text:
Sound Blaster

Sound Blaster is a family of sound cards and audio peripherals designed by Singaporean technology company Creative Technology (known in the US as Creative Labs). The first Sound Blaster card was introduced in 1989.

Sound Blaster sound cards were the de facto standard for consumer audio on the IBM PC compatible system platform, until the widespread transition to Microsoft Windows 95, which standardized the programming interface at application level (eliminating the importance of backward compatibility with Sound Blaster), and the evolution in PC design led to onboard audio electronics, which commoditized PC audio functionality. By 1995, Sound Blaster cards had sold over 15 million units worldwide and accounted for seven out of ten sound card sales.

Creative Music System
The history of Creative sound cards started with the release of the Creative Music System ("C/MS") CT-1300 board in August 1987. It contained two Philips SAA1099 integrated circuits, which, together, provided 12 channels of square-wave "bee-in-a-box" stereo sound, four channels of which can be used for noise.

These ICs were featured earlier in various popular electronics magazines around the world. For many years Creative tended to use off-the-shelf components and manufacturers' reference designs for their early products. The various integrated circuits had white or black paper stickers fully covering their tops to hide their identities. On the C/MS board in particular, the Philips chips had white pieces of paper with a fictitious "CMS-301" inscription on them. Real Creative parts usually had consistent CT number references.

Surprisingly, the board also contained a large 40-pin DIP integrated circuit bearing a "CT 1302A CTPL 8708" (Creative Technology Programmable Logic) serigraphed inscription and looking exactly like the DSP of the later Sound Blaster. Software, including Creative's own, use this chip to automatically detect the card (by trying certain register reads and writes).

Game Blaster
A year later, in 1988, Creative marketed the C/MS via Radio Shack under the name Game Blaster. This card was identical in every way to the precursor C/MS hardware. Whereas the C/MS package came with five floppy disks full of utilities and song files, Creative supplied only a single floppy with the basic utilities and game patches to allow Sierra Online's games using the Sierra Creative Interpreter engine to play music with the card and it also included a later revision of the game Silpheed that added C/MS support.

Clone
In 2017 hobbyists developed a clone CT1300 PCB.

Sound Blaster 1.0, CT1310, CT1320A, CT1320B

The Sound Blaster 1.0 (code named "Killer Kard"), CT1320A, was released in 1989. In addition to Game Blaster features, it has a 9-voice (11 voices in drum mode) FM synthesizer using the Yamaha YM3812 chip, also known as OPL2. It provided compatibility with the market leader AdLib sound card, which had gained support in PC games in the preceding year. Creative used the "DSP" acronym to designate the digital audio part of the Sound Blaster. This stood for Digital Sound Processor, rather than the more common digital signal processor, and is a simple microcontroller from the Intel MCS-51 family (supplied by Intel and Matra MHS, among others). It can play back 8-bit monaural sampled sound at up to 23 kHz sampling frequency and record 8-bit at up to 12 kHz. The sole DSP-like features of the circuit are ADPCM decompression and a primitive non-MPU-401-compatible MIDI interface. The ADPCM decompression schemes supported are 2 to 1, 3 to 1 and 4 to 1. The CT1320B variety of the Sound Blaster 1.0 typically has C/MS chips installed in sockets rather than soldered on the PCB, though units do exist with the C/MS chips soldered on.

Some sources note that the original Sound Blaster 1.0 was produced under the CT1310 number. This however is a topic of ongoing debate. Creative refers to CT1310 for the Sound Blaster 1.0 on its website.

In less than a year, the Sound Blaster became the top-selling expansion card for the PC. It achieved this by providing an AdLib-compatible product, with additional features, for the same, and often lower, price. The inclusion of a game port was important to its early success. PCs of this era did not include a game port. Game port cards were costly (around US$50) and used one of the few expansion slots PCs had at the time. Given the choice between an AdLib card or a fully-compatible Sound Blaster card that came with a game port, saved a slot, and included the "DSP" for not much more in price, many consumers opted for the Sound Blaster. In-game support for the digital portion of the card did not happen until after the Sound Blaster had gained dominance.

When Microsoft announced Multimedia PC (MPC) in November 1990, it suggested to developers that they use the Sound Blaster as it was the only sound card that came close to complying with the MPC standard. The press speculated that Microsoft based the MPC standard on the Sound Blaster's specifications. By 1993 Computer Gaming World wondered "why would a gamer" buy a competing AdLib card that was not Sound Blaster-compatible. Creative advertised the Sound Blaster 16 ("the 16-bit sound standard") with the slogan "Get Real", emphasizing its "real 100% Sound Blaster compatibility" and rhetorically asking "why those other manufacturers spend so much time comparing themselves to Sound Blaster".

Reception
Compute! in 1989 stated that with Sound Blaster, "IBM-compatible computers have taken the lead in sound and music for personal computers". Naming it a Compute! Choice, the magazine described the quality of the opening music of Space Quest III with the card as "extraordinary", praising the quality compared to the Roland MT-32 and Ad Lib versions. Compute! approved of the card's DMA and Creative's dissemination of technical information, and concluded that while the more-expensive MT-32 was superior, Sound Blaster's audio quality was better than that of Ad Lib or Game Blaster.

Sound Blaster 1.5, CT1320C, CT1320U

Released in 1990, the Sound Blaster 1.5, CT1320C, dropped the C/MS chips, which were no longer popular with game developers. Instead, the board had two empty sockets, which could be user upgraded by purchasing the C/MS chips directly from Creative or Phillips SAA-1099s from another source. Otherwise the card functions identically to the Sound Blaster 1.0. The CT1320U variety has the same layout as the CT1320C.

Sound Blaster 2.0, CT1350

The final revision of the original Sound Blaster, the Sound Blaster 2.0 was released in October 1991, CT1350, added support for "auto-init" DMA, which assisted in producing a continuous loop of double-buffered sound output. Similar to version 1.0 and 1.5, it used a 1-channel 8-bit DAC. However, the maximum sampling rate was increased to 44 kHz for playback, and 15 kHz for record. The DSP's MIDI UART was upgraded to full-duplex and offered time stamping features, but was not yet compatible with the MPU-401 interface used by professional MIDI equipment. The Sound Blaster 2.0's PCB-layout used more highly integrated components, both shrinking the board's size and reducing manufacturing cost.

Owners of previous revision Sound Blaster boards could upgrade their board by purchasing the V2.00 DSP chip from Creative Labs, and swapping the older DSP V1.0x with the newer replacement. The upgraded board gained the auto-init DMA and new MIDI capabilities of the Sound Blaster 2.0 but not the expanded sampling rates. The upgrade was necessary for full compatibility with the Windows 3.0 Multimedia Extensions upgrade.

Sound Blaster MCV, CT5320

Sound Blaster MCV, CT5320, was a version created for IBM PS/2 model 50 and higher and their ISA-incompatible Micro Channel architecture. The MCV Sound Blaster has some issues outputting audio while running on PS/2s with CPUs running faster than 16 MHz. However, the joystick interface is still inoperable on PS/2s it was designed for due to the slow-speed Schottky chips that have been installed. None of these timing issues affect the Yamaha YM3812. Some of the MCV Sound Blasters were released with faster Schottkys which eradicated some of the problems.

