Untitled Document

Kolbo Newspaper
Erez Asherov
Published in Haifa, Israel

A Scratch to Itch
Wipe Out! CD Repair Kit-The Review

As far as compact discs are concerned, I'm a pedant, a fanatic, a fadantic (look it up in the dictionary): all's in order, alphabetically arranged, Shakti in its place, Satie in his, a disc leaves the box, goes into the player, comes out, and into the box again.

or this reason, I haven't even a single compact disc that is scratched, a fact that made it quite hard for me to test the new product, Wipe Out!, which takes pride in its ability to repair defective discs. Seeing as all my discs are in good shape, I tried to figure out which one of them I would never like to hear again, and the answer came back clear as a bell: Elton John's "Candle in the Wind", the '97 version.

So, holding the single in my left hand, in the right hand a sharp knife, a Mafioso look on my face, I gave the disc a serious Better-Pay-In-Time cut that started near the hole and ended somewhere close to eternity. This way, I discovered that compact discs are tougher than we think - the cut had no effect. So next time I really dug into the disc with the knife, in a circular motion. To my great delight the Princess' track started hip-hopping all over the place. It became defunct.

I spread Wipe Out! on the disc, not expecting results: how on earth can a polishing CREAM repair the serious damage I inflicted? But, hard as it is to believe, the damage was undone. After three insistent spreads of Wipe Out!, the disc came back to life, showing no signs of the trauma it went through.

The manufacturers explain the "miracle" most faults are "optical" and not "digital", meaning the laser ray is fooled, but the digital information is unharmed. The Wipe Out! cream chemically rubs the scratch off.

Wipe Out! isn¹t cheap: 89 shequels. Still, if you use it to fix two compact discs, even if we talk mid-price, the expense is justified. Repair just one CD-ROM, and you actually got your money back. Considering that the stuff is good for approximately 50 treatments, the cost is nulled, especially if you are not of the fanatic (and fadantic) kind, and your compact discs are exposed to daily danger. Plus - Wipe Out! works on laser discs, DVD, PlayStation and Sega discs too.

Wipe Out! is imported by Double-D Records, tel. 8372048, fax 8371065, email: double_d@isracom.net.il. One might even pay them a visit at their new home, on 117 Hannasy Ave.

As for me, embarrassing as it is, I'm still stuck with that Candle in the Wind. If you have a creative idea about destroying it, just drop me a line.