My accomplishments during 1996:
<ul>
  <li>1996.Jan: Wrote Macintosh GUI version of flashcard-drill program, initially only for reading common words out loud. Switched my kindergarden son from semi-manual (text editor) algorithm to new program.<br>
By 1996.Jan.24, my son, Zachary, who won't be 6 years old until March,
can already read the 929 most common words of the English language.<br>
By 1996.Jan.26, Zachary can already read the 952 most common words of the English language, and for the first (most common) 28 of them he can fill in the missing common word in text (mostly song lyrics), the latter still done semi-manually at this point.</li>
  <li>1996.Feb: Interfaced SegMat algorithm to flashcard-drill program, included missing-common-word exercises, switched my son to these now-fully-automated exercises.<br>
By 1996.Feb.03, Zachary can already read the 1063 most common words of the English language, and for the first (most common) 64 of them he can fill in the missing common word from song lyrics and correctly spell that missing word.<br>
By 1996.Feb.07, Zachary can already read the 1159 most common words of the English language, and for the first (most common) 70 of them he can fill in the missing common word correctly spelled.<br>
Started my daughter on the earlier-automated reading out loud.<br>
By 1996.Feb.19, Zachary can already read the 1387 most common words of the English language, and for the first (most common) 88 of them he can fill in the missing common word correctly spelled. My daughter, Miranda, who turned 4 in December, can now read the 36 most common words.<br>
By 1996.Feb.25, Zachary can already read the 1399 most common words of the English language, and for the first (most common) 114 of them he can fill in the missing common word (correctly spelled). Miranda can now read the 38 most common words.</li>
  <li>1996.March: Started teaching my son how to write HyperTalk scripts (i.e. program HyperCard).<br>
Continued to upgrade my flashcard program, and use it to teach my children reading and spelling.<br>
Used Inside Macintosh to teach myself how to change the system buffer size for the serial port (to avoid data overruns that I've been getting with a 2400 BPS modem), and how to play musical tones using the square-wave generator, both via the LISP interface to the ToolBox traps.<br>
By 1996.Mar.18, Zachary, who just turned 6 years old on Mar.12, can already read the 1544 most common words of the English language, and for the first (most common) 182 of them he can fill in the missing common word (correctly spelled). Miranda can now read the 86 most common words.<br></li>
  <li>1996.April: Started teaching myself and my son together how to use QuickDraw from LISP, via the LISP interface to the ToolBox traps.<br>
Continued to upgrade my flashcard program.<br>
By 1996.Apr.12, Zachary can already read the 1729 most common words of the English language, and for the first (most common) 215 of them he can type in the missing common word (correctly spelled). Miranda can now read the 118 most common words.</li>
  <li>1996.May: Incorporated larger buffer into PCNET client and musical
tones into flashcard program.<br>
By 1996.May.05, Zachary can already
read the 1799 most common words of the English language, and for the
first (most common) 244 of them he can type in the missing common word
(correctly spelled). Miranda, can now read the
153 most common words.<br>
Started writing net-abuse WWW pages.</li>
  <li>1996.Jun: Wrote utility to detect duplicates in flashcard database.</li>
  <li>1996.Jun..Jul: Continued writing net-abuse WWW pages.</li>
  <li>1996.Jul: Ported PCNET server from SunOS 4.1.1 to Solaris, which required rewriting DIRENT of filename and ceasing use of control-V over modem.</li>
  <li>1996.Jul..Aug: For younger children, to teach them phonetics and spelling, made flashcards for single-letter and letter-group missing from word of their favorite song lyrics, starting with Barney dinosaur song, using my February missing-word mechanism.</li>
  <li>1996.Sep: Improved flashcard program for case where words were already overdue when merge&split was needed.<br>
For flashcard program, wrote automatic dialog to let child auto-show-statistics and auto-save after completing re-test and again at end of session (if too tired to continue despite some more words still due).</li>
  <li>1996.Oct.15: Wrote new internals for Go program, interfaced to graphics display from April.</li>
  <li>1996.Oct.16: Wrote more of Go program: RandMove, RandPlayToEnd, RandPlayer</li>
</ul>