Sound Blaster Pro, CT1330
Model CT1330, announced in May 1991, was the first significant redesign of the card's core features, and complied with the Microsoft MPC standard.. The Sound Blaster Pro supported faster digital input and output sampling rates (up to 22.05 kHz stereo or 44.1 kHz mono), added a "mixer" to provide a crude master volume control (independent of the volume of sound sources feeding the mixer), and a crude high pass or low pass filter. The Sound Blaster Pro used a pair of YM3812 chips to provide stereo music-synthesis (one for each channel). The Sound Blaster Pro was fully backward compatible with the original Sound Blaster line, and by extension, the AdLib sound card. The Sound Blaster Pro was the first Creative sound card to have a built-in CD-ROM interface. Most Sound Blaster Pro cards featured a proprietary interface for a Panasonic (Matsushita MKE) drive. The Sound Blaster Pro cards are basically 8-bit ISA cards, they use only the lower 8 data bits of the ISA bus. While at first glance it appears to be a 16-bit ISA card, it does not have 'fingers' for data transfer on the higher "AT" portion of the bus connector. It uses the 16-bit extension to the ISA bus to provide the user with an additional choice for an IRQ (10) and DMA (0)m channel only found on the 16-bit portion of the edge connector.

A short lived joint developed project between Creative and Tandy resulted in the Creative/Tandy Multimedia Sound Adapter, 849–3030. This Sound Blaster Pro derived card was factory installed in Tandy Multimedia PCs. It combined the CT1330 with Tandy joystick and MIDI ports (not MPU-401 compatible).

Sound Blaster Pro 2, CT1600

The revised version, the Sound Blaster Pro 2, CT1600, replaced the YM3812s with a more advanced Yamaha YMF262 (OPL3). Otherwise it is functionally identical to the original Sound Blaster Pro. Shortly after the release of the Sound Blaster Pro 2 version, Creative discontinued the original Sound Blaster Pro.

The Sound Blaster Pro 2 was also sold with the following on-board CD-ROM controllers:
 * Sound Blaster Pro 2, SCSI, CT1610
 * Sound Blaster Pro 2, LMSI, CT1620
 * Sound Blaster Pro 2, Sony, CT1690
 * Sound Blaster Pro 2, Mitsumi, CT2600

Packaged Sound Blaster cards were initially marketed and sold into the retail-channel. Creative's domination of the PC audio card business soon had them selling the Sound Blaster Pro 2 OEM, CT1680, to customers for integration into pre-assembled PCs.

Creative also sold Multimedia Upgrade Kits containing the Sound Blaster Pro. The kit bundled the sound card, a Matsushita CD-ROM drive (model 531 for single-speed, or 562/3 for the later double-speed (2x) drives), and several CD-ROMs of multimedia software titles. As CD-ROM technology was new, the kit included CD-ROM software, representing a very good value to customers. One such kit, named "OmniCD", included the 2x Matsushita drive along with an ISA controller card and software, including Software Toolworks Encyclopedia and Aldus PhotoStyler SE. It was compliant with the MPC Level 2 standard.

Sound Blaster Pro 2 MCV, CT5330
The Sound Blaster Pro 2 MCV, CT5330, was a version created for IBM PS/2 model 50 and higher and their MicroChannel bus.

Sound Blaster 16

The next model, the Sound Blaster 16, announced in June 1992, introduced: Eventually this design proved so popular that Creative made a PCI version of this card. Creative's audio revenue grew from $40 million per year to nearly $1 billion following the launch of the Sound Blaster 16 and related products. Rich Sorkin was General Manager of the global business during this time, responsible for product planning, product management, marketing and OEM sales. Moving the card off the ISA bus, which was already approaching obsolescence, meant that no line for host-controlled ISA DMA was available, because the PCI slot offers no such line. Instead, the card used PCI bus mastering to transfer data from the main memory to the D/A converters. Since existing DOS programs expected to be able to initiate host-controlled ISA DMA for producing sound, backward compatibility with the older Sound Blaster cards for DOS programs required a software driver work-around; since this work-around necessarily depended on the virtual 8086 mode of the PC's CPU in order to catch and reroute accesses from the ISA DMA controller to the card itself, it failed for a number of DOS games that either were not fully compatible with this CPU mode or needed so much free conventional memory that they could not be loaded with the driver occupying part of this memory. In Microsoft Windows, there was no problem, as Creative's Windows driver software could handle both ISA and PCI cards correctly.
 * 16-bit CD-quality digital audio;
 * An MPU-401 compatible UART via game port;
 * A connector for the Wave Blaster, a 'Wavetable' daughterboard.

Sound Blaster ViBRA16

The Sound Blaster ViBRA16 was an inexpensive single-chip implementation of the Sound Blaster 16 for the OEM market. Creative Labs also used this chip for the Sound Blaster 32, Phone Blaster and Phone Blaster 28.8 (VIBRA plus modem, CT3120 and CT3220.) and many other value-edition cards. External Yamaha OPL3 FM music synthesis was retained in earlier boards built around the ViBRA16 or ViBRA16s controllers, whilst the later (and more common) ViBRA16 boards used CQM (Creative Quadratic Modulation) developed by E-mu Systems. This series included the ViBRA16 (CT2501), ViBRA16s (CT2502, CT2504), ViBRA16c (CT2505) PnP and ViBRA16XV (CT2511) chips. The primary advantage of the ViBRA16 was the inclusion of a 14.4 kbit/s telephony Modem; it also functioned as a telephone.

Sound Blaster AWE32

Released in March 1994, the Sound Blaster AWE32 (Advanced WavEffects) introduced an all new MIDI synthesizer section based on the EMU8000. The AWE32 consisted of two distinct audio sections; the Creative digital audio section (audio codec, optional CSP/ASP chip socket, Yamaha OPL3), and the E-mu MIDI synthesizer section. The synthesizer section consisted of the EMU8000 sampler and effects processor, an EMU8011 1 MB sample ROM, and 512 KB of sample RAM (expandable to 28 MB). To fit the new hardware, the AWE32 was a full-length ISA card, measuring 14 in.

Sound Blaster 32

A derivative of the AWE32 design, the Sound Blaster 32 (SB32) was a value-oriented offering from Creative. Announced on June 6, 1995, the SB32 became the new entry-level card in the AWE32 product-line (previously held by the AWE32 Value.) The SB32 retained the AWE32's EMU8000/EMU8011 MIDI-synthesis engine and built-in instrument ROM, but dropped the onboard RAM, the Wave Blaster header, and the CSP port. The SB32 used the Vibra chip to reduce component count, which meant bass/treble/gain control was limited compared to the AWE32. The loss of onboard RAM is offset by the inclusion of 30-pin SIMM RAM sockets, which allow up to 28 MB RAM to be installed and used by the EMU engine.

Sound Blaster AWE64

The AWE32's successor, the Sound Blaster AWE64 (November 1996), was significantly smaller, being a "half-length ISA card" (that term is misleading—see the pictures for size comparison). It offered similar features to the AWE32, but also had a few notable improvements, including support for greater polyphony, although this was a product of 32 extra software-emulated channels. The 30-pin SIMM slots from AWE32/SB32 were replaced with a proprietary memory format which could be (expensively) purchased from Creative.

