How many CDs has AOL mailed out to a disinterested public?

[toadspittle]

[inspired by this thread on rearview mirror CDs:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=91219 ]

Does anyone have any idea as to how many AOL CDs have been mailed out over the years? (We’ll leave out of the count the floppy disks that filled the first waves of mailings.) Enough to cover Rhode Island? Could we have sent them into space as a giant reflector to concentrate sunlight and generate massive amounts of solar power? Are they the prime cause of our planet’s diminishing aluminum reserves?

[toadspittle]

As an aside, I discovered this site on destroying CDs in the microwave:

http://hamjudo.com/notes/cdrom.html

3. Caution! be ready to stop the oven when the CD-ROM starts to smoke. The smoke smells bad, and is probably bad for you.

…I suspect that if you leave the oven going much longer, the CD-ROM will burst into flame. This will smell very bad and may do bad things to your oven and house. Don’t do it.

Ahh… More people out there, giving their all in the name of science…

[Ike_Witt]

*Originally posted by toadspittle *
**As an aside, I discovered this site on destroying CDs in the microwave:

Ahh… More people out there, giving their all in the name of science… **

I have done this. Actually, you only need to set the microwave for four seconds. Also, like snowflakes, I’ve never seen the same pattern twice in the fried CD.

[LaToyota_Corolla_Falana]

As the universe is currently believed to have accelerating expansion, AOL is doing its part to fill every nook and cranny of said universe. Soon, the combination of AOL disks and the 730,000,000 Blockbuster Video Stores will engulf the universe, causing the gravitational collapse and rebirth of the universe in AOL/Time Warner’s “Big Bang 2” in the year 3001.

[geepee]

heh i get them sent to me so often that in my house you’ll never be short a coaster or an ash tray

[PigBoy]

*Originally posted by toadspittle *
Enough to cover Rhode Island?

By my calculations, it would require 239,310,463,207 CDs to cover Rhode Island (the land area only). That’s about 850 CDs for every person in the United States.

It certainly seems like we’ve received that many…

[MIKE_P]

Here is a site with suggestions on what to do with free AOL floppy disks:
http://core77.com/contraption/october/diskgame.html

Some of them get really wacky.

[Geek_Mecha]

Since 1993, AOL has distributed millions of the discs all over the world. How many, the company refuses to say.

From here: Mantle, Mays, and AOL Discs.

The story is about folks who collect AOL discs.

As I said when I posted the link at Six Degrees, only the fact that I have a pog collection keeps me from ridiculing them.

[johnson]

I don’t know, but I’m guessing that it’s not as many as they’ve sent to an uninterested public.

[Sue_Duhnym]

My little sister cut them up and glued the pieces to a large styrofoam ball.

Hung from the ceiling it makes a fairly realistic disco ball…and all you need is a flashlight.

[Violet]

I’ve dropped them into mailboxes, unopened, with “Refused” on them, but they keep sending.

[Guinastasia]

The floppies were better-I just formatted them and used them as regular disks.

[Mudshark]

I get them in my name and I’m only 15.

Maybe I will give some of them to kids that ring the doorbell on Halloween. Or I could give them as Christmas gifts to people that I don’t really like.

[Solomon7t]

they have spent enough on junk cds to make me a very rich boy.

[lel]

This lends itself to the question: What is worse, AOL disks or fruitcake?

[vivalostwages]

I haven’t checked the site that was posted in this thread for possible uses of those disks, but what I’ve done is make all of mine into postcards. Just cover the hole with the labels, write a note on the back with a Sharpie, slap on the appropriate postage, and off they go. Every single one of them has been delivered to its destination without any problems.

[toadspittle]

*Originally posted by johnson *
I don’t know, but I’m guessing that it’s not as many as they’ve sent to an uninterested public.

I refute your nitpick:

Main Entry: dis·in·ter·est·ed
Pronunciation: -t&d
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1612
1 a : not having the mind or feelings engaged : not interested <telling them in a disinterested voice – Tom Wicker> <Introverted. Unsocial … Disinterested in women – J. A. Brussel> b : no longer interested <husband and wife become disinterested in each other – T. I. Rubin>
2 : free from selfish motive or interest : UNBIASED <a disinterested decision> <disinterested intellectual curiosity is the lifeblood of real civilization – G. M. Trevelyan>
synonym see INDIFFERENT - dis·in·ter·est·ed·ly adverb

usage
Disinterested and uninterested have a tangled history. Uninterested orig. meant impartial, but this sense fell into disuse during the 18th century. About the same time the original sense of disinterested also disappeared, with uninterested developing a new sense–the present meaning–to take its place. The original sense of uninterested is still out of use, but the original sense of disinterested revived in the early 20th century. The revival has since been under frequent attack as an illiteracy and a blurring or loss of a useful distinction. Actual usage shows otherwise. Sense 2 of disinterested is still its most frequent sense, especially in edited prose; it shows no sign of vanishing. A careful writer may choose sense 1a of disinterested in preference to uninterested for emphasis <teaching the letters of the alphabet to her wiggling and supremely disinterested little daughter – C. L. Sulzberger>. Further, disinterested has developed a sense (1b), perhaps influenced by sense 1 of the prefix dis-, that contrasts with uninterested <when I grow tired or disinterested in anything, I experience a disgust – Jack London (letter, 1914)>. Still, use of senses 1a and 1b will incur the disapproval of some who may not fully appreciate the history of this word or the subtleties of its present use.

Gotta love Webster’s.

[skripek]

Back to the OP’s question…
Make some tiny assumptions:
Rhode Island is 12,132 Square feet (or about 768,683,520
Sq inches).
Assume a CD is about 20.25 Square Inches in size.
Therefore it would take about 37,959,680 AOL CD’s
to cover the state of RI.

Now, the population of the US is 281,421,906 according to the 2000 census, so I would guess that at least every person in America (give or take) has come across an AOL CD of their very own at some point along the road, gives you more then enough CD’s to cover a state the size of nebraska or 89,943 Square miles of CD’s.

[hijack]
There is a web site of people out there looking to collect one million CD’s, to return them to AOL and attempt to stop the flow of unwanted CD’s http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/
[/hijack]

[Ferrous]

I always give them to my 6-year old son to play with. He always gets excited. “Look what my dad gave me! A new disc!” So, hey, they’re not completely useless. Anything that makes my little angel smile is OK with me.

[PigBoy]

Rhode Island is only 12,132 square feet? Wow, that means this building is bigger than Rhode Island! I knew it was a small state, but…