Oddball Update – Page 10 – Chief Oddball writes about tech, games, cars and family life

World Series of (Videogame) Poker

December 8, 2011December 8, 2011 Chief Oddball

I remember where I first learned how to play poker, and from whom. When I was a kid, my mom taught me the basics of the game so that we could play it to pass the time in the airport while waiting for a flight to a now long-forgotten destination.

Changes

December 8, 2011December 8, 2011 Chief Oddball

To say that a period of life changes is upon me now that we have a newborn at home is, obviously, an understatement. But there are changes afoot here at Oddball Update as well, and I thought I’d better mention at least a couple of them lest someone become…concerned.

Gaming of a Different Sort

December 7, 2011December 8, 2011 Chief Oddball

All has been fairly quiet on the Oddball front lately, all thanks to a certain event that occurred on November 14th, 2011: the birth of my son, whom I think I shall refer to as “Oddball Jr.” or “Mr. C” until such time as I think of a better alias for him.

Successes Both Mechanical and Technological

November 12, 2011December 7, 2011 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

The weekend isn’t even halfway over, and already I’ve achieved two significant project successes — or at least, I hope I have. (One of them has yet to be proven out). Since at least one of these has been something I’ve tried to achieve for a long time without any success, I thought I’d post how I got it done in case it helps others.

It’s Wünderful Stuff

November 7, 2011November 7, 2011 Chief Oddball

I don’t know what kind of admen (madmen?) it takes to create a TV commercial as incongruous and random as this, but I am completely in love with the cinematic treatment applied to our dear old pal KITT in the opening moments.

Keeping Busy (with New Problems)

November 6, 2011November 7, 2011 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

Another busy weekend under the belt. Somehow, I guess I expected to have a few somewhat less hectic weekends between the conclusion of our Saturday childbirth classes and the birth of our baby, but as they say, nature abhors a vacuum.

Oddball Review: JVC KW-XR810 Car Stereo

November 6, 2011May 29, 2014 Chief Oddball 21 Comments

The JVC KW-XR810 is an apt replacement for the GTO's factory stereo and offers improved sound with a wider range of equalization options and two different (and very effective) loudness modes that the original system lacked.

Exorcising the Goat Gremlins

October 23, 2011October 25, 2011 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

I’m never a happy camper when my car starts giving me crap. So I was none too pleased by my GTO’s behavior over the last few weeks, during which time it started displaying myriad symptoms of some unidentifiable illness or another, all of which seemed infuriatingly unrelated.

The PC is Dying? Hardly

October 19, 2011October 19, 2011 Chief Oddball

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of proclamations that the personal computer as we know it is rapidly being replaced by smartphones and tablets, with today’s CNN Money article about the slow death of the PC being just the latest example.

This Christmas Lasts a Quarter

October 12, 2011October 12, 2011 Chief Oddball 4 Comments

My cup runneth over! Those were the words that came to mind a couple of days ago as I took stock of all the exciting things that will soon befall me in the coming days, weeks and month. You’ve heard of “Christmas in July”…well, this is starting to look like “Christmas in the entire fourth quarter of 2011.”