The main improvements were better compatibility with older SB models, and an improved signal-to-noise ratio. The AWE64 came in two versions: A standard version (later rebranded as Value) with 512KB of RAM and a Gold version with 4 MB of RAM and a separate S/PDIF output.

Ensoniq AudioPCI-based cards

In 1998, Creative acquired Ensoniq Corporation, manufacturer of the AudioPCI, a card popular with OEMs at the time. It was a full-featured solution with wavetable MIDI (sample-based synthesizer), 4-speaker DirectSound3D surround sound, A3D emulation, and DOS legacy support via a terminate-and-stay-resident program. It was cheap due to lack of hardware acceleration. It is full-duplex but at least in MS Windows cannot play back several sources at once.

Creative released many cards using the original AudioPCI chip, Ensoniq ES1370, and several boards using revised versions of this chip (ES1371 and ES1373), and some with Creative-labeled AudioPCI chips. Boards using AudioPCI tech are usually easily identifiable by the board design and the chip size because they all look quite similar. Such boards include Sound Blaster PCI64 (April 1998), PCI128 (July 1998), Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI, Vibra PCI and Sound Blaster 16 PCI.

An ES137x chip contains three stereo sample rate converters, some buffers and a PCI busmaster interface. Analogue interfacing is done by a codec chip, which runs at a fixed sampling frequency of 44 (Ensoniq Audio PCI) or 48 kHz (Creative's versions). (ISA soundcards had not resampled but switched between different time bases.) ES137x do not support SoundFonts but a filter-less MIDI engine with wavetable (sample table) sets of 2, 4, and 8MB size.

Sound Blaster Live!

When the Sound Blaster Live! was introduced in August 1998, the use of a programmable digital signal processor in PC-audio was not unprecedented, as IBM had already done that with cheap Mwave sound- and modem-cards and Turtle Beach with their professional Hurricane soundcards.

The Live! was built around Creative's new EMU10K1 chip, which contained 2.44 million transistors and was advertised of processing a flashy 1,000 MIPS. The EMU10K1 (and its successors) did not use on-card RAM/ROM storage for instrument samples, instead it used a PCI busmaster interface to access sample-data stored in the host-PC's system memory. A/D- and D/A- converters as well as analogue mixing is done by an AC'97 chip running at 48 kHz sampling rate. All members of the SB Live! family have at least four-channel analog audio outputs and a 15-pin MIDI/Joystick multiport.

For game titles, EAX 1.0 (and later 2.0) (environmental audio extensions, which briefly competed with the now defunct A3D 2.0) added hardware-accelerated acoustic effects. The EMU10K1 provided high-quality 64-voice sample-based synthesizer (a.k.a. wavetable), with self-produced or third-party customized patches or "Soundfonts", and the ability to resample the audio output as input and apply a range of real-time DSP effects to any set of audio subchannels present in the device.

The first model and flagship of the SB/Live family was the ''SB Live! Gold''. Featuring gold tracings on all major analog traces and external sockets, an EMI-suppressing printed circuit board substrate and lacquer, the Gold came standard with a daughterboard that implemented a separate 4-channel alternative mini-DIN digital output to Creative-branded internal-DAC speaker sets, a S/P-DIF digital audio Input and Output with separate software mappings, and a fully decoded MIDI interface with separate Input and Output (along with on mini-DIN converter.) The Gold highlighted many features aimed at music composition; ease-of-use (plug-and-play for musicians), real-time loopback-recording of the MIDI-synthesizer (with full freedom of Soundfonts, and environmental effects such as reverb, etc.), and bundled MIDI-software.

The mainstream model was the Sound Blaster Live! Like the Gold, the Live featured multi-speaker analog output (up to four channels), and identical music/sound generation capabilities (without the bundled MIDI software and interfacing-equipment.)

Later versions of the Live!, usually called ''Live! 5.1'', offered 5.1-channel support which adds a center channel speaker and LFE subwoofer output, most useful for movie watching. The Live! 5.1 could also use one of the 3.5 mm jack ports as an SPDIF out, which allowed the connection of an external decoder.

Creative also released a ''Sound Blaster Live! Player 1024 edition, which is identical to the regular Sound Blaster Live!'', but with the addition of some extra software.

Sound Blaster PCI 512
The Sound Blaster PCI 512 (CT4790) is an EMU10K1-based sound card designed to fill a lower cost segment than the Live! Value. It is capable of most of the Live! Value's features aside from being limited to 512 MIDI voice polyphony (a software-based limitation), lacking digital I/O, removal of expansion headers, and only stereo or quadraphonic output support. The card's circuit layout is somewhat simpler than that of the Live! series.

Sound Blaster Audigy

The Sound Blaster Audigy (August 2001) featured the Audigy processor (EMU10K2), an improved version of the EMU10K1 processor that shipped with the Sound Blaster Live!. The Audigy could process up to four EAX environments simultaneously with its upgraded on-chip DSP and native EAX 3.0 ADVANCED HD support, and supported up to 5.1-channel output.

The Audigy was controversially advertised as a 24-bit sound card. The EMU10K2's audio transport (DMA engine) was fixed at 16-bit sample precision at 48 kHz (like the EMU10K1 in the original Live!), and all audio had to be resampled to 48 kHz in order to be accepted by the DSP (for recording or rendering to output.)

Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (September 2002) featured an updated EMU10K2 processor, sometimes referred to as EMU10K2.5, with an improved DMA engine capable of 24-bit precision. Up to 192 kHz was supported for stereo playback/record, while 6.1 was capped at 96 kHz. In addition, Audigy 2 supported up to 6.1 (later 7.1) speakers and had improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over the Audigy (106 vs. 100 decibels (A)). It also featured built-in Dolby Digital EX 6.1 and 7.1 decoding for improved DVD play-back. The Audigy 2 line were the first sound cards to receive THX certification.

Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (September 2003) is essentially an Audigy 2 with updated DAC and op-amps. Audigy 2 ZS uses the Cirrus Logic CS4382 DAC together with the op-amps and can produce an output SNR of 108 dB. There were a few slight printed circuit board modifications and 7.1 audio support was added.

Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro (November 2004) was an Audigy 2 ZS with updated DACs and ADCs, the new DAC being the Cirrus Logic CS4398, boosting the output SNR to 113 dB. Other than a breakout box, it has no distinguishable difference from the Audigy 2 ZS. The DSP is identical to the Audigy 2 ZS's but Creative put an "Audigy 4" sticker to cover the chip, making it appear as if it is a new chip. The Audigy 4 Pro is not to be confused with the Audigy 4 (Value) which contains lower quality DACs and does not have golden plated jacks. The Audigy 4 (Value) is more in line with the Audigy 2 Value series. The Audigy 4 had a shorter life span than its predecessors, due to the short window between it and the next-generation Sound Blaster X-Fi.

Sound Blaster Audigy Rx (September 2013) is similar to the Audigy 4 but with a dedicated 600-ohm headphone amplifier and a PCIe 1x interface.

Sound Blaster Audigy Fx (September 2013) also features a 600-ohm amplifier and a PCIe interface, but lacks the EMU10K DSP.

