April 19, 2004

Yesterday, Sony Corporation and TOPPAN Printing Co. LTD , a large japanese printing company, announced the successful development of 25GB paper disc based on Blu-ray Disc technology.   Doubts over Sony paper discs p2pnet.net - Optical storage expert Michael Thomas has re-iterated his concerns that the paper discs being offered by Sony Corp and Toppan Printing Co may cause more problems than they solve. Thomas told p2pnet the companies will use violet light frequencies at 405 nanometers and, "I don't believe the disk data will be able to survive repeated use. You'll never see me stick a paper substrate disk in any drive I have." He also believes Sony and Toppan will have problems with plastic substrates they could be using over time because, "photons in the 405 nm region could cause breakdown of crosslink in plastic polymers leading to brittle plastic that shears, cracks and flakes away. "Hence, doping polymer with paper to offset breakdown problem is masking the real problem but will increase lifetime to failure of the disc." Thomas says seeing research data showing comparisons to plastic and glass would solve a lot of doubt for him. 10:27:22 PM

British Police Arrest 10 on Suspicion of Terror New York Times - For the second time in three weeks, hundreds of police officers were deployed in Britain on Monday in a major sweep of suspected terrorists. The police said that nine men and one woman were arrested. 10:17:10 PM