0:00:00.083,0:00:07.093
This is a talk about Plover, [br]the world's first Open Source steno software.

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The steno machine, in its current form, [br]was invented somewhere around 1913.

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It's a phonetic-mnemonic chording system,

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which means basically that everything you write

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is tied to a lexicon of anywhere [br]between 100,000 and 200,000 words --

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some of which are completely phonetic words,

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some of which are sort of arbitrarily [br]determined by the stenographer.

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So each stenographer has their own [br]individual dictionary,

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which can vary greatly in its content and form.

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Steno is still --

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even though it was originally invented in 1913 [br]and hasn't really been improved,

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except that it's now computer-compatible,

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ever since the 80's --

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steno is still the fastest text input method that there is.

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Speech-recognition doesn't touch it.

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Dvorak...

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Is kind of a joke, in comparison.

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Professional stenographers regularly write at speeds up to anywhere between 200 and 240 words per minute.

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That's considered the mark of a good stenographer.

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But the world record, as you can see,

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is 360 words per minute, at 97% accuracy.

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I can't do that.

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But maybe some of you will, someday.

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Who knows?

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Just because geeks like knowing [br]the nuts and bolts of things,

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I figured I'd give you a brief intro of how it works, [br]before I tell you why you care.

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The left hand handles the initial consonants [br]of each syllable.

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The right hand handles the ending [br]consonants of each syllable.

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And the thumbs handle the vowels.

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So, for example, if you wanted to write the word "gauge,"

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you do the chord that makes up G on the left hand,

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the chord that makes up the J sound -- because it's not orthographic; it's phonetic --

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on the right hand.

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And then the long A sound,

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which is a chord made up of several vowels with the thumbs.

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So together you get TKPW: G,

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AEU: A,

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and PBLG: J.

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Put it together, you get "gauge."

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It's pretty simple.

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And you can, like I said -- [br]you have many of these strictly phonetic words

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that just are written exactly as they sound in English,

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and then you have many, many more words, phrases, combinations of words

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that are determined by the stenographer,

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out of their own head.

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So why do we need Open Source steno?

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Steno has been a locked-up industry since the beginning,

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but especially since the advent of computer-compatible steno machines.

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You know, there's a single company [br]with a stranglehold on the market.

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There are a handful of other companies.

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And they all just charge egregious prices [br]for bloated software

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that breaks all the time and has horrible DRM

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and is completely inaccessible to people

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who aren't professional stenographers.

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Yes?

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>> Do they only run on Windows, by any chance?

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Yes, indeed.

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Well, I think some people have got it running using, like, Windows Bootcamp or whatever, within Macs.

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But certainly there's no proprietary steno software [br]that runs on Linux.

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I think some of it still runs on DOS, if that helps!

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I still know some working stenographers [br]who run DOS software.

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But yeah.

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It's a hidebound system.

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It's locked in.

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It's expensive as hell.

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And that's why no one uses this incredible technology [br]for anything except making a living,

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which is a real shame.

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So I discovered...

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Well, I wanted to do Open Source steno for a long time,

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because I was so frustrated with my software,

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and because we're a shrinking industry,

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and I want to bring more people into the field.

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And because it's cool, and I like geeking out about it.

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But when I realized that Microsoft [br]was making a gaming keyboard

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that had full n-key rollover, and priced at $45,

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I realized that's basically a steno machine.

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You know?

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A really, really cheap, easily available steno machine.

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Yeah?

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>> What is n-key rollover?

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Oh, sorry.

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N-key rollover means that every keystroke is registered when pressed on the qwerty keyboard,

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even if it's several keystrokes at a time.

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So, you know, most keyboards, the typical keyboards --

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anywhere more than three or four keys pressed at a time,

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some of those aren't going to register.

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But the specialty gaming keyboards make sure that everything you press registers,

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which means that you can type steno chords [br]of up to 22 keys at a time,

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and they're all captured and noted.

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So...

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Yeah.

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Steno software, $4,000.

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Plover, totally free.

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Plover, $45 keyboard.

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And now I have to convince you guys that you actually care.

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Oh, sorry.

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Just really briefly I'll tell you how Plover got rolling.

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Josh Lifton was working at a co-op in Brooklyn.

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He's a freelance Python programmer.

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I'm a freelance stenographer.

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We both rented office space, and I told him [br]that I needed a tutor, a Python tutor.

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Because I originally wanted to write this on my own,

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having very little Python knowledge whatsoever.

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But I posted something in the elevator.

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We got in touch.

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And at first he started off giving me lessons,

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and then as he got more excited about the project,

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he started donating a lot of his time.

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I mean, I paid him as much as I could.

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I've put about $3,000 into Plover out of my own pocket.

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But he's also donated countless hours of programming time

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to get it where it is right now.

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And he's kind of as hooked on steno as I am now.

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So it's Open Source in the sense that all the code is online.

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But it's not really community-developed at this point.

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He's basically the only one who's contributed [br]a significant amount of code.

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But we hope that that will change.

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Okay.

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Why do you care?

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You coders, with your katanas and your VR glasses in your virtual reality parlors.

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You know?

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What possible connection would you have with this sweet, smiling, middle-aged lady

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in the courtroom with the paper hanging [br]out of her steno machine?

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You know, why...

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There's nothing cyberpunk about steno.

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I mean, it's barely even steampunk.

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It's basically...

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A lot of people consider it, you know...

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Clerical, obsolete office equipment, right?

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Sometimes I tell people, "I can write 240 words a minute!"

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And they're like, "I only think at, like, 80, tops."

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And I'm like, "Yeah, I don't think that's necessarily true."

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This is an abstract of a six-part series [br]that I've written on the Plover blog.

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Six essays dealing with what steno is actually useful for.

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I won't go through all of them in detail, [br]because some of them are probably

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more relevant to you than others.

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But just to give a quick rundown of each one.

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Now, you can see speed is basically at the bottom.

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I tried to list these in order of priority for programmers.

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Speed isn't the most important thing, you know?

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It's useful for bragging rights.

