These clear plastic disks "appear" to be blank CDs. But don't be fooled (again)!

I want to talk about blank CDs. How many of us, at one time or another, have been fooled by the see-thru discs that come packaged at the top of a spindle of blank CDs? Okay, I can understand that no proud computer geek would ever want to admit to this kind of simple deception.

I realize (now) that they put these clear plastic discs in the stack to protect the actual legitimate blanks from scuffing, scraping, and scratching, but how many first-time media buyers have mistaken them for the real thing? I see a few hands raised in the back.

In their humble defense (and I'm not in the habit of defending "noobs"), the first time you look at one of these "blanks", it is the same size and shape as a real CD-R (recordable CD), and yes, there's clearly nothing on it, at least to the naked eye (or even the eye that is modestly dressed in a worn-out QuakeCon t-shirt).

I can imagine how many calls, letters, and emails have been sent to hardware manufacturers and digital storage companies complaining that they can't write on this "blank" media. I mean technically they are blank...

Maybe they (and they know who they are) need to put warning labels or printed messages on these discs that say "This is not a blank CD! Well...it is blank, but it's not recordable. It's just part of the packaging. We didn't think you were that stupid."

Okay, maybe they don't need to provide a full explanation, but some people just don't get it. Remember that they do print "Warning: Coffee Is Hot" on most styro-foam drink cups.

So what then do you do with these useless CD look-alikes? Recycle them? Donate them to a crafts supply store? Use them to make plastic plate armor for your World of Warcraft warrior Hallowe'en costume? If you're less than scrupulous you might try to resell them to some unsuspecting Luddite (although I don't know that many Luddites in the copying business). I bet there's a guy somewhere who bought a stack of these at a swap meet, swearing at himself right now for being duped. But they were such a great deal! Fool me once, shame on me, fool me eight times...

Maybe the best thing to do would be to have the manufacturers replace the plastic material with cardboard or stiff paper. At least this way you'll significantly reduce the confusion from novice users. And hey, you can still write on paper, so in a way it would still be a recordable CD. And they can still be burned!