For those who want to put some real class in their life, but are already weighed down by gold medallions and knuckle-spanning rings emblazoned with diamonds spelling out ROOT, Delkin has arrived on the scene with CD-R media containing some $0.20 worth of 24k gold per disc. Gold may not seem like a very sensible ingredient of optical media at first—there are highly reflective materials that don’t cost some $400 per ounce—but Delkin claims their “Archival Gold” discs will last a ridiculously long 300 years, unlike traditional CD-Rs which can go kaput in as little as 1-5. I’m skeptical that these discs will last anywhere near that long, but it’s amusing to imagine the marketdroids jumping with joy, knowing that nobody alive today will be around in 300 years to call their bluff.
Delkin Releases CD-Rs with 24K Gold [DigitalMediaThoughts]
Update: Matthew writes:
Saw your article on the gold CD-Rs. One of the major reasons for data degradation in CD-Rs is oxidation of the aluminum layer that causes “rot” in the CD. Gold does not oxidize and therefore should eliminate this problem. There are other things that can affect the shelf life of a CD, but using a metal such as gold should greatly increase the life span of the CD-R (I don’t know if they will last for 300 years… but should last longer than many other CD-Rs….)
For more info on things that effect CD shelf life see the NIST guide on it at:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/CDandDVDCareandHandlingGuide.pdf