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For winning online typing games.

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You know, it can be very useful [br]in some specific circumstances.

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But primarily what I think steno would be very useful for,

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for programmers, is the fluency [br]that it lends to thought when composing text.

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Because you're thinking in discrete chunks.

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You're generally thinking in words.

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Or in, you know, commands with various syntax attached.

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But they're usually, in your mind, [br]probably reflected syllabically.

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You're saying them to yourself in your head.

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You're not spelling out every letter as you think of them.

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When you're writing this stuff in qwerty,

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you have to translate every letter into a finger action.

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You know?

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Which then you have to duplicate correctly on the keyboard.

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Your fingers fall all over themselves,

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you have to slow down,

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the error correction has to happen [br]once per letter instead of once per word.

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It's far too granular, you know?

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With steno, you're thinking in discrete words,

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and you're writing those words as you think them.

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And I have not used Plover for programming,

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because, like I said, I'm still a novice.

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But I...

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Do any of you know NaNoWriMo?

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The National Novel Writing Month, where you have to write [br]a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days?

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I did that a couple of times.

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I did it once qwerty-style.

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And once steno-style.

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The qwerty was pure torture, because I was [br]second-guessing myself at every word.

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The steno just, like, flew out of my fingers.

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It wasn't a good novel, [br]but it was so easy to write, because it just...

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You know, by the time my thoughts came out of my mind, [br]they were already on the screen.

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I didn't have to spend that buffer zone tip-tapping them out.

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And I'm a fast qwerty typist.

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I can type around 100 words per minute.

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But I think people who think

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that they don't think faster than that

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don't realize how much their fingers are slowing them down.

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Yes?

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>> Have you spoken to any coders, or do you know any coders that are actually using steno now?

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No, the most advance interest that I've gotten [br]does seem to be from coders.

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I think probably because Plover is Linux-only at this point,

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and so it's mostly tech geeks who are able to use it.

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I don't think there's anyone

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actually using it for coding right now.

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But I know of a couple people teaching themselves steno,

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in order to use it to code eventually, so...

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>>I guess maybe the closest analogy [br]I might be able to make is that if you're captioning

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a physics or statistics class, it's very punctuation-heavy.

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Right, yeah.

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Steno's great at punctuation.

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>> So is it something where you basically just end up creating your own macros around programming constructs?

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That is what steno is all about.

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We call them defining entries in our dictionary.

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But it's very easy to do, and very useful.

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So I've been doing Python the Hard Way [br]through CodeLesson online,

0:10:06.059,0:10:09.067
and this is one of our exercises we had to do.

0:10:09.067,0:10:12.024
A Zork-style text adventure.

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So I took a chunk of the code that I wrote [br]and totaled up the keystrokes.

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I actually did write it on a qwerty laptop.

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So I totaled up the keystrokes that it took me [br]to write on the qwerty laptop.

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222.

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Then I counted as if I had done it in steno.

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I got 119, but that's only assuming that I defined spawn_creche, that variable,

0:10:31.014,0:10:34.053
as a single-stroke entry.

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So every time you reference it after that,

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you can just write it in one stroke.

0:10:37.050,0:10:39.057
And the same thing with infinite_library.

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If I'd thought that I was only gonna use those variables once or twice, I would have just written them out letter by letter.

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And so then it would have only been 102 keystrokes,

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rather than 119.

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So you can see there is a really [br]drastic increase in efficiency.

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Both ergonomically, as I'll address later,

0:10:57.050,0:11:03.091
but also in terms of the number of potential errors [br]you'll make, how far ahead of yourself you are

0:11:03.091,0:11:05.048
when you start discovering those errors,

0:11:05.048,0:11:07.088
and have to backspace back to fix them.

0:11:07.088,0:11:09.067
And in just...

0:11:09.067,0:11:11.090
When you think print, it comes out as "print";

0:11:11.090,0:11:14.008
it doesn't come out as P-R-I-N-T.

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It's hard to explain how much [br]of a difference this makes until you use it.

0:11:19.061,0:11:22.076
But I would advise everyone, if you're interested,

0:11:22.076,0:11:26.057
to give it a try and to see how it works out.

0:11:26.057,0:11:29.026
So the other thing...

0:11:29.026,0:11:31.076
Let's see -- how much time do I have left?

0:11:31.076,0:11:32.064
A fair amount.

0:11:32.064,0:11:34.025
So I can go through a few of these.

0:11:34.025,0:11:36.080
Mobile computing is, of course,

0:11:36.080,0:11:39.019
every cyberpunk fan's dream.

0:11:39.019,0:11:40.090
I was a science fiction nerd.

0:11:40.090,0:11:42.076
I'm still a science fiction nerd.

0:11:42.076,0:11:47.066
And I would desperately love to be able to walk around [br]and write down all my thoughts silently,

0:11:47.066,0:11:50.007
and, you know, have my glasses, and...

0:11:50.007,0:11:55.010
Honestly, the biggest barrier here is that [br]there is no commercially available

0:11:55.010,0:11:58.008
heads-up display for mobile computing.

0:11:58.008,0:12:01.074
But once there is, steno is definitely the way to go with that.

0:12:01.074,0:12:04.069
Because can you imagine putting a qwerty keyboard, like,

0:12:04.069,0:12:09.076
in a wearable-style keyboard that you're walking around with, with 112 letters or something?

0:12:09.076,0:12:11.038
I mean, it's just ridiculous.

0:12:11.038,0:12:15.006
You know, the great thing about steno [br]is it's designed for the human hand.

0:12:15.006,0:12:17.035
It's only got 22 keys, and they're in columns.

0:12:17.035,0:12:18.079
And not staggered columns.

0:12:18.079,0:12:20.045
They're in nice aligned columns.

0:12:20.045,0:12:23.070
So the footprint is basically the size of your hand.

0:12:23.070,0:12:27.072
Any surface you can write on [br]that you can put your hands on, you can steno on.

0:12:27.072,0:12:29.060
You know?

0:12:29.060,0:12:34.077
So I think there's a huge potential in mobile computing, [br]once that gets going.

