Brad Choate's blog

Input Managers and Leopard

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:44:21 -0800

Lets talk about a variety of Mac OS X software called Input Managers. In brief, an Input Manager is software that can affect other running applications. The original intent of Input Managers was to provide a means for customizing the operation of...

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Netflix adds insult to injury

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:11:35 -0800

Netflix.com has this option to watch a selection of their movies through your browser. Assuming your browser is running on Windows, as they require Windows Media DRM to play it. But their promotional graphic (pictured here) shows it running on a ...

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Are you sure?

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:36:00 -0800

The new empty trash confirmation dialog in Leopard. But… I’m using Time Machine. There is an undo! This seems contradictory. Also, the window grab action includes the huge drop shadow Leopard puts on focused windows. Is that necessary?

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Mac OS X Leopard menu bar loses its rounded corners

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:54:47 -0700

Just wondering how long it will take for someone to restore the rounded edges that have always been on the Mac menu bar. From Tiger: From Leopard: Update: Not long.

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Probably not what Vonage was expecting Mint.com to recommend...

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:11:26 -0700

I suspect Vonage doesn’t want Mint.com to recommend existing customers to switch to a cheaper plan, but hey, you save $117 a year if you do!

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Halo 3 and legendary difficulty

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 23:25:58 -0700

I played through the Halo 3 campaign at the 'Normal' difficulty to start with. I typically play normal and sometimes even easy when playing games these days... I just don't have the time and patience anymore. But the normal difficulty was actually...

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More iPhone stuff

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 20:09:23 -0700

So here’s a hodge-podge of additional thoughts after using an iPhone for a day or two. About the Speakers I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me sooner, but the iPhone is the first iPod ever to have built-in stereo speakers. That’s pretty signi...

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iPhone'd

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:19:45 -0700

Well, I did buy an iPhone after all. My Verizon contract was up, it’s a few days from my birthday— all the rationalization I needed was already there, so Apple, you got me. Again. I drove up to the local mall at 6:30 PM and found a pretty long li...

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Number Fifteen

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:27:34 -0700

I must pause a moment from this Movable Type 4 busyness to say that, as of today, Georgia and I have been married for 15 years. No, we’re not that old, we just married young. In that time, we have produced three little Choate-lings, lived in 4 st...

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Ockham's razor fails

nobody@vox.com(Brad) — Sun, 06 May 2007 17:03:16 -0700

You might assume that a modern-day book about Java and RPG programming would have something to do with creating role playing games. But, you'd be sadly mistaken. (Taking into consideration that this is an IBM publication, Ockham's razor is ali...

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