Denys:
> Please make sure that your marker is either oil or water (not alcohol)
> based.

after Larry:
> I don't know if this would work, but are you wanting to mark it permanently
> or just temporarily?  It seems that a Sharpy TM on the non-data side
> (generally, I refer to this as the "Top" :) ) would work once the ink
> dries.

As Denys points out, I seem to recall somewhere reading that if you use
the wrong kind of pen to write on the top surface of a CD-R then it
may slowly eat through the surface of the disk, rendering unreadable
AT SOME UNPREDICTABLE POINT IN THE FUTURE.  It would be a rather rude
shock to find that all the CDs you have been creating suddenly stopped
being readable some months later.

Another CD-R trivia item: The first generation of DVD-ROM drives that
are starting to show up are apparently unable to read the "green" type
of CD-R disks I'm told.  The "gold" variety I believe are OK, and a future
generation of the DVD drives are supposed to fix the problem if I recall
correctly.  So if you're shipping software on CD-R media, you might
have problems with some customers being able to read your discs if you
don't use the right ones.

Also CD-R discs have recently dropped in price radically, making them
a more viable option for software distribution for a lot of people I
suspect.  You can now buy single discs at Fry's for ~$5.

G.