0:12:34.077,0:12:37.084
It's geeky, but in certain situations, very useful.

0:12:37.084,0:12:40.023
And pretty cool.

0:12:40.023,0:12:41.051
Accessibility.

0:12:41.051,0:12:48.069
Now this -- I'll talk about what I do professionally [br]very briefly in the last entry point.

0:12:48.069,0:12:51.056
And that's transcribing for the Deaf and hard of hearing.

0:12:51.056,0:12:54.060
But when I talk about accessibility here,

0:12:54.060,0:12:57.027
I'm mainly talking about text-to-speech,

0:12:57.027,0:12:59.031
as opposed to speech-to-text.

0:12:59.031,0:13:02.037
There are a lot of people with speech disabilities.

0:13:02.037,0:13:06.005
Roger Ebert, who had to have his jaw [br]removed because of cancer.

0:13:06.005,0:13:08.055
There's a kid in Ireland [br]who was born without a lower jaw.

0:13:08.055,0:13:14.021
There are many people with various [br]autistic spectrum conditions, you know,

0:13:14.021,0:13:18.039
who don't speak verbally, but are very fluent in text.

0:13:18.039,0:13:24.004
And, of course, people with hearing loss [br]don't always use their voices to speak,

0:13:24.004,0:13:28.054
but are perfectly able to converse at speed in text.

0:13:28.054,0:13:32.005
Qwerty slows down their communication.

0:13:32.005,0:13:33.075
It's very labor-intensive.

0:13:33.075,0:13:37.010
It prevents, you know, easy back and forth conversations.

0:13:37.010,0:13:41.073
Steno is the only technology that allows you to write [br]as quickly as everyone else speaks,

0:13:41.073,0:13:48.084
which means that if someone with a speech disability learns steno, they're able to basically converse with everyone

0:13:48.084,0:13:50.071
as much as they want,

0:13:50.071,0:13:54.003
on par with everyone else, speed-wise.

0:13:54.003,0:13:57.088
And, conversely, the more geeks learn steno,

0:13:57.088,0:14:01.082
the more Hearing geeks [br]are able to converse with Deaf geeks.

0:14:01.082,0:14:04.041
If they don't necessarily know Sign Language,

0:14:04.041,0:14:07.078
they can all speak in the common language of English text.

0:14:07.078,0:14:10.000
So there are a lot of potentials there.

0:14:10.000,0:14:12.041
Ergonomics.

0:14:12.041,0:14:16.068
I think a big deal for a lot of people [br]who work with text for a living.

0:14:16.068,0:14:20.008
RSIs are no joke.

0:14:20.008,0:14:27.065
And the individual finger motions of qwerty typing is very stressful on the muscles and tendons.

0:14:27.065,0:14:31.055
Each finger basically has to depress each key.

0:14:31.055,0:14:34.015
And you're constantly wiggling your fingers.

0:14:34.015,0:14:35.064
There's not much call for rest.

0:14:35.064,0:14:37.078
The motions that you use when writing steno...

0:14:37.078,0:14:42.028
First of all, the force comes [br]from the forearm rather than the fingers.

0:14:42.028,0:14:45.072
Second of all, you're writing many fewer strokes per minute.

0:14:45.072,0:14:52.087
You know, this rate of speed [br]is around 200 words per minute.

0:14:52.087,0:14:54.073
Moving your fingers like this.

0:14:54.073,0:14:57.097
In qwerty, you have to go like that for just 100.

0:15:00.055,0:15:02.097
It's also...

0:15:02.097,0:15:08.037
Because of the small footprint, [br]you're able to use different configurations.

0:15:08.037,0:15:11.036
This is an ergonomic machine that I find very useful.

0:15:11.036,0:15:16.033
I had developing RSIs several years ago,

0:15:16.033,0:15:18.003
before I started steno.

0:15:18.003,0:15:19.049
And since I got this machine,

0:15:19.049,0:15:20.072
they've pretty much gone away,

0:15:20.072,0:15:22.056
which is really good for what I do.

0:15:22.056,0:15:25.001
I know a lot of programmers face that problem as well.

0:15:25.001,0:15:26.033
>> Wait, you had what?

0:15:26.033,0:15:29.009
Oh, I'm sorry -- repetitive stress injuries.

0:15:29.009,0:15:30.034
Yes, sorry.

0:15:30.034,0:15:31.060
RSIs.

0:15:31.060,0:15:33.095
Any typist has the potential to develop these,

0:15:33.095,0:15:37.000
and they can be really career-killing conditions.

0:15:37.000,0:15:40.087
And it's also just so much less effort, you know?

0:15:40.087,0:15:45.048
I can sit back and write for seven hours [br]at 180 words per minute, and not break a sweat.

0:15:45.048,0:15:49.040
You know, whenever I try to keep up with qwerty,

0:15:49.040,0:15:55.058
and I'm typing 100 words a minute, [br]by the end of it, I'm just... I'm wiped out.

0:15:55.058,0:15:57.010
It's really exhausting.

0:15:57.010,0:15:58.096
You wouldn't think, but it is.

0:15:58.096,0:16:01.003
Pure speed I already addressed.

0:16:01.003,0:16:02.072
It's just bragging rights, basically.

0:16:02.072,0:16:04.032
And then professional stenography,

0:16:04.032,0:16:08.093
which is honestly the main reason why I'm putting my own money and effort into developing this.

0:16:08.093,0:16:12.040
I'm reaching out to you guys, because you're all geeks,

0:16:12.040,0:16:14.097
and you probably won't become professional stenographers.

0:16:14.097,0:16:21.061
But you might become the ones to give steno cachet.

0:16:21.061,0:16:23.075
You know, you might start using it.

0:16:23.075,0:16:25.020
Make other people aware of it.

0:16:25.020,0:16:32.041
People will start playing the video games [br]that you guys use to burn off stress.

0:16:32.041,0:16:38.034
Or to develop the steno skills [br]that you will then later use for coding purposes.

