WEBVTT

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MIRABAI: Howdy.

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So, first off, who am I?

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My name is Mirabai Knight, I'm based in New York City,

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and I'm a professional stenographer for Deaf and hard of hearing college students and professionals.

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About six years ago, I got really frustrated with my proprietary steno software.

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It was, like, $4,000, you know, $700 bucks a year for upgrades, really buggy,

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bloated, terrible DRM.

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It was just driving me nuts, right?

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So I decided there needed to be an open source alternative to steno -- professional, realtime,

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computer-connected stenography.

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So I figured no one else was going to write it,

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if I didn't do it myself.

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I tried to find a Python tutor, and I was extremely lucky to happen upon Joshua Lifton, PhD,

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recently of the MIT Media Lab,

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who started out tutoring me in Python, and then got so wrapped up in the project

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that he basically came to me and said --

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listen, I'll develop this for you.

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You can pay me whatever you can afford,

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but I want to make this happen.

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So he took over the project.

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Has been coding it ever since,

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and then, when he had to sort of tone down the amount of time he could give to it,

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because of his full-time job,

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Hesky Fisher, whose day job is at Google,

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took over the project.

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So I've been just ridiculously fortunate to get these incredible top coders to help me with the project.

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Also, we've got about 200 users who weigh in, 
bug testing, giving input.

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It's been a really cool project.

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It's been around for about three years now,

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and it's going strong.

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What is stenography?

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It's a phonetic-mnemonic text input system.

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It's been around since about 1911,

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and to be a professional stenographer, like me,

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you basically need a speed of 240 words per minute,

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with 99.9% accuracy.

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That means an error or omission about every thousand words or four pages.

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You can see this old-fashioned steno machine obviously doesn't hook up to a computer.

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That's from around 1930.

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Cost about $50.

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This much bigger sort of split, ergonomic steno machine, which is the one I use professionally,

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costs $4,000.

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But this one down here, which just looks like a regular qwerty keyboard,

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except for some mysterious rectangular keys pasted onto it,

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costs about $50 for the keyboard and $20 for our laser cut steno keys, which we sell

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through the Plover store.

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That is the main innovation of Plover, that we're basically cutting the hardware cost from $4,000 down to $50.

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But why should you care?

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You're all developers.

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I'm not.

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I'm still trying to learn Python, but it's a hard slog.

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And when you think of stenographers, 
you probably think of, you know,

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old-fashioned ladies with buns in their hair, 
sitting in a courtroom, going, "La la la la la!"

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Why should you care?

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It's not interesting, it's not cool, it's not useful.

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But you're wrong.

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Steno is good for a ridiculous amount of things.

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It's incredibly elegant, useful, efficient.

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I won't really go into all the details of these six things here.

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I wrote a series of essays detailing each one of them.

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Speed, wearability, ergonomics --

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if you're interested in them, check out the link from my PyCon speakers page.

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But I'll go briefly into paying work and accessibility for people with disabilities.

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Mostly, I'll focus on the last one, which is fluency and efficiency of text entry,

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which is why you guys might care.

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So this speech will have sort of a two-pronged approach.

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First I'm going to give you the hard sell to try to convince you that you, as a coder,

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should learn steno to write code, blog posts, 
emails, novels -- whatever you want to do with it.

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That it's incredibly useful, 
and that you personally should learn it.

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That might work for some of you.

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Probably won't work for all of you.

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So at the end of that section,

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I'll go on to sort of talking about why you might care about steno being out there in the world in general.

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Even if you don't personally learn it,

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why it's really important that other people have the opportunity to use it.

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This is just the steno alphabet.

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I'm not going to go into details, but my slides are up on the page, so you can check this out at your leisure later.

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The steno keyboard has 22 keys.

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Basically it's a two-dimensional syllabic input system,

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as opposed to the qwerty system,

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where obviously you take any word, break it down into its component letters,

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and then type out each letter one by one.

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With steno, you input each syllable in a single stroke,

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though sometimes you can actually get more syllables per stroke, depending on the word.

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So the left hand handles the initial consonants of the word,

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the right hand handles the final consonants,

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and the thumbs handle the vowels in the middle.

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There's no spacebar.

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Each stroke is submitted after all of the keys are released.

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And most words can be written phonetically.

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One example here is "straps".

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You can look on the steno keyboard.

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S-T-R-A-P-S.

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You hit all of those together in one stroke, 
and it comes out "straps".

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Very intuitive.

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Now, Plover is unique -- as opposed to all the other proprietary steno software,

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in that it is essentially a keyboard emulator.

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Most proprietary software is a word processor,

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and if you want to interact with the rest of the OS, it's in this very sort of awkward sandboxed system,

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with lots of delays and convoluted things.

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It's very inconvenient.

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But Plover is stripped down and designed just to let you interact with your system,

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as if you were using a qwerty keyboard.

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So, for an example, if you wanted to do a two-syllable word,

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you start out with PAOEU.

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P, long I; PAOEU.

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And you get the word "pie".

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P-I-E.

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Then you add on THON,

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and suddenly Plover will delete the I and the E of "pie",

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and send out Y-T-H-O-N, to get python.

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Very simple.

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As I mentioned,

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there are some words which you can write in a single stroke,

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even if they're ten letters and four syllables long,

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such as deplorable.

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D-P-L-O-R-B-L, dplorbl.

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Peripheral, P-R-I-F-R-L, prifrl.

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I'm going to -- oh, yes, question?

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AUDIENCE MEMBER: Could you go back 
to deplorable for a second?

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MIRABAI: Go back to deplorable?

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AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes.

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MIRABAI: Are you confused about why there's no D on the left side of the keyboard?

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Yes, I guess I should have mentioned that,

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since the steno keyboard only has 22 keys,

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the letters that don't appear
are produced by specific chords.

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So in this case, TK is D, HR is L, and down here, EU is I.

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You can see that in more detail if you look at the steno alphabet that I posted earlier.

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So I'm going to show you an example of me inputting a very small snippet from Codecademy,

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which I'm trying to use to learn Python, with steno.

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But just to keep in mind, while you're watching this,

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it took 143 keystrokes 
to do the same amount of code in qwerty,

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whereas it took 54 keystrokes to do it in steno.

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All right, let me rewind here.

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Down below, you can see the phonetic equivalent of the steno that I'm writing.

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Pretty simple.

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(applause)

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All right, let me go back here.

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Right.