Sound Blaster X-Fi

The X-Fi (for "Extreme Fidelity") was released in August 2005 and came in XtremeGamer, Titanium, Titanium Fatal1ty Professional, Titanium Fatal1ty Champion and Elite Pro configurations. The 130 nm EMU20K1 (or EMU20K2 for Titanium series models) audio chip operates at 400 MHz and has 51 million transistors. The computational power of this processor, i.e. its performance, is estimated as 10,000 MIPS, which is about 24 times higher than the estimated performance of its predecessor, the Audigy processor. Beginning with the 2008 Titanium models, newer X-Fi cards switched from PCI to PCI Express x1 connectors. With the X-Fi's "Active Modal Architecture" (AMA), the user can choose one of three optimization modes: Gaming, Entertainment, and Creation; each enabling a combination of the features of the chipset. The X-Fi uses EAX 5.0 which supports up to 128 3D-positioned voices with up to four effects applied to each. This release also included the 24-bit crystallizer, which is intended to pronounce percussion elements by placing some emphasis on low and high pitched parts of the sound. The X-Fi, at its release, offered some of the most powerful mixing capabilities available, making it a powerful entry-level card for home musicians. The other big improvement in the X-Fi over the previous Audigy designs was the complete overhaul of the resampling engine on the card. The previous Audigy cards had their DSPs locked at 48/16, meaning any content that did not match was resampled on the card in hardware; which was done poorly and resulted in a lot of intermodulation distortion. Many hardcore users worked around this by means of resampling their content using high quality software decoders, usually in the form of a plugin in their media player. Creative completely re-wrote the resampling method used on the X-Fi and dedicated more than half of the power of the DSP to the process; resulting in a very clean resample.

Sound Blaster Recon3D

The Recon3D series was announced in September 2011 and includes the Recon3D PCIe, Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional and Recon3D Fatal1ty Champion. The cards use the new integrated Sound Core3D chip, which features the Quartet DSP from the X-Fi series as well as integrated DAC, ADC and I/O interface in a 56-pin package. The Asia-only Recon3D Professional Audio is basically a Recon3D PCIe with some extra accessories such as cables.

The Recon3D series of sound cards do not support ASIO.

The Recon3D comes with a bundled software called the SBX Pro Studio. SBX Pro Studio allows users to adjust the amount of virtual Surround, Crystallizer, Bass, Smart Volume and Dialog Plus for their Recon3D sound cards. The Recon3D also has got the Crystal Voice feature that reduces the pickup of background noises like the hairdryer or vacuum cleaner when a beamforming microphone is used.

Reviews have been generally positive, but pricing and small model differences have raised questions. Especially the low and mid priced models Recon3D PCIe and Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional have only cosmetic differences, but considerable price difference: the Fatal1ty Professional, adds a beamforming microphone, some red LED lights and a metal shroud over the board, but has no real hardware improvements.

Sound Blaster Z-Series
The Sound Blaster Z-Series was announced in August 2012 and includes the PCI Express x1 cards, Z, Zx and ZxR which use the same Sound Core3D chip as the previous Sound Blaster Recon3D series. The Z-Series improved sound quality over the Recon3D series by including more dedicated audio hardware such as Op-Amps, DACs, and ADCs.
 * The Sound Blaster Z is the baseline card of the series. Some of its main features are Cirrus Logic 116 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) digital-to-analog converters (DACs), a dedicated headphone jack with 600 ohm amplifier, and is bundled with a Beamforming Microphone that captures sound in a specific direction. One can switch between listening with headphones and desktop speakers in the Sound Blaster Z Control Panel. This card has a red color theme with a red LED light on the board. In addition to the red model, there is an OEM version that lacks the LED light, metal shielding and bundled microphone.
 * The Sound Blaster Z SE released in 2021 is identical to the Z, but with 7.1 channel virtual surround for compatible headphones, no bundled microphone and no driver CD as the card is only compatible with the Sound Blaster Command software.
 * The Sound Blaster Zx card is identical to the Z (exact same card, exact same card SKU/Model (SB1500) on card itself, compared side by side in store), with the only notable change compared to the baseline "Z" being the addition of the desktop ACM (Audio Control Module). The Zx & ZxR were both bundled with the Audio Control Module (ACM) which is basically an extension cord for headphones. The ACM contains both 1/4" and 3.5 mm headphone and microphone jacks, a potentiometer headphone volume knob, and a built-in dual-microphone Beamforming array. The ACM uses a red color theme that matches the card. The entire package (Card and ACM) carries a separate model number of SB1506, which is different than the base SB1500 printed on the included card (as the card is just a SB-Z now bundled with accessories).
 * The Sound Blaster ZxR is the top of line sound card of the series and uses an entirely different card from the Z and Zx. Some of its features include TI Burr-Brown 124 dB SNR DACs, two swappable op-amps, a 600 ohm 80 mW TI TPA6120 headphone amplifier, and 192 kHz stereo pass through. The Sound Blaster ZxR comes with a daughter board which provides optical S/PDIF input and output, and two RCA inputs that feature a TI Burr-Brown 123 dB SNR analog-to-digital converter (ADC); it has its own Sound Core3D processor and takes up a second expansion slot in the computer if installed. The ZxR can record up to 24-bit/96 kHz. The ACM and two boards (main and daughter) have a black color scheme with no LED lighting.

Sound BlasterX AE-5/Plus
The Sound BlasterX AE-5 was announced in June 2017, the first discrete sound card made by Creative in five years since the introduction of the Z-series. The card is the first in the Sound Blaster series to use a 32-bit/384 kHz SABRE 32 Ultra DAC (ES9016K2M), along with a custom-designed discrete headphone amplifier (1 W output power and low output impedance of 1 Ohm so it can provide high damping factor for virtually any dynamic headphone). The card has an additional RGB lighting courtesy of a MOLEX power connection and accompanying RGB LED strip. In late 2017, a white colored model of the sound card called the Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure Edition was released with 4 RGB LED strips instead of one with the standard black model.

In 2020, the AE-5 Plus was released which is similar to the previous model, but the sound card comes with hardware Dolby Digital Live and DTS encoding. There is a white colored Pure Edition released alongside the standard black model.

Sound Blaster AE-7
The Sound Blaster AE-7 was released in July 2019 alongside the Sound Blaster AE-9. It is equipped with an ESS SABRE 9018 DAC, and it features an ACM (Audio Control Module), which connects to the sound card via two of the audio ports available on the card itself. It doesn't feature RGB lighting, contrary to the AE-5, and it doesn't require external power either.

Sound Blaster AE-9
The Sound Blaster AE-9 was announced in December 2018, targeting the audiophile audience. This soundcard is equipped with an ESS SABRE 9038 DAC, and it features an external Audio Control Module which connects to the sound card with a mini-HDMI cable, containing an XLR port for a microphone and a toggleable 48+ volt phantom power rail; the sound card itself features replaceable operational amplifiers. The sound card with the external DAC consumes 75 W, and thus is the first sound card from Creative that requires auxiliary power, using a 6-pin PCI-E connector to supply power to the external DAC. The card was officially released on July 10, 2019, to celebrate 30 years since the introduction of the original Sound Blaster.

