"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...

CD players have lasers that get dirty and get tossed long before the
actual laser diode is gone.

And even DVD burners are now so cheap that its just a yawn.

We've gone from an 80K floppy drive that cost $800 to a DVD burner that can
store 9 Gb and costs $35.

From an 8 Mb hard drive that cost $7,000 to a 320 Gb drive that costs $100.