[OT] Life of CD-R's and/or CD-RW's

[Vaughn Treude]

On Wed, 2005-10-12 at 09:00, Siri Amrit Kaur wrote:
> On Wednesday 12 October 2005 06:23 am George kindly wrote:
> > Some time ago I seem to remember a thread here on the life
> > expectancy of home spun CD-R's and/or CD-RW's.  The general opinion
> > seemed to be 3 years.
> >
> > Does anyone remember if that time period was for both CD-R's and
> > CD-RW's or for CD-RW's only or for CD-R's only
> >

I have CD-R's that are 6 yrs old or older and still readable.  But I've
had CD-RW's go bad in a year.  I don't use CD-RW's any more.

> I don't have a direct answer to your question, but one thing that 
> shortens the life of CDs is writing directly on them with 
> solvent-based inks like Sharpie pens. If you use that type of ink, 
> just write in the clear portion near the center hole in the disk. 
> 

Don't know where I got the notion, but I could swear someone told me
that Sharpies were OK for CD's.  (I admit I can be a bit dyslexic at
times.  They may have told me NOT to use them.)  That said, I don't seem
to have had any trouble related to writing on CD's with them.  Some of
the better CD-R's have a writing surface on the back.  I wonder if that
makes a difference.

> Or, you can get a solvent-free eFilm pen from Delkin. They're made for 
> writing on CDs, plus have the added benefit that they're safer for 
> you, too, since the fumes from solvent-based inks contain toluene and 
> other carcinogens.
> 

You mean I shouldn't be sniffing them?  :-)  Reminds me of an episode of
the animated Dilbert series where the "downsized" employees had been
shrunk and were living in Dilbert's desk.  These tiny people were
partying all the time, getting high off the fumes from "Dullie" brand
markers.  To get rid of them, Dilbert took away all their markers and
the poor little people were all having marker withdrawals.  :-)

Vaughn

> FWIW...
> 
> Siri Amrit
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