Oddball Update – Page 20 – Chief Oddball writes about tech, games, cars and family life

SHO-CO-REVIEW 1: Viridian

January 5, 2010October 26, 2011 Pooch 2 Comments

I’m gonna do something a little bit different here. Generally speaking, with my past music reviews it’s just little blurbs here and there, essentially saying “This is good!” Now – for the time being – I’m going to focus on one artist’s discography, reviewing one album at a time, with the reviews spread out over a number of weeks.

Oddball Review: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

December 28, 2009September 26, 2011 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

“What is this, Retro Gaming Month again?” I hear you asking. After all, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin was released way back in February of this year (2009). No, my friends — it’s just that I’ve only very recently completed the game’s single player campaign, and I was reminded yet again of why Monolith Productions is currently my favorite game developer.

Oddball Review: Belkin TuneBase FM with Hands-Free

December 21, 2009September 29, 2011 Chief Oddball

For the record, Saturday’s “cheer-yourself-up” day was a complete success. Apple and I had a fabulous time, got ourselves some of the things we’ve either needed or wanted (or both), and had some great meals and treats throughout the day. One of the items I picked up for both of us to use was the Belkin TuneBase FM with Hands-Free, an iPhone-centric vehicle adapter and FM transmitter that would allow us to play tunes on our iPhones through our car stereos.

Cheer-Yourself-Up Day

December 18, 2009December 18, 2009 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

It’s no surprise that 2009 was the year from hell for a great many of us. As we prepare to send it packing and usher in not just a new year, but a new decade as well, my wife Apple and I are taking the opportunity to celebrate together in the form of a specially-prepared “cheer-yourself-up” day.

Fix Slow WebDAV Performance in Windows 7

December 18, 2009February 21, 2012 Chief Oddball 59 Comments

I have an iPhone file storage app called Air Sharing that uses a WebDAV server to let you connect to it with a PC. For some reason, a few weeks after installing Windows 7, file transfers to or from this (or any other) WebDAV server became incredibly, mind-numbingly, literally-33.6K-dialup slow.

Getting Seasonal

December 2, 2009September 21, 2011 Chief Oddball

Every year it’s the same thing. The same commercialized rush for your shopping dollars, the same rotating playlist of seemingly half a dozen Christmas songs on at least one local radio station, the same daily avalanche of direct mail catalogs and coupons from every company you’ve ever done business with in your life.

Slingbox Setup with Wireless Ethernet Bridge

November 10, 2009September 21, 2011 Chief Oddball

From time to time, I’ll post something here that’s primarily a note to myself. You might wonder why I don’t simply write this down in a document and store it on my computer someplace. In addition to my hope that these notes may offer some value to others as well, the reason is largely organizational.

2009: The Year Entropy Accelerated

November 6, 2009September 21, 2011 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

As the ill-fated 2009 starts to wind itself down, it’s making it more clear than ever that it’s not going to let us forget how much pain and suffering it inflicted on us all. Some more than others, obviously, but by-and-large it’s been a pretty depressing year.

An Apple For Apple

November 1, 2009May 8, 2012 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

“What the hell’s wrong with this computer now?” I groused this past Friday morning as my wife reported to me that her Dell laptop had suddenly lost connection to our wireless network…again. As I futzed around with the machine, I eventually realized that the cooling fan was running full-tilt and the keyboard felt like there was a five-alarm fire raging underneath it.

That Got Their Attention

October 23, 2009October 23, 2009 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

I recently complained here about the problems we’ve been having with our Comcast service, both Internet and TV related. The gist of it is this: The underground line from the drop box to our home had degraded to the point where our service was being partially or completely interrupted.