When they were first introduced in the 1980s, CDs, we were told, they would last longer than nuclear waste. So we abandoned vinyl albums like rotary phones and bought the new technology hook, line and sinking feeling-because they *do* get scratched and they *do* become unreadable.

The evangelists of the medium weren't lying exactly. A scratch on a CD's surface doesn't wreck or erase the digital info - but it does scratch the plastic-coated surface over the disk, which in turn causes the laser that reads and the data to become as confused as Times Square on New Year's Eve. It's a little like trying to read the encyclopedia through glasses smeared with vaseline - the information and your ability to understand it aren't impaired, only your view of it.

Faster than you can say Rescue 911, comes the Wipe Out! CD Repair Kit ($14.99, + $3.00 shipping and handling US, $5.00 International). According to the info at the site, its polishing compound successfully repairs skipping and "will completely eliminate the scratch from the vast majority of discs which have been damaged, and restore the music, digital information, or multimedia content" to full playability." Big talk. So could they follow up on it?

While normally able to transcend laws of physics and mortals, your Guru has had a badly scratched pair of personalfavorites, a Blondie and a Steve Miller CD that skip like my 8-year-old niece. I also had a Web authoring program that looked as nicked as my face after my morning shave, and some Net access software from a regional ISP I purposely damaged with a blade like a personal Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I knew for a fact they were gone for good.

I tried this newly patented item on the aforementioned atrocities, and in each and every case, all I had to do was shake the Wipe Out! solution, plop a drop on the scratches, rub it in with the included cloth, then wash the discs lightly with water. That was it. Unlike the snap-on hair I tried, this worked -Blondie sings Heart of Glass without bouncing like an NBA basketball, and the software was restored to perfect working order, removing yet another excuse for stopping work and watching Jerry Springer.

The Wipe Out! CD Repair Kit should handle up to 80 disks. The downside to all this is, now those AOL disks will have more lives than Freddy Kruger.

Charles Pappas
Surf Guru, Yahoo Internet Life