On Thursday 28 July 2005 22:11, Paul wrote: > On Thu, 2005-07-28 at 08:44 -0500, Bryan J. Smith wrote: > > On Thu, 2005-07-28 at 08:44 -0400, Peter Arremann wrote: > > > *sighs* BS level exceeded... > > > > DVD-RAM is the most reliable, long-term optical archiving format. > > Well other than the name, it does not have anything in common with DVD > because IIRC it's a Magneto Optical drive ... totally different Tech. Close - its PD, not MO... PD means that the intensity of the laser is varied to change the phase and therefore the way the laser is reflected. Reading and writing is both done with the laster. MO means a laser is heating up the magnetic materical enough so the write head can change the magnetic domains. Once the material cools down again enough, the orientation of the domains can no longer be changed. Peter.