http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040419/od_afp/japan_it_sony_toppan_040419154919

That's freakin' weird, guys and gals!

heath

It makes a great deal of sense for short and intermediate data storage/transfer.

It also probably makes enormous sense from an environmental impact perspective.

But I can't imagine throwing out DVDs, other than AOL DVDs and CDs.

heath

I couldn't imagine throwing away laserdiscs, many of which cost me $40. But during the past year I've tossed perhaps 2 boxes of them.

Ten years from now you'll be tossing your plastic DVD's, too.

Or, as Matt Groening wrote on the first Simpsons DVD set (paraphrasing) we'll be re-starting our Simpsons seasons collecting when the new, non-DVD format comes out.

Think about it like this:

Gen Y doesn't even know, generally, what records are. Wil Wheaton, on his website, says the next generation won't know what CDs are because of MP3s and iTunes...

One of my friends in his early 20s marvelled that I had the DAWN OF THE DEAD DVD because it just came out in theatres. I said, this is the original; he looked at me blankly. Sigh...

(Then again, in the early 1990s, I didn't know the band Rush had albums going back into the 1970s.)

Sorry to get off topic...

heath

Rush was around in the 90's?!?

I for one am very excited about paper discs. Currently, the plastic discs that I use as coasters look pretty cool as coasters, but they just don't absorb moisture very well. I'm hoping these new discs will have much greater absorbency, seeing as how they're made out of paper and all...

Imran,

Burn a lot of bad DVDs? :-)

heath

Haha - no - I just try to find a meaningful purpose for the public nuisance that is AOL with their mailers. Plus, being a web developer by day, I always get all sorts of developer CD shwag in the mail, most of which is usually useless.

I once tried making art with the CDs but unfortunately I'm not very good with mixed media...

This will give a whole new meaning to 'burning' a disk <grin>

"It looks like I'll have to get the White Album again."

Wait - is that from MIB?

As if data stored on a regular plastic disc wastn't easy enough to lose already. I have a million dvds in my living room right now that wont work due to the smallest scratches and blemishes. No idea how they got there. I try to take care of them but the scratches just appear somehow. I could only imagine how difficult its going to be to try and protect a paper disc...

It would only be a matter of time before coffee or beer spills on them which is a crime within itself.

They will be good to roll a joint and listen to some good old MP3's

Greetings! :