Last updated August 23, 2013
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Cantonese Revision Aids

Update History 2008-2013

Please note, not all CantoDict updates are shown here, please see the Changelog for all updates.
4th February
Happy Chinese New Year to all, especially my fellow Rabbits! :-)
CantoDict 1.4.2 has now been released. More information
3rd December 2010
Well 2010 was a year plagued by server issues to be honest. This site has become increasibly busy, with some months seeing over 3 million page views.
This all took a toll on the old hardware, and I had to spend far too much time fixing database crashes etc in the background.
The good news is that about a month ago I invested in a much more powerful server, so hopefully this will keep the site stable for the forseeable future.
The new server costs about twice as much as the old one though, so a Big Thank You to the users who noticed the announcements about the changes on the forums and donated.
With advertising revenue, flashcard sales and donations the site is at present just about breaking even, so your support really is appreciated.
For new users who haven't read about the benefits of donating, please click this link: Donate to CantoDict

2010

  • Season's Greetings to all our visitors! I hope you have a peaceful Christmas and I look forwards to adding lots of new features to the site in 2010!
    Share your Christmas thoughts and plans on our forums, here.

2009

  • 22nd September
    I have just returned from a short trip to Hong Kong.  You can see my photos along with a few bits of Cantonese here.
    Many thanks to Nanimo for recording over 20 clear audio examples for the site. More information...
  • 15th August
    38 sentences have been updated with audio - thanks Uncle Johnny!
    More information...
  • 10th August
    A relatively major release of CantoDict is now operational. V1.4.0 contains over 30 bug fixes, interface changes and improvements. It also sees the launch of Personal Vocabulary Lists for all users of the site.
  • 28th July
    This article is  worth looking at! : 5 cool things on this website you may not know about.
    Also, CantoDict v1.3.20 released.  As I mentioned last week, there is quite a lot of stuff going on in the CantoDict forum, so please take a look and get involved. The more feedback we get, the better the site will be for everyone.

  • 22nd July
    CantoDict     v1.3.19 is now live.  There are a reasonable number of new features in this release, based on several design discussions in the CantoDict forum. Do please check this forum regularly, even if you are not an Editor, as your thoughts and feedback can be invaluable in helping the development of our dictionary. For example here, or here, or here, or here.

  • 19th July 2009
     24 Audio Examples have been added thanks to my dad. Playing audio via a Flash player is now possible for example sentences too.
    More information...

  • 15th July 2009
     The migration fallout seems to have subsided now, thank you for your patience during this work.
    By the way, it has been pointed out that a CantoDict feature has not been linked to for quite some time, so in case you didn't know - CantoDict can parse remote Chinese webpages, such as BBC News etc, to help you read them. 

  • 9th July 2009
    UPDATE: if you can read this then the site is using the new server!
    This website is moving to a new server at approx 16:00 GMT today.
    In the seven years of running this site, this is the biggest job I've had to schedule, so please wish me luck.
    Full details on site outage times etc here.

  • 12th June 2009
    CantoDict v1.3.17 is now live.
    The forum post previews to the right have been changed to allow the full post to be seen. Just click the "+-" links next to them to expand.
    Server issues continue to be a problem, I hope to migrate to somewhere more stable soon.

  • 10th January 2009
     Happy New Year to everybody!
    I've had very little time to be present on this site for the past few months, for which I apologise [...]
    More Information...   

2008

  • 30th October
     A major server upgrade is underway meaning disruption to CantoDict and our forums. Apologies for any inconvenience. 
    More Information...
  • 28th October
     CantoDict v1.3.16 is now live.
    14th September
    More than 30 new sound files again generously provided by Learn Chinese EZ.
     More Information.
    CantoDict v1.3.14 is now live. 
  • 26th August
    30 new sound files have been generously contributed by Learn Chinese EZ.  
    More Information    .
  • 7th February
    A very happy Year of the Rat to you all!  Anyone lucky enough to be going to a party, Enjoy!
    I am pretty much AWOL from this site at the moment due to work pressure, but I hope to see you all on the forums soon.
  • 18th January 2008
    Another 48 sound files have been added thanks to bernard!  More information.
  • 16th January 2008
    A very belated 新年快樂 to you all!  I have been very busy so haven't had time to update the site or join in on the forums as much as I would like.  
    I have kindly been sent many new sound files by bernard and am busy processing them all. 10 have just been uploaded. 

