At 10:30 AM 2/20/01 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote:

It's my vague recollection that some of the newer storage technologies (CD-RWs, MOs, etc) use preformatted pits to store the data bits. Its possible that for these technologies, the number of overwrites required to make data irrecoverable is considerably lower, but that's outside my area of expertise.

Peter Trei

Not only that, but I was able to find *no* specs on secure wiping of CDs and MOs, searching both the net and querying cypherpunks some time ago. (This thread is quickly misinterpreted and devolves into CD aging and shredding issues; neither of which helps if you're using a CD for OTP and want to wipe used bits.) ....... "What company did you say you were from, Mr. Hewlett?" ---Walt Disney to Bill Hewlett eetimes 22.01.01 p 32