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Another big advantage of this two-dimensional 
versus one-dimensional text input system

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is that you can have mnemonic hooks for all of your words and commands.

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So I'm a Vim user.

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AUDIENCE MEMBER: Woo!

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MIRABAI: Yeah, Vim!

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Woo!

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And most of these sort of one-letter commands in Vim are sort of intuitive.

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You know, back is go back one word.

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That makes sense, right?

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But r is used -- say if you want to record a macro, right?

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R is used for replace a letter.

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M is used for mark my spot.

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So you have to have these weird, convoluted things like reQord maQro, with a q.

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It doesn't really work.

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Because you only have one letter to sort of hang your mnemonic hook on.

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Whereas, with steno, 
since you have an entire syllable per stroke,

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you can do really complex commands like GLERCH,

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for "launch browser and perform a Google search",

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or QUARN, short for "quarantine", which -- when I make an error in Python -- er, in Plover --

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I can cut that highlighted text and append it to a document that I review later

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to help fix bugs in Plover's orthographic system.

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Now, I might have convinced some of you that steno is cool and useful and efficient and awesome

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and you want to learn it.

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I might not have.

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But I want to make the larger case that steno is really important to have in the world.

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The altruistic argument.

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In this country, there are 35 million people with hearing loss,

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and about 2% of those know Sign Language,

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so 98% can only really be helped by realtime captioning.

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There's only 400 certified captioners like me in this country, and most of them are near retirement age.

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Plus there are 3 to 8 million people who can't use their voices to speak,

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and steno is virtually the only technology that would allow them to converse with people they know

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in a truly realtime way, at true conversational speeds,

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as opposed to tapping things out in a pictographic system that's very slow and awkward.

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Unfortunately, the reason why there are so few stenographers and why so many of them are so old

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is because the only way to learn steno these days is through for-profit trade schools

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that are really kind of scams, you know?

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They'll let anybody in.

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They'll cost a huge amount of money in tuition, plus buying the machine, buying the software,

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and the national dropout rate is 85%.

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Because, honestly, most of the people going to steno school don't have other prospects

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and aren't really well suited to learn the system.

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Most people can reach about 140 to 160 words per minute in steno in, I would say, three to six months.

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But getting that extra additional speed from 160 to 225, which is graduation speed,

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can take two to six years.

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The problem is that we currently don't have any amateurs or hobbyists or tinkerers,

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or anyone who wants to pick up steno for fun, for free, or at least low cost, considering this $50 system that we've got.

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It's like if the only way you could learn guitar is if you had to go to music school and buy a jewel encrusted,

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professional-level guitar, that you had to go through a four-year program, before you could even use it.

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If there's no amateurs, there's no future for the program.

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And that's what's happening with steno.

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It's disappearing.

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People aren't using this technology, because they're locked into this proprietary system.

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That's why Plover now is totally free software,

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the hardware is really much more affordable than the $4,000 proprietary software (sic),

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and our next sort of endeavor is going to be trying to raise money for a video game system

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that will teach Plover in an addictive way, kind of retro-style arcade games.

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Because gamification is a big buzzword in learning these days, but for steno, it's really, really perfect.

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You start slow, you get faster,

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you start with simple words, you sort of build up your wordhoard, as you go along.

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It's almost like an RPG plus a platformer, combined.

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So we're hoping that, as the steno community grows,

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we'll be able to get more people in, to help develop this system of video games,

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and then the steno community hopefully will just explode.

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There's a bunch of resources online.

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If you go to ploversteno.org.

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User groups, forums, mailing lists, all sorts of stuff.

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And you can teach yourself steno on your own, try it out.

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And I would also be happy 
to answer any questions at this point.

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(applause)

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Oh, thank you.

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AUDIENCE MEMBER: More demos.

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MIRABAI: More demos?

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Okay.

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AUDIENCE MEMBER: Or questions.

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MIRABAI: First I'll ask for questions.

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If there are no more questions, I'll give you more demos.

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No questions?

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AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi.

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I switched to Colemak this year,

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which is just a different keyboard layout.

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It's more... I don't know.

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It's better.

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Whatever you want to call it.

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And I found that I accidentally locked myself out of everybody else's computers.

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Because I can't type on other people's computers anymore.

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Which kind of sucks.

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I don't know.

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The jury's still out.

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I wonder if you experience this at all, with steno.

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You sit down at a library computer.

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MIRABAI: I mean, it is a disadvantage.

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It's annoying having to switch back to qwerty.

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We're currently looking at possible commercial solutions,

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for a low cost, very portable steno machine,

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that you can just plug into any computer, and it'll work as a qwerty keyboard.

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Sort of emulate a qwerty keyboard, without having to install any software.

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Which I think will help.

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I mean, it's annoying having to carry a keyboard around,

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but that might be a sort of compromise solution.

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AUDIENCE MEMBER: Since Colemak is still the same shape as qwerty, it overrode qwerty in my brain.

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It replaced it.

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Does steno do that to you?

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MIRABAI: No, I'm still pretty good with qwerty, yeah.

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It's just annoying.

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AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi.

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I'm an iPhone 5 user, and I always have a problem with the qwerty keyboard on it.

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Really hard to use, to send emails and so forth.

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Do you think steno will be a good application for the iPhone 5, for regular users, for the faster typing?

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MIRABAI: Well, because it's a two-handed system, it's not too easy to transfer.

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I hope eventually there will be a wearable solution,

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where basically you have the keyboard, you know, on your pants, and you can just walk around.

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I think this really sort of rises and falls

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depending on whether Google Glass
takes off or sinks like a stone.

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If people start having wearable options,

00:13:36.139 --> 00:13:38.279
and then get frustrated with the input methods available,

00:13:38.279 --> 00:13:40.591
I think steno could be a really good solution to that,

00:13:40.591 --> 00:13:45.048
but if wearable computing is really just relegated back to the '90s, who knows?

00:13:45.048 --> 00:13:50.090
I don't think that it's going to be usable for the next few years, unfortunately.

00:13:50.090 --> 00:13:51.195
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you very much.

00:13:51.195 --> 00:13:53.355
MIRABAI: Sure.

00:13:53.355 --> 00:13:57.125
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So as a Vim addict, I'm glad to hear that you are one too,

00:13:57.125 --> 00:14:02.096
because Dvorak was always a no-go for me, because the colon's in the wrong place,

00:14:02.096 --> 00:14:05.269
and the hj keys are a no-go.