0:16:38.034,0:16:42.080
And some people will realize [br]that they actually really love doing this.

0:16:42.080,0:16:43.079
I love it.

0:16:43.079,0:16:44.098
My job --

0:16:44.098,0:16:47.024
I make about six figures a year.

0:16:47.024,0:16:48.062
I'm my own boss.

0:16:48.062,0:16:55.052
I sit in college classes and transcribe lectures [br]all day in so many different subjects.

0:16:55.052,0:17:00.014
You know, from pharmacy to medical school, [br]tax law, art school, you name it.

0:17:00.014,0:17:01.041
It's paradise.

0:17:01.041,0:17:05.078
And I get to, like, help people get an education.

0:17:05.078,0:17:10.057
There are so few of us in this city that I've been killing myself

0:17:10.057,0:17:13.075
trying to find coverage for the demand this semester.

0:17:13.075,0:17:19.029
And if I don't get more people into our profession, [br]it's going to wither up and die.

0:17:19.029,0:17:23.083
And a lot of people who need what I do [br]won't be able to get what they need.

0:17:23.083,0:17:28.008
So I'm hoping that by bringing steno first to the subculture,

0:17:28.008,0:17:29.077
and eventually to the mainstream,

0:17:29.077,0:17:32.019
I'll build a group of amateurs,

0:17:32.019,0:17:35.028
some of whom will be interested enough

0:17:35.028,0:17:36.021
and committed enough

0:17:36.021,0:17:38.096
to want to develop their skills and make it into a profession.

0:17:38.096,0:17:41.065
So if you know anyone who might be [br]interested in doing what I do,

0:17:41.065,0:17:43.072
contact me after the lecture,

0:17:43.072,0:17:47.075
because I would definitely love to speak to them.

0:17:49.053,0:17:52.087
Okay, so here's my master plan for making this happen.

0:17:52.087,0:17:54.054
Plover currently exists.

0:17:54.054,0:17:56.070
It's pretty good.

0:17:56.070,0:17:58.032
It's Linux-only.

0:17:58.032,0:18:00.066
It's intended to be a keyboard emulator.

0:18:00.066,0:18:04.028
You know, as opposed to all of the existing proprietary software out there,

0:18:04.028,0:18:08.097
which are all, like, these giant word processors that are focused on providing printed transcripts,

0:18:08.097,0:18:11.059
and have very rudimentary control over the OS.

0:18:11.059,0:18:14.021
Plover is designed to have complete control over the OS.

0:18:14.021,0:18:17.025
So you can use it for anything [br]you can use your qwerty keyboard to do.

0:18:17.025,0:18:23.023
It still needs just-in-time [br]dictionary entries to be really, really useful.

0:18:23.023,0:18:26.043
But other than that, it's pretty much working quite well.

0:18:26.043,0:18:28.060
A couple of little bugs.

0:18:28.060,0:18:33.066
But very few people -- as, you know, you asked me -- [br]who actually uses Plover?

0:18:33.066,0:18:36.008
Not that many people use Plover on a regular basis.

0:18:36.008,0:18:41.022
I use it for transcribing on the train, because I don't like carrying my big steno machine --

0:18:41.022,0:18:43.054
you know, taking it out on the train and transcribing stuff.

0:18:43.054,0:18:46.062
So I can just use this little keyboard, which is much easier.

0:18:46.062,0:18:47.089
So I use it occasionally.

0:18:47.090,0:18:50.018
It's also my backup machine in case this one breaks,

0:18:50.018,0:18:52.063
which it has.

0:18:52.063,0:18:57.058
And I know of a couple people who started out learning steno from Plover

0:18:57.058,0:18:59.081
and then eventually got hooked and wound up buying

0:18:59.081,0:19:01.094
proprietary software and proprietary hardware,

0:19:01.094,0:19:05.021
because they decided to become professional stenographers.

0:19:05.021,0:19:06.014
Which is cool.

0:19:06.014,0:19:08.041
I like being a gateway drug to professional stenography.

0:19:08.041,0:19:13.038
But I would much rather get people actually using Plover,

0:19:13.038,0:19:15.074
make it useful enough that they can actually use it,

0:19:15.074,0:19:20.099
rather than having to downgrade to these $4000 systems.

0:19:20.099,0:19:22.077
How did that happen?

0:19:22.077,0:19:23.056
Okay.

0:19:23.056,0:19:26.056
Hover Plover is my way that I think I can get people into it.

0:19:26.056,0:19:28.078
It's going to be a suite of little minigames.

0:19:28.078,0:19:31.071
How many of you guys have played typing games?

0:19:31.071,0:19:33.027
Yeah, exactly.

0:19:33.027,0:19:34.022
And they're fun, right?

0:19:34.022,0:19:38.074
They're actually even more fun with steno, because they're slightly more complex.

0:19:38.074,0:19:40.093
You're not just doing the little home row tippy-tappy.

0:19:40.093,0:19:42.086
You know, it's...

0:19:42.086,0:19:45.082
You have to bring in these dictionary entry incorporations,

0:19:45.082,0:19:48.069
defining your arbitrary mnemonic briefs.

0:19:48.069,0:19:52.063
And, you know, you're stroking out whole words.

0:19:52.063,0:19:56.060
So you can do something like a Guitar Hero-style thing,

0:19:56.060,0:19:59.093
but you're actually writing all of the lyrics [br]to the songs you're listening to.

0:19:59.093,0:20:01.010
You know, in one stroke.

0:20:01.010,0:20:01.098
It's really fun.

0:20:01.098,0:20:03.087
It's actually a hypnotic kind of thing.

0:20:03.087,0:20:06.054
Once you get into the groove, [br]and you're writing everything you hear,

0:20:06.054,0:20:09.007
and it's coming out through your fingers [br]and onto the screen.

0:20:09.007,0:20:10.069
It's a very pleasant sensation.

0:20:10.069,0:20:14.061
So I've got a couple of ideas for the minigames

0:20:14.061,0:20:19.044
that we can use as part of the tutorial to teach people steno in the most painless way possible.

