Dear Disks,

Please die. Moving parts suck.

Sincerely, Everyone

Ironically, the picture's name seems to be "red dvd"!

This article should be read by everyone who thinks Sony's formats never work.

The CD looks warped in that picture.

Ah, CD, you're showing your age. All those years of binge drinking, going straight in to the hottest clubs while those LPs had to wait outside in line, looking sad at the fact that they were going from the It girl to waiting for the retro-cool effect to happen - staring a long career in infomercials square in the face - those years, they have worn on you. Make way for MP3, that little b!@#H in the skimpy skirt and tube top, not sagging at all, very waif-like.

Sorry about that. Yeah, CDs had a good run, I still have thousands taking up way too much space. First CD: Paul McCartney's "All The Best" I still own it.

CD's were an incredible boon to the computer industry. If you ever installed office at work (illegally by the directive of a VP with 34 floppy disks which required you to confirm every file on install, default on cancel - due to multiple installs), you'd know the value of a good CD. They kicked floppy all over the place and (eventually) for pennies.

25 years is a long time and we're all ready for laptops without integrated CD/DVDs in them. Give me an external BluBurner for my lappy and I'll be pretty happy.

My first CD was...wait for it..."Sandy" by Jon Travolta. Yes, I know, very lame. The CD sounded that good compared to a cassette tape.

@Rain-man: Ah, you young-ens don't know how good it is. When I was a wee lad, if I wanted to hear Sandy I hate to play it out my ass. And we liked it that way.

(Some still argue that sphincter music has better sound quality than CD.)

Laser discs actually came before CD's so disc technology is older than 25 years.

@Monty: WHO would argue that?

Seriously.

200 billion, eh? How many of those, do you suppose, account for those charming AOL mailers (circa 1998-2002)?

Well what can i say about CD's.
Used for mass piracy across the globe.
How about the universal shape.
How about the reason all of my stupid friends get viruses on their computers after i burn a CD for them. *dims lights, gets flashlights and laughs minaclly*
CD's the past present and future.
I mean seriously UMD has a CD inside. HDD's have CD's inside. SSD's im not so sure about but floppy discs have CD's inside.
I have a disc inside.

@Paul: That's right Paul... Sony should be proud. And this success should offset the Betamax. Oh, and the MiniDisc. And the Memory Stick. Of course there's the SACD. Digital8? MicroMV? Oh, and the UMD. And how's it looking for Blu-ray?

What's that proverb about even a broken clock telling the right time two times a day?

I submit that the "redbook audio CD" is rarely used anymore. Now there is just a bunch of improperly labeled DRM CD's that the RIAA hopes you think are redbook CD's.

Die RIAA... DIAF!

Buy indie, buy redbook CD's only!

I remember seeing a "special" on MTV about the upcoming release of the Compact Disc. I'll never forget the tech guy they had on, saying that CDs were virtually indestructible, unlike vinyl (that scratches) or tape. To demonstrate, he had a dog (yes, a dog) start chewing on a CD. He they said that it wasn't damaged at all, and would play just fine. (Of course, he didn't have a player handy...) Too bad he was completely full of sh!t, as CD's were very prone to scratches and not very good for long-term data storage.

Hmm, also the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis. Coincidence?

@JohnOB1:

Actually, the licensing revenue that Sony gets for every CD made does offset all thier failed formats.

@Sony fanboys:

The CD is for more than 80% a Philips invention. Sony was only dragged in at the last moment to form an industry alliance. Royalties on the CD patents dried up years ago.

Its one of the few new technologies I owed very early. I had one of the first portables, a square thing with a huge battery compared to today. I don't recall my first CD but might have been Dark Side Of The Moon.
After having to deal with floppies and records/cassettes CDs were aweomse. They still are, but other methods are gradually replacing them.

My first CD was "Communiqué" by Dire Straits way back in Oct. of '85. Since then I have purchased nearly 2,000 of them.