00:14:05.269 --> 00:14:07.036
So how do you handle that?

00:14:07.036 --> 00:14:10.707
And also maybe you could address how you handle things like parens and square brackets.

00:14:10.707 --> 00:14:12.845
Things of that nature.

00:14:12.845 --> 00:14:20.883
MIRABAI: Well, let me put this back up again, because I use both parentheses and square brackets in this demo.

00:14:20.883 --> 00:14:26.004
Basically, for me, the sort of iconic Python double parentheses with nothing in them

00:14:26.004 --> 00:14:27.922
I just defined as PRENS.

00:14:27.922 --> 00:14:29.157
I write it out at PRENS.

00:14:29.157 --> 00:14:31.322
If I want an open parenthesis, I do PREN,

00:14:31.322 --> 00:14:33.262
and if I want a closed one, I do PRENT.

00:14:33.262 --> 00:14:35.506
Brackets are BRKT and BR*KT.

00:14:35.506 --> 00:14:37.702
It's actually fairly intuitive, once you get used to them.

00:14:37.702 --> 00:14:41.705
And the nice thing about steno is that your fingers never stray from the home row,

00:14:41.705 --> 00:14:46.339
so you're not doing that sort of tippy-tappy thing with the qwerty or even the Dvorak keyboard.

00:14:46.339 --> 00:14:51.345
You just stay there, and you make all the possible combinations that you can with the 22 keys

00:14:51.345 --> 00:14:53.179
underneath your fingers.

00:14:53.179 --> 00:15:00.123
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So then moving around is also chording now, instead of using -- like, hjkl keys for moving around?

00:15:00.123 --> 00:15:03.625
MIRABAI: Yeah, you do them sort of like this.

00:15:03.625 --> 00:15:05.358
It's very simple.

00:15:05.358 --> 00:15:06.727
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Where does that configuration live?

00:15:06.727 --> 00:15:08.331
MIRABAI: Say again?

00:15:08.331 --> 00:15:10.238
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Where does that configuration live?

00:15:10.238 --> 00:15:13.135
Is that your vimrc, or is that the steno?

00:15:13.135 --> 00:15:15.172
MIRABAI: Oh, no, no, I still just use regular Vim mappings.

00:15:15.172 --> 00:15:17.273
Like, if I want to go back a word, I still write b.

00:15:17.273 --> 00:15:20.921
I just write b on the steno keyboard, which is PW plus asterisk.

00:15:20.921 --> 00:15:25.114
(laughter)

00:15:25.114 --> 00:15:28.149
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You said it takes two to six years to become a fully trained steno.

00:15:28.149 --> 00:15:29.152
MIRABAI: To get really fast, yeah.

00:15:29.152 --> 00:15:33.594
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How much time would it take to get faster than you are as a qwerty --

00:15:33.594 --> 00:15:38.533
MIRABAI: My estimate is it's probably around two to three months, depending on how much time you put into it,

00:15:38.533 --> 00:15:41.564
and how quickly you pick it up, but not that much.

00:15:41.564 --> 00:15:42.436
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thanks.

00:15:42.436 --> 00:15:43.503
MIRABAI: Yeah, sure.

00:15:43.503 --> 00:15:47.674
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Probably about the same time as learning Dvorak, honestly.

00:15:47.674 --> 00:15:50.704
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you know anything about the state of the art for languages other than English?

00:15:50.704 --> 00:15:55.175
So, for example, I am from Russia, so I would have to type Cyrillics if I were to use this thing.

00:15:55.175 --> 00:15:57.576
MIRABAI: Yes, this is about foreign languages in steno.

00:15:57.576 --> 00:16:00.589
We actually do have a number of people on the Plover user group from other countries.

00:16:00.589 --> 00:16:02.882
There's one from Poland.

00:16:02.882 --> 00:16:07.654
I think there's a Russian-American who is interested in using steno in Russian.

00:16:07.654 --> 00:16:11.188
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Polish uses the Latin alphabet.

00:16:11.188 --> 00:16:13.092
MIRABAI: Yeah, no, I know.

00:16:13.092 --> 00:16:17.227
But basically, Plover can output anything in the Unicode character set.

00:16:17.227 --> 00:16:21.168
And I think there are stenographic theories for other languages.

00:16:21.168 --> 00:16:23.009
Some of them you might have to start from scratch,

00:16:23.009 --> 00:16:26.064
but I think for most European languages, there already is an established stenographic theory

00:16:26.064 --> 00:16:28.172
that you would just have to import into the Plover system.

00:16:28.172 --> 00:16:29.741
So there's a lot of potential there.

00:16:29.741 --> 00:16:32.314
Not many people are using it at this point.

00:16:32.314 --> 00:16:36.984
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm just curious whether you would have enough keys, because Russian has 33 letters rather than 26.

00:16:36.984 --> 00:16:38.564
MIRABAI: Quite possibly.

00:16:38.564 --> 00:16:40.435
Since it's phonetic.

00:16:40.435 --> 00:16:46.068
I believe there is a pre-existing Russian stenographic system, but I'm not completely positive.

00:16:46.068 --> 00:16:46.637
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, thanks.

00:16:46.637 --> 00:16:48.385
MIRABAI: Sure.

00:16:48.385 --> 00:16:49.003
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi.

00:16:49.003 --> 00:16:53.270
I was just wondering -- so it looked in the picture like the $50 keyboard that you were talking about --

00:16:53.270 --> 00:16:54.892
it looks like a normal keyboard.

00:16:54.892 --> 00:16:56.412
MIRABAI: Not quite.

00:16:56.412 --> 00:16:57.714
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So are there hardware differences?

00:16:57.714 --> 00:16:58.447
MIRABAI: There are, yeah.

00:16:58.447 --> 00:17:00.522
The main thing is that it needs to have n-key rollover.

00:17:00.522 --> 00:17:05.346
Because most keyboards won't accept chords of more than, like, two keys at a time.

00:17:05.346 --> 00:17:10.391
So the one we use -- the cheapest n-key rollover keyboard is the Microsoft Sidewinder X4,

00:17:10.391 --> 00:17:11.455
which is like a gaming keyboard.

00:17:14.055 --> 00:17:15.013
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Sorry, follow up.

00:17:15.013 --> 00:17:22.757
So is it possible to get, like, other keyboards other than that $50 one, or are they all more expensive than that?

