Dwain Bunker

I’ve been sick of late, so perhaps it was good timing that my Capcom/MadCatz Tournament Edition FightStick showed up recently to ease my pain. These things are nothing short of awesome. The workmanship is brilliant, the parts are genuine Sanwa Denshi parts, exactly what’s used in the $15,000 arcade cabinets. The joystick is effortless to move but still decisively clicky, as are the buttons. Start/Select buttons are on the rear of the unit, so as to not accidentally press them. It works perfectly on both Xbox360 and Windows. Now all that’s left is for Street Fighter 4 to come to PC.

Why do people say “thanking you”?
Call me picky but I don’t think narrating your actions in real-time has any advantage over the traditional method of communication. I first heard this when I worked in retail. I would serve someone and afterward they would say “thanking you!”.
Wait a second, did you just put in extra effort to say something differently? Am I supposed to go along with it? Do I respond with “saying goodbye now”, or “I am currently hoping you enjoy your evening!”? Do I take it further? How about when bagging your groceries I say “scanning your milk… scanning your bread… scanning your tomatoes… awaiting your payment of $16.50 now…”
Just an observation.

This weekend saw yet another announcement from Blizzard. It would have seemed that with StarCraft II and WoW: Wrath of the Lich King under development, Blizzard would be up to their shoulders in deadlines. Ah, but we’ve known this for quite some time now. It wasn’t long after the announcement of StarCraft II that Rob Pardo let slip some details about Blizzard having a “Team Three”, working on “Project Hydra”. Now we know what Project Hydra was. Diablo III.

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I’ve made a few purchases lately of things that are probably worth providing a review for, for any others out there intending to buy similar products. I’ll get right into it.

The first thing I’ll review is the PC I recently built which, if you missed it, was described right here.

Assembly was fairly smooth and I guess should be attributed to the quality of the case, even though there’s a few odd things about the case that annoyed me, like the door opening on the (in my opinion) wrong side, and the USB and HDD/Power LEDs being on the wrong side, as well. Nothing was of any dramatic concern. The motherboard was mounted in a (continue reading…)

The power of accurate observation is often referred to as cynicism by those who do not have it.
George Bernard Shaw

I originally heard this quote from Daniel and it really made me laugh. I don’t think I really need to explain it so I’ll just leave it at that.

*Growl* … *Snarl* …

That is the intimidating sound that will come from the following once it’s all put together (click image):

So Sean and I (I’d link to Sean’s blog if he actually had one, *glares at Sean*) bought some stuff over the weekend. Quite a bit, really. We’re both building new computers comprised of exactly the same components. So all the parts you see in that photo, there’s a duplicate of them in my lounge. You can probably figure out the specs for yourself, but for the craven (and also because I’m psyched about it) I’ll spell it out for you:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
  (2.40Ghz/Kentsfield/4MBx2/1066FSB/EMT64/XD/Quad Core) (continue reading…)

Where the primitive mind met the challenge of completeness by imaginative invention and was then faced with the problem of fitting all these imaginings together, the medieval mind was fettered by its respect for existing books and authorities. It regarded the inherited written words of the ancient philosophers with the same ultimate authority that modern physicists attach to experimental evidence. But the sheer volume of these written authorities ensured that any unification of their philosophical thinking was a vast enterprise. The twentieth century is not immune to such desires either. We have only to look at the problems that had to be faced over the definition and meaning of mathematics near the turn of the century. The formalists wished to protect mathematics from paradox by making it a closed shop: they defined it to be the sum total of all the logical deductions made using all possible rules of inference from all possible starting assumptions. [...] The desire for completeness could not be realised even here, in the most formalised and controllable human empire of knowledge.
John D. Barrow. “New Theories Of Everything” published 2007, Oxford.

John D. Barrow is a Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Gresham Professor of Astronomy and a Fellow of the Royal Society. His book, ‘New Theories Of Everything’ was given to me as a gift for my 21st birthday from my mother-in-law-to-be. And the above quote I found very satisfying. I couldn’t help but put the book down to think about it for a while before continuing.

It reassures my view that people have a warped sense of superiority when it comes to human progress. It seems to me that in this day and age where computers are everywhere and robotics are on the way, not to mention progression in genetic science, that people find it all too easy to assume we’ve hit a peak of technological prosperity. An easy mistake to make, sure. A lot of the things we have today certainly are impressive when compared to what we had just a decade ago. However, I do think this increase in technological advancement draws people all too easily into having the opinion that because of such advancements, it must have a direct relationship with our ability to think on a higher level of intelligence. This quote shows that even when we live in a world where technology continues to grow, we are still held back by our primitive and innate need to try and explain everything, even at the cost of logical reasoning.

Of course, my interpretation of the quote, and the opinion that followed is always open to debate. That’s why comments are enabled.

I hope someone has enjoyed the first instalment of my new Quote of the Month feature.

I’ve decided there has to be a way for me to ensure that I keep my blog active. After a bit of brainstorming I came up with the idea of a monthly quote. The quote might be famous, or rather unknown, from philosophical mind benders to simply hilarious things said between friends and I. Either way it will be of some kind of meaning and I’ll try to make sure I give a good explanation each time. Of course, I haven’t forgotten about my new years’ resolution, and I’ll try to combine it into the quotes, by choosing quotes that may support a rather dangerous or controversial opinion, hopefully making the monthly quotes entertaining enough to be worth your bandwidth.
Stay tuned.

Everybody seems to have a new year’s resolution. I’ve never really done that. I think if there’s something you know you should do, it shouldn’t require the beginning of a new year to do it. Nevertheless, since I have decided I want to do it, and it does happen to be early in the year, I will call this a new year’s resolution.

My new year’s resolution is to write more opinionated blogs. Possibly controversial ones. I think this blog has turned into nothing but an academic/software/starcraft blog, and I’d like to make it a little more personal. I hope readers (if you exist) don’t mind me doing so.

I will write more blogs about my personal, more passionate opinions that may hit people hard at home. It might turn out to be a good or bad thing, I don’t know. But if anything, it should be interesting.

I decided this when one of my best friends Peter started up a blog consisting of material I have just described.

I hope any readers can enjoy my upcoming blogs.

I’d be the first person to complain if I thought Blizzard were on the path to ruining the StarCraft name. Seriously, check my ‘Good Games’ list. Having been a fan and hardcore player of the game since its release, I believe I’m among the most anxious of people on this planet when it comes to this game, so I’ve got no reason to give Blizzard more leg-room than necessary. For example: I was a huge supporter of giving the Soul Hunter the boot. That thing was about as StarCraft as Pikachu.

My problem, and the reason I’m making this post, is that I think the hardcore community are getting way ahead of themselves. Obviously it’s great that the community are expressing their concerns with the game, and without that kind of feed-back, who knows what StarCraft 2 might actually end up like? But a line has to be drawn between helpful criticism, and the other comments motivated by biased, zealous attachment to the original game, that can only (continue reading…)