0:20:19.044,0:20:21.000
Because right now...

0:20:21.000,0:20:22.001
Oh, man.

0:20:22.001,0:20:23.057
I went to court reporting school.

0:20:23.057,0:20:26.076
Because there is no school to teach you how to provide realtime for the deaf.

0:20:26.076,0:20:30.057
There's only court reporting.

0:20:30.057,0:20:34.043
And then you have to sort of teach yourself [br]the realtime side of the business.

0:20:34.043,0:20:37.045
And it's sitting in a room for three hours,

0:20:37.045,0:20:41.039
while someone reads you jury charges, basically.

0:20:41.039,0:20:43.033
Like, legal material, you know.

0:20:43.033,0:20:45.001
And they start out at 60 words a minute.

0:20:45.001,0:20:47.058
And then once you pass that test, [br]you go to 80 words a minute.

0:20:47.058,0:20:50.087
And it's tedious and it's grueling.

0:20:50.087,0:20:53.059
And it costs, like, 300 bucks a month.

0:20:53.059,0:20:56.065
And there's an 85% dropout rate in steno schools.

0:20:56.065,0:20:58.060
It's kind of a scam.

0:20:58.060,0:21:00.010
They're all for-profit schools.

0:21:00.010,0:21:02.010
It's a bad scene.

0:21:02.010,0:21:06.059
I think getting people [br]to actually use this while having a good time

0:21:06.059,0:21:10.049
and getting, like, competitive about showing up [br]on the high score tables

0:21:10.049,0:21:14.062
is the way to really get a solid user base of steno users.

0:21:14.062,0:21:17.045
So I'm just going to give you a couple screenshots.

0:21:17.045,0:21:18.073
Like, mockups, obviously.

0:21:18.073,0:21:20.072
Hover Plover does not yet exist,

0:21:20.072,0:21:25.004
because, sadly, I'm kind of tapped out on funding for Plover.

0:21:25.004,0:21:28.067
I'm looking for alternate sources.

0:21:28.067,0:21:31.049
And Hover Plover hasn't really...

0:21:31.049,0:21:36.056
I commissioned a couple of screenshots to see what the minigames might look like,

0:21:36.056,0:21:40.034
but until I get some development money,

0:21:40.034,0:21:43.071
Hover Plover will not exist yet.

0:21:43.071,0:21:48.062
But here's what I'm hoping it'll look like when it does exist.

0:21:48.062,0:21:51.026
So that's the Plovercraft, right?

0:21:51.026,0:21:54.098
And your Plovercraft is busted.

0:21:54.098,0:21:56.030
It can only go up.

0:21:56.030,0:21:58.058
You know, and it can't navigate around obstacles.

0:21:58.058,0:21:59.044
So you're...

0:21:59.044,0:22:01.010
It's a 2D side-scrolling platformer.

0:22:01.010,0:22:04.016
So you have to navigate [br]around all these obstacles by pressing the word,

0:22:04.016,0:22:08.020
by typing the word, [br]so it'll like zoom you up above the obstacle.

0:22:08.020,0:22:10.051
And then you'll start dropping back down again,

0:22:10.051,0:22:13.020
to try to get to the repair shop to fix your Plovercraft.

0:22:13.020,0:22:18.044
So the word "compression" in steno is spelled K-P-R-E-G-S.

0:22:18.044,0:22:23.054
The GS is the "shun" ending and the KP is sort of "k'puh."

0:22:23.054,0:22:25.017
It's semi-phonetic.

0:22:25.017,0:22:28.006
There's lots of little shortcut tricks, you know?

0:22:28.006,0:22:30.013
So you type that, and your Plovercraft zooms up.

0:22:30.013,0:22:33.008
And, you know, you have to navigate around the stray cats

0:22:33.008,0:22:35.049
and water towers and whatever else.

0:22:35.049,0:22:37.089
I think it'll be awesome.

0:22:37.089,0:22:41.039
The other mini game that I've got an idea for...

0:22:41.039,0:22:42.052
(laughter)

0:22:42.052,0:22:45.057
Yeah, so this is a...

0:22:45.057,0:22:48.078
This is a top-down space shooter, basically.

0:22:48.078,0:22:51.045
So you've got your little simple one-stroke words,

0:22:51.045,0:22:54.011
like "snails" and "antidisestablishmentarianism."

0:22:54.011,0:22:55.089
Easy peasy, right?

0:22:55.089,0:22:59.046
Then you've got your slightly more challenging two-stroke words like "guardian".

0:22:59.046,0:23:01.015
Slightly more challenging.

0:23:01.015,0:23:03.000
"Bemusement"; three-stroke.

0:23:03.000,0:23:05.007
And then you got something like this.

0:23:05.007,0:23:08.065
This giant scary laser ship, which is an undefined.

0:23:08.065,0:23:11.036
So it's a word that doesn't appear in your dictionary.

0:23:11.036,0:23:12.070
And you gotta figure out quickly

0:23:12.070,0:23:14.070
what you want to define it as, define it,

0:23:14.070,0:23:20.028
and then it goes down to these little, [br]you know, depending on how many strokes it is,

0:23:20.028,0:23:21.035
it'll go down to that stroke.

0:23:21.035,0:23:23.060
So "frangipani" -- probably a three-stroke word.

0:23:23.060,0:23:24.092
Not too scary.

0:23:24.092,0:23:28.021
As long as you can define it in time, you have no problem.

0:23:28.021,0:23:29.089
And you've gotten 107 defines already,

0:23:29.089,0:23:33.071
so you're gonna be fine.

0:23:33.071,0:23:35.064
That is basically...

0:23:35.064,0:23:36.070
Sorry, that cut off.

0:23:36.070,0:23:38.057
That's basically my talk.

0:23:38.057,0:23:40.036
I'm very happy to answer any questions

0:23:40.036,0:23:41.072
that you guys might have.

0:23:41.072,0:23:45.050
But if you're interested, [br]or know someone else who might be interested,

0:23:45.050,0:23:47.083
I really --

0:23:47.083,0:23:50.076
I need some kind of a buttkick to get this going again.

