The pieces

King: jan lawa (jl)
Queen: meli sulo (ms)
Rook: tomo sulo (ts)
Bishop: jan tawa (jt)
Knight: jan utala (ju)
Pawn: jan lili (j)

The colors, the board and moving

white: kule walo (kw)
black: kule pimeja (kp)
Board: selo musi
Square: ma [+square identifier]
Column: ma kulupu palisa
Row: ma kulupu selo
Diagonal: ma kulupu linja
Move: tawa
Good move: tawa pona
Bad move: tawa pakala

The game

Castle: jan lawa li tawa tomo sulo (js li tawa ts)
Check: tawa ala
Checkmate: moli
Draw: sama
Game: utala musi
Promotion: jan lili wawa
Capture: utala
En passant: utala tawa
opening: open musi
Middlegame: utala sewi musi
Endgame: pini musi
Tactics, strategy, plan: nasin

jan sona li jan nasa

The toki pona language has upgraded from 118 to 123 words. The five new words are:

• alasa: to hunt. I see the use for that word, although you could describe it with tawa.
• esun: fair, trading place, market, shop. This word can also be combined with tenpo to mean “the period of a week” since markets are typically held weekly. I wonder if the word can also be used as a verb (to trade) like most toki pona words. A really useful new word.
• kipisi: to cut (in the sense of cutting hair: kipisi e linja). Wouldn’t it mean the same thing if you would tu e linja?
• namako: useless, needless. I wonder why this word is needed since kepeken means “use” and ala means “no, none”–so you could use (pi) kepeken ala to mean the same thing.
• pan: cereal, grain, bread, pasta, rice. Here it is unclear to me why moku kasi (food from plants) wouldn’t be sufficient, although it is nice to have a new word that is easy to remember, at least if you are familiar with a Roman language.
• pu: it is yet unknown what this word means. At this moment, it appears in the official word list without any further explanation. Apparently, we will have to wait for the book Sonja Elen Kisa is finishing…

ali li pona

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Two modes

Factsoak supports two learning modes. The most effective learning takes place when you alter between these modes in five to ten minute intervals:

• Training mode: Factsoak will present you a fact, wait, and present the explanation. The frequency of presentation depends on the difficulty of a fact. You can adapt the speed of presentation and the direction (from fact to explanation, from explanation to fact, or both).
• Test mode: Factsoak will present you with a fact and ask the explanation and repeat this process a number of times. After the test, you get a result and a list of errors. For questions you were able to answer, the difficulty of the fact will decrease. If you did not solve the question, its difficulty will increase

By alternating between training and test mode, you will be presented with those facts that are most difficult to master. Factsoak will also express your mastery of the facts as a percentage. When mastery is 100%, you’ve reached your learning goal.

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Factsoak is high-quality freeware. You can download the setup program for free and use it without charges or registration of any kind.

Download: fssetup.

Afterwards, double click the exe file and follow the setup instructions. You can remove FactSoak by choosing the uninstall option from the menu.

Should you happen to publish electronic media (CD ROM, website), you can include the unaltered program with your content. Webmasters are encouraged exchange links. Please mail the author for more information.

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Factsoak has a very simple and intuitive interface to avoid distraction from the learning process.

Functionalities:

• New file, open and save file with facts
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Send in your fact files!

Fact files available

• Tolkien orkish: if you want to be able to translate the inscription on the Ring, you’ll need this word list.
• Bordeaux Classification: the full Bordeaux grand cru classé list (Médoc 1855 classification)
• dutch: a few Dutch words
• computer acronyms: words that are often used in virtual communication, like FYI, IAC, IANALA, SOB and the like.
• toki pona: toki pona, the simple language of the good. Full word list of all 123 words this beautiful language consists of.

After downloading a fact file, unzip it and open it from the File menu in FactSoak.

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