Brett Johnson - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Quark! (Score 1) 221

by Brett Johnson on Sunday November 15, 2009 @03:50PM (#30108118) Attached to: The Space Garbage Scow, ala Cringely

Them's fightin' words!

Comment Learning Fundamentals in San Luis Obispo, CA (Score 1) 145

by Brett Johnson on Sunday November 01, 2009 @11:19PM (#29946884) Attached to: Computer Activities for Those With Speech and Language Difficulties?

Several years ago I did some software consulting for a company here in San Luis Obispo that developed such products.
They develop software aimed at people with speech difficulties due to learning disability, hearing loss, or stroke.

http://www.learningfundamentals.com/

It is a small outfit run by a very reasonable guy named John Scarry.

Comment Re:A few million of VC should do it. (Score 1, Insightful) 210

by Brett Johnson on Wednesday September 16, 2009 @02:48PM (#29444065) Attached to: Fungivarius Beats $2 Million Stradivarius Violin

The only problem is "a few years" is like 150-250 years.

Comment Re:bling wound (Score 1) 109

by Brett Johnson on Tuesday July 28, 2009 @03:43PM (#28857563) Attached to: Healing Wounds With Diamonds

I look forward to paying $2000 for a box of nano-diamond Band-aids.

Comment Re:Since 196BC (Score 3, Interesting) 213

by Brett Johnson on Sunday July 12, 2009 @04:37PM (#28669541) Attached to: Rosetta Stone Sues Google For Trademark Violation

I did find it humorous that, in a search for 'Rosetta Stone', the actual artifact doesn't appear until 3/4 of the way down the first page. At least it shows up on the first page. I noticed the following stats:

Links regarding actual Rosetta stone artifact: 5
Links regarding Rosetta Stone Inc.: 15
Links to other language translator companies: 4
Number of above links that actually looks like trademark infringement: 1 (www.Rosetta.StoneLanguages.com)
Other Rosetta Stone links (Rock band, unix based translator, Mac OS X ppc emulator): 3

Comment Re:How did you phrase the mechanical turk question (Score 2, Interesting) 555

by Brett Johnson on Monday July 06, 2009 @12:11PM (#28595487) Attached to: The Mathletes and the Miley Photoshop

The survey was linked to in the original post. You can see it here.

He presented only the line from the statute, and the DA's 1-line argument, not his own interpretation. In my opinion, he actually provided too little context to make an informed decision, not too much.

Comment Re:Soz this mean we get a cellphone special now? (Score 1) 305

by Brett Johnson on Saturday June 27, 2009 @11:55PM (#28500751) Attached to: AT&T's Bad Math Strikes MythBusters' Savage

How can it take 1/2 a blackboard, when about 3 lines of algebra yield either 1 dollar = 1 cent, or .02 dollar = 2 dollar.

Comment Re:Who is Micro Focus? (Score 1) 351

by Brett Johnson on Wednesday May 06, 2009 @05:27PM (#27851741) Attached to: Borland Being Purchased By Micro Focus

Hazeltine 1500? I would have loved to have had a Hazeltine 1500. I was using a frakkin' ADM 3a. Before that, I pressed 0s and 1s into clay tablets.

Comment Re:Green, greener, soy? (Score 3, Informative) 389

by Brett Johnson on Tuesday May 05, 2009 @03:59AM (#27827681) Attached to: Soy-Based Toner Cartridges?

So five minutes of googling and I find out the details of the use of the soy oil in producing the toner. The soy oil is indeed used to produce the polymer binder. From the article:

"We identified an approach to use soy resins and polymers formulated into use for toners for office printers, faxes and copy machines," says Bhima Vijayendran, Battelle researcher. The research trial converted soybean oil and protein to a polymer, which was then processed into flakes or powder and mixed with pigments to create the necessary color."

http://www.soynewuses.com/downloads/biobased/BiobasedSolutionsNov2007c.pdf[PDF]

Comment Re:upgrades, drat (Score 1) 200

by Brett Johnson on Thursday March 05, 2009 @03:40PM (#27081307) Attached to: New iMac, Mac Mini Benchmarks Show Changes Are Slight

There is still the 13" white plastic MacBook.
The mini and appleTV have white plastic tops.
The 30" Cinema Display has white plastic sides.
The Airport Extreme base stations and Time Capsules are encased in white plastic.
The Airport Express is white plastic.
All the external AC adapters for the products are white plastic.

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