Plover Now Explicitly Allowed in NCRA Certification Testing

From NCRA Immediate Past President Debbie Dibble, via the dauntless Jen:

I brought Plover to the NCRA board during our meeting this morning. I had staff reviewing the logistics of Plover users testing and ... the Board determined that you qualify under the bylaws as eligible candidates to test for NCRA certification.

Specific guidelines will be updated and promulgated shortly, but this is great news for anyone who wants to go pro using Plover!

The Steko: A new $85 Hobbyist Board

The Steko, a new keyboard from Quanicboards, is now available for $85.

Steko currently does NOT come with any backplate. It will come with small rubber feet on the bottom of the pcb. A backplate may be introduced in the future, and previous buyers will then be shipped standoffs, screws, and the backplate, free of charge.

The Steko Keyboard is a revolutionary new hobbyist stenography keyboard designed to make steno as affordable as possible! The keyboard uses a very compact layout (only 25 keys!) and a simple unibody design to reduce cost, and get stenography into the hands of as many people as possible.

The keyboard is 200x65mm, and uses an RP2040 MCU with 16MB (128Mb) of flash storage. This means it will be compatible with embedded steno.

It looks like a great affordable starter option for new steno hobbyists!

Infinite Gratitude to Benoit Pierre

An announcement from Ted, via the Plover Discord:

I learned today that @Benoit Pierre has decided to move on from the Open Steno Project. I'd like to thank him for his years of service. No other dev has had as much impact on Plover as Benoit Pierre. He is responsible for the conversion from python 2 to 3, the introduction of the plugins manager, the QT GUI, adding multilingual support, and so, so much more. Thank you Benoit Pierre for your many years supporting Plover and the community. It's been an honor to learn from you and it was always a pleasure to work with you.

We are so incredibly lucky to have received his time, care, labor, and expertise for all these years. I'm grateful beyond words for all that he's done for Open Steno, and wish him every happiness in the future.

The Polyglot Kickstarter is Live!

The Polyglot, a new qwerty-steno combo board that switched modalities with a single keytap by the excellent Peter at StenoKeyboards, is currently running a Kickstarter campaign. It was funded almost instantly, but supporting the campaign is a great way to reserve yourself a board, plus secure a Kickstarter discount -- $110 per unit rather than $125. A steal! I love the design and quality of these machines, and this seems like another very strong contender, especially for those who are worried about taking a productivity hit from having to go full steno too early.