Disco Inferno Thanks to fast burn speeds and smokin' prices, CD-RWs are charring the CD-R competition.

We're bidding a fond farewell to floppy disks. Not everybodyhas a Zip drive, and SuperDiscs can't be read by regular floppydrives; but you'll be hard pressed to find a computer thatdoesn't have a CD-ROM drive. That flat tray that looks an awfullot like a cup holder is the key to widely compatible removablestorage. So, in today's CD-R-friendly climate, with pricesdropping and speeds acceler-ating, it's time to either replaceyour old 2x CD-R or buy a brand-new CD-RW of your own.

While the music applications are obvious, the business potentialis something to really tap your toes to. Backing up files is anoften-neglected task, but CD-RWs at least offer a convenient formatand 650MB of space for your important data. No mere floppy canclaim that. Fast burn speeds and cheap media make it less of aheadache to create several backup copies for safekeeping.

With CD-ROMs being a fairly universal medium, they can also bequite effective as communication tools. Put a PowerPointpresentation onto a CD, and you've got a customer handout. HTMLdocuments, company information, PDF files, forms and references canbe passed around in CD format. If your computers aren'tnetworked, CD-ROMs can be a handy way to transfer large chunks ofdata and files from machine to machine.