Write once, read many, explode once

[sigma7]

Ganked from foenix: Why are there no 52x CD-ROM drives? Because some CDs explode at that speed. Witness digital media's breaking points: PowerLabs High Speed Exploding CDs! The video is great -- especially the fishbowl.

Comments

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Huh. I just happened to decide to browse querldox's friends page, and came across your post here...the second reference to exploding CD-ROMs I've seen today. The first was this post (http://www.livejournal.com/users/lilairen/327747.html) by lilairen. So be warned: this stuff really happens.

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

Goldfarb! OMG! That's a blast from the past...

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

(and as a side note to David, in case he pops back this way-- dude, go friend 15000pages and 50bookchallenge ... if you read and listed 66 books from last year, you might want to read these two book-reading challenge communities.)

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Hi, Kate!

I'm almost to 50 books already this year, having read a number of short ones earlier. (I'm about to make up for it by starting Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, though.) Haven't been keeping track of page counts....

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's someone on there who is on book X of 200. :) So trust me, they don't limit it to 50 books. You can also count audiobooks and graphic novels if you so choose. It's nice because I get ideas of things I might want to read (or reread), or new authors that I might really want to look at.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Whoa! The rac.* alumni are crawlin' out of the woodwork, aren't they? Awesome!

I was saddened that the response to lilairen's incident is stunned disbelief. I believe. Now that I know it can happen, in fact, I find an air of paranoia every time I open the drives....

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I'd call myself an alumnus -- I'm still active on Usenet, though I don't post to rac* nearly so much as I used to.

[cptn-oblivious.livejournal.com]

This is why I'm not allowed to have a Dremel.

[aardy.livejournal.com]

This was covered on an episode of Mythbusters. (Episode #2: "Cell Phone Destruction, Silicone Breasts, CD-ROM Shattering." "...Finally, we'll learn once and for all if high-speed CD-ROM players can really shatter a compact disc." They ruled it plausible, but couldn't get it to happen with an average CD-ROM drive.

(Here's a description of their experiment and some followups, including a reference to the Dremel test you mentioned; as well as some comments of personal experiences from the Mythbusters fan board)