heh. Speaking of Gold, I just tried reading my circa-1997 CD-R discs, and they are amazing. The tint on the plastic is a deep green, and the foil on top is actual gold. (It's so thin, it is slightly see-through.) Two of the three read just fine still, but the third doesn't. No scratches or anything, but some files just refuse to read. My slightly LATER 2000 CD-Rs are almost all unreadable, though. Some refuse to even mount. So it's nice to know that the oldies apparently have longer shelf life. (I don't store anything on CD-R that I expect to need more than 2 years in the future, anyway.)