Even though when they first came out CDs and DVDs were promised to be hardy and tough, we were soon to discover the industry people selling us this medium were big fat liars. CDs and DVDs are very easily damaged; prone to scratches in every-day use and before long they can become difficult to read. If it’s a data disc, certain files can become unreadable, a game disc can crash and movie DVDs can skip or become totally unplayable.

Which sucks. Sure, there’s a few technical terms but really, what fits better than sucks? Bites? Blows? Isn’t freaking fair? $%#@!ing bull$%#@!t? Yeah, sucks works just fine let’s stick with it.

When, due to physical damage a CD or DVD becomes a problem it is possible in certain circumstances to recover some, if not all of the damaged files with the right kind of recovery software.

The reason is simple. Everyday programs or devices like music or movie viewing applications, CD or DVD players give up after encountering a few errors while data recovery applications force your computer’s optical drive to keep on trying endlessly to get all the information that’s there. Until you tell it to stop or it finds everything.

Let’s say your CD or DVD is scratched. Badly enough that some files on it aren’t readable. Your CD/DVD player or application will encounter a problem trying to read the scratched disc and give up while you’re recovery program will keep trying to read and assemble the data under the scratches, endlessly. The more it focuses in on the area, depending on how bad the scratch is, the more likely it might find what you’re looking for and rebuild the problematic files or entire disc.

I’ve been able to fully recover all files on badly damaged CDs and DVDs whether they be data storage discs, music CDs or movie DVDs by giving data recovery programs a try. Sometimes the recovery process only took a few minutes, other times quite a few hours. But all in all, I’ve had quite the success at it unless of course the disc was too far gone. While you can’t recover every disc, you’d be amazed at how successful you can be at it if you give it a try.

One such program I recently started using to recover all the files off a few data and movie DVDs is CD Recovery Toolbox Free. It works for every kind of CD and DVD there is and as the name implies, it’s free. CD Recovery Toolbox Free is a great and easy to use program that works fantastic in my experience. And really, free and works is great in anyone’s book, no?

If you come across a damaged CD or DVD give CD Recovery Toolbox Free a try. It might save you a big headache and bring new life to previously unplayable CDs and DVDs. So don’t give up on that disc, try to recover it with this outstanding gem of a program before tossing it in the trash!

Happy Data Recovering people! Zoom! Zoom!

If you’ve used any of these then you are a true Computer God!

Can you identify all of these computers, left to right starting from the top? If you’ve used any of these computers when you first started out then you are a true computer ubergeek. If you came later, then you really missed the dawn of the computer revolution but hey, you’re still OK in my book. Just not as fortunate or as cool.

So, did you use any of these and can you name them all from memory? Winner gets a nod and some leftover bellybutton lint! Don’t cheat.

Who cares? Practically no one!

This powerful. squeek! squeek! Any questions?

Have you gotten into the habit of trying to download the entire Internet single-handed? Do you download and download and download everything you can click on? Have you filled up your hard drive with as much of the Net as you could, one hyperlink at a time? Do you go for quantity not quality? This is this a side-effect of unlimited Internet usage coupled with higher access speeds and too much free time on your hands.

Do you need help? Do you want to stop. Stop downloading everything on the Net. But you can’t stop?

GO THE $%#@! OUTSIDE AND GET A THING CALLED A LIFE! STARE AT THAT FIERY ORB OF DEATH YOU DON’T REMEMBER SEEING AND MEET SOME PEOPLE! GET SOME $%#@#!ING FRIENDS. AND DON’T BRING YOUR STUPID $#@%!ING SMART PHONE WITH YOU. GO FOR A WALK. RIDE A $%#@!ING BIKE. PLAY IN TRAFFIC FOR ALL I CARE JUST SHUT YOUR $%#@!ING COMPUTER OFF AND GO THE %^$#@ OUTSIDE!!!

(I hate people clogging up my bandwith!)

Should You Bother With Linux

While there is a lot of talk about Windows and Macs, there is another alternative for the operating system your computer runs and that’s Linux. If you’ve never heard of it there’s a reason for that; not many people run it. And there’s a good reason for that too.

It sucks as a desktop operating system.

Linux has it’s uses and for running servers it’s a very, very, VERY good operating system. But for home computing it pretty much sucks.

Listen to the professor for now. Avoid the nightmare. Give it 10-15 more years and it might be worth taking a look at as a desktop OS replacement. Hopefully.

Right now Linux sucks as a desktop OS. And that’s after making a lot of progress.

It sucks.

Do you agree or disagree with the professor?

Top 20 Signs You Need a New Computer:
01. The power supply uses vacuum tubes.
02. It has a burner but it’s a CD burner. 24x!
03. There’s a Certified Windows 95 badge on the case.
04. You had to put down the hamster powering the computer because it had arthritis and couldn’t turn the wheel anymore.
05. Your dad recognized your computer from his childhood.
06. It came with a ZIP drive.
07. The hard drive size is measured in megabytes.
08. It hooks up to any TV set.
09. There are no USB 2.0 ports anywhere on it, just USB 1.
10. It has a cartridge port for games.
11. When you connect to the internet it sounds like someone’s whistling.
12. It uses a dot-matrix printer.
13. The computer and operating system are only manufactured by one company.
14. Your only choices of screen colors are green on black or amber on black.
15. They used Charlie Chaplin in the ad campaign.
16. To modem has 2 suction cups that you put your house phone on.
17. To load programs on your computer you need to use punch cards or a tape recorder.
18. It reboots when you type SYS 64738. Kidding, it’s an awesome computer!
19. It doesn’t have a graphical interface (GUI), just text.
20. To make it display anything you need to insert clear colored plastic pegs into the monitor.