Monday, March 27, 2023

Peridot, a New DIY Machine

a green hobbyist steno machine
The Peridot is a simple QMK-powered mechanical keyboard for using the Plover open source software for steno. Its creator, Neko Ewen, says:

There are a number of hobbyist steno keyboard designs out there, and my goal with the Peridot is to make one that’s easy to build (hence I used basic through-hole components throughout) and open source. How much it will cost will depend a lot on the specifics of the components you choose, but it’ll be vastly cheaper than a professional stenotype. Feel free to make, sell, remix, etc.; this is my attempt to give something back to the Plover community.

What a cool project for a hobbyist keyboard builder! If you make one, feel free to share it on the Hardware Showcase channel of our Discord!

Monday, March 20, 2023

Thumbs Up Machines!

two white and blue DIY steno machines with keys at several levels of height
Look at these beautiful machines I just received as free review models from SashaK! They're available in Sasha's Thumbs Up Shop. The design is quite striking! I'm gonna give my fingers a little time to get used to them, and then I'll post here with a full report! Many thanks to Sasha for these innovative new designs. I can't wait to try them out!

Monday, March 13, 2023

Practice Plover Updated

Practice Plover, according to its creator, plants, has just received ome updates!

Practice Plover has been updated with new sections on common prefixes/suffixes and even more practice text, and some more brief additions from yannc.

Always great to see more practice resources out there!

Monday, March 6, 2023

No News Today

Heya! No particular Open Steno news today, partly because I spent some time this evening talking up Open Steno to a group of a dozen or so student and professional stenographers online. It's gotten kind of late and I still need to do the dishes. But least I spent some time trying to get the word out! I don't have a huge amount of faith that the professional steno establishment (specifically the one embodied by the National Court Reporters Association) will ever choose to be much of a friend to Open Steno, but you never know, right? It's always worth a try.