Hi There's an issue that I was thinking about and thought I could ask in the list.
While I was admiring a new G4 in the Apple Store with a 21" widescreen (or was it 25"?) (don't remember but it was huge) I asked the Apple store associate why was the screen so wide and he told me that I could watch DVDs in the movie-theatre wide-screen format and showed me how to. I was impressed and asked him if the machine had a CDR drive, he answered yes. And I said "does it have CD-ROM?" and he said I could add one but that it wasn't needed since the CDRW could do the job. Then I said "how can you copy a CD or a DVD then? Maybe if you save the contents to the computer?" Then he answered that it was illegal to copy those. I was surprised!... well don't get me wrong but I thought, "duh! I know that!" and I replied "yes, however, CDs and DVDs are very unreliable!" and he said "unreliable?" and I said "Yes, they can brake or scratch and become unusable" of course there was other people waiting so a guy caught his attention so we couldn't continue. 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) sometimes would chip-off in flakes. And I though it was supposed to be sanwiched between two plastic layers. I usually end up with the box, booklet and even the book practically empty handed after the CD is gone. At the beginning when I didn't know this; I would leave CDs lying around the house, and kept experiencing that they were usuable after I put them in my Mac. Talk about unreliable storage! I remember back in the 3.5" days, when it was strongly adviced to copy your disks and ONLY use the copy NOT THE ORIGINALS! However I've found some of my originals (very old) 3.5" disks that still work! and even some of the copies! So I believe in my opinion that digital media is NOT better than the old magnetic media. Other than being careful not to have the disks near magnetic sources or touching the disk itself; there was nothing else you could do to risk its contents. There are old 3.5 disks lying around that I insert in my 8500 and still work and still format fine, can you say that from a CD or DVD that's been lying around the house?? When I experienced these problems with CDs I thought CD media was going to be forgotten soon and that other source of media was going to be invented, then DVDs SHOWED UP! and I knew the digital media was to stay for a long time, thinking about it gives me a headache. Why can't they make metal disks like the ones inside the harddrive available? Not so thick or heavy but I am sure they can figure something out. Or CDs w/ the metal paper like material sandwiched inside two plastic layers like I mentioned before? If you ask me, they do it on purpose so that if one of your CDs brake you can go back and buy another one. Yeah right! They wont get that from me, no, no siree! Liliana -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.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/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