00:17:22.757 --> 00:17:24.059
MIRABAI: They're all more expensive than that.

00:17:24.059 --> 00:17:26.979
Yeah, like the Majestouch costs about $120.

00:17:26.979 --> 00:17:27.556
Works great.

00:17:27.556 --> 00:17:31.000
But nothing cheaper than $50, unfortunately.

00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:32.664
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How did you come up with the name?

00:17:32.664 --> 00:17:33.722
MIRABAI: Oh, yes.

00:17:33.722 --> 00:17:36.506
Actually, let me show you the logo.

00:17:36.506 --> 00:17:37.574
If you can see this little guy --

00:17:37.574 --> 00:17:39.406
a plover is a sort of a wading bird.

00:17:39.406 --> 00:17:42.243
I came up with it for two reasons.

00:17:42.243 --> 00:17:47.416
First of all, it's a two syllable, six letter word that you can play in one stroke on the steno keyboard,

00:17:47.416 --> 00:17:50.759
and secondly, I like that it's a phonetic system,

00:17:50.759 --> 00:17:52.753
but Plover is a non-phonetic word.

00:17:52.753 --> 00:17:54.087
Sort of perverse that way.

00:17:54.087 --> 00:17:55.625
But you can see on his little wing there --

00:17:55.625 --> 00:17:59.970
the dark brown patches spell out Plover.

00:17:59.970 --> 00:18:01.630
Because his little wing is a steno keyboard.

00:18:01.630 --> 00:18:04.223
So P-L-O-F-R spells out Plover.

00:18:04.223 --> 00:18:08.207
(applause)

00:18:08.207 --> 00:18:10.505
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You mentioned just a few moments ago

00:18:10.505 --> 00:18:13.309
that you type bracket and paren by typing combinations of...

00:18:13.309 --> 00:18:16.745
Like, that sound like bracket and paren.

00:18:16.745 --> 00:18:19.890
What do you do when you actually want to type the word bracket?

00:18:19.890 --> 00:18:21.482
MIRABAI: Oh, well, that's yet another definition.

00:18:21.482 --> 00:18:26.062
Basically, for the actual character bracket, I take out the vowel.

00:18:26.062 --> 00:18:31.500
So it's sort of BRKT and BR*KT, but for the word "bracket", I just write BRAKT, which is one stroke, again.

00:18:31.500 --> 00:18:32.869
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Like everything.

00:18:32.869 --> 00:18:34.870
MIRABAI: Yeah!

00:18:34.870 --> 00:18:36.814
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So this is really cool.

00:18:36.814 --> 00:18:41.446
My question is: You mentioned that you have, like, a personal dictionary.

00:18:41.446 --> 00:18:42.479
MIRABAI: Yes.

00:18:42.479 --> 00:18:44.212
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How is that formed?

00:18:44.212 --> 00:18:45.881
And sort of what's the interface for that?

00:18:45.881 --> 00:18:47.149
MIRABAI: Sure.

00:18:47.149 --> 00:18:49.013
AUDIENCE MEMBER: And I guess the other question is...

00:18:49.013 --> 00:18:53.922
Let's assume that this comes to dominate, like, the hacker world.

00:18:53.922 --> 00:18:54.821
MIRABAI: I hope so!

00:18:54.821 --> 00:18:57.226
That's what I'm going for!

00:18:57.226 --> 00:19:03.037
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How would we do interoperability if we all have personal dictionaries, basically, to use with this?

00:19:03.037 --> 00:19:05.948
MIRABAI: Yeah, well, I mean, that goes back to the question of what you have to do

00:19:05.948 --> 00:19:07.738
when you're using someone else's computer.

00:19:07.738 --> 00:19:10.115
But the dictionary is inherent.

00:19:10.115 --> 00:19:11.874
Each stenographer has their own dictionary.

00:19:11.874 --> 00:19:16.476
And I was going to record a demo of using the steno keyboard to define a new word,

00:19:16.476 --> 00:19:18.047
but it was a little bit clumsy.

00:19:18.047 --> 00:19:19.453
It's actually working pretty well now.

00:19:19.453 --> 00:19:20.847
It's one of our new features.

00:19:20.847 --> 00:19:22.083
It's really useful.

00:19:22.083 --> 00:19:24.362
But yeah, you would have to have some way of transporting your dictionary.

00:19:24.362 --> 00:19:26.153
But it's, like, a 4-meg text file.

00:19:26.153 --> 00:19:31.793
It's not that hard to -- you can use a thumb drive, or if we do get this $200 solution

00:19:31.793 --> 00:19:36.451
of just a plug-in keyboard that works with any computer, the dictionary will be on there.

00:19:36.451 --> 00:19:40.167
AUDIENCE MEMBER: And to define those words, you, I assume, do another chord

00:19:40.167 --> 00:19:43.072
That says, "I'm going to define a new word and here it is?"

00:19:43.072 --> 00:19:44.379
MIRABAI: Correct, yep.

00:19:44.379 --> 00:19:45.575
Yeah, it's actually pretty seamless.

00:19:45.575 --> 00:19:48.210
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Cool!

00:19:48.210 --> 00:19:51.311
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi, I used to work at a court reporting firm, actually,

00:19:51.311 --> 00:19:53.118
so this all sounds too familiar.

00:19:53.118 --> 00:19:59.454
And reading the description, this will be great for a realtime court reporting application.

00:19:59.454 --> 00:20:03.224
Do you have plans for expanding this in the future, in a commercial way?

00:20:03.224 --> 00:20:04.492
MIRABAI: No.

00:20:04.492 --> 00:20:06.062
I want Plover to remain open source.

00:20:06.062 --> 00:20:09.364
Honestly, I'm not really interested in breaking into the court reporting market,

00:20:09.364 --> 00:20:10.705
because I don't do court reporting,

00:20:10.705 --> 00:20:12.700
and I find that stuff incredibly tedious.

00:20:12.700 --> 00:20:17.673
So the $4,000 proprietary software already handles the court reporting.

00:20:17.673 --> 00:20:20.910
But I do, you know, realtime stenography for the Deaf and hard of hearing.

00:20:20.910 --> 00:20:26.145
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Cool, thank you.

00:20:26.145 --> 00:20:30.865
AUDIENCE MEMBER: At 240 words per minute, you'd think you would be a great candidate for the MUD gaming community.

00:20:30.865 --> 00:20:32.720
Have you talked to these people yet?

