Oddball Update – Page 22 – Chief Oddball writes about tech, games, cars and family life

Shadow Politics

August 21, 2009January 4, 2012 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

I’m a regular reader of the Joystiq video game news blog, and this week my daily scanning of its pages revealed a lot of praise for a game I hadn’t heard of previously: Shadow Complex. This Xbox Live Arcade game by Chair and Epic Games is a 2D sidescroller built on the 3D Unreal engine, combining old-fashioned, Metroid-style gameplay with modern day graphics, effects and combat.

Watering Hole

August 20, 2009January 4, 2012 Chief Oddball

Apologies for the lapse in posting. Shortly after my Windows 7 installation, I fell into a tremendous task load — both at my day job and otherwise — which included a few up-till-midnight work evenings, working over the weekend, and the usual accompaniments.

Review: Windows 7 Enterprise Edition

August 10, 2009October 7, 2011 Chief Oddball

Okay, so this isn’t exactly the typical Oddball Review…no Asian horror or computer games in sight. However, after installing the final version of Windows 7 Enterprise Edition this past weekend (courtesy of MSDN), I am finding it significant enough to warrant a review of its own — particularly in light of certain earlier posts I’ve made here about Microsoft’s operating system.

Apple (Computer) is Starting to Piss Me Off

August 6, 2009August 6, 2009 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

Today comes news that Apple has started blanket-rejecting third-party eBook reader apps, claiming that because those apps can be used to read illegally obtained copyrighted content, they will no longer be published in the App Store. So what happens to eReader, Stanza, et al?

ComputerWeek

August 5, 2009June 29, 2012 Chief Oddball 4 Comments

Wasn’t “ComputerWeek” once a publication full of hardware deals and stuff like that? Seems like it was, but we’re reaching back into the 1990s with that one. Regardless, I’ve certainly spent a lot of time around computers this week. Not that I don’t normally; after all, I work with them for my job, which has me sitting in front of one for at least 8-10 hours a day.

Oddball Review: Western Thriller Triple Feature

August 3, 2009October 2, 2011 Chief Oddball 8 Comments

Apple and I recently took a break from our usual Asian-flavored horror movies to watch a handful of thrillers of decidedly more Western origin: The Number 23, Transsiberian and A Haunting in Connecticut (2009 remake edition). Since I was not enamored with any of them enough to post a detailed, screencap-infused writeup like this, I decided to combine three capsule-style reviews into the first Oddball Review Triple Feature.

What a Pain

July 29, 2009September 21, 2011 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

I thought I’d wrapped up all of my side jobs, but one came back to haunt me this week in the form of some changes that needed to be made to something I did a couple weeks ago. A whole lot of changes.

Pork Buns, Pork Buuuuns

July 29, 2009October 7, 2011 Pooch 6 Comments

If you’re like me, you often sit in front of your computer screen and think, “Y’know, Weird Al has done so much to advance the cause of parody music in my lifetime. But what I really want is for someone to make a goofy parody of that kooky Asian pop music I listen to.”

Over and Done With

July 24, 2009July 24, 2009 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

Finally finishing up this work day…and in turn, this work week. I just submitted the longest status report that I’ve ever written. It was hard to believe what a huge scope of work I did in just the last five days, but putting it all on paper in my report — as I do at the end of every week — made seeing believing.

Retro Game Review: Ghost Master (PC)

July 23, 2009September 29, 2011 Chief Oddball

Rather than devote an entire month to subjecting myself to retro video games — which will never succeed, if history is any indicator at all — I’m going to simply revisit a classic game whenever the mood strikes. When my dalliances in gaming’s ancient past are noteworthy enough, you’ll even get to read about them here.