The pre-beta for MathJournal 2.0 has started. See:

http://www.xthink.com/MathJournal2.html

Also, note the "Basic Questions," below the 5 new handwriting sample sets.
Do everything and get a free copy of MJ 2.0!

For those who are assisting with handwriting samples, there is now a
"Pre-Beta Issues & Questions" thread in the xThink Forum at
www.TabletPCBuzz.com

http://www.xthink.com/MathJournal2.html instructs you to do the following:
3. Write the sample problems in MathJournal 1.1.
4. Solve each sample and send the log-files to xThink, as described in the
sample PDF files. ...

However, the instructions that are sent after you inquire about
participating ask for you to write each expression "10 to 50 times". The
material is 34 pages, so multiplying this by 50 (or even 10) makes a big
difference.

"Steve S" <SteveS@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F56428A9-E135-4A43-8195-D42877551524@microsoft.com...
> The pre-beta for MathJournal 2.0 has started. See:
>
> http://www.xthink.com/MathJournal2.html
>
> Also, note the "Basic Questions," below the 5 new handwriting sample sets.
> Do everything and get a free copy of MJ 2.0!

Mickey:

....I took another look at the pre-beta instructions, and I think their
intention is that you only "solve" each expression once, not multiple times.
34 pages times about 30 exercises per page is 1000+ trials, exactly as
described. So they obviously are not expecting additional trials (in fact,
most of the functions are written multiple times, so that's where they get
their repetition !...).

Regarding the instructions that you read, I think that they were associated
with the 5 "future" Symbol sets, NOT the 5 MJ 2.0 / Advanced sets.
Confusing, huh?

Steve S

<<"Mickey Segal" wrote:
However, the instructions that are sent after you inquire about
participating ask for you to write each expression "10 to 50 times". The
material is 34 pages, so multiplying this by 50 (or even 10) makes a big
difference.>>

Here are the relevant portions of the instructions:

"Thank you for agreeing to participate in the writing of symbols for
MathJournal. This is an important help from you that makes MathJournal
better and better. Please write each symbol 50 times. Testers who are
familiar with pen-based input will likely need only a few hours to complete
the symbols listed in the pdf-files.....
1. Write the symbols in the MathJournal workspace, writing each symbol 10
to 50 times.
2. Tap the Solver tool to access the popup menu.
3. Select Cancel. MathJournal recognizes your input....."

To me that sounds like writing the material on 34 pages 10-50 times.
Assuming 1-2 minutes per page, this sounds like somewhere between 5 and 50
hours of effort. I would not have described that as "a few hours" so I
wonder whether I am getting an impression different from that intended.

If it is a matter of writing the whole thing once that seems like a good way
of learning the functionality and it would be worth investing the hour for
my handwriting to be particularly well recognized by the software. If they
really need the 34 pages (or more, "whenever xThink finishes a new part of
the math engine we post additional Symbol Sample Suite PDF files") written
10- 50 times they may need some greater incentive than a free copy of the
software.

"Steve S" <SteveS@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:001BF737-A362-4D95-B709-D6A47A0C8325@microsoft.com...
> Mickey:
>
> ...I took another look at the pre-beta instructions, and I think their
> intention is that you only "solve" each expression once, not multiple
> times.
> 34 pages times about 30 exercises per page is 1000+ trials, exactly as
> described. So they obviously are not expecting additional trials (in
> fact,
> most of the functions are written multiple times, so that's where they get
> their repetition !...).
>
> Regarding the instructions that you read, I think that they were
> associated
> with the 5 "future" Symbol sets, NOT the 5 MJ 2.0 / Advanced sets.
> Confusing, huh?

Again...

You're looking at the WRONG SET OF INSTRUCTIONS.

<<Thank you for agreeing to participate in the writing of symbols for
MathJournal.>>

The reference to "...writing of symbols..." makes it clear that the
instructions you have are for the 5 sets of new symbols, NOT the 5 MJ 2.0
pre-beta sets.



"Mickey Segal" wrote:

> Here are the relevant portions of the instructions:
>
> "Thank you for agreeing to participate in the writing of symbols for
> MathJournal. This is an important help from you that makes MathJournal
> better and better. Please write each symbol 50 times...>>

Now I see that there are two parallel sets of directions with descriptions
of 5 files that are hard to distinguish:

5 Symbol Sample Suite PDF files: http://www.xthink.com/MathJournal2.html

5 Symbol Sample Suite PDF files:
http://www.xthink.com/mathjournal_future.html

The second set would be no big deal to do 10-50 times. What is supposed to
be done with the first set in the MathJournal2 URL with which you began the
thread? Are those supposed to be written once or are they some older set
that should be ignored?

Mickey:

....The "first set in the MathJournal2 URL" is, in fact, the current (most
recent) set of exercises. This is the set that xThink wants you to do to
support the pre-beta tests. Write each example once (NOT multiple times), as
shown, but omit the example number (because it's not needed).

That's all you have to do. xThink could have arranged this so it would be a
little less confusing, but for whatever reason, this is what we've got to
work with.



"Mickey Segal" wrote:

<<What is supposed to
>be done with the first set in the MathJournal2 URL with which you began the
> thread? Are those supposed to be written once or are they some older set
> that should be ignored? >>

The support people at xThink confirm that testers should ignore the
instructions they were sending to write the material in the PDFs at
http://www.xthink.com/mathjournal_future.html and do each 50 times.
Hopefully that will no longer happen.

The instructions one should follow are at
http://www.xthink.com/MathJournal2.html. However, contrary to what it says
there ("MathJournal 1.1 will not recognize and solve these new problems"),
many of the expressions are indeed recognized, just incorrectly, and if I
understand the xThink support people correctly one doesn't have to keep
trying until getting a "Your input could not be recognized" box, one can
submit the incorrect recognitions too.

The software itself is a lot more clear than the instructions for the beta
test.

"Steve S" <SteveS@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:056413A5-ED83-4CC5-8C5D-366EC6E68893@microsoft.com...
> Mickey:
>
> ...The "first set in the MathJournal2 URL" is, in fact, the current (most
> recent) set of exercises. This is the set that xThink wants you to do to
> support the pre-beta tests. Write each example once (NOT multiple times),
> as
> shown, but omit the example number (because it's not needed).
>
> That's all you have to do. xThink could have arranged this so it would be
> a
> little less confusing, but for whatever reason, this is what we've got to
> work with.
>
>
>
> "Mickey Segal" wrote:
>
> <<What is supposed to
>>be done with the first set in the MathJournal2 URL with which you began
>>the
>> thread? Are those supposed to be written once or are they some older set
>> that should be ignored? >>
>