It’s now possible to learn to play the piano with gusto, thanks to the Back Pocket Band software that allows piano players the ability to play along and practice with bass and drum tracks. People can hear and learn to play the piano easily.

Years ago, when television and internet hadn’t made their foray into mainstream entertainment, music dominated a large part of people’s lives. Today, even with the advent of DTH (direct to home signals) and internet connections that connect at the speed of light, music remains a major source of entertainment. The only difference is, rather than music teachers teaching, it’s a robot that explains the musical notes.

The software features 9 different styles, and each style is played in three different tempos and 12 different keys. The files for each of these styles is provided to allow the user the ability to learn to play the backing tracks and can be opened using the ‘Song Robot software or any other popular software like Garage Band, Van Basco, Karaoke etc.

Thus, users get to learn how professional musicians play with backing tracks including full chords, voicings, licks etc.

In addition to the different styles, users can enhance the ability to learn piano by choosing from the three different sections, 9 styles of music, and a drums only option. You also get access to about 350 real sounding backing tracks. The user can choose between three different speeds.

If the user is looking to hear what he or she has practiced, the software allows for instant streaming and automatic downloading to the system and burns it to the CD or transfers it to the iPod. The song can be edited as well.

“There’s a huge problem for musicians who want to play the piano by ear. This software gives you access to over 350 real-sounding backing tracks and allows for easy learning,” says Jermaine Griggs, founder of Hear and Play, a site that teaches online piano lessons to people.

Back Pocket Band software can enhance your joy of learning to play piano.

Source:http://www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=114620

A HIGH Court judge has confirmed the appointment of an examiner to a group of companies that provide software for almost 10 million patients in both Ireland and the UK.

The firms, whose insolvency arises out of their UK parent’s financial difficulties, claim that if they had to cease trading the results would be catastrophic for patients and administrators at the hospitals they supply.

Yesterday at the High Court, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan confirmed Eamonn Richardson of KPMG as examiner to Irish Medical Systems Holdings Ltd and Irish Medical Systems Computers Ltd, both of Clara House, Glenageary Park, Dublin, and the UK-registered Integrated Medical Solutions Ltd.

The judge said he was satisfied to confirm Mr Richardson, who had previously been acting in an interim capacity, as examiner after an independent accountant’s report revealed the firms have a reasonable prospect of survival.

The firms now have court protection from their creditors for a period of up to 100 days. After that the examiner will submit to the High Court a scheme of arrangement with the creditors, which if approved would allow the firms to continue to trade as going concerns.

The companies provide software and related services under the name IMS Maxims.

Mr Richardson was confirmed as examiner after the judge dismissed a request by the firm’s UK parent, Daresbury Service Group (DGS), for the matter to be adjourned.

Rossa Fanning, for DGS’s joint interim administrators, sought the adjournment because of his clients’ concerns about the company’s examinership application and said they wanted time before the process continued.

These include the financing of an £11 million loan to DGS from a related company, Total Asset Limited, to acquire equity in the three software firms. Counsel said his clients believed that transaction may have involved some irregularities they wanted investigated.

Opposing the adjournment application, Gary McCarthy SC said the independent accountant had found no irregularities.

Mr Justice Hogan, in refusing the injunction, said he noted the concerns expressed by DSG’s interim administrators. He said Mr Richardson could address DSG’s concerns in an interim report due to be put before the court next month.

Source:http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0830/1224303189652.html

Following on from Harvey Norman’s announcement today of a 9 per cent increase in profits for the 2010-11 financial year, the company has announced its plans for the year ahead, including the launch of an e-commerce site in early October 2011 as well as a new software on demand service.

In a statement released to the Australian Securities Exchange, Harvey Norman said it was maintaining a cautious outlook for 2011-12 “due to global volatility, increased utility costs, possible increase in unemployment numbers…dampened housing markets and weak equity markets.”

Despite this, the company said it had plans for expansion in both its online and bricks-and-mortar offerings.

