Finally: Less Easily Scratched CDs

from the just-as-everyone's-giving-up dept

Well, it's about time. If you remember when CDs were first coming to market, there were all these stories about how they were "indestructible." We were told that you'd be able to drive over them with a car and they'd still play perfectly. Obvious, that's not what we got at all -- so now that people are less and less interested in even using CDs for music or storage, someone finally comes up with a more scratch resistant coating for the discs. Seems a bit late.

19 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

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  1. old old old news!

    by patentman - Jan 4th, 2006 @ 9:00pm

    Ok, the bumps are new spin on things, but ultrahard and scratch resistant coatings for CD's and pdas have been around for at least a year or so, and probably more then that.

    i.e.
    http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6583
    http://www.ioproducts.com/scratresdvme.html
    http: //news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5513524.html

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. ??

    by ? - Jan 4th, 2006 @ 9:24pm

    Who cares? Seems like somebody's life work is about two decades too late. Hope they don't loose much moola!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Re: ??

    by Rikko - Jan 4th, 2006 @ 9:27pm

    Gotta agree with mysterio up there.. I think solid state media is at the point where it's going to tear into dominance in a matter of years.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Re: ??

    by discojohnson - Jan 4th, 2006 @ 10:03pm

    put a dvd in solid state. this is a godsend for rental companies and disc-based game systems

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Re: ??

    by sixo - Jan 4th, 2006 @ 11:04pm

    now if he had a way to make scratch resistant .mp3's...heh, sorry mab ut too late

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Re: ??

    by C3Po - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 2:46am

    I find this statement padantic, and somewhat less than worth my time pondering the staleness of which his words came...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Re: ??

    by ? - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 3:53am

    At first I didn't know what you were trying to say. But then I relized that you must have really wanted to type 'pedantic'.

    Now I think that YOU must not know what you are saying.

    So please, C3, explain to those of us who have a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules could conclude that scratch resistant CD's are 20 years too late?

    Because I think it would be completely reasonable to have this scratch resistant technology at the beginning of the CD life cycle, and not at the end.

    Of course, maybe you think that CD technology will be around us for a long time. In which case, you might be the 'pedantic' one.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Re: ??

    by Oliver Wendell Jones - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 5:22am

    I think solid state media is at the point where it's going to tear into dominance in a matter of years.
    I hope you won't be too upset the first time you walk across your living room carpet in winter time to stick your solid state movie card into your solid state movie player and a 2" bolt of static electricity induced lightning jumps between the two and destroys both items.
    I've personally already fried a desktop motherboard by dropping a Pocket PC into a docking cradle connected to the PC's USB port *and* a 512 MB SD card in my Treo 600 the same way.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Re: ??

    by Mike - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 5:52am

    Oliver, I think you need a tip I learned from an old sysadmin a long time ago. Get a spray bottle and put an ounce of liquid fabric softener in it then fill with water. Spray your carpet lightly with the mixture.
    It helps significantly reduce static buildup on carpets and (if you like the scents available) can help reduce any potential odors as well.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. Re: ??

    by Format c: v:stupid /q - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 6:01am

    You ought to patent that.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Re: ??

    by Mike - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 6:10am

    You're right.... but then the guy that gave me the original idea would probably turn up to have a prior claim and sue me for infringement or copyright violation or having too many brain cells or (shudder) not having 20 lawyers on retainer.
    Besides, I think my mom used to do this.... yeah, that's the ticket.... my mom taught me. (with credit to Jon Lovitz' Saturday Night Live character)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. Re: ??

    by Road - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 6:10am

    Even though a solid state media may be around the corner, there will always be a need for some sort of cheap storage device at approximately 20 cents a pop and 700mb you can’t beat it. As far as the average person is concerned, a tangible thing such as a CD or DVD that you collect or own can be very important to some and many already have a huge collection. Not to mention the people who haven't been engrossed in the computer world. The likely hood that these devices are going to disappear any time soon is doubtful and if they can improve on the device why not.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. Re: ??

    by Anonymous Coward - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 9:00am

    I agree it'll probably be around for a while. Look at the floppy disk its just as small and unreliable as it ever was, yet it still exists today.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. How well do they play?

    by crystalattice - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 12:17pm

    One thing that wasn't discussed is how they work in CD players. Having bumps on the bottom sounds like some players and drives wouldn't tolerate them that well. Plus, would the laser be able to focus properly now that the CD is raised up higher than normal?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. Re: How well do they play?

    by Road - Jan 5th, 2006 @ 12:54pm

    I have to agree with crystalattice. It would be nice if they had found a material that was more scratch resistant, but this is just all the way around lame. It's like those plastic covers that they came out with a while back that wouldn't work half the time in a CD player and it seemed to collect finger prints and dirt like no bodys buissness. Equally lame invention. But I'm not offering any better ideas so I can't say much.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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