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Sim Wong Hoo has died

theedgesingapore.com

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Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#61
post #7

Known in the US as Creative Labs. Mercy, those Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live PCI cards (CT4830) were like the default go-to option for everyone for years & years. Every system build got one! They were reasonably priced & considered pretty decent! Motherboards had pretty bad onboard sound if any at all, up until an Nvidia chipset started sometimes having some good implementations (the nForce chipset with integrated…

As a kid from a poor family, Sound Blasters were too pricey and I ended up with something called AdLib in early 90s. Used to just beeps and screeches till then, suddenly hearing X-Wing music (not much speech, that was weakness of it) playing actual music from loudspeakers was shocking.

I remember the SB Live Value being like $65, although it's beem around for a couple years when I was in my system-building-for-friends years.

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#63
Wow. I will always remember when I got the AWE32. I had a SB16 which was still great before that. I switched to the AWE32, and remember fighting with my computer get any audio going at all, and wanting to play Day of the Tentacle [1] with this new upgraded magic. After messing around with config.sys and autoexec.bat for hours thinking this was some kind of IRQ "LOTR issue I would defeat", I found my speaker to be just not plugged in correctly. Fixed that in shame. I then started to play DOTT in AWE.

One of my best memories growing up. RIP.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BRXmgcBHBM

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#65

Creative Labs also made one of the strangest keyboard keyboard (not a typo) contraptions, the Prodikeys[0] [0] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Creative+Labs+ProdiKeys&t=h_&iax=i...

Still got mine here in a box with my SB live 5.1. That thing was a blast to mess around with as a kid, but not really practical for anything semi-pro compared to just pluging a midi keyboard due to the limited number of keys. Had a Yamaha PSS (451?) which was a tad better but the key size being smaller than a regular piano was also an issue. Couldn’t get rid of that keyboard tho, its epic :)

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#67

"Creative Technology"? I thought it was called Creative Labs?

From Wikipedia [1]

> Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singaporean multinational technology company. [...] The company also has overseas offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dublin and the Silicon Valley (where in the US it is known as Creative Labs). It is listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Technology

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the American legal system, each party pays its own legal fees unless there is (1) a statute that specifies fee-shifting or (2) a contract between the parties that specifies fee-shifting. The reasoning behind this is that to require the loser to pay all fees would discourage "good" lawsuits. (e.g., an individual with a decent case against a big company, may be discouraged from filing because of the potentially cata…

This is presumably why American corporations typically live in such fear of individuals with a good case and modest resources. I know this isn't your idea @bdowling, and it's actually interesting to hear the reason, but I couldn't resist /s posting.

The "American Rule" also leads to many lawsuits of questionable merit being brought against corporations (and wealthy individuals). Attorneys take these cases on contingency, knowing that the defendant will likely just settle rather than incur a lot of legal fees, and the firm will take 33-40% of the settlement. These "nuisance lawsuits" are a big problem for some industries. If there was universal fee-shifting, these suits would be discouraged.

It can be worse though. In some jurisdictions and for certain types of claims (e.g., employer-employee wage/hour suits in California), statutes provide for "one-way fee shifting". One-way fee-shifting means that if the plaintiff wins, the defendant pays the plaintiff's legal fees, but if the plaintiff loses, the plaintiff does not pay the defendant's legal fees. Predictably, this leads to some law firms specializing in these types of cases, taking cases on contingency, discouraging the plaintiff from settling, and racking up huge legal fees that will be paid by the defendant if they win. And the law supports this. I read one article about the California Court of Appeals upholding a $250,000 fee award in a case over $20,000 in unpaid wages.

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#69
What kind of obituary is this? Ending in a stock exchange report "As at 9.09am, shares in Creative Technology are trading 9 cents higher or 6.38% up at $1.50" Tasteless.
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