2002 Story Set
| October 3, 2002 Every writer has seen or heard of the little, cleverly sized, baby CDs. They come in rectangular business card sized disks or baby circles, miniatures of the full-sized disk we have all been indoctrinated to as we switched off the phonograph to play CD music and of course switch from VHS tapes to DVD-based movies. The small-sized units are hailed as "cute" promotional material. You can put 10MB or 35MB of data (as opposed to 685MB) and then stick on a custom label. Nice. Except...... The rectangular CD fits a business card-sized label so most people can get ahold of some simple art program, sticky label paper, and an inkjet printer and make cute custom labels. You can stick the "blank" into a PC with a spindle on the CD drive - or not - because these little guys have a groove and they "sit" in the proper position to allow the writer to place files - HTML - WORD - PDF - whatever - on them. A cute idea, except----- First, they sometimes won't "sit" in the groove quite right, which means that you can't write to them. (OK, I'll say it, your drive needs to be really groovy.) The solution is to find a PC that either has a spindle or a deeper groove. Second, when played in certain PC drives, they can resemble the launch of jet aircraft and, if you've never played one before, you will be treated to a moment or two of hysteria as you contemplate your drive flying apart. (Or the editor will. Which is not the effect that you want.) To "fix" this noise problem, they have a new model, with the card shape cut to be circular on the edge (just past the groove) so you have a lopped-off mini circle. This is the same data holding size as before, less noisy, but they messed up the neat business card format. The "business card size" feature has just been altered to "cropped business card". These little guys all come with "sleeves" on which to stick a label, or little mini-jewel cases. Read dollar signs. Third, however, is a problem that they cannot fix. Because, lurking in the immediate future, is the "slot load CD" - currently on the G4 Titanium Mac laptop - and which, well, when presented with either version of the rectangular format CD, spits it right back out. Since the PC laptops will mimic the slot-loading charm of the MAC almost immediately (monkey see monkey do), this "cute" idea of a business card sized CD most assuredly has a short life span. We will ignore cost, effort and hair pulling. The second "cute" format is a small circle CD specifically designed to sit in the groove, deep or not. The slot loading CD drives seem to accept this - at least the one I tried. But wait. It is small, expensive, comes sleeved or in a jewel case and takes a label, but is expensive. Yes, it is cute. I bought a box and my programmer son ran off with a few. He ignored the rectangular ones. He has a G4 titanium MAC laptop. The problems with this mini CD are cost and ease of loss. (Both of which it shares with the rectangular version, to be fair.) This is because agents and editors loose things just like we do. So, back to the full-sized CD. We are all by now familiar with this device. What household does not have those shiny AOL glass coasters? It is familiar. And it is cheap! (Actually costs ~14 cents a disk - check out bulk buys at Fry's - which is on-line). In fact, when sending in work to a publisher on CD (if they accept them), send the full-sized CD disk! The labels come in packages of sticky peel-off sheets with templates ready to use, print and peel. About another 10 cents per label. You can get the labels and software help right off the shelf because it is now so common. No fuss - no muss. Add about 10 cents for a paper sleeve. Stick on a preprinted sticky label (address, whatever) on the sleeve and you are all set. (Or get a cardboard mailer - also not bad in bulk.) Not so easily lost. Best economical buy. |
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