The great problem with CDROMs and DVDs is that you can't easily stick them in a pocket. Another disadvantage of the medium is that when reading and writing to a disk/disc format it needs to constantly increase or decrease speed depending on where the pickup device is along the track. And as Mythbusters showed there is a limit to how fast you can spin them before they fly apart.
Solution: Compact Cylinder or CCROM. They double as data toters and pens or mechanical pencils. You only need a really small opening on the front of your computer or radio/CCROM player. They are easily shared and carried. The device can be much stronger than a CDROM and using blue lasers you can fit as much data on the area of a pen 3 inches long as you can a regular sized CDROM. The end of the pen would have a nice ergonomic pyramid shape for writing and when placed in the reader this shape will snug into the end of the motor. It can be spun at only one speed since it is a cylinder shape instead of a disk shape making the technology much simpler and cheaper. You can burn your favorite song to a pen and give it to a friend as a gift. It might be sad to accidentally leave your favorite Carly Simon CCpen at the grocery store, but it will have a longer and happier life before ending up in the recycle bin.-- Willie333, Sep 29 2005 Mythbusters Episode 2 http://dsc.discover...ode/episode_07.html [Willie333, Sep 29 2005] [davewillo's]Bone Conducting magnetic inducting headphones! Bone_20Conducting_2...cting_20headphones!Not the one I was looking for... [Dub, Sep 30 2005] Flash drive Pen http://memorysuppli...m/ex2gbusb20fl.htmlWhat Dub said, only without tape [gardnertoo, Jan 27 2007] Couldn't you just tape a pen to a USB stick? Or buy them one of the mini Swiss army knives with a USB stick built-in (I'd often wondered whether the SA have ever used them to get them (the memory stick bit) out of serious trouble)-- Dub, Sep 29 2005 While I love memory sticks, sometimes you want a cheap data storage device. With this you could have a very small walkman since the motor is going only one speed and everything could be very compact slightly larger than a fat pencil.-- Willie333, Sep 29 2005 The trend is towards removable memory devices which do not have to be spun, rotated or vibrated in order to get the data out.
Better yet to get the data out by some wireless tech.-- neelandan, Sep 30 2005 I guess you could listen to the music by holding it in your teeth (al a another HB'd idea I kinda remember)-- Dub, Sep 30 2005 You can buy ballpoint pens with flash drives built in already, and not spend a lot of money either. See link.
Bun anyway, its a clever idea. One issue: pens get a lot of abuse. The surface is likely to scratch up pretty quickly and strand your data. A protective sleeve may be needed.-- gardnertoo, Jan 27 2007 random, halfbakery