00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:34.324
MIRABAI: No, actually.

00:20:34.324 --> 00:20:35.991
That's a really good idea.

00:20:35.991 --> 00:20:40.069
Yeah, I'd love for there to be, like, a text-based RPG that teaches you steno.

00:20:40.069 --> 00:20:41.611
I think that would be a really good application,

00:20:41.611 --> 00:20:45.843
and a lot cheaper to develop than a big graphics extravaganza.

00:20:45.843 --> 00:20:49.972
Yeah, right now the typing game community are pretty excited about Plover.

00:20:49.972 --> 00:20:57.012
But that's a pretty small niche in the total online gaming world. So we'll see what happens.

00:20:57.012 --> 00:20:58.481
Demos?

00:20:58.481 --> 00:21:03.017
All right. I got a whole playlist here.

00:21:03.017 --> 00:21:04.228
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You went too fast!

00:21:04.228 --> 00:21:05.518
MIRABAI: Sorry about that.

00:21:05.518 --> 00:21:10.730
(humming)

00:21:10.730 --> 00:21:17.565
MIRABAI: See, I gave the exact same presentation in New York City, and I didn't have enough time.

00:21:17.565 --> 00:21:22.777
I think I must have just gone on adrenaline this time.

00:21:22.777 --> 00:21:24.107
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Sorry, may I ask another quick question?

00:21:24.107 --> 00:21:24.738
MIRABAI: Sure!

00:21:24.738 --> 00:21:26.108
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So how does it work with the thumbs?

00:21:26.108 --> 00:21:30.892
So the vowels are on the thumbs, and you have to press either one or two keys

00:21:30.892 --> 00:21:32.615
at the same time with your thumb, right?

00:21:32.615 --> 00:21:33.782
MIRABAI: Exactly, yes.

00:21:33.782 --> 00:21:35.117
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, cool.

00:21:35.117 --> 00:21:36.351
MIRABAI: Yep, that's exactly right.

00:21:36.351 --> 00:21:37.927
AUDIENCE MEMBER: It's convenient to press two keys at once?

00:21:37.927 --> 00:21:39.189
MIRABAI: It is, yeah.

00:21:39.189 --> 00:21:40.390
I mean, the steno keyboard is designed that way.

00:21:40.390 --> 00:21:43.229
Basically the footprint of the steno keyboard is very small.

00:21:43.229 --> 00:21:46.195
It's basically the size of a typical hand, you know.

00:21:46.195 --> 00:21:49.482
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, that makes sense, yeah.

00:21:49.482 --> 00:21:53.836
MIRABAI: So here is a short demo of me using the Filco Majestouch that I mentioned earlier,

00:21:53.836 --> 00:22:00.743
which is about a $120 qwerty keyboard, to write in Plover, with the corresponding keys that I'm pressing.

00:22:00.743 --> 00:22:02.350
I'm not sure how visible that is.

00:22:02.350 --> 00:22:04.145
Eh, I should have made it bigger.

00:22:04.145 --> 00:22:08.615
Let me give you another one.

00:22:08.615 --> 00:22:11.987
Here is the online typing game that I mentioned.

00:22:11.987 --> 00:22:16.824
It's called Typeracer.

00:22:16.824 --> 00:22:17.975
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Are you the world record holder?

00:22:17.975 --> 00:22:19.328
MIRABAI: I'm not, actually.

00:22:19.328 --> 00:22:20.484
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Who is?

00:22:20.484 --> 00:22:21.567
MIRABAI: I get too nervous.

00:22:21.567 --> 00:22:26.033
Well, the guy who's the world record holder on Typeracer is a qwerty typist.

00:22:26.033 --> 00:22:26.986
AUDIENCE MEMBER: What?

00:22:26.986 --> 00:22:27.905
MIRABAI: I know.

00:22:27.905 --> 00:22:29.004
It's ridiculous, right?

00:22:29.004 --> 00:22:31.820
Honestly, I get too nervous, and I get sort of hung up on it.

00:22:31.820 --> 00:22:32.880
I'm pretty close.

00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:34.610
I think I beat him in several races.

00:22:34.610 --> 00:22:37.316
But he's just really focused.

00:22:37.316 --> 00:22:39.612
(laughter)

00:22:39.612 --> 00:22:41.319
But I certainly beat Jumbo here.

00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:42.184
Jimbo.

00:22:42.184 --> 00:22:44.086
Whoever it was.

00:22:44.086 --> 00:22:45.493
(laughter)

00:22:45.493 --> 00:22:52.592
And here's another application that I can't really give you the benefit of the voice, particularly.

00:22:52.592 --> 00:22:58.835
ESPEAK VOICE: This is a demonstration of how Plover can be used to speak at a normal conversational pace.

00:22:58.835 --> 00:23:02.169
You can see that I'm triggering the speech engine manually,

00:23:02.169 --> 00:23:05.675
but while the computer is speaking the previous sentence,

00:23:05.675 --> 00:23:07.809
I'm able to write out the next one,

00:23:07.809 --> 00:23:11.683
resulting in a smooth and even flow of speech.

00:23:11.683 --> 00:23:17.092
This demonstration uses eSpeak, which is a free program included with Linux,

00:23:17.092 --> 00:23:22.496
but Plover works with all realtime text-to-speech engines,

00:23:22.496 --> 00:23:27.968
and can be used to do virtually anything the qwerty keyboard can do.

00:23:27.968 --> 00:23:31.412
Why is it so much faster and more efficient than qwerty?

00:23:31.412 --> 00:23:36.651
For a steno machine, an entire syllable, word, or phrase...

00:23:36.651 --> 00:23:40.011
MIRABAI: Anyway, that's a small example of how people can use...

00:23:40.011 --> 00:23:43.717
(applause)

00:23:43.717 --> 00:23:47.464
How people can use Plover to speak if they can't speak with their voices,

00:23:47.464 --> 00:23:51.155
whether due to surgery, or whether they have congenital malformations, or whatever,

00:23:51.155 --> 00:23:53.227
which is a surprising number of people.

00:23:53.227 --> 00:23:55.963
And it's very difficult for them to converse at a conversational pace

00:23:55.963 --> 00:23:58.732
without a realtime system like this.

00:23:58.732 --> 00:23:59.999
Another question?

00:23:59.999 --> 00:24:01.969
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How big is the dictionary you use?

