Along came Creative Labs with their AWE32, a synthesizer card that used wavetable synthesis instead of FM.

Creative Labs did wavetable synthesis well before the AWE32 — they released the Wave Blaster daughter board for the Sound Blaster 16, two full years before the AWE32 was released.

(FWIW, I’m not familiar with any motherboards that had FM synthesis built-in in the mid 90’s. By this time, computers were getting fast enough to be able to do software-driven wavetable synthesis, so motherboards just came with a DAC).

Where the Sound Blaster really shined was that the early models were effectively three cards in one — an Adlib card, a CMS card, and a DAC/ADC card (with models a year or two later also acting as CD-ROM interface cards). Everyone forgets about CMS because Adlib was more popular at the time, but it was capable of stereo FM synthesis, whereas the Adlib was only ever mono.

(As publisher of The Sound Blaster Digest way back then, I had all of these cards and more. For a few years, Creative sent me virtually everything they made for review. AMA).

Honestly, I hate these memes. As an old school hacker/programmer who has been doing this for many decades, I can usually just start thinking in code and start dumping out everything I need from my brain through my fingers to the keyboard. I never copy-and-paste code from online for something I’m coding (I don’t count something like copying a script to do a quick shell task of some-sort; for something like Amazon’s directions for installing Corretto I’m not going to type all that out manually; and I don’t really consider that “programming”).

But as a tech manager (and former University comp.sci instructor), I know this happens more often than I’d prefer. But some of the worst code I’ve had to review has been copy-and-paste jobs where the developer didn’t understand the task correctly and jammed in something they found online as a quick solution. I get that I started in a generation where you had to understand the problem and code the solution from scratch (because the Internet crutch wasn’t what it is today) — but the fact that so many younger developers revel in the fact they copy-and-paste code on the regular makes me sad.

Summary for those who don’t get the references:

• In Futurama (a show about a young man who gets accidentally cryogenically frozen until the year 3000), Fry finds the fossilized remains of his pet dog from the year 2000. Ultimately he assumes his dog had a good and full life after his disapperance, but in the epilogue we see that his dog waited for him in front of his workplace (Panucci’s Pizza) throughout the seasons, regardless of the weather, until he aged and died.

• In Full Metal Alchimist: Brotherhood, the Elric brothers visit an alchemist (Shou Tucker) who is known for having created a chimera capable of understanding human speech. While they study under him, they also spent time playing with his 4 year old daughter Nina and her dog Alexander. Upon returning one day they find Shou has created a new chimera capable of understanding human speech in order to satisfy his yearly alchemist assessment requirements; when the chimera indicates it knows who the Elric brothers are and wants to go out and play it becomes obvious that the chimera was made by combining Shou’s own daughter with the family dog. The resulting being is very sad and confused and doesn’t really understand what has happened to it, and just wants to be back to normal, but there is no way to undo . This chimera is the creature pictured here.

Ultimately, these are two of the most heart-wrenching scenes in animation.

(PS: Fuck Shou Tucker!)

Crazy and sad. Reading his letter, I couldn’t help but get the impression that he has no idea a) about the current state-of-the-art in drive media and filesystems, and b) that Reiser 5 seems like it’s never going to happen.

It’s almost like he’s been frozen in time for nearly 20 years. Reading his letter was like pulling out and reading an old copy of Dr. Dobb’s journal. He is where he deserves to be — he is the architect of his own situation — it’s just wild to think of how much he’s missed out on due to his evil actions. It’s quite literally pitiful.

It’s what I use as well — my home was built with a Honeywell Lyric T5 (non-smart), so the wiring harness between the two is identical (including colour), so I just unplugged the T5 and plugged in the T6, did some setup, and it was done.