Rose's Adorable Georgi Mounts

Check out these two adorable tiny tripod mounts that Rose from the Plover Discord rigged up for her Georgi! (Speaking of which... Mine is coming soon, and I'm SO EXCITED to play with it and give it a thorough review!) This is just a proof of concept; she's ordered a two suction-cup camera tripods that will replace the little leggy tripods, but either version seems like it would work in a pinch. I just find individual tripods and platforms for each side of a tiny machine like a Georgi irresistibly adorable, and the fact that it's also ergonomic and practical is just a bonus. Nice work, Rose!

Steno-Compatible (?) Torturous Typing Game

As a video game nerd married to a Classicist, I'm duty bound to pass along this link that was posted in the Plover Discord to Let's Play: Ancient Greek Punishment Teaches Typing, a new free browser-based typing game that puts you through all sorts of pixelated unpleasantries in the name of mythology and manual dexterity. I tried my hand at the first level with Plover on my Alienware and ran into some difficulties, but I wasn't sure whether that was an issue with the game not being fully steno-compatible (since of course it wasn't designed with steno in mind) or whether it was just operating as intended, given its doom-laden premise. Feel free to give it a try and report back with your own conclusions!

Take the Steno Hardware Survey

Varun from the Plover Discord writes:

We're a group of engineering undergraduate students from National University of Singapore. This survey was created to better understand the needs of the persons who use a stenotype (Professional stenographers/live captioners/hobbyists/students). We would really appreciate it if you could spare some of your time to help us. Thanks :)

Take the Steno Survey to tell them what you look for in steno hardware!

Three Phonemes, One Syllable, One Lesson

Just a real quickie this week: A custom lesson for Typey Type by UnderSampled of the Plover Discord that contains single-syllable words with three phonemes apiece, a particularly satisfying subset of steno strokes to write out one after the other, particularly if you're a fairly new steno learner. UnderSampled has also been compiling automated lists of steno strokes that map perfectly to English output without requiring any knowledge reading multi-key steno letters (such as WOBLD for wobbled, PREFRBL for preferable, and THRETS for threats), which might be useful for even the most novice users, and which will probably appear as Typey Type lessons in the near future after a bit of manual review. I could definitely see myself teaching a handful of these in a beginning workshop, so I'm really grateful to have gotten a nicely exhaustive list to pick from. Many thanks to UnderSampled for the work!

NYC Plover Meetup this Monday

If you're in New York City and want to join a handful of Open Steno fans in Upper Manhattan this Monday evening at 7pm, drop me a line for location information. We're gonna be showing off our machines, maybe doing some TypeRacing, and generally enthusing about all things steno, so if that sounds fun to you, please join us!

Japanese Layout Plover Lessons on Typey Type!

From the ever-amazing Di of Typey Type for Stenographers:

For the Japanese speaking stenographers out there, there’s a Japanese steno layout available on Typey Type using Dawson Harvey's Japanese steno theory. You can try out the Japanese steno theory using a custom lesson on Typey Type like one from the community’s lessons.

Seriously cool stuff! Apparently Dawson is still tweaking the theory, so tune in to the Discord for latest developments, but if you're interested in a homebrew Japanese steno theory, this should be enough to get you started!

Plover on the Sensel Morph

Check out this beautiful video from ElephantEars on the Plover Discord of the Sensel Morph writing sentences from StenoJig with a custom theraband overlay, a homegrown app, and Plover's MIDI protocol. Truly magnificent stuff! ElephantEars has promised to write a guest post for this blog with all the fascinating details, but I couldn't resist sharing the video as a teaser for what's to come. The Sensel Morph is about $300, so it's not the cheapest amateur steno hardware option out there, but it sure is an elegant piece of gear.