It is ILLEGAL to make unauthorized copies of copyrighted material, except for personal back-up. So if you are copying commercially available music without permission of the copyright owner, then you are indeed acting against the law - especially in Canada [where person posing questions lives]!

Stamped CDs are in a sense like the old phonograph records in that they are produced in a mold. The "pits" that form the "bits" of info - 1's & 0's in data talk - are actually a part of the mold that has polycarbonate (clear plastic) injected into it. Then a reflective surface is sprayed onto the disk, followed by a protective coating, and then it is painted.

Recordable CDs are different in that there are no pits in the polycarbonate. Instead, a dye (that is sensitive to a laser beam) is coated on the disk, followed by a reflective layer, then a protective layer. In a CD Recorder, the pits are "burned" into the dye by the laser. It is the pits that are read by audio CD players or CD-ROMs.

The quality of audio is the same from either since it is all digital. Take a look in our library for a wealth of information, including an article on how compact disks are made.

PC motherboards have two (or more) different kinds of slots for plugging in add-on cards. The PCI slot is a high-density slot (which means its has lots of connections) and is favored more than the original ISA slot. On most motherboards, the PCI slot is a white connector, and the ISA slots are black.

Mac decided to use USB (Universal Serial Bus) for an interface for CD recorders and a plethora of other things (keyboards, cameras, mice, printers, etc.) However, USB was not quite fast enough in sustained transfer speed for some disks. So they have come out with a new interface called Firewire (so named because it is supposed to be blazing fast).