Compact Disc Turns 26, Has a Bright Future

javipas writes "The Compact Disc was created 26 years ago, but apparently it is as healthy as 15 years ago, when computing versions of this format (CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW) made the market explode. Nowadays CD has been replaced in some segments, but not on the music industry, that continues to support it massively. The shy return of vinyl and the absence of real competitors make CD's future very bright, so it seems this birthday will not be by any means the last one we celebrate. Happy birthday!"

Comments

Re:Absence of real competitors

[galoise]

Stoves without pilot lights
No, I'm not speaking here of the new stoves that use an electric spark. I'm talking about technology that I'm not old enough to know first hand, but have only read of.

Early stoves had to be lit with a match, and there were no safety devices to shut an unlit gas source off. The knob on the oven was known as "the knob that will make the house explode," because if you turned on the knob and didn't light it, sooner or later when the house was full of fumes, boom.

I doubt many people miss exploding houses!

The stove in my house, and in 90% of houses in my country, do NOT have a pilot light nor an electric spark to be ignited. We use matches.

There is a security feature, though: all burners have a thermostat to close the gas if the burner is not hot (as in on). To turn the stove on, you have to press on the knob to override this thermostat, and without releasing it, turn it to open the gas, apply the match and light it. After the burner is hot enough (in ovens it takes a few seconds, in surface burners it's near instantaneous), you release the knob and have a lighted burner. if you release too early, the gas gets cut and it's the whole shebang all over again. Nearly all gas appliances down here work in this fashion.

Our stoves have contained this security feature since at least the 70's, i sincerely doubt your stoves did not, so it seems to me that you made a mistake.

Pilot flames, on the other hand, are very much more dangerous.