00:24:01.969 --> 00:24:04.799
MIRABAI: My dictionary is currently about 160,000 words,

00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:07.309
though there are dictionaries that are 200,000, you know.

00:24:07.309 --> 00:24:08.909
It's a good starter dictionary.

00:24:08.909 --> 00:24:11.352
I use my own dictionary as the sort of Plover default dictionary,

00:24:11.352 --> 00:24:16.375
which people can then download and alter and add to at their heart's delight.

00:24:16.375 --> 00:24:20.629
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I was wondering, if it's not too deep of a hole to fall into,

00:24:20.629 --> 00:24:21.986
how...

00:24:21.986 --> 00:24:25.298
How do I ask this?

00:24:25.298 --> 00:24:29.464
Is it emulating an input source, essentially?

00:24:29.464 --> 00:24:32.705
So as far as your computer is concerned, these are the letters that you typed?

00:24:32.705 --> 00:24:34.069
MIRABAI: Yes, absolutely.

00:24:34.069 --> 00:24:40.627
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, and then it's designed to have different types of output for different systems

00:24:40.627 --> 00:24:42.445
that expect things?

00:24:42.445 --> 00:24:45.046
MIRABAI: No, it's just a qwerty keyboard emulator.

00:24:45.046 --> 00:24:46.548
It sends out --

00:24:46.548 --> 00:24:48.550
you write the letter in one stroke,

00:24:48.550 --> 00:24:51.883
but then it's the one that does the work of converting those into individual letters,

00:24:51.883 --> 00:24:53.921
and then in the example that I showed,

00:24:53.921 --> 00:24:55.428
where I wrote PAOEU, and it said pie,

00:24:55.428 --> 00:24:57.089
and then I wrote THON,

00:24:57.089 --> 00:24:58.297
it deleted "ie",

00:24:58.297 --> 00:25:00.194
and then sent out "thon".

00:25:00.194 --> 00:25:02.396
So it is basically using delete tokens and send tokens.

00:25:02.396 --> 00:25:05.332
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, so it is actually piping out a couple of backspaces, and then...

00:25:05.332 --> 00:25:08.378
MIRABAI: Exactly, yeah, so it's really transferable to just about every program.

00:25:08.378 --> 00:25:09.603
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Cool.

00:25:09.603 --> 00:25:12.103
MIRABAI: Yeah.

00:25:12.103 --> 00:25:14.794
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How would you compare qwerty to steno for hand strain?

00:25:14.794 --> 00:25:17.176
Because it looks so elegant and just, like, gentle.

00:25:17.176 --> 00:25:17.910
MIRABAI: Yes, absolutely.

00:25:17.910 --> 00:25:19.446
It's something I didn't go into too much,

00:25:19.446 --> 00:25:21.317
but the ergonomic argument is a really powerful one.

00:25:21.317 --> 00:25:23.217
I started out as a qwerty transcriptionist,

00:25:23.217 --> 00:25:24.984
and I could type around 110 words per minute,

00:25:24.984 --> 00:25:27.297
but after doing that for eight hours a day,

00:25:27.297 --> 00:25:29.256
my wrists and my hands were just killing me.

00:25:29.256 --> 00:25:29.757
And I was worried --

00:25:29.757 --> 00:25:30.991
at the time, I was in steno school,

00:25:30.991 --> 00:25:34.496
and I was worried that I would just jeopardize my entire career by, you know, burning out my hands.

00:25:34.496 --> 00:25:37.713
And as soon as I switched to steno, it was miraculous.

00:25:37.713 --> 00:25:40.214
I mean, I do use the split ergonomic steno keyboard,

00:25:40.214 --> 00:25:43.334
but it's much more like playing the piano than playing a typewriter.

00:25:43.334 --> 00:25:46.638
You're stroking, and then you can relax, and then you stroke, and then you can relax.

00:25:46.638 --> 00:25:49.841
So you're not constantly moving your fingers without any cessation,

00:25:49.841 --> 00:25:51.678
and you're not keeping that tension in your fingers.

00:25:51.678 --> 00:25:56.458
So I can type, you know, at around 200 words per minute for eight hours without a break,

00:25:56.458 --> 00:26:01.695
and I don't feel any pain at all.

00:26:01.695 --> 00:26:06.993
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I was just curious if there were any special cases where it breaks, like words like there, their, and they're,

00:26:06.993 --> 00:26:08.763
or anagrams, or, like --

00:26:08.763 --> 00:26:10.430
MIRABAI: Yeah, homonyms are handled really well.

00:26:10.430 --> 00:26:14.102
I mean, you have to sort of either make up or learn the specific rules of differentiating them.

00:26:14.102 --> 00:26:18.375
But yeah, I don't have any issues with homonyms, particularly.

00:26:18.375 --> 00:26:19.415
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Awesome, thank you.

00:26:19.415 --> 00:26:20.607
MIRABAI: Sure.

00:26:20.607 --> 00:26:23.046
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hey, I just thought of another one.

00:26:23.046 --> 00:26:25.243
So you know, when you learn a totally new skill,

00:26:25.243 --> 00:26:28.289
there's sort of a point, a ramp-up period,

00:26:28.289 --> 00:26:30.757
where you have to devote yourself and be disciplined to learn the skill,

00:26:30.757 --> 00:26:32.579
and there's a point, like, where you're hooked.

00:26:32.579 --> 00:26:34.721
And from that point on, it's all coasting.

00:26:34.721 --> 00:26:36.213
It's like -- okay, you want to learn more of the language.

00:26:36.213 --> 00:26:37.966
You want to learn more of the vocabulary.

00:26:37.966 --> 00:26:43.048
So if you were speaking to a person who's, like, grown up on qwerty, like, what does it take to get to the --

00:26:43.048 --> 00:26:44.932
okay, now you're obsessed.

00:26:44.932 --> 00:26:47.167
Like, you've got to learn how to do this -- point?

00:26:47.167 --> 00:26:48.005
MIRABAI: Yeah, that's a really good question.

00:26:48.005 --> 00:26:49.230
And it is quite variable.

00:26:49.230 --> 00:26:51.266
There is a fairly steep initial learning curve.

00:26:51.266 --> 00:26:56.504
You can type really simple phonetic words like cat and straps once you learn the chording keyboard,

00:26:56.504 --> 00:26:59.707
but there's a certain point where the frustration sets in,

00:26:59.707 --> 00:27:01.442
and you're writing words that you think are phonetic,

00:27:01.442 --> 00:27:03.506
and they don't necessarily translate the way you want them to.

