they have come out ... they are out.Quote:
when mini-cdrw come out
Printable View
they have come out ... they are out.Quote:
when mini-cdrw come out
CD-ROM drives acturally are faster, but there is a lot more work that needs to be done to the CD first. It needs to test the laser before writing, read/write a TOC, write a couple MB of *BLANK* data (that's right, *BLANK* data), write your file, and more *BLANK* data. Also, the error-correction data... But, at least 10-13.5MB of *BLANK* data per track, if I remember correctly.
There is quite a lot that goes on when you make a CD. There might be much more things that can vary between CD-ROM drives than Floppy Drives. For example, not all lasers write at the exact same darkness, but they are close enough in most cases that it is easily cophensated for. There might be some stuff like that for a floppy disk, but there is much less to keep track of, and it is much faster, and probably more field-proven, seeing as to how long they've been used.
I personally don't see the use of using a CD for a small file - even a 1KB file would acturally take up about 14MB on a CD. Floppies are easily reusable without having to erase for as long as a CD (CD-RW bulk eraser?), and you can decorate them easier by putting multiple labels on top of each other. But, I like the Floppy Disk for small stuff, my Memory Stick (128MB Flash) for medium / daily files, and at times a CD for huge files and backups.
CD Data Format Information (Mainly Audio CD, but applicable)
Where I got this info from: CD Architect Help File
BTW, the Orange Book talks about Recordable CD’s
That is where laser brightness, etc., is calibrated...Quote:
Power Calibration Area
Within every compact disc there is a PCA that is reserved specifically for testing the power of the CD-Recorder laser being used, and a Count Area which keeps track of how much available space is left in this area. Each time a disc is inserted into the CD-Recorder drive, a calibration is automatically performed to determine the optimal laser power for “burning” the disc. Over time the power level of the laser will need to be adjusted to properly respond to changes in recording speed, temperature, humidity, and the condition of the disc. Each time this calibration occurs, it is incremented in the Count Area. A maximum of 99 calibrations can occur on one disc.
That was for the TOC...Quote:
Lead-In Area
The Lead-In Area comprises approximately the first two minutes on any compact disc and is generally unused for recording actual audio data. The main purpose of this area is to store the Table of Contents (TOC), which keeps an account of each track’s location on the disc. The TOC is written to the Lead-In Area of the disc once all of the information has been recorded to the disc. Before the TOC is written, only the recorder can access the disc. Once the TOC has been written to the disc, any CD player or drive can play the disc.
The BLANK data. 90 Seconds - about 1.5Min, about 8MB/Min, so about 12MB of blank data... There are similar things one a per-track basis, I think, but I don't know for sure...Quote:
Lead-Out Area
The Lead-Out Area contains 90 seconds of silence (blank sectors) and serves as a buffer area in case the player reads past the last track on the disc. This area essentially does nothing more than let listeners know the music is over. Lastly, the Lead-Out and Lead-In Areas are the portions of the disc most likely to be damaged as a result of handling. As you know, discs are most commonly handled by the edges, if audio was stored in these areas, it would likely become difficult for your CD player to read.
-Tim_axe
Floppies? What are those?
Jeeze PC users are still in the dark ages, Macs haven't had floppies in ages. ;)
Seriously, when I was contemplating getting a Mac laptop I couldn't conceive of a computer without a floppy drive, so I bought one for the hotbay... Boy was that stupid. Now the only reason it ever gets used is if Winblows users have problems and I have to try and save a corrupted M$ Word doc, or if I have to d/l a virus cleaning utility to clean of a Winblows user's box. I only ever use it if I have to fix PC's...., funny that.
My cd-rw and iPod work wonders as portable storage, and should my printer die, I can just drop the file onto the fileserver and print off of a lab machine.
At home, same basic thing, my house is WiFi and wired, my friend's house is just wired, and my other friend's house is WiFi as well. So two out of three I can walk in turn on my laptop and drop the file onto a shared folder, the other one I have to plug in a wire first...
docs go through e-mail easily, as do pics, as do small apps, floppies were the 1.44MB/walk ethernet, now we have 100mbs+sit, I don't know about you, but I am pretty keen on sitting. (Of course it is 2 degrees Fahrenheit, and with windchill it claims to be -14, so that might be why I am opposed to moving).
Dhej
We already got rid of ours....we now only buy laptops with seperate FDDs simply because we only use them once in a blue moon (and it gave us an excuse to buy wireless equipment!
Of course the problem with this is - sometimes the network fails and we can't back up to hard disk and without floppies, that five page document you've been slaving over for the last hour is lost forever.
Rachel
I could agree, that in the windows-world floppy drives might have become obsolete. But I think, in the age of gigs of cheap harddiskspace, it is some specific kind of art to compress an OS to a single floppy disk and addtionally put very useful software on it.
For some examples just have a look here: http://www.toms.net/rb/ or here http://www.fli4l.de/
Using fli4l I have revived an old 486DX40 and use it as a DSL-Router. It happily runs without any HD- and CD-Drive just with 2 ethernetcards and one floppy.
Uhu
Just replace them with LS120 drives (that way if you still had to, you could read floppies)and no ZIP drives aren't the answer, they are the problem.