I don't think they will ever "oxidize"
Data degradation usually depends more on the equipment the disc is written on but the quality of media is obviously a major factor. Since games are manufactured all over the place it's difficult to say what discs are quality and what ones are not.

Taken from this article.
Keep in mind they are talking about home made CD-R and DVD-R discs.

Following the test procedures of the International Standards Organization (ISO) quality media manufacturers have been able to document data life-spans ranging from 50-200 years. But keep in mind there are wide differences between low budget media operations and quality media firms. In addition variations in manufacturing methods, materials and processes/procedures can dramatically effect the data life of the media you use.
Or as auto manufacturers say, "your mileage may vary."

I think you will be safe if you take good care of them but I don't think anyone can give you an answer that is more than speculation.

I think we should make the world a better place for our children, but not out children's children because out children should not be having sex.
-Jack N. Handy

then for than, broken links, I should not post this late

Yes, Discovery channel.

Just to clear things up the show that was on this morning was Level 3 and a repeat of the show that aired last Wednesday.

It's a 5 part series and the first 3 parts have now all aired for the last time (until the series is rerun of course)
Wednesday 12/12/07 Level 4 will air twice then once again on Thursday 12/13 and once on Saturday 12/15

Level 5 will air on the same days the following week. Check your local listings because the times are different in your respective time zone.

It's possible that Dicovery will air them all back to back on the last weekend buy my guide does not go out that far.

I looked back a few pages and did not see this posted.
It was just put up at 10:25 pst.
Type Gerstmanngate into the search box and this is what you get.
The company line if you will.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6183666.html?tag=result;title;0

~edit Man I really gotta start remembering to put those darn links in :?

SleepyByte

This is almost hilarious!
I don't know when it happened but title of the Q&A has been edited to remove the term "Gerstmanngate"
It now reads GameSpot on Gerstmann. I would laugh if it was not so pathetic.

I guess the management did not like that title or the fact that if you searched for Gerstmanngate then the Q&A article would come up.

Absolutly 100% inline with the way Cnet has handled this entire situation. BAD!
How much to you wanna bet that staff usage of that term is now forbidden?

XP home OEM: $89

VistaHome Premium oem: $109

XP media center oem: $114

OEM basically means the CD does not come in the fancy box and without the useless manual.

pharomarc

Wow, the prices have really come down.
I got my LT November of last year before Vista, I should have taken that into consideration.

Where were you shopping so I can make a note of it please. :)

[QUOTE="LordAndrew"]Still a lot more than I'd be willing to pay.

And how many people really have a copy of Windows XP? My computer came with Windows pre-installed, and I think most people are in the same situation unless they've already built a PC.Tiberius

It's been a while since I last bought a computer with a pre-installed OS, but I remember them always coming with some kind of software recovery CD, which had, among other pre-installed programs, Windows itself on it. Is that not still the case these days?

The short answer to this question is no.

The long answer is it has not been that way for a long time and in fact those recovery discs did NOT have windows on it. You could not use it to install windows on a new machine. It only had key start up items like a new registry and clean driver file and so on. The recovery disc would actually use the installed copy of windows and "sanitize" it to new condition. These days that is all done from the hard drive so in the case of a complete hard drive failure on a pre built system like an HP for example, windows must be reinstalled by an authorized dealer.

An actual copy of windows has not been included with machines with it pre installed since Windows 95 came out.

Windows XP Media Center (the best version IMO) will still run you around $150
When I bought my laptop I stripped it and purchased a copy ofWindows XPMCE.Dealing with the drivers was a bit of a pain and I would not recommend it for everyone especialy someone who knows nothing about computers. For me it was the best 150 bucks I have spent in a while and well worth it to get rid of all the crap the "bloatware" crap that came on that thing.

uhh.... blog it next time? ;)

FearMeIAmLag

Yeah ok.

I thought it might generate some discussion from others that have attempted to help out in in the newbies forum in the past or have been frustrated because slow typing has prevented them from contributing to other things in some way.

In hindsight it's not that interesting.

I give up on the newbies form.
I'm a reasonably fast typist, 50 WPM with corrections give or take but I'll be damned if that aint fast enough to help out in there. By the time I pound out my info and add a link or two I'm 2 or 3 posts too late.

Oh well, I guess on the bright side we don't have dozens of folks wandering about the forums because they didn't gettheirquestion answered fast enough when they asked in the right place. :?

I looked back a few pages and did not see this posted.
It was just put up at 10:25 pst.
Type Gerstmanngate into the search box and this is what you get.
The company line if you will.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6183666.html?tag=result;title;0

~edit Man I really gotta start remembering to put those darn links in :?

Wow thats crazy, a company claiming to have a amazing product. I always wondered why every game that games out says "Game of the year" or "Best (insert genre here) you will ever play." /sarcasm. Any self respecting gamer will try the product and not listen to reviews/raitings and find out for themselves if its whats its hyped up to be. What if agamespotreviewer said (Insert Game)was a horrible game and nobody would like it (Jeff saying on no, Kane and Lynch is terrible not worth retail, which btw i know plenty of people that love the game). If you truely believe what they say then you are simple minded, not being rude, but come on this goes on every where. Hell any movie that comes out says its the best thing on the face of theearth. In the end its the consumer that chooses how the product is rated.Damascuss

There is a significant difference between hand picking a review or even quoting a review out of context as I illustrated in a previous post and using a quote that was not in the review and openly misrepresenting the score. The K & L site says that GameSpy gave the game 5 stars when in fact they gave it 3.
Likewise they say Game Informer gave it 5 stars when in fact they gave it 7 out of 10

Its not a question of believing what they say but them lying about what someone else said.
Perhaps you missed this post.

True Gammit10, I was just putting this post together that says something similar.
I would like to add that picking a single quote out of a review to make it seem like it is a positive review is not an uncommon practice and it happens all the time. They could have easily taken this quote from the GameSpy review and used it and be doing nothing wrong. Misleading? Sure, but not a complete lie.

GameSpy quote: the story driving Kane & Lynch is one of the best you'll play this year.

Now this is of course totally out of context since the next line reads "However, the game also feels like it was pushed out for the holiday rush; its flaws are painfully evident, and for everything it does right, there's something else that feels like the butt of a gun smashed against your nose." but at least the quote would have been truthful.

The quote that was used was taken from a E3 preview and the game in reality received 3 out of 5 stars so what they did is a flat out lie.
SleepyByte

I understand the point your trying to make, in fact, I think I had already made it.

Never heard of it. Ask here.
http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showforum=12
Thats the Morrowind mods forum at Bethesda.