“The most significant addition to our business in the first half of FY12 will be the launching of our e-commerce site for Harvey Norman in early October 2011,” said a Harvey Norman spokesperson.

“Using market intelligence we have already gained from our successful photo-finishing and Domayne sites, we are confident our on-line transactional strategy will produce incremental dollars to the existing channel.

“Added to this, we will be pioneering a ‘software on demand’ multi-channel offer as an extension to our successful photo-finishing business.”

The company was also predicting a boost in retail sales in the AV category, thanks to upcoming sporting events.

“We look forward to the Rugby World Cup enhancing the television category and of course in the second half of the upcoming financial year the world will be gearing up for the biggest ever Olympics in London which is always good for our AV/IT business,” the spokesperson said.

Click here to sign up for our FREE daily newsletter

In addition to retail projections for the upcoming year, Harvey Norman also outlined prospects for other areas of its portfolio, including its property strategy.

“On the property side, our 72,000 square-metre Springvale, Victoria homemaker centre is on track to open in October this year. This will be the largest homemaker centre in Australia and is anchored by Harvey Norman and Ikea.”

The complex, which will be located on “one of Melbourne’s major arterial carriageways”, is set to accommodate Harvey Norman, Domayne and Ikea shopfronts as well as 25 other retail tenancies, making it the largest development of its kind in Australia. In addition to the Springvale centre, Harvey Norman has begun construction on a 32,600 square-metre development in Maroochydore, Queensland.

News of the company’s expansion follows on from the announcement early in the month that Harvey Norman would be closing or rebranding 25 failing Clive Peeters and Rick Hart stores across Australia.

“The conversion of most of the Clive Peeters and Rick Hart stores to Harvey Norman and Joyce Mayne should result in an overall benefit to the consolidated entity,” the spokesperson said today.

Source:http://www.current.com.au/2011/08/30/article/Harvey-Norman-to-launch-online-store-and-software-on-demand-service/LFZOWVJFNT.html

Computers may eventually outsmart human intelligence, but for now they’re just finally getting smart enough to ask humans for help.

That’s the basic idea behind MobileWorks, a startup that is weaving crowdsourcing capability into computer software. Crowdsourcing is the concept of putting out a question to your social network to help solve a problem.

In MobileWorks case, software sends tasks to a hand-picked crowd — mostly workers recruited from the developing world such as the slums of India and Pakistan. Many work with a mobile phone. The company says these workers are getting high-tech experience and a “fair wage.”

“Much of the criticism that has been leveled at online digital work is that it becomes kind of sweatshop labor,” Anand Kulkarni, a cofounder and CEO of MobileWorks, told me today. “Our goal was to start with a livable wage and work forward to construct an effective crowdsourcing system.”

And what’s that wage? Workers in India on a mobile phone earn about U.S. $0.50 per hour; those with a laptop computer make $1.50.

“These are workers who are earning about $2 per day before joining our systems, so, in a way, what we are paying is enough to make a strong positive impact on their lives,” Kulkarni said.

Tasks these workers accomplish include transcribing audio recordings, digitizing handwritten notes and scouring the Internet for contact information of potential job recruits. Many take just a minute or two to complete, which is part of the plan.

The cost to the user of the system is on the order of pennies per task.

To maintain client confidentiality, each task is broken up into tiny bits and distributed to the workforce. When the bits of work are completed, the software stitches them back together and delivers the completed task to the user.

The concept is similar to Amazon Mechanical Turk, where tasks are solved by a crowd of anonymous workers, though MobileWorks says their hand-picked crowd is faster and more accurate.

And since the workers are handpicked, MobileWorks can rouse them with a quick text message, making sure workers are at the ready when there is work to be done.

“The ability to spin up workers when you need them is very powerful,” Michael Bernstein, who researchers crowdsourcing at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory who has developed an application to tap into the Mechanical Turk service, told Technology Review.

“On Mechanical Turk your tasks can just stall because not enough people chose to work on them.”

Source:http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/29/7513675-software-taps-human-brains