Oddball Update – Page 27 – Chief Oddball writes about tech, games, cars and family life

Jumped on the iPhone Bandwagon

March 4, 2008September 22, 2011 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

So last week, as I was shaking off the last vestiges of whatever ridiculous illness I was suffering from, I did something I’d been meaning to do for a while now: I bought a 16 GB Apple iPhone. Love it or hate it, I find that the iPhone is another example of Apple’s exemplary user interface design.

WAMP, Vista Style: Pitfalls to Avoid

February 2, 2008September 22, 2011 Chief Oddball

Last week, I decided to try migrating to Windows Vista again. Yeah, yeah, save it. Anyway, after spending the last two hours trying to figure out why Apache’s mod_rewrite feature was not working, and then discovering it was the stupidest of the most stupid possible reasons, I decided to post a few “warning signs” here for you comrades who are traveling the WAMP road.

The One Free Man (With Free Time on His Hands)

January 5, 2008October 23, 2011 Pooch 3 Comments

Thoughts, observations, etc. on playing The Orange Box for the Xbox 360: Every time Dr. Eli Vance talked, I shouted out “Benson!” and began singing the Benson theme to myself. Then I’d think, “Man, they should’ve gotten Auberjoobiedoobiedoobie to do Dr.

TiVo HD, Comcast and CableCARDs

January 1, 2008October 2, 2011 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

First off, welcome to 2008. I mostly don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but if I were to make one, it would be “post on Oddball Update more often.” I seem to have mostly gotten the rest of my house in order, at least in terms of no longer working myself to death, trying not to get upset about petty things, and having a positive outlook toward the future that life may bring me.

Let’s Go To The Knife Planet

November 30, 2007October 7, 2011 Pooch 3 Comments

So here I am again, emerging from another months-long hiatus to gush about a rock band from Japan. I did it last year with Puffy, and now it’s time for…Shonen Knife. The female rock trio has been rocking out for over 25 years now — and has been making regular tours of America for about 15 — but last night was the first time I’d ever seen them live.

Mass Effect: Sci-Fi Brilliance with Annoying Aftertaste

November 28, 2007September 29, 2011 Chief Oddball

I’m completely enthralled by Mass Effect, the new sci-fi adventure game for the Xbox 360. It’s simply one of the most engaging single-player experiences to hit the Xbox this year, along with BioShock. But while the game is all kinds of excellent, it tends to leave a somewhat nasty aftertaste when it hits you with its idiotic auto-save system (or lack thereof) and a couple of other minor, but recurring, irritations.

Road Trip of a Lifetime

November 18, 2007November 18, 2007 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

<turns on the lights> Oh, hey. You all startled me. I didn’t think there was still anybody here, but I see you’re all still sitting there, waiting for me to post some fresh tidbit of content, some tasty morsel of one sort or another.

Xbox 360 = Teh Dead.

August 13, 2007September 23, 2011 Chief Oddball 8 Comments

Crap. My 360 died. As I posted not long ago, a playable demo for BioShock was released just yesterday, but was downloading with maddening slowness. I left the console on all night in “low power” mode, where essentially all it does is maintain background downloads.

New Toy: Canon Powershot S3 IS

August 9, 2007September 23, 2011 Chief Oddball

I’ve recently been jonesing for a more elaborate digital camera, after using point-and-shoots since I switched from 35mm film in 2000. Back when I graduated from high school, I got a Canon EOS Elan IIe 35mm SLR, and it was a fantastic camera.

Yay! Internet Explorer 3!

July 27, 2007September 23, 2011 Chief Oddball

You experts probably beat me to the punch on this — after all, the original technique for this was first conjured up three whole years ago — but it wasn’t until today that I found out about Multiple-IE. This handy package lets you install any previous version of Internet Explorer — all the way back to 3.0 — on your Windows XP system, simultaneously.