The Null Device

Your CD-ROM drive could kill you

Warning: your CD-ROM drive could kill you. Modern high-speed drives have the ability to spin discs so fast that they disintegrate, sending shards of shrapnel flying outwards at lethal velocities. If your computer includes a high-speed CD-ROM drive, experts recommend that you sit no less than five metres away from it, and preferably wear protective goggles and kevlar clothing.

There are 4 comments on "Your CD-ROM drive could kill you":

Posted by: csmole http://www.livejournal.com/users/csmole Wed Dec 11 13:20:50 2002

I guess I'll forget about ordering the 72 speed CD-ROM I was -that- far away from gettting from Japan, then. I have no desire to die with little shiny bits of prismatic plastic stuck in my face, as avant-garde as it may be.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Dec 11 16:52:44 2002

Am I the only one whose first thought was "that can't be good for my CDs"?

Posted by: csmole http://www.livejournal.com/users/csmole Thu Dec 12 07:36:34 2002

Ah, spoken like a true CD nut! I had a similar reaction, until I thought that being in the non-living state somewhat limits the enjoyment from my CDs, anyway.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Dec 12 08:09:57 2002

My computer is at leg level, so unless it severed a major artery, I probably wouldn't die. However, that's beside the point. I was worried that, even in the cases where CDs don't disintegrate, the stresses put on them would shorten their lifespan.

Perhaps that's an anti-ripping copy-protection scheme; make CDs really flimsy, so that they disintegrate if spun above 1x. Someone should suggest it to Sony or Universal.