webprogramming

So this is a little esoteric, but it meets a need I encountered; and it may meet yours if you use Espial, Keyboard Maestro and are on macOS. For several years I’ve been using Espial a bookmark manager that looks and feels like Pinboard, but is both self-hosted and drama-free1. Espial is easy to setup, stores its data in a comprehensible sqlite database and has an API, which comes in handy when it came to solving the problem I encountered.

Most language learners are familiar with Forvo, a site that allows users to download and contribute pronunciations for words and phrases. For my Russian studies, I make daily use of the site. In fact, to facilitate my Anki card-making workflow, I am a paid user of the Forvo API. But that’s where the trouble started. When the Forvo API works, it works OK, often extremely slow. But lately, it has been down more than up.