while ago called FlashcardStash (http://flashcardstash.com) (used to be WordStash).

Show HN: MemStash - Commit things to memory

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