On Sunday, December 1, 2002, at 02:25 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Well I know that this is a delicate subject, however IT IS TRUE! My > children > have broken a number of my CDs (2 completely cracked, back when they > were > babies) and they still don't know how to handle them so they often > leave them > lying around, they end up scratched. When my baby was 9 months old > (and > teething) she reached for my computer table and grabed a NEW Mac > Addict CD I > had just gotten and bit on it making it usuable forever! The paper > like > metal sheet which is very stupidly exposed (yeah what you see on the > CD is > not paint or the lable, is the actual disk itself were it keeps your > info)
Well, first of all, ANY storage medium will fail if physically broken. (you can re-assemble paper and clay tablets, but those are a bit hard to keep digital records on ;-) That said, CD's are certainly fragile if mishandled, but no more so than any other form of removable storage, when kept out of the hands of 2-year olds. They certainly survive longer than floppy disks, zip disks and other removable storage media. Heck, I just took an AOL disk that I've been using as a *coaster*, literally, washed the coffee stains off of it, and put it in my CD. It read fine. You're right that you do have to be careful about scratching the top layer, though. However what you see on a CD IS, in fact, usually a fairly rugged protective lacquer coating over the layer of aluminum providing a reflective surface for the laser in the CD. With normal handling, it's hard to scratch it. Biting it, though, is likely to cause it to fail, because it not only scratches the reflective foil layer, it also distorts the disk. See: <http://www.disctronics.co.uk/technology/cdbasics/cd_specs.htm> CDR's and CDRW's are also fragile in this fashion, and on cheap ones the foil layer is quite thin and easily scratched, and the dye layer underneath that is considerably more fragile than the molded in pits on a production CD. If your CD drive likes them, paper labels, such as from CD-Stomper are actually quite protective (though slight misalignments of them will give high-speed drives fits). But because they don't survive in the hands of 2-year olds, doesn't mean they're 'unreliable'. Heck, very little human technology other than Tonka Trucks can pass that test ;-) > -- Wherever you go, there you are. Bruce Johnson -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
