patrickgamer - Slashdot User

Exoskeletons For Rent In Japan 226

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday September 09, 2009 @02:29AM from the place-holder dept.

destinyland writes "Cyberdyne has started renting their exoskeleton body suits in Japan. The mind-controlled wearable machine increases strength and endurance, and rents for $2,300 a month. (Sensors on the skin detect traces of nerve signals from the brain, synchronizing the power suit's movements with the user's own limbs.) New video shows the suits in use on the streets of Tokyo, and the concept may be catching on. DARPA now has a program called Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation 'to develop devices and machines that will increase the speed, strength and endurance of soldiers in combat environments.'"

The Case For Mandatory Touch-Typing In High School 705

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, 2009 @02:27AM from the quick-brown-fox dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "With the perspective of forty-plus years since my graduation, I would say the single most useful course I took in high school was a business class in touch-typing that gave me a head start for writing and with computers that I have benefited from my entire life. So it was with particular interest that I read Gordon Rayner's essay in the Telegraph proposing that schools add a mandatory course in touch typing to the cornerstones of education: reading, writing and arithmetic. 'Regardless of the career a child takes up when they leave school, a high percentage of them will use a keyboard in their daily work, and all of them are likely to use a keyboard in their leisure time,' writes Rayner. 'Touch-typing would help every child throughout their lives — so why are our schools so blind to this?'"

iPod Fee Proposed For Canada 414

Posted by timothy on Monday September 07, 2009 @01:15AM from the when-organized-interests-meet-diffuse-ones dept.

innocent_white_lamb writes "The Canadian Private Copying Collective is pushing for the implementation of an iPod fee in Canada to compensate them for 'losses' when people copy music to their digital music players. They have collected a fee from every CDR sold in Canada since 1997 and now want to extend that to digital music players. From the article: 'Some have argued that once they buy a CD they shouldn't have to pay again and again to listen to those songs — which they already purchased — on a personal compilation CD or on their MP3 player. But for people like Milman and Basskin, it's about recognizing the value of those works. "There has to be some sort of way to compensate the artist for the hours and the sweat and the blood and the tears and the extreme, extreme expense that goes into making music," Milman said.'"

Comment It's not a performance (Score 1) 305

by patrickgamer on Tuesday March 31, 2009 @02:20PM (#27405067) Attached to: PRS Demands License Fee To Play Music To Horses

Maybe I missed something here, but she isn't playing it for the public. People don't walk in off the street to pet the horses and get background music. Coffee shops and such are playing music to a a public - their customers. If this women is playing to horses (not likely considered general public) and those in her employ listen as well, that should still be counted as private play right? It's not the same as giving paying customers background music, is it? I don't see how playing this music is NOT private (i.e. playing music over dinner in your own home). ... Unless PRS says I have to play royalties every time I play the radio when serving dinner to guests...

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