Blank Disc Stuff.

OK, not nearly as interesting as harmonicas.  But I sat here looking around at my enormous amount of stuff, and thought "What stuff can I write about?"  I turned to notice my stacks of blank discs.  Then I remembered I had even more in the other room.  I can imagine a child or a senior citizen asking "Why do you have so many?!?"

Sure enough, they're all different:

• DVD-R.  The typical blank DVD medium.  I'm usually using these for data back-up rather than burning movies.
• DVD+R.  From staples.  Because there's a subtle difference between "-R" and "+R", and my VHS-to-DVD dubber notices.  What is the difference between these types of discs?  Wikipedia can explain it better than me.  I noticed I had two stacks of these, so I combined 'em.
• DVD+RW. The rewritable kind.  I bought these so that I could further edit stuff when I'd dub VHS to DVD.  But then I found out the machien notices a difference between DVD+RW and DVD-RW.  I can't remember which ones it liked.  Probably DVD-RW, which explains why I'm still stuck with these other ones.
• DVD+R Lightscribe.  Lightscribe discs have a blank label so that if you put them in a Lightscribe burner, you can laser-etch your own label, right on to the top surface of the disc.  Rather professional looking.  I hope they keep making these.
• DVD+R (DL). Dual Layer discs hold twice the amount of data.  Useful when you want to cram 8+ gigs of stuff on to a disc, or want a higher-quality version of a long movie.
• CD-R vinyl.  These are CD-Rs with labels that look like mini 45rpm vinyl records.  Nice novelty when you're burning music for people.
• CD-R Lightscribe. Yes, Lightscribe for CD-R too.
• CD-R blank.  Stack of 100 cheap CD-Rs when I don't feel like using up my "good" CD-Rs.  I bought these for something like $14.99.  Lightscribes cost more, and not every burned disc deserves a well-made label.

I haven't tried "Black CD-Rs".  They look just like regular discs, only with a black under-surface.  I have no idea what the point of these were.  I never bothered with CD-RWs, since CD-Rs are so cheap to begin with that if I mess up on burning something, I have no regrets about ditching the bad disc.

And is it "discs" or "disks"?  I thought the ones in the shapes of CDs are "disc", and the floppies are "disks".  But I could be wrong.

But yes, I really will burn something on all of these discs eventually.  In fact, today's a good day to back up some data.  How about you?  Would YOU be ready if your hard drive failed tomorrow?  Something to think about.  Glad I could give you some cheer for the holiday season.