0:23:50.076,0:23:54.013
It's been on hiatus for about six months, [br]ever since I ran out of money,

0:23:54.013,0:23:56.064
and Josh had a baby and moved to the west coast.

0:23:56.064,0:24:03.045
So I'd love any ideas on raising capital.

0:24:03.045,0:24:06.064
Or if you know of anyone [br]who might want to use the software.

0:24:06.064,0:24:10.058
Or if you guys are interested [br]in using the software, please let me know.

0:24:10.058,0:24:12.039
Email me.

0:24:12.039,0:24:13.090
Comment on the blog.

0:24:13.090,0:24:16.016
I'll probably be posting these slides on the blog.

0:24:16.016,0:24:21.042
And the Google group is cut off down there, [br]but it's linked on the blog.

0:24:21.042,0:24:23.051
So that's pretty much it.

0:24:23.051,0:24:24.090
Thank you.

0:24:24.090,0:24:28.096
(applause)

0:24:28.096,0:24:31.058
Any questions?

0:24:31.058,0:24:34.029
>> You just need funding for the game?

0:24:34.029,0:24:37.001
Yeah, and, like, a little more work on Plover.

0:24:37.001,0:24:39.037
Like, this one feature needs to be developed.

0:24:39.037,0:24:43.019
>> Have you thought about maybe getting in touch with one of the Python start-up groups,

0:24:43.019,0:24:47.068
or doing a workshop to introduce people to programming,

0:24:47.068,0:24:50.021
and getting them up to speed?

0:24:50.021,0:24:52.091
Because maybe they can take on [br]one of the games as a project.

0:24:52.091,0:24:57.082
Well, at this point I'm still sort of trying to gauge demand,[br]because I get a lot of different responses.

0:24:57.082,0:25:00.066
I mean, you guys obviously cared enough [br]to come to the presentation.

0:25:00.066,0:25:06.052
How many of you think that learning Plover might be a fun and/or useful thing to do at some point?

0:25:06.052,0:25:07.067
So, like, most of you.

0:25:07.067,0:25:09.019
That's encouraging.

0:25:09.019,0:25:11.057
I know there's some selection bias, [br]because you came to this talk.

0:25:11.057,0:25:16.086
But it also proves [br]that I didn't totally turn you off the idea, and so...

0:25:16.086,0:25:17.058
Yeah?

0:25:17.058,0:25:20.001
>> So I was curious why it was Linux-only,

0:25:20.001,0:25:21.063
and you say it's a keyboard emulator, but I'm wondering --

0:25:21.063,0:25:23.060
what is the code base written in?

0:25:23.060,0:25:28.042
Could it be Python libraries or some sort of HTML5, [br]so you could use it anywhere?

0:25:28.042,0:25:29.096
And could it go on GitHub?

0:25:29.096,0:25:33.003
Okay, we started on GitHub and then moved to Launchpad.

0:25:33.003,0:25:40.063
But the reason why it's currently Linux-only is because [br]the code for the keyboard emulation

0:25:40.063,0:25:43.056
is taken from xkey, which I think was written in Python.

0:25:43.056,0:25:48.046
So it was pretty easy to incorporate it [br]into the rest of Plover's Python code.

0:25:48.046,0:25:53.017
The equivalent to xkey in Windows is AutoHotKey, [br]which is written in C.

0:25:53.017,0:25:57.050
So I think it will be a more complex job to sort of mash those two together and make them work.

0:25:57.050,0:25:59.025
So that's basically it.

0:25:59.025,0:26:02.033
I would definitely like to port to Windows, [br]because I think that would open it up a lot.

0:26:02.033,0:26:06.051
But it's going to take a little more [br]development effort to do that.

0:26:08.008,0:26:09.063
Yeah?

0:26:09.063,0:26:16.045
>> Do you think there's a lot of demand at most any university to have someone caption lectures?

0:26:16.045,0:26:18.098
Well, there certainly is in New York City.

0:26:18.098,0:26:23.019
Like I said, I've had to turn down [br]five or six students this semester,

0:26:23.019,0:26:26.095
which is terrible, because it means that these people [br]are basically not getting a education.

0:26:26.095,0:26:29.031
Dental school, medical school...

0:26:29.031,0:26:33.020
These are people who have worked their entire lives [br]to get where they are,

0:26:33.020,0:26:35.095
and now they're trying to go to school [br]without any accommodations,

0:26:35.095,0:26:38.060
because the people just aren't on the ground.

0:26:38.060,0:26:41.006
It's a terrible state of affairs.

0:26:41.006,0:26:44.073
So not all universities are willing to pay for accommodations,

0:26:44.073,0:26:51.055
because, you know, it is a difficult skill to learn, [br]and it's expensive to hire someone like me.

0:26:51.055,0:26:54.027
But some schools definitely are, so there's a huge demand.

0:26:54.027,0:26:55.002
Yeah?

0:26:55.002,0:27:00.021
>>> My wife goes to dental school, and there's one student who listens to lectures,

0:27:00.021,0:27:02.050
as well as type at the same time.

0:27:02.050,0:27:06.060
Creates a transcript, and he obviously sells on the portal.

0:27:06.060,0:27:07.060
Yeah.

0:27:07.060,0:27:09.062
But he just types, like, qwerty-style?

0:27:09.062,0:27:11.098
>> Um, I'm not sure how he...

0:27:11.098,0:27:13.083
But yes, those transcripts are available.

0:27:13.083,0:27:20.076
So the question from my wife was: How can he pay attention to the class, as well as type it?

0:27:20.076,0:27:27.028
He just types, and when he goes home, he reads, [br]and if he has a question, he goes to the professor.

0:27:27.028,0:27:34.051
The good thing is: Many students, they don't attend the lecture, or partial lecture, it's kind of helpful to read.

0:27:34.051,0:27:39.049
They have recordings, [br]but not all professors have recordings.

0:27:39.049,0:27:46.017
If they want to get a recording, they need to have a TA, [br]and they need to pay the TA, and it's kind of expensive.