Sound BlasterAxx
Sound BlasterAxx is a series of USB powered speakers that has the features of a sound card. The speakers also have built-in microphones. The series of speakers work with Mac OS X other than Microsoft Windows.

Sound BlasterAxx SBX series
The Sound BlasterAxx SBX series was released in year 2012. There are three models in the series, the Sound BlasterAxx SBX 8, Sound BlasterAxx SBX 10 and Sound BlasterAxx SBX 20. All three speakers have a bass port, Headphone Out and Aux-in/Mic-in 3.5mm jacks behind. The speakers do not contain rechargeable batteries and they require a USB power source.

The speakers work with the Sound BlasterAxx control panel software for adjustment of SBX Pro Studio and Crystal Voice settings. The Sound BlasterAxx Control Panel has got a Mac OS X version other than the Microsoft Windows version.

The Sound BlasterAxx SBX 8 is the only speaker that does not have Bluetooth capability. The Sound BlasterAxx SBX 10 and Sound BlasterAxx SBX 20 are Bluetooth capable and can be used for answering phones calls from iOS and Android smart phones. The Bluetooth version for the speakers is Bluetooth 2.1(Enhanced Data Rate). The Bluetooth codecs supported are SBC and AAC, aptX is not supported. The speakers also do not support ASIO and do not have the Scout Mode feature.

SBX Pro Studio effects such as SBX Surround, SBX Crystallizer, SBX Bass, SBX Smart Volume and SBX Dialog Plus can be adjusted by the Sound Blaster Central mobile app.

Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200
In the beginning of 2014, Creative Labs released the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 portable Bluetooth speaker.

Like the speakers of the Sound BlasterAxx SBX series, it has a built-in SB-Axx1 sound chip and works with both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows computers. Its dimensions are 64.0 x 72.3 x 200.6 mm (2.51 x 2.84 x 7.9 inches) and it weighs 0.5 kg (1.1 lbs).

The Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 has a built-in 5200mAh Lithium-ion battery, allowing it to be used as a portable Bluetooth speaker. It has a microSD card slot for playing WMA/MP3 tracks from a microSD card. Calls and voices can be recorded through its microphone; the recordings are stored in the microSD card. It also has a megaphone function.

Its Bluetooth version is Bluetooth 2.1(Enhanced Date Rate) and supports SBC, AAC and aptX Bluetooth codecs. It can be paired with Bluetooth devices via NFC(Near Field Communication).

Same as the Sound BlasterAxx SBX series of speakers, it does not support ASIO and does not have the Scout Mode feature.

List of USB audio devices

 * Sound Blaster Extigy
 * Sound Blaster MP3+
 * Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX
 * Sound Blaster X-Fi USB
 * Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB
 * Sound Blaster X-Fi GO! Pro
 * Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro
 * Sound Blaster Digital Music Premium HD
 * Sound BlasterAxx SBX 8 / SBX 10 / SBX 20
 * Sound Blaster Play!
 * Sound Blaster Play! 2
 * Sound Blaster Play! 3
 * Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1
 * Sound Blaster R3
 * Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200
 * Sound Blaster Roar
 * Sound Blaster Roar 2
 * Sound Blaster E1 / E3 / E5
 * Sound Blaster JAM
 * Sound Blaster X7
 * Sound Blaster X7 Limited Edition
 * Sound Blaster FRee
 * Sound Blaster X3
 * Sound Blaster X5
 * Sound Blaster Katana soundbar
 * Sound Blaster Katana v2 soundbar

External connector
Sound Blaster cards since 1999 conform to Microsoft's PC 99 standard for color-coding the external connectors as follows:

Up until the AWE line in 1994, Creative cards have short text inscriptions on the backplane of the card, indicating which port does what (i.e. Mic, Spk, Aux In, Aux Out). On later cards, the text inscriptions were changed to icons. With the latest cards from Creative, the cards were changed to use numbers as the ports are flexi-jacks and can have different functions assigned to them at run-time (i.e. changed from speaker output to mic in), but a color overlay sticker is included with retail units to help consumers identify the commonly used functions of the ports in their default modes.

Internal pin connector and jumper
A lot of audio/data pin connectors and jumpers-setting is present in the internal body of the sound blaster, different from card to card, and along the years of productions.

Most common pin connector:
 * Audio CD-IN, CD SPDIF and AUX-In
 * CD-ROM drive connection
 * PC speaker
 * TAD (Telephone Answering Device) connector
 * MB_PRO (Modem Blaster connector)
 * Wave Blaster Header

Most common pin jumper setting (especially before plug-and-play features):

 * Sound Card Base Address/IRQ/DMA
 * Line or Speaker output
 * MIDI
 * Joystick

Driver software modification (soft mod)
Some drivers from the Audigy 2 ZS have been soft-modded by enthusiasts. These can be installed on Creative's older cards, including Sound Blaster Live!, Audigy, and Audigy 2. It has been claimed to offer improved sound quality, hardware acceleration of higher EAX versions in games, 64-channel mixing for Audigy 1, and an overall improvement in the card's performance. Several forum posts across the web have reported favorable results with this technique, excepting Live! users where the drivers only add the ability to use the newer software applications (i.e. the newer mixer applet). Comments on forums from developers of the software mod have said that Live's hardware is not capable of EAX3 nor 64-channels of hardware sound mixing.

Later, in 2004, Creative released updated drivers top-to-bottom for the Audigy through Audigy 4 line that put these cards basically at feature parity on a software level. As of 2006, the entire Audigy lineup uses the same driver package. DSP decoding at the driver level on other cards than Audigy 2 ZS and 4 is still not supported by official drivers, but it works with soft-modded drivers on the other cards with hardware DSP (like Audigy 2 6.1).

When Windows Vista was released, there was only a single beta driver for the Creative Audigy series that was usable on the operating system with minimal functionality and frequent instability reported by users. A Creative Forum activist named Daniel K. modified drivers from the X-Fi and applied it to the Audigy and Live! series, restoring most if not all of the features that came with the original XP setup CD in Vista. X-Fi drivers have noticeably better sound quality under Vista, and more bug fixes because of the newer build (last modified version is 2.15.0004EQ April). He managed to enable the X-Fi Crystallizer to work on Audigy series cards in software, however because of the patents involved, he was forced to remove all the modified drivers and DLL patch.

Creative then released a newer official Audigy Vista driver (2.18.0000 as of 28 July 2008) due to public and consumer pressure. However, some form of agreement between Creative and Daniel K has been achieved, as he returned to the Creative forums, posting updated versions of his modified drivers. He released the final version of his modded driver package as of January 12, 2012.

Compatibility with Linux
All recent Linux distributions support Sound Blaster Cards via kernel drivers. In case of non-Plug-and-Play ISA cards, a configuration file in /etc/modules must be reconfigured, writing for example with Sound Blaster 16 card installed: snd-sb16 isapnp=0.

X-Fi series cards have basic support in Linux, but the advanced features like signal routing, relay control or external I/O consoles are not supported.

