Software/Firmware build

There is a new update available for the LightSpeed. You have to call in to Stenovations and have someone remote to your computer and do all the downloading. All you have to do is press the LS power button when they tell you to.

First they will save your config file, just in case. The new software doesn't overwrite the old configs, but it is a precaution. Then they uninstall the LS program. Then they install the new software. Then they put the firmware on your writer, and that's when you get to participate and turn the writer on and off.

I have briefly looked at the changes. Under the writer, you can choose LS. I think this is only for digitalCAT users now (we have a choice of the LS in our software). It worked just fine.
Also under writer settings, there is a check box, Noise suppression, and it is checked by default. This supresses the *dings* which happen when you are setting your sensetivities and touch the key. Must have been bothering folks. My sound is always muted, so I don't hear them.
Next choice under writer settings is Enable USB data compression. No idea what that is, and Avery didn't know either. I turned it on and didn't notice what difference, if any, it made.

Wait for initialization packet is the third check box, and it is check-able only with the Smartwriter chosen as your writer (in fact, it default checks it when you choose Smartwriter). Has something to do with Eclipse.

There is a choice under realtime backup that is called Create Raw Backup File. I suspect this is for the SD card. A raw steno track is where if you delete strokes with the asterisk, it will still show the deleted strokes in the raw steno. That way, if you overdelete you can still read the deleted steno.

More on the tables and the antistacking later. That's going to take more than a cursory look.

Wokiebear in love

Wokiebear (whose real name I don't know!) published this on depoman:

I just finished a two-day RT depo with my Etch-A-Sketch Pink (yes, I got the pink, but only because I wanted the pink to honor my Big Sis, who died of breast cancer...she was my mom, too, because we have a large family). I checked my untranslates. It was .9 percent. I am estatic. I'm off and running. I came home feeling like I hadn't even written all day. First day was 230 pgs, second was just 120 pgs. I had absolutely no pain at all in my hands. I actually felt refreshed. I couldn't believe it when I checked my untrans. I used the macros from the writer, too. Makes me feel joyful to write all over again. I even felt like it helped me be faster in writing. I did made one other tweak on the job to the vowel U as I felt I was missing it some where I didn't realize that before. And I've only been actively using the LS on the job for just a month.

What did I do? I didn't immediately start writing and practicing from a job. I came in every night and practiced on it with fingerdrills to make my mind acclimate to the different feel. Why my mind? Because my fingers already knew where to go...my mind didn't with the new didactics. So I trained my mind first w/out pushing it. THEN I practiced on a depo I already had. THEN after a week of intensive training, took it with me. I also feel I am indebted to the reporters who posted their config file because I used one of those and just had to only tweak it minutely. Why at night? I reserve daytime for work...nighttime is my me time for whatever and I could practice w/out interruption from anyone. I don't feel like I'm skating on ice anymore. It feels comfortable and at home. I did use a support for my wrists at first so I would not put them on the keys or "rest" them on the home keys until I felt at ease w/out the supports. I used a gel mouse pad I have -- had to use two, one for each side. Once I started taking my pearl out on the job, I never looked back and tried to go back and forth to my Mira so that my brain would gel into place.

I'm going to actually save money on this pearl because I won't have to have (yet) that expensive Support contract with Stenograph.

Oh, what a pearl....(pink pearl)!