Viewing profile — brent_noorda

I was assigned Libra at birth but identify as Gemini. It’s infuriating how many of these young people refuse to accept my sign.

Yes. And apologies are written by the winners’ grandchildren

Does the state need to encourage charitable giving, though? Would a person stop donating $1000 of their expendable wealth to their favorite cause (e.g., hunger, cancer, cloning hit…

No organization should be tax-exempt (not religions, not charities, not foundations), and no donations to such organizations should be tax exempt. Tax exemption takes money from th…

the amniotic sac, just like the placenta and umbilical cord, are organs we all developed as fetuses. it should not be too surprising that we have methods to repair our own organs.

pick a side

Is that why Alexa, Siri, and OK Google, which are all wonderful, default to female voices?

Love it. This is one of the primary features that RDIO had that I miss in Spotify, because it allows for discovering songs, as in “if someone likes this song enough to add it to a …

You should make a law about Microsoft research pages and name it after yourself.

NASA licensed one $3 copy, but we didn't know why until ~a year later (just a guess how long it was) then found they'd had a team analyzing lots of software options, so by 2003 or …

Because JavaScript happened to be the language we at Nombas implemented in our "robust and predictable" engine. If a, e.g., python or TcL engine were as solid at the time for a can…

Thank. Yes, it feels very satisfying having it finally be deployed and operational, like a big sigh of relieve after holding in a small bit of breath (one alveoli's worth) for 20 y…

I just updated our "Nombas doesn't exist anymore" page, for readers of this nice and mostly-accurate article, with a little more background on why I think NASA chose it (tl;dr "rob…

A turnkey Alzheimer’s town. The next Hogeweyk. Sign me up (I’m just about ready).

Some of the tiles become darker and then cannot be turned. What's that about?

About 7 years ago I switched to nursing from nearly 35 years as a software engineer. Each 13-hour shift my 6 or 7 patients, if there was a moment to talk, would ask why I did so. I…

Recently tried the new Fiesta Veggie Burrito at Taco Bell. Two dollars. Exquisite.

When the “similar” setting is even a little bigger than the minority setting, it is hard to achieve satisfiaction. For example, if the minority color is at 10% but satisfaction req…

You can’t research something if no one will fund it, and no one dares fund anything that might show neurological disorders in women.

If you’re asking yourself “why does an insulator speed conduction?” Then it’s worth reading the “function” section of the Wikipedia article on myelin, for an introduction on the ro…

I made a beautiful app called ShoutFireInACrowdedTheater. With one tap it would shout “fire” in a crowded theater. Great interface. Amazing graphics. Voice activated. ADA compliant…

Back in the 80’s I worked for Verbex, a speech-recognition company attempting to release a product that would recognize all ten digits, when spoken, from ‘zero’ to ‘nine’. We train…

Micropayments are used somewhere? Anywhere? And they work? Examples, please.

They said 80 unarmed, meaning the rest of the 1043 were armed.