Support for the newer Sound Blaster cards (Z and AE series) was added to the kernel during 4.19 – 4.20 release timeframe.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Sound Blaster


text:
Little Darlings

Little Darlings is a 1980 American teen comedy-drama film starring Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol and featuring Armand Assante and Matt Dillon. It was directed by Ronald F. Maxwell. The screenplay was written by Kimi Peck and Dalene Young and the original music score was composed by Charles Fox. The film was marketed with the tagline "Don't let the title fool you", a reference to a scene in which the character of Angel tells Randy, "Don't let the name fool you."

Film critic Roger Ebert said of the film that it "somehow does succeed in treating the awesome and scary subject of sexual initiation with some of the dignity it deserves."

Plot
A group of teenage girls head to Camp Little Wolf, an all-girls camp, for the summer. The group includes Angel Bright, a cynical, streetwise girl, and Ferris Whitney, a romantic, naive rich girl. The two immediately develop a dislike for one another, and to their dismay learn they must share a cabin. Cinder Carlson, an arrogant teen model who is in the same cabin and is boastful about her sexual experiences, suggests to the group that Ferris and Angel are virgins, leading to the two girls making a bet to see which one of them can lose her virginity first. All of the girls in the camp divide into two "teams", each rooting for and egging on either Ferris or Angel.

One day, the girls manage to steal one of the camp buses and use it to get condoms from the men’s room at the local gas station. On the outing, Angel meets Randy, a boy from the camp across the lake. She decides Randy is the guy she wants to lose her virginity to. Meanwhile, Ferris sets her sights on Gary Callahan, a much older camp counselor. Angel regularly sneaks out of camp to see Randy and she tries to get him drunk, while Ferris attempts to seduce Gary, but neither girl is successful in her efforts. During Parents' Day, Ferris' dad reveals that he is divorcing her mom, which leads to Ferris feeling disillusioned in her ideas of romantic love. Angel feels distressed when her mother suggests that sex is "no big deal".

One night, Ferris finally tries to tell Gary how she feels. She goes to his cabin and talks about Romeo and Juliet, but Gary calmly rebuffs her, telling her he is "a teacher", not "a prince". Pressured by the other girls, she lies and says that she and Gary had sex. The rumors spread throughout the camp, jeopardizing Gary’s job.

Angel tries to view the act of sex with the same nonchalance as her mother, but when she has an opportunity to have sex with Randy in a boathouse, she becomes confused and hesitant. Randy is put off by Angel's reluctance and leaves, with Angel tearfully protesting, "But I like you!" A few days later, she meets Randy again with a changed attitude, and they manage to consummate their relationship. However, the experience is not what Angel thought it would be like, and she does not tell the other girls that she had sex. She allows Ferris to win the bet.

The girls in the camp eventually all turn against Cinder and call her out for instigating the bet, with some of the girls arguing that it doesn't matter who is a virgin or not. Ferris also apologizes to Gary and confesses to the camp director about her lie, saving Gary’s job. When Randy later seeks Angel out, she admits that while she likes him, she is not ready for a relationship with him. Angel and Ferris leave camp realizing they are more alike than different, and as they return home to their parents, they become best friends.

Cast

 * Tatum O'Neal as Ferris Whitney
 * Kristy McNichol as Angel Bright
 * Armand Assante as Gary Callahan
 * Matt Dillon as Randy Adams
 * Maggie Blye as Ms. Bright
 * Nicolas Coster as Mr. Whitney
 * Marianne Gordon as Mrs. Whitney
 * Krista Errickson as Cinder Carlson
 * Alexa Kenin as Dana
 * Mary Betten as Miss Nichols
 * Abby Bluestone as Chubby
 * Troas Hayes as Diane
 * Cynthia Nixon as Sunshine Walker
 * Simone Schachter as Carrots
 * Jenn Thompson as Penelope Schubert

Production
The film was made by Stephen Friedman's Kings Road Productions. Paramount agreed to provide $5.3 million to make it in exchange for $14.3 million to market and develop the film.

Kristy McNichol had the first pick of lead roles over Tatum O’Neal and chose the role of Angel, the more streetwise character. Principal photography on Little Darlings began on March 19, 1979 at Hard Labor Creek State Park, 50 miles east of Atlanta. The gas station men's room (condom) scene was filmed in downtown Rutledge, the town nearest the park. The meeting place for the buses at the beginning and ending were filmed in a parking lot near the offices of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the old Omni Coliseum can be seen in the background including in the last scene of the movie. When Ferris is driven into town, they pass the Swan House, indicating that her family lives in Buckhead, a wealthy part of town to the north of the city.

A novelization of the film by Sonia Pilcer was released as a tie-in in 1980.

Soundtrack and licensing issues
The film was notable for having a contemporary pop soundtrack, with music by artists like Blondie, Rickie Lee Jones, Supertramp, The Cars, and Iain Matthews. The original video release—on blue box VHS and laserdisc—kept the soundtrack intact; however, many songs in the film such as Supertramp's "School", John Lennon's "Oh My Love" and The Bellamy Brothers' "Let Your Love Flow" were removed from the second round of home releases—VHS red box—due to licensing issues, and were replaced with sound-alikes.

On January 7, 2012, Lionsgate announced the release of the film on DVD, but it was later canceled.

The film was released by Cinématographe as their inaugural release on Blu-ray and 4K UHD in January 2024. It is also available for digital video rental on iTunes and Amazon Prime. Turner Classic Movies also aired the original theatrical version, letterboxed, and with all original music and credits intact. Canada’s Hollywood Suite aired the original theatrical version on June 22, 2021, with a replay scheduled for the following day.

Reception
The film made $34.3 million domestically against a budget of $5.3 million. NBC later acquired broadcasting rights for $2.7 million and the network first aired the film on May 9, 1983. The film also made $1.2 million in the ancillary markets.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "fresh" approval rating of 67% based on nine reviews. On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 45 out of 100 based on nine reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Frank Rich of Time praised McNichol’s acting, but criticized the script and said the characters were underdeveloped. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, “Miss O'Neal and Miss McNichol, both lovely and accomplished actresses, are much better than their material. And they go a long way toward lending the story a little charm.”

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also criticized the tonal inconsistencies of the film, but noted that “the scenes in which [the characters] actually confront the realities of sex are handled so thoughtfully and tastefully that they almost seem to belong to another movie.”

TV version
For its broadcast on TV, Little Darlings was shown in a heavily edited version which had all the sex-related scenes and dialogue removed, giving the impression that, instead of trying to lose their virginity, Angel and Ferris were engaged in competition simply to make a guy fall in love with them. The deleted scenes were replaced with alternate footage not seen in the theatrical version, including a scene in which Angel rescues Ferris from drowning in the lake during a thunderstorm. Some additional music was also used in this version. Director Ron Maxwell has stated that he had no participation in this TV version and does not approve of it.

Awards and honors

 * Young Artist Awards
 * Nominee: Second Best Young Actress in a Major Motion Picture - Kristy McNichol

title: Little Darlings


text:
Imprinting (psychology)

In psychology and ethology, imprinting is any kind of phase-sensitive learning (learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage) that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behaviour. It was first used to describe situations in which an animal or person learns the characteristics of some stimulus, which is therefore said to be "imprinted" onto the subject. Imprinting is hypothesized to have a critical period.

