Diary of a CD-R Novice

Ladies and Gentlemen-
This begins a series of short posts on the trials and
tribulations of a physicist-musician-inventor learning to use CD
recordable technology. CD-R allows you to record your own CDs on a
desktop unit onto $6 discs. The recorders are currently available for
approximately $700 (in a couple of months all of the big names--Sony,
Phillips,... will be available for under $700).
First let me clear up a couple of mistakes from my last post (I'm
a novice, so I get to make a few). I stated that my expert source (a CD
professional) said to avoid JVC units. He did not say that they were no
good, simply that in his opinion Sony seemed sturdier. Further, I stated
that CD-R had a conservative lifespan of 10 years, and that standard CDs
outlasted this. My other expert source strenuously
disagrees, stating that CD-R will outlast standard CD media, as the
aluminum is subject to oxidation from oxygen dissolved in the
polycarbonate, while the gold reflective surfaces of CD-R discs is not.
Further, she states, unless the CD-R disc is exposed to extremely bright
light (much brighter than sunlight) for long periods, say days or weeks,
the information will not likely degrade.
Last night I installed the SCSI board and CDR unit in my machine,
a Gateway 2000 75MHz Pentium, and fired it up. The system could not
locate the CD-R drive, and the software supplied with the SCSI board had
a faulty #2 disk, so I couldn't run the diagnostic. Well, that's what you
get for using a DOS system. I will try to download some new software from
the net and get this thing up and running so I will have something a
little more heartening to relate next post.
On a more upbeat note, Denver's Microstock festival is being
organized for the 19th of October, and we are presenting a day of
lectures and demonstrations on the 18th at the University of Colorado at
Denver on the Science of Sound and Music in conjunction with the
festival. Any microtonalists who will be in Denver October the 18th are
urged to contact me if they wish to present a 25 minute talk or demo.
John Starrett

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said: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@CompuServe.COM>
>Subject: Unusual Instrument Mail Order
>
> This is not tuning-related strictly speaking, but I suspect that many of you
>might find it interesting anyway. I saw a catalog yesterday for a company
>called "Lark in the Morning". They mail-order a wide variety of unusual
>musical
[etc]

They have a nice old website:
http://www.mhs.mendocino.k12.ca.us/MenComNet/Business/Retail/Larknet/musiiqu
eshoppe

---
E am not especially clever, just basically very average, E merely try
to maximise thee effectiveness of whatever gifts or abilities E have by
focusing them towards what E want to happen.
Genesis P-Orridge
finger for PGP pub key 9 Jul 81 TGHQGB

http://www.garlic.com/~ribarbe



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