00:27:03.506 --> 00:27:06.179
We're definitely working to make that much easier.

00:27:06.179 --> 00:27:08.167
You know, having sort of a prompting system,

00:27:08.167 --> 00:27:12.854
that if you type out a word letter by letter, it'll show you the equivalent steno chord for it.

00:27:12.854 --> 00:27:18.459
Or, you know, the video game, I think, will really help people to sort of just put in concentrated

00:27:18.459 --> 00:27:23.341
sort of flow-state work into it, and then suddenly wake up and be like --

00:27:23.341 --> 00:27:27.102
I've been doing this for two hours, and now I can actually write this email without ever getting frustrated

00:27:27.102 --> 00:27:30.439
or having to stop or having to look up a word specifically.

00:27:30.439 --> 00:27:33.042
So right now, Plover is not particularly user friendly,

00:27:33.042 --> 00:27:37.482
but I think it will become more so.

00:27:37.482 --> 00:27:41.679
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How do keys such as control, alt, meta, and shift work?

00:27:41.679 --> 00:27:43.690
MIRABAI: Again, they're just defined in the dictionary.

00:27:43.690 --> 00:27:48.006
We have a special command syntax, so alt is... ALT.

00:27:48.006 --> 00:27:49.965
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Sweet.

00:27:49.965 --> 00:27:51.256
MIRABAI: Yeah.

00:27:51.256 --> 00:27:56.061
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How you do combine, say, control and shift?

00:27:56.061 --> 00:27:57.865
Is that, again... Alt-shift?

00:27:57.865 --> 00:28:00.100
MIRABAI: Well, I don't believe that right now

00:28:00.100 --> 00:28:07.921
we're able to have a sort of "hold down shift while I write the next word", but you can sort of nest the commands

00:28:07.921 --> 00:28:09.696
in a single dictionary definition.

00:28:09.696 --> 00:28:12.667
So for me, alt-tab is TABLT.

00:28:12.667 --> 00:28:14.606
So that'll just do alt-tab.

00:28:14.606 --> 00:28:18.097
But I think eventually, we do want to implement sort of a stickykey situation,

00:28:18.097 --> 00:28:22.109
where if you write one, you'll know that the next one that's written will be combined with the previous.

00:28:22.109 --> 00:28:22.800
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you.

00:28:22.800 --> 00:28:25.111
MIRABAI: Sure.

00:28:25.111 --> 00:28:32.446
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, I saw your demo, where there was stenographic input, and the output

00:28:32.446 --> 00:28:37.817
was valid Python chords or functions, and so on.

00:28:37.817 --> 00:28:40.217
I didn't understand how that works.

00:28:40.217 --> 00:28:49.726
Because -- are you using pre-canned special things that you trigger, or are you really freely programming

00:28:49.726 --> 00:28:55.034
with brackets and braces and curly things and all the punctuation?

00:28:55.034 --> 00:28:58.612
MIRABAI: Well, one thing that's really great about Python, as you guys know, is that it's very readable.

00:28:58.612 --> 00:29:04.876
It doesn't use that much specific syntax or punctuation that isn't common in English speech.

00:29:04.876 --> 00:29:08.190
So, you know, you can see a lot of these things are just simple English words.

00:29:08.190 --> 00:29:09.980
Original is ORJ.

00:29:09.980 --> 00:29:11.114
You know, lower is LOER.

00:29:11.114 --> 00:29:12.716
WORD, FIRST, PRINT, FIRST.

00:29:12.716 --> 00:29:19.626
All of these commands -- you know, I did define raw input as RIPT, which was raw_input("

00:29:19.626 --> 00:29:22.363
so that's a single stroke for that specific Python command,

00:29:22.363 --> 00:29:24.530
but that's something that you'll use all the time,

00:29:24.530 --> 00:29:27.032
so it's worth defining it once,

00:29:27.032 --> 00:29:28.565
and then being able to do it in a single stroke.

00:29:28.565 --> 00:29:31.940
Similarly for variables, if you come up with a specific variable

00:29:31.940 --> 00:29:34.480
that you know you're going to be writing in your program many times over,

00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:38.243
you can just take a second, define it as a one stroke, mnemonic syllable,

00:29:38.243 --> 00:29:42.684
and then every time you reference that variable in the future, you just have to do that one stroke to get it.

00:29:42.684 --> 00:29:43.816
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay.

00:29:43.816 --> 00:29:46.603
I was just wondering whether I can write a new program,

00:29:46.603 --> 00:29:48.721
which is not yet defined,

00:29:48.721 --> 00:29:54.094
and I have certain identifiers which are new, and all of that.

00:29:54.094 --> 00:29:56.462
MIRABAI: Oh, absolutely, yes.

00:29:56.462 --> 00:29:57.364
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, I'll try it.

00:29:57.364 --> 00:29:58.766
Thank you.

00:29:58.766 --> 00:29:59.800
MIRABAI: Yes, it's pretty simple.

00:29:59.800 --> 00:30:03.269
Anything -- you know, again, basically you can output anything that the qwerty keyboard can.

00:30:03.269 --> 00:30:09.942
So you just have to know what strokes correspond to which letters or punctuation or whatever you're using.

00:30:09.942 --> 00:30:13.913
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay.

00:30:13.913 --> 00:30:16.149
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you have any issues with screen?

00:30:16.149 --> 00:30:17.618
MIRABAI: I'm sorry?

00:30:17.618 --> 00:30:18.434
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Screen?

00:30:18.434 --> 00:30:22.221
Control-A, control-left-right, screen?

00:30:22.221 --> 00:30:28.961
You know, for -- you SSH something, and then you start screen, and then you have multiple screen sessions on it.

00:30:28.961 --> 00:30:32.298
MIRABAI: That hasn't really come up.

00:30:32.298 --> 00:30:41.040
I imagine it would be handled similarly to the way one handles it using just a qwerty keyboard.

00:30:41.040 --> 00:30:44.810
AUDIENCE MEMBER: But there's a lot of metakey combinations that one uses with screen.

00:30:44.810 --> 00:30:50.450
Like, in parallel, where you're doing control-A and something else all at the same time on qwerty.

00:30:50.450 --> 00:30:52.991
MIRABAI: You can nest those in any dictionary definition.

00:30:52.991 --> 00:30:56.517
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, so you would do, like, two different chords, then?