Filial imprinting
The best-known form of imprinting is filial imprinting, in which a young animal narrows its social preferences to an object (typically a parent) as a result of exposure to that object. It is most obvious in nidifugous birds, which imprint on their parents and then follow them around. It was first reported in domestic chickens, by Sir Thomas More in 1516 as described in his treatise Utopia, 350years earlier than by the 19th-century amateur biologist Douglas Spalding. It was rediscovered by the early ethologist Oskar Heinroth, and studied extensively and popularized by his disciple Konrad Lorenz working with greylag geese.

Lorenz demonstrated how incubator-hatched geese would imprint on the first suitable moving stimulus they saw within what he called a "critical period" between 13 and 16 hours shortly after hatching. For example, the goslings would imprint on Lorenz himself (to be more specific, on his wading boots), and he is often depicted being followed by a gaggle of geese who had imprinted on him. Lorenz also found that the geese could imprint on inanimate objects. In one notable experiment, they followed a box placed on a model train in circles around the track. Filial imprinting is not restricted to non-human animals that are able to follow their parents, however.

The filial imprinting of birds was a primary technique used to create the movie Winged Migration (Le Peuple Migrateur), which contains a great deal of footage of migratory birds in flight. The birds imprinted on handlers, who wore yellow jackets and honked horns constantly. The birds were then trained to fly along with a variety of aircraft, primarily ultralights.

The Italian hang-glider pilot Angelo d'Arrigo extended this technique. D'Arrigo noted that the flight of a non-motorised hang-glider is very similar to the flight patterns of migratory birds; both use updrafts of hot air (thermal currents) to gain altitude that then permits soaring flight over distance. He used this to reintroduce threatened species of raptors. Because birds hatched in captivity have no mentor birds to teach them traditional migratory routes, D'Arrigo hatched chicks under the wing of his glider and they imprinted on him. Then, he taught the fledglings to fly and to hunt. The young birds followed him not only on the ground (as with Lorenz) but also in the air as he took the path of various migratory routes. He flew across the Sahara and over the Mediterranean Sea to Sicily with eagles, from Siberia to Iran (5,500 km) with a flock of Siberian cranes, and over Mount Everest with Nepalese eagles. In 2006, he worked with a condor in South America.

In a similar project, orphaned Canada geese were trained to their normal migration route by the Canadian ultralight enthusiast Bill Lishman, as shown in the fact-based movie drama Fly Away Home.

Chicks of domestic chickens prefer to be near large groups of objects that they have imprinted on. This behaviour was used to determine that very young chicks of a few days old have rudimentary counting skills. In a series of experiments, they were made to imprint on plastic balls and could figure out which of two groups of balls hidden behind screens had the most balls.

American coot mothers have the ability to recognize their chicks by imprinting on cues from the first chick that hatches. This allows mothers to distinguish their chicks from parasitic chicks.

The peregrine falcon has also been known to imprint on specific structures for their breeding grounds such as cliff sides and bridges and thus will favour that location for breeding.

Sexual imprinting
Sexual imprinting is the process by which a young animal learns the characteristics of a desirable mate. For example, male zebra finches appear to prefer mates with the appearance of the female bird that rears them.

Sexual attraction to humans can develop in non-human mammals or birds as a result of sexual imprinting when reared from young by humans. One example is London Zoo female giant panda Chi Chi. When taken to Moscow Zoo for mating with the male giant panda An An, she refused his attempts to mate with her, but made a full sexual self-presentation to a zookeeper.

It commonly occurs in falconry birds reared from hatching by humans. Such birds are called "imprints" in falconry. When an imprint must be bred from, the breeder lets the male bird copulate with their head while they are wearing a special hat with pockets to catch the male bird's semen. The breeder then courts a suitable imprint female bird (including offering food, if it is part of that species's normal courtship). At "copulation", the breeder puts the flat of one hand on the female bird's back to represent the weight of a male bird, and with the other hand uses a pipette, or a hypodermic syringe without a needle, to squirt the semen into the female's cloaca.

Sexual imprinting on inanimate objects is a popular theory concerning the development of sexual fetishism. For example, according to this theory, imprinting on shoes or boots (as with Konrad Lorenz's geese) would be the cause of shoe fetishism.

Limbic imprinting
Some suggest that prenatal, perinatal and post-natal experiences leave imprints upon the limbic system, causing lifelong effects and this process is identified as limbic imprinting. The term is also described as the human emotional map, deep-seated beliefs, and values that are stored in the brain's limbic system and govern people's lives at the subconscious level. It is one of the suggested explanations for the claim that the experiences of an infant, particularly during the first two years of life, contribute to a person's lifelong psychological development. Imprinted genes can have astounding effects on body size, brain size, and the process in which the brain organizes its processes. Evolutionary trends within the animal kingdom have been shown to show substantive increase in the forebrain particularly towards the limbic system. This evolution has even been thought of to have a mutative effect on the brain size trickling down the human ancestry.

Westermarck effect
Reverse sexual imprinting is also seen in instances where two people who live in domestic proximity during the first few years in the life of either one become desensitized to later close sexual attraction to each other. This phenomenon, known as the Westermarck effect, was first formally described by Finnish anthropologist Edvard Westermarck in his book The History of Human Marriage (1891). The Westermarck effect has since been observed in many places and cultures, including in the Israeli kibbutz system, and the Chinese shim-pua marriage customs, as well as in biological-related families.

In the case of the Israeli kibbutzim (collective farms), children were reared somewhat communally in peer groups, based on age, not biological relation. A study of the marriage patterns of these children later in life revealed that out of the nearly 3,000 marriages that occurred across the kibbutz system, only fourteen were between children from the same peer group. Of those fourteen, none had been reared together during the first six years of life. This result provides evidence not only that the Westermarck effect is demonstrable but that it operates during the period from birth to the age of six. However, Eran Shor and Dalit Simchai claimed that the case of the kibbutzim actually provides little support for the Westermarck effect.

When proximity during this critical period does not occur—for example, where a brother and sister are brought up separately, never meeting one another—they may find one another highly sexually attractive when they meet as adults. This phenomenon is known as genetic sexual attraction. This observation supports the hypothesis that the Westermarck effect evolved because it suppressed inbreeding. This attraction may also be seen with cousin couples.

Sigmund Freud argued that as children, members of the same family naturally lust for one another, making it necessary for societies to create incest taboos, but Westermarck argued the reverse, that the taboos themselves arise naturally as products of innate attitudes. Steven Pinker has written that Freud's conception of an urge to incest may have derived from Freud's own erotic reaction to his mother as a boy (attested in Freud's own writings), and speculates that Freud's reaction may have been due to lack of intimacy with his mother in early childhood, as Freud was wet-nursed.

Baby duck syndrome
In human–computer interaction, baby duck syndrome denotes the tendency for computer users to "imprint" on the first system they learn, then judge other systems by their similarity to that first system. The result is that "users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems". The issue may present itself relatively early in a computer user's experience, and it has been observed to impede education of students in new software systems or user interfaces.

title: Imprinting (psychology)


text:
User talk:Brettz9

Hello...testing...