2007

  • 26th November
    22 Cantonese sentences now have audio added. Many thanks to bernard for recording these files. Please see this link if you would like to send in your own recordings.
    27 level 2 Cantonese sentences now have audio added. Again thanks to my dad for this.
  • 12th November
    All of the level 1 Cantonese sentences now have audio added. Now this actually only needed six files to be added, but I have a few dozen more level 2 ones to process and upload soon. Thanks to my dad for taking the time to record them!  
  • 11th November
    CantoDict bug fixed - you can now filter words by "Cantonese only" again.
    No other updates of note, I've been very busy at work :-(
  • 20th October
    This site has been suffering from a form of Denial of Service attack, so if you have had trouble accessing it that is why.  Measures are being taken to block the problem IP range. More info... 
  • 16th October
    No updates for a while as I have been away. Apologies to anyone that has been mailing the site, if I haven't replied yet I will do soon!  More info...
    21st August
    New script: most frequently used characters in CantoDict.
    Over 500 characters have ben added to CantoDict, but we need help to edit them.
    9th August
    Many congratulations to Dylan on the birth of his baby boy!  More Info...
  • 8th August
    CantoDict's KangXi radical search has now been updated to show all 214 radicals plus variants. More info... 
    There have also been some interface improvements for CantoDict editors, based on their feedback.
  • 12th July
    There is a new Chinese Word Puzzle game to print out or play online.
    CantoDict continues to improve with the help of our editors, and we now have a staggering 40,000+ original compound word entries.
    We are also working to standardise our notations, and add notes and links to the main entries where appropriate (these can be incredibly useful).
  • 15th June
    Bad news I'm afraid.  Recently this site suffered an SQL injection hack that caused our forum pages to download a virus onto some users' computers.
    If you use Internet Explorer, please read this post for more information.
  • 2nd May
     A new poem with audio readings has been added to the Poetry Section (with thanks to our forum users).
    CantoDict can now translate entire webpages!  There are restrictions though unfortunately, so please read more about it here.
  • 31st March
     Chris has now released a Windows Desktop port of Study Chinese PDA!
  • 21st March
     One of our visitors has coded a snazzy Pocket PC Chinese Flashcards program and donated it to the site! See here for more details on how to download it.
    In other good news, our forums should now thankfully work again when searching for Chinese.
    There have been numerous CantoDict tweaks and additions to. Please visit the CantoDict forum to see what's been happening (eg: editors can now finally add characters).
  • 2nd March
     Version 2 of the CantoDict parser is now in development with efforts being made to improve the Chinese translation. If you would like to try the beta and give suggestions for improvements, please see this thread.
  • 25th February
     Thanks to some new editors, we now have over 360 example sentences in the database.  I've just added audio for a few more too.
  • 15th February
     Our forums now have the facility to show everyone where you are in the world!
  • 14th February
     No romantic messages this year, as I am well and truly laid up with flu!
    However, I've had all the bed rest I can stand so I've added a nice new feature to CantoDict...
  • 17th January
     50 Christmas-themed sentences have now been added to CantoDict. The Cantonese ones all have audio!
  • 14th January
     CantoDict version 1.3.6 now live on the site.

