Even then, the signal-to-noise ratios of onboard has been good enough for years now. Sure, you might notice a slight difference with a good pair of headphones, but in practice, not so much.

My previous computer was a Q6600 with a SoundBlaster. The sound card did have better sound than the integration audio. For the most part it sounded okay, but the onboard did have a small buzz which was noticeable at higher volumes. It also did not support as many channels, so a small amount of the time some sounds in games would cut out. The SoundBlaster card did not have any buzz, supported more channels, and generally sounded slightly better. But I admit the difference was minor.

When I put together my Ivy Bridge i7 system a year and a half ago, I again compared the state of a (then) brand new integrated chip (RealTek something or other) with the SoundBlaster. No difference. No buzzing either way, and the integrated sound supports plenty of channels. So I agree, but some people in this thread have mentioned the time was 10-15 years ago when I think it is half that long. Regardless of how we got to this point, this is where we are at now.

If Lloyd Blankfein and others who attested to the veracity of their financial reports even after they were repeatedly warned their mark-to-market was completely unrealistic, which in turn led to the largest financial disaster in over 70 years, are not being prosecuted for false reporting, I don't see why the police should be.

Especially as in this case no one was harmed. Can't say the same thing about the millions who lost their money or homes, can you?

How is it reckless endangerment when the police were supposed to be in the area and did their job by investigating something suspicious?

But later, Earth got into drugs and became like Lindsey Lohan.

But drugs are cool. I'm always told how great it is to do drugs. Just look at Elvis, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cory Monteith, Dee Dee Ramone, Jim Morrison and whole host of others who extolled the virtues of drugs.

P.S. If Lohan would drink water instead of alcohol, she'd look (and feel) a lot better than she does.

You need to qualify your statement about large quantities overcoming a qualitative difference with the following: had Hitler not ordered a full stop of the Panzers before they reached Moscow and given Russia six weeks to rearm, reorganize and regroup, Russia would not have been able to deliver the large quantities of tanks it eventually did.

Go read "Hitler's Panzers East" by Stolfi for a fantastic discussion of why Germany beat Russia in World War II except for the fact Hitler meddled in operational control.

Here's a brief synopsis: the German military laid out the plans necessary to defeat Russia before the winter set in. Without exception, they met every single objective in the time allotted and in some cases ahead of schedule.

Before the halt ordered by Hitler, there was only one remaining pocket of strong resistance in the South. Russia, at that point in time, had no other forces available to offer any significant resistance to the German armies anywhere in the country. Had he wanted to, Guderian could have literally driven his 2nd Panzer Army into the streets of Moscow in late August.

The air they breath is indeed a waste of good oxygen. They are monstrous.

If psychology was good for anything it should have allowed to pick up on their depravity before children were placed in their care.

Really, the best thing we can do now is to make sure everyone is healthy and educated and happy.

If the idea is to make people healthy so premiums go down, Obamneycare is a complete failure in that aspect since the smokers, obese, alcoholics and drug users don't have to change. They can continue doing what they're doing, secure in the knowledge that someone perfectly healthy, such as myself, is forced to cough up their money to pay for the bad choices these people make with their lives.

So, what other excuse are you going to use to try and justify having the government reach into my bank account if I don't pay for someone else's medical insurance?

Maybe Ricky and GOP-TP clergy would like some school prayers before meals and classes. Can we get an AMEN for Texas and US. Education with dogma and mythology is all any Texan needs to learn. Why not just cut Texas tax-dollars from the education budget until Texas-clergy and Lord Ricky gets some religious respect and compliance.

Clergy biased government, courts, plutocrats ... rule US all.

And what believes and desires would that be, pray tell?

The death of this child touched many people here in the GTA, and trying to ensure he is not forgotten is nothing but a valiant attempt to ensure it doesn't happen again.

If you cannot relate to this, then search the Internet for your misplaced humanity. Maybe reading up on the case would help.

Louis Del Monte is rather parochial in estimates that machine intelligence will exceed the world's combined human intelligence by 2045. "Most of the human race will have become cyborgs by the end of this century, is a probability. The allure will be evolution, because “immortality” is demigod hubris and delusion, because all demigods are mortal. Human-machines (cyborgs) will make breakthroughs in science (theoretical) and engineering (applied), most of the human race “MIGHT” have more leisure time, be enslaved a/o dead, and a few or all will have it better. The concern, I'm raising is that cyborgs are human-machines, but silly legacy science-fiction has cyborgs as the future Frankenstein’s monsters unpredictable and dangerous. "Human-machines (cyborgs) are self-conscious and have the capabilities to protect themselves and protect, love, help ... others and evolution. The cyborgs IMO will view us/others in the same way any human does, very naturally. "Humans/Cyborgs are synergistic species that can save the world twice over, and make us humans far better." Appealing roommates to me consider unknowns essential sustenance for synergy and evolution of intelligent species. Fear is a four letter word that is actually obscene to humans/cyborgs.

Goldman Sachs core business data/info ..., looks like they don't own a/o act responsible for the data. Goldman Sachs should be fined for the core-business data breach by their contractor, and rehab their core-business model. Goldman Sachs has become just another brand-name that contracts out their core-business requirements ... much like many others in the .Gov, .Mil, .Com domains. They are in name only an institution without actual substance. IMO

What entry level, minimum wage worker gets 40 hours per week? Employers might have to pay benefits on top of the extra wages!

Actually, this is exactly what they are doing now.

Anybody who would have detected the neglect could have become this boy's superhero.

The monument is to remind us here in Ontario that we have to try harder.

Social services, the school records, neighbors ... there are countless ways this tragedy could, and should have been prevented.