0:27:46.017,0:27:50.089
And also searchable text is much more useful for studying purposes than a long, linear sound file.

0:27:50.089,0:27:55.083
But -- so, first of all, to address that, [br]he's probably not getting everything verbatim,

0:27:55.083,0:27:57.058
obviously, if he's just doing qwerty.

0:27:57.058,0:27:59.067
Although some typists are pretty good.

0:27:59.067,0:28:02.018
They can get about half of the salient details.

0:28:02.018,0:28:06.011
Second of all, I learn a hell of a lot when I'm transcribing.

0:28:06.011,0:28:10.061
You know, it goes in through my ears and out through my fingers, but it leaves something behind.

0:28:10.061,0:28:13.003
So, I think it's actually a pretty good...

0:28:13.003,0:28:18.041
I know of at least one person [br]who taught himself steno while going to school.

0:28:18.041,0:28:20.021
Like, pre-pharmacy school.

0:28:20.021,0:28:21.067
And got really good grades.

0:28:21.067,0:28:24.057
But then decided he would rather [br]be a stenographer than a pharmacist.

0:28:24.057,0:28:27.087
So now he's getting into doing what I do,

0:28:27.087,0:28:29.099
and working for Deaf and hard of hearing college students.

0:28:29.099,0:28:34.076
>> Is there a clearinghouse site anywhere [br]for captioning and steno jobs?

0:28:34.076,0:28:37.002
No, it's mostly independent contractors.

0:28:37.002,0:28:39.077
It's a very fractured field.

0:28:39.077,0:28:46.041
>> So basically, if you were looking for work, [br]there isn't a place you would go, other than to agencies?

0:28:46.041,0:28:51.024
I just send my resume out to all 26 universities [br]in the New York City area,

0:28:51.024,0:28:53.005
and they come to me.

0:28:53.005,0:28:54.000
Did you have a question?

0:28:54.000,0:28:55.043
>> About the library, so...

0:28:55.043,0:28:57.057
Is she using steno right now?

0:28:57.057,0:28:59.075
Yeah, she's using proprietary software.

0:28:59.075,0:29:03.065
>> But you were saying you had to declare some variables.

0:29:03.065,0:29:09.060
And that stenographers have their own library, [br]and stuff like that -- how does that part tie in?

0:29:09.060,0:29:13.001
So you just tell it -- this is how I would spell compression,

0:29:13.001,0:29:15.049
and there's a way you can add this stuff

0:29:15.049,0:29:16.056
while you're doing it?

0:29:16.056,0:29:19.011
Yeah, well, this is the one feature that Plover is currently missing that it really needs to have

0:29:19.011,0:29:21.063
in order to be very useful.

0:29:21.063,0:29:23.092
I was assuming in that Zork thing --

0:29:23.092,0:29:27.003
that it had already been implemented, yeah.

0:29:27.003,0:29:30.083
>> So the feature that Plover needs [br]is the ability to add in your own new entries?

0:29:30.083,0:29:32.076
Exactly; from the writer.

0:29:32.076,0:29:33.063
I mean, you can do it --

0:29:33.063,0:29:36.012
you can edit the text file manually, you know.

0:29:36.012,0:29:39.024
But being able to do it without breaking [br]the stream of text is very useful,

0:29:39.024,0:29:41.064
and I do all the time in my proprietary software.

0:29:41.064,0:29:43.025
>> So you just shift into a mode?

0:29:43.025,0:29:45.057
Uh-huh, yeah.

0:29:48.093,0:29:54.085
>> So how long would it take for the average beginner [br]to reach 200 words per minute with steno?

0:29:54.085,0:29:56.094
200 is tricky.

0:29:56.094,0:30:05.026
I find most people get up to around [br]100 or 120 within four to six months,

0:30:05.026,0:30:09.046
and then they usually hit a wall and then plateau for a while.

0:30:09.046,0:30:13.036
And so once you hit your first big plateau, [br]it's tough to get above that.

0:30:13.036,0:30:17.076
I got from 0 to 225 in a year and a half.

0:30:17.076,0:30:22.073
And that was me probably in front of the machine [br]about 60 hours a week,

0:30:22.073,0:30:26.046
because I was doing it at my day job, [br]and I was also practicing on my own time.

0:30:26.046,0:30:33.080
But most people can probably get up to 120-140 [br]within, you know, three to six months.

0:30:33.080,0:30:35.085
And if Hover Plover is addictive enough,

0:30:35.085,0:30:40.065
addictive enough that it gets people, [br]you know, spending all night doing this --

0:30:40.065,0:30:41.084
which it really can.

0:30:41.084,0:30:44.023
I know people who do just regular steno for hours,

0:30:44.023,0:30:48.000
and they get sucked into this steno hole, [br]and it's really engrossing.

0:30:48.000,0:30:52.061
You know, if it's addictive enough [br]and people are spending a lot of time on it,

0:30:52.061,0:30:55.041
their rates will go up really quickly.

0:30:57.020,0:30:58.037
Yeah?

0:30:58.037,0:31:01.094
>> Can you give me the details [br]on adding a word on the fly like that?

0:31:01.094,0:31:04.061
I'll tell you how my proprietary software does it.

0:31:04.061,0:31:10.052
I invoke a macro on my steno machine, [br]which is GLBL, short for "global this word."

0:31:10.052,0:31:15.012
It pops up a window, which is, like, big [br]and in the middle of the screen and obnoxious,

0:31:15.012,0:31:17.031
unless I make it invisible.

0:31:17.031,0:31:21.088
Plover will have a simple, discrete [br]one-line window in the taskbar.

0:31:21.088,0:31:25.077
But my proprietary software -- [br]it's a huge, giant, unsightly thing.

0:31:25.077,0:31:29.048
Anyway, I press GLBL, a window pops up,

0:31:29.048,0:31:34.078
and it gives me the opportunity to tap out [br]the word that I want letter by letter in English,

0:31:34.078,0:31:39.078
and then to enter the steno strokes that correspond to it.

