That investigation is still on going but I believe it came from the box that my shoes came in and is probably not an indication of a hack attempt.
Ah, but little did you realize that was just indirection to prevent you from discovering that your shoes were hacked prior to delivery. If you look closely, you may find a rotary phone discreetly embedded in your shoe with a wireless IP connection allowing a remote attacker to control movements of a larger body of water with embedded rouge cell circulation.
I started off on Anki for recognition, but Skritter is soooooo much better for learning to write. Requires a flash app (boo hiss), but is so compelling I make an exception for them. The flash app plus online vocabulary server implements a virtual writing pad with real-time stroke recognition feedback combined with a spaced repetition system and automatic addition of vocab words as retention rates are hit.
Why learn just to read when you can learn to write for not much more effort?
Obviously drawing Chinese strokes with a mouse can be unwieldy, but get yourself a cheap Wacom tablet or tablet/convertible notebook and you are off to the races.
As for the spaced repetition system, friends I have introduced to Skritter all had doubts at first when crazy difficult characters come up and say "how am I ever supposed to learn that?". Even without any special practice on the side, simply seeing the new words and forgetting them over and over at variably spaced repetition times enabled an aha moment later on when you realized you had suddenly achieved recall. This recall needs to be reinforced at spaced intervals, but it sure beats the method I had as a kid where you write the same character 50 times. Move to next character, repeat lather and rinse. Take a test and forget everything after the test.
Best of all, the whole presentation and active writing involvement is as fun and addictive as a video game. Great for short attention span folks...
I have no relation to Skritter team, I'm just an ecstatic user developing CTS from my skritter addiction.
No amount of careful planning will ever replace dumb luck.