More on the Future of CDROM, DVD, etc.

[Robin Leech]

Taxacomers
More on the future of CDs, etc. from a friend of mine in the computer
business.
Robin Leech
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Eisenhawer" <eisenhawer at home.com>
To: "Robin Leech" <robinl at connect.ab.ca>
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2000 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: Future of CDROM, DVD, etc.

> > Interesting, eh?  Wonder why there is a life limit on CDs?
>
> Both phase-change (re-writeable) and dye (write-once) materials have
limited life spans.  Manufactured CDs are made by a completely diferent
process, using silver as a reflector.  Of the three kinds of dyes, only one
(I think the bronze one) can expect a 100 year life span.  The others (blue
and green) can expect about 50 years.  Note that these figures are 'mean
time before failure', not a guarantee of life span. CD's, like all simple
mechanisms, can be expected to undergo exponential decay; this means that
some will be useless in a few
 years while others will last far longer than 100 years.

 Entropy cannot be defeated. Resistance is futile.
On the bright side - evidence is mounting that the universe is not closed,
after all (i.e., it will keep expanding forever).  Interestingly, it is also
flat!
 -andrew