 * Hello Brettz9. Welcome to Wikipedia -- WojPob

---

 * It'd be nice to have the option to save notes here to yourself as well for private viewing only

You can make yourself subpages, eg User:Brettz9/Notes. They won't be private, since anyone can see them, but it keeps your user page tidy. -- Tarquin 20:18 Feb 24, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Brett, thanks for jumping in on the Baha'i Pages! Rick Boatright 00:54 Feb 25, 2003 (UTC)

I have not been able to find any Wiki sites dedicated to people starting up their own (non-neutral) projects on any and every topic (preferably with by topic lists and the option to hide projects from searches). Is it just too memory-intensive to house such a service? - Brettz9 18:22 Mar 5, 2003 (UTC)

 * Have you looked at SeedWiki? --Brion 19:36 Mar 5, 2003 (UTC)

 * That helped my find what I was looking for, but SeedWiki specifically seemed too specialized.  seems like what I was looking for (though there were complaints about it not being accessible.

Do remember to vote to keep Imponderables. JamesDay 19:41, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Video
I don't think Requests for comment is a good place to publicise you proposed video. I guess it doesn't do a lot of harm, but it's a bad precedent and not at all what the page is intended for. Andrewa 01:25, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Actually, I think it's okay to list there even if it's not an actual dispute, unlike most RfC listings. However, I've reduced it to a brief description of what you're doing, in keeping with the format of the page, otherwise it would get overwhelmed with chatter. But if you're trying to publicize this as a new project, I would recommend focusing on the village pump (looks like you've already been there) and Goings-on. --Michael Snow 18:02, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Deletion of Talk:Cycles
I put the tag there because it was a redirect to Talk:Cycle, which should be moved to Talk:Cycles since the article is now named "Cycles". [[User:Poccil|Peter O. (Talk)]] 18:09, Aug 27, 2004 (UTC)

World citizens: I hope more join us
I've been pleased to add my name to yours on Wikipedians/World_Citizen. I'm a Life Member of the United Nations Association of New Zealand. Robin Patterson 04:08, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Converting between wiki dialects
It's definitely possible to convert PhpWiki markup into its MediaWiki equivalent. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do it, and my HTML::WikiConverter module probably isn't the best place for its implementation. Let me give this some more thought... Best, Diberri | Talk 15:04, Oct 15, 2004 (UTC)

Could you point me towards a simple, straightforward, and extensive description of both dialects? I suppose for a single job, a quick-and-dirty AWK script could be written in minutes... --Valmi[[User_talk:Valmi| ✒]] 19:34, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * You're not helping me lots, so I can't help you lots neither... Here's a quick-and-dirty Perl script that probably will not work, just to give you an idea. It includes only stuff I was able to understand right away -- I'd suppose almost everything of importance except tables -- and I suppose by playing with it you'd be able to do what you have to do. You could discard it as well, as anyway it just took me 10 minutes to do. :-)

 * Note: use the Wikisource, not just what you see here.

while(<>){ s/^ //; s/%%%/ /g; s/^ *[\*\-+o]/¬/; s/^!!!([^!].*)/==$1==/; s/^!!([^!].*)/===$1===/; s/^!([^!].*)/====$1====/; while(m/^ /){s/^ /:/;} s/_/''/g; s/\*/'''/g; while(m/^ ¬/){s/^ ¬/¬¬/;} s/¬/\*/g; s/[^\[]([A-Z][a-z]+[A-Z]\w*)/\[\[$1\]\]/g; s/\[[^(http:\/\/)](.+)\]/\[\[$1\]\]/g;      print;     }

 * Feel free to ask for some more help if you need. --Valmi[[User_talk:Valmi| ✒]] 02:26, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Could you take a look at....
Bahá'u'lláh three wives - something I've compiled from other sections of stuff. Take a look at Bahá'u'lláh to see what changes I've made to the main article.

Be warned that Amir has already added Baha'u'llah's picture there

Comments? --Tomhab 01:25, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Bahá'í pages vandalism
I can't act in an admin role since I am involved in the disspute to a degree. What you want is an RFC I would wait 24 hours though. The Bahá'í Faith article has just been unprotected and I have removed the image in line with the consenus on the talk page if our anon guest or Amir puts the immage back in they will clearly be acting against consensus. It should be noted that particular care should be used in this case since it would not be good for the articles to get caught in the wider conflict over images.Geni 03:16, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Baha'u'llah as Christian messiah?
An ignorant question I admit. I know only one person of your faith.

There's a list of messiah claimants and I thought it was odd that they listed Bahá'u'lláh as a Christian messiah claimant. So I moved him to Muslim and then someone else moved him back to Christian saying that was the right one. Which one would he fit or would he fit neither? Apologies for any offense--T. Anthony 07:52, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

World Citizen userbox,
Hi, I noticed the message saying you're a World Citizen, I would like to invite you to add to your user page if you wish to proclaim it in a more effective way, and this template will also add you automatically to the Wikipedians with World Citizenship category. :) --Mistress Selina Kyle 23:54, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

AfD nomination of Lists of computer syntax patterns
I've nominated Lists of computer syntax patterns, an article you created, for deletion. We appreciate your contributions, but in this particular case I do not feel that Lists of computer syntax patterns satisfies Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion; I have explained why in the nomination space (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and the Wikipedia deletion policy). Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Articles for deletion/Lists of computer syntax patterns and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes ( ~ ). You are free to edit the content of Lists of computer syntax patterns during the discussion but should not remove the articles for deletion template from the top of the article; such removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. --Allan McInnes (talk) 17:03, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

about allyourideas
We have an interest in common, I've been looking at setting up a revenue sharing site such as allyourideas, bit different, and have taken the name leapinto.com for it - but Google's Adsense API Beta makes me wonder. I've written a short article on the API at completeconfusion.com We REALLY should talk about how to jumpstart allyourideas if nothing else. Thanks. Russ (nomentanus2)

Nonpartisanship
Hello Brettz9, I've noticed you've edited, or perhaps even created the Nonpartisan Democracy article. I'm also an advocate of nonpartisanship but I have increasingly realized that my views can perhaps be more accurately seen as antipartisan. I'm also interested in a world government for humanity. I believe that human beings are cosmopolitans first and foremost, and citizens of arbitrary political divisions second (if at all). I wonder does advocating nonpartisanship leave you with a predispostion of advocating a global community, or vice versa?

- Caezius —Preceding unsigned comment added by Caezius (talk • contribs) 06:49, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Tachytely

The article Tachytely has been proposed for deletion  because of the following concern:
 * This is a little used term in evolutionary biology; not much reason to expand beyond what would be found as an entry in a dictionary of science. Wikipedia is expressly NOT a dictionary.

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Cgingold (talk) 04:00, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Talkback
Dougweller (talk) 16:45, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:52, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Nomination of Star of the West (Bahá'í magazine) for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Star of the West (Bahá'í magazine) is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/Star of the West (Bahá'í magazine) until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Guy (Help!) 23:41, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Smoke 'em if you got 'em

The article Smoke 'em if you got 'em has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern: "The single reference is difficult to track down, and I suspect only demonstrates the use of the phrase, not the explanation. The article itself does not seem very encyclopedic, more like an Urban Dictionary entry."

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. ubiquity (talk) 15:04, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Pagelist/sandboxRange
Template:Pagelist/sandboxRange has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:45, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:Brettz9