2006

2005

  • 24th December
    I hope you all have a peaceful, safe and joyful Christmas.
    I'll be away for a few days but will be back to do lots of site updates in the New Year.
    Best Wishes,
  • 27th November
    As requested, a dedicated forum for CantoDict has now been created.
    The forums themselves have been upgraded to include a rather nice editor for us to use when posting.
  • 30th October
    Magnetic Cantonese Flashcards are now available for purchase in the online shop. So now you can learn Chinese, decorate your fridge and help support the site all at the same time!  
    CantoDict v1.2.1 - new parsing script incorporated to show popup help for compound words.
  • 22nd October
    If you know anything about MySQL and unicode, could you please read this thread, as I could do with some help - thanks!
     13th October
    I've just returned from my Hong Kong holiday, and met three very nice people from our forums whilst I was there.
    I'm pretty jet-lagged still, but I have managed to update the Chinese Fonts page with new links.
  • 12th September
    CantoDict v1.1.1 - Character List improved.
    1000s of missing pinyin entries added thanks to bybell.
    New: Google Frequency added to Word View, again, thanks to bybell for providing the data.
  • 11th September
    CantoDict v1.1.0 - CantoDict settings can now be customised via your forum account.
    There is now a table showing different features of this website, depending on whether you are a Tourist, Free Member or Premium Member. 
  • 5th September
    The forums now offer a paid subscription feature for all budgets. This helps fund the website and also means that you can browse advert-free forums. More Information...
    A new (updated) set of Cantonese fonts is available for free download. Go and grab them now!
  • 4th September
    Wow, over 10,000 words have now been added to CantoDict!  Thanks as always to our amazing team of editors.
    CantoDict v1.0.9 - see the Change Log for details.
    Just for fun: the forums now have "user rankings" - go and check your rank now! (link requires you to be logged into the forums).
  • 26th August
    A new quiz is currently in testing. For an early preview go to Chinese Word Quiz.
    In other scary news, 聽日我三十歲
  • 25th July
    CantoDict v1.08 - see the Change Log for details.
  • 24th July
    An RSS feed has just been added to the forums. If you find this helpful please post to this thread, to explain why RSS is cool to those of us who don't use it!
  • 23rd July
    CantoDict v1.07 : Jjyutping searches for compound words are now possible, eg search for "baak faan".
  • 18th July
    Many thanks to Steve for posting me a massive list of threads that needed to be moved into the new Parents Forum.
  • 7th July
    By popular request, we have a new Parents Forum.
  • 30th June
    New link added: Medical Chinese - a site providing medical vocabulary, such as phrases used when taking a Physical.  Unusually, it contains Cantonese as well as Mandarin!
  • 1st June
    The database server has been tweaked and upgraded, which should (hopefully) see performance benefits in the forums and CantoDict.
    22nd May
    It has taken a dismaying amount of time to recover from my recent Computer Crash. Thankfully I didn't lose anything irreplaceable thanks to a program called GetDataBack.
    I'm hoping to start updating the site properly again soon.
    I'd also like to belatedly welcome our newest CantoDict editor, Romano Conte.
    10th April
    CantoDict has a new Idioms Section and is now on version 1.04.
  • 9th April
    We have a new Food and Cookery forum, please whet your appetite by taking a look!
    A lost revision sheet, Sport has been reinstated.
    The Dim Sum sheets have (finally) been updated.
  • 8th April
    Welcome to our newest CantoDict editor, Emerald!
    Emerald has been adding lots of Cantonese words and examples.
  • 5th April
    The site is now offering some branded merchandise in the form of a set of Deluxe Flashcards. If you would like to help the site out and get a set of snazzy cards to use or give away, then please order some!
    Thanks to A-Dat for the new Dim Sum Wordsearch, which you can e-mail people at work!
    CantoDict now allows searching by Mandarin Pinyin.
  • 23rd February
    There is an entertaining interview with Larry Feign in the Experiences section. Larry is a cartoonist who created the famous "Lily Wong" strip for the Hong Kong Standard.
  • 15th February 2005
    My friend Karl kindly gave me these pictures of Chinese New Year in London. 

    ...I've been doing a lot of programming for the site over the past few months and although I enjoy that, I'm hoping to get back to writing some standard articles soon.
  • 13th February 2005
    Just a reminder that CantoDict now has examples added to some words. The list of recently added examples is a good place to visit for learners.
  • 9th February 2005
    A Happy and Peaceful New Year of the Rooster to you all!  Please share how you've celebrated here!
  • 30th January 2005
    Our forums have been upgraded to use the latest Phorum 5 code. Additionally, the whole server is now using MySQL 4.1.
    The upgrades are still in progress but hopefully we are past the worst glitches... 
  • 23rd January 2005
    CantoDict has moved to version 1.0.0!  The reason for this is that I've added a feature I'm pretty excited about, namely: usage examples. To comment on this addition please post here.  
    Also, Yeegs is our newest editor, thanks Yeegs!
  • 16th January 2005
    I'd like to welcome our three newest editors for CantoDict, Ray, duaaagiii and Wonton.
    CantoDict is the official name for the site database now by the way, and has had Mandarin pinyin support added as well as several other new features.

2004 updates available here.

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