0:31:39.078,0:31:41.042
So it just maps that, puts it in the dictionary,

0:31:41.042,0:31:44.089
and then every time you enter the steno strokes, [br]it comes out with the English.

0:31:44.089,0:31:49.048
>> So this window pops up, you do that, [br]you're done with that, you close the window,

0:31:49.048,0:31:53.063
and it injects that new word into your stream, [br]and you're back to going along --

0:31:53.063,0:31:55.061
Exactly.

0:31:55.061,0:31:59.069
>> And so I'm thinking about keyboard shortcuts [br]and how often there's conflicts.

0:31:59.069,0:32:07.086
So, in steno, how well are you able to go,[br]"Well, this is the new keystroke,"

0:32:07.086,0:32:10.011
and not have it hit, like, a bazillion possibilities?

0:32:10.011,0:32:11.046
That's a really good point, actually.

0:32:11.046,0:32:13.095
Thank you for bringing that up, [br]because I hadn't mentioned it.

0:32:13.095,0:32:15.051
I'm a Vim user.

0:32:15.051,0:32:19.099
You know, and so you've got, in Vim, [br]every key mapped to a command.

0:32:19.099,0:32:21.050
A bit of a learning curve.

0:32:21.050,0:32:23.078
But once you learn it, it's very useful.

0:32:23.078,0:32:27.055
And there's some, you know, [br]slight mnemonic things involved.

0:32:27.055,0:32:29.012
Like B takes you back.

0:32:29.012,0:32:30.053
F finds stuff.

0:32:30.053,0:32:31.022
Whatever.

0:32:31.022,0:32:33.082
Steno, first of all, is much more mnemonic,

0:32:33.082,0:32:36.068
because it's tied to syllables, rather than to initial letters.

0:32:36.068,0:32:41.074
So you're able to remember many more [br]different commands.

0:32:41.074,0:32:44.018
And the question of conflicts --

0:32:44.018,0:32:48.018
they're usually pretty easy to avoid [br]if you make them sound like an English word,

0:32:48.018,0:32:50.029
but they're not actually an English word.

0:32:50.029,0:32:54.006
You know, so my brief for "ridiculous" is "RILGS."

0:32:54.006,0:32:57.014
You know, to the point where I sometimes say it in English.

0:32:57.014,0:32:59.011
Like, "Dude, that's totally rilgs."

0:32:59.011,0:33:01.001
(laughter)

0:33:01.001,0:33:04.036
Or, like, the brief for "necessarily" is "NELS."

0:33:04.036,0:33:06.007
You know, it's pronounceable.

0:33:06.007,0:33:07.074
It's very memorable.

0:33:07.074,0:33:12.035
But it doesn't conflict with anything in English, [br]because it's not a valid English syllable.

0:33:12.035,0:33:18.052
So for command strokes, it's, you know, [br]pretty simple to come up with something

0:33:18.052,0:33:21.058
that's very easy to remember, very easy to write, but has...

0:33:21.058,0:33:25.055
You have many, many more options.

0:33:25.055,0:33:30.074
You know, with Vim, you just have basically the qwerty keyboard; that's 112 possible commands.

0:33:30.074,0:33:36.024
For steno, you can have innumerable commands, [br]because they're tied to syllables rather than to letters.

0:33:36.024,0:33:40.055
>> Do you have punctuation on your keyboard, [br]like curly braces and things like that?

0:33:40.055,0:33:41.071
Oh, yeah, totally.

0:33:41.071,0:33:45.067
I don't know if any of you guys [br]saw me caption any of the talks.

0:33:45.067,0:33:47.089
I didn't put any underscores when they appeared,

0:33:47.089,0:33:53.059
because even though I told my proprietary [br]steno software to define "RUND" as underscore,

0:33:53.059,0:33:57.005
it decided it didn't want to do that.

0:33:57.005,0:33:58.058
So it just didn't just happen.

0:33:58.058,0:34:00.012
Sorry about that.

0:34:00.012,0:34:02.024
My software, $4,000 software.

0:34:02.024,0:34:03.087
>> Didn't work, huh?

0:34:03.087,0:34:06.074
Are you kidding me?

0:34:06.074,0:34:09.064
They don't even have Word Wrap on this thing.

0:34:09.064,0:34:14.052
Seriously, we had to set the margins, like, [br]really kind of bigger than we wanted to,

0:34:14.052,0:34:17.044
because otherwise it would just start scrolling off the screen.

0:34:17.044,0:34:19.040
It's pathetic.

0:34:19.040,0:34:23.075
And I have to pay $700 a year just to get the upgrades.

0:34:23.075,0:34:27.051
>> Are you actually using Plover at all, or is it still --

0:34:27.051,0:34:32.063
Yeah, as I said, I have it as a backup [br]in case my proprietary stuff goes down.

0:34:32.063,0:34:37.036
And I do occasionally use it when doing [br]offline transcription for medical journals,

0:34:37.036,0:34:42.001
because it's easier to take out the qwerty keyboard [br]than to take this thing out.

0:34:42.001,0:34:43.091
Um, yeah?

0:34:43.091,0:34:46.047
>> Can you remap your qwerty keyboard into chords?

0:34:46.047,0:34:48.047
You don't have to remap it.

0:34:48.047,0:34:53.086
When Plover's turned on, it just sends out steno,

0:34:53.086,0:34:55.097
and when you turn it off, it just goes back to qwerty.

0:34:55.097,0:34:58.057
The only modification I made was [br]I put a couple of leather keypads

0:34:58.057,0:35:02.093
on the keys used for steno, just for some haptic feedback.

0:35:04.057,0:35:06.043
It's very simple.

0:35:06.043,0:35:08.040
If anyone wants to come up and try it out...

0:35:08.040,0:35:10.070
Well, I think I probably have to go [br]to the next lecture to caption.

0:35:10.070,0:35:13.031
But thank you so much for coming.

0:35:13.031,0:35:16.066
And if you have any questions, [br]please contact me, and I'd love to talk to y'all.

0:35:16.066,0:35:17.089
Bye.