00:30:56.517 --> 00:31:01.294
MIRABAI: Well, I sort of like to see it at a higher level, where if there's a particular command,

00:31:01.294 --> 00:31:05.431
you would just assign sort of a mnemonic hook to that command,

00:31:05.431 --> 00:31:08.640
and then assign that to whatever metakey combinations are necessary to produce it.

00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:10.176
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Cool, thank you.

00:31:10.176 --> 00:31:12.939
MIRABAI: Sure.

00:31:12.939 --> 00:31:18.586
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think I know the answer to this question, but there's no way to get this to work on a laptop right now?

00:31:18.586 --> 00:31:19.812
MIRABAI: Unfortunately, no.

00:31:19.812 --> 00:31:21.435
There are no n-key rollover laptops.

00:31:21.435 --> 00:31:25.048
It's really frustrating, because I would pay any amount to get one, but currently, no.

00:31:25.048 --> 00:31:26.483
Yeah.

00:31:30.107 --> 00:31:31.079
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi.

00:31:31.079 --> 00:31:34.010
Are you familiar with transcriptionist work?

00:31:34.010 --> 00:31:36.477
MIRABAI: Yes, I was a transcriptionist for many years.

00:31:36.477 --> 00:31:39.349
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, so how does this compare to, like, their crazy macro systems?

00:31:39.349 --> 00:31:40.666
MIRABAI: It's much better.

00:31:40.666 --> 00:31:42.015
Much more efficient.

00:31:42.015 --> 00:31:44.669
Yeah, with transcriptionists, mostly they use, like, text expansion systems,

00:31:44.669 --> 00:31:48.291
where they have to write the first two or three letters of a word, and then it'll sort of expand out,

00:31:48.291 --> 00:31:52.762
but with steno, most of those you can do in one stroke, so it's still almost triple the efficiency.

00:31:52.762 --> 00:31:53.912
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Wow, thanks.

00:31:53.912 --> 00:31:56.299
MIRABAI: Sure.

00:31:56.299 --> 00:31:58.835
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So thank you for captioning the Ada Initiative's latest video.

00:31:58.835 --> 00:32:00.035
MIRABAI: Absolutely!

00:32:00.035 --> 00:32:03.904
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I didn't realize how lucky we were to get one of the 400.

00:32:03.904 --> 00:32:10.285
But I just imagine that when you have a very -- you can hear code in your head, when you're writing these things.

00:32:10.285 --> 00:32:15.251
I was wondering if you could record a video of you speaking your code, or maybe speak it right now.

00:32:15.251 --> 00:32:16.685
MIRABAI: Sure!

00:32:16.685 --> 00:32:25.100
So let me start with this one here.

00:32:25.100 --> 00:32:29.334
All right, this is a sdration of how Plover can be ufed to speak at a nol kfrbl pace.

00:32:29.334 --> 00:32:32.413
You can see tha I'm trirging the speech engine manwael,

00:32:32.413 --> 00:32:37.204
but while the kpurt is spaoeg the praoef snens, I'm able to write out the negt one,

00:32:37.204 --> 00:32:41.176
rulting in a smooth and aoen flow of speech.

00:32:41.176 --> 00:32:42.416
This sdraition uses espeak...

00:32:42.416 --> 00:32:44.640
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Can you do it for code?

00:32:44.640 --> 00:32:45.584
Your code one?

00:32:45.584 --> 00:32:52.224
MIRABAI: Oh my code one, sure, yeah, absolutely.

00:32:52.224 --> 00:32:53.358
Yeah, you can see it's captioned down at the bottom.

00:32:53.358 --> 00:33:02.002
Orj kwals ript kpa ent ai word kln prent rr f orj pp s afl prens kln rr tab word kwals orj

00:33:02.002 --> 00:33:09.117
pp loer prens rr tab firs kwals word brkt 0 br*kt rr tab print firs rr else kln

00:33:09.117 --> 00:33:14.424
rr tab print kwgs kpa not ai word tppl kwgs

00:33:14.424 --> 00:33:16.981
(applause)

00:33:16.981 --> 00:33:22.321
Yeah, that is literally what's going on in my head as I'm writing steno.

00:33:22.321 --> 00:33:24.158
So there you go.

00:33:24.158 --> 00:33:27.928
MIRABAI: No more questions?

00:33:27.928 --> 00:33:30.698
All right, then I guess I will -- oh, is there one?

00:33:30.698 --> 00:33:32.311
Yeah, okay.

00:33:32.311 --> 00:33:38.239
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So I was just pulling up your website, and seeing that these are sort of acrylic pieces

00:33:38.239 --> 00:33:39.807
that I glue on my keyboard, basically.

00:33:39.807 --> 00:33:40.841
MIRABAI: Yeah, laser cut acrylic.

00:33:40.841 --> 00:33:44.744
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you see any prospects for maybe a little more sophisticated hardware improving things?

00:33:44.744 --> 00:33:45.946
MIRABAI: Absolutely!

00:33:45.946 --> 00:33:48.480
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I mean, a lot of people are now getting hobbyist 3D printers.

00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:52.086
Do you imagine people printing out their own steno keyboards or something?

00:33:52.086 --> 00:33:55.662
MIRABAI: I was actually talking about a possibility of a Raspberry Pi-based sort of steno kit,

00:33:55.662 --> 00:33:58.190
that we could sell for people to assemble,

00:33:58.190 --> 00:34:02.396
and as I said, we are also thinking about a commercial venture of just selling sort of low cost,

00:34:02.396 --> 00:34:03.832
pre-made steno machines.

00:34:03.832 --> 00:34:05.763
So yeah, there's a lot of potential in that.

00:34:05.763 --> 00:34:06.836
AUDIENCE MEMBER: From Adafruit!

00:34:06.836 --> 00:34:08.003
MIRABAI: From Adafruit?

00:34:08.003 --> 00:34:09.807
Maybe!

00:34:09.807 --> 00:34:10.437
We'll see what happens.

00:34:10.437 --> 00:34:12.670
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So is it just 22 switches, basically, that you would need for one of these?

00:34:12.670 --> 00:34:13.605
MIRABAI: Exactly, yeah.

00:34:13.605 --> 00:34:14.167
Absolutely.

00:34:14.167 --> 00:34:19.079
It's very simple.

00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:19.948
All right, so I guess that's it.

00:34:19.948 --> 99:59:59.999
Thank you!