I burned my first DVD's the other day; a non-tech friend was given a video of family related material and wanted a back up or two. In a store I was looking for DVD-R's, for I have learned my lesson: the CD-R's upon which I have copied much precious music do not fit this job.

But the first thing my eyes locked on in the display threw me. Here were much smaller discs than the "usual suspects" I was ready to purchase. I found the right ones, but the smaller ones reminded me of ye olde floppy discs, which went from five inches to three and a half to, well, landfill or recycle.

So, are these smaller DVD-R's a very short stepping stone to the next thing? And after that? It just struck me these probably are for cameras, but still one thinks about the recordable VHS tapes of yore, which this store still carries!

A light went on, but was it a watt saver? An LCD?