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I found the following image of oddly shaped optical media on http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2801, under Other discs, which will not work with these computers:

Collection of oddly shaped optical media

I know that the one on the top left is a Mini CD or Mini DVD, and at least one other appears to be a business card CD/DVD, but what exactly are these discs? The one that really puzzles me is the triangular-shaped one on the bottom left.

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I know I have received discs like the bottom right examples with hardware, they were just oddly shaped discs that contained drivers for the hardware. – MaQleod Jul 15 '11 at 3:43
I like the pictures! I've occasionally seen business cards that are mini-CDs cut down to size (like the top-right one). – Randolf Richardson Jul 15 '11 at 4:04
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They are miniCDs. I have seen the lower right one labeled as a "business card disc". It only holds like 180 megs, but is close the dimensions of a business card. A lot of the drives that have a tray actually have some groves to let you center these smaller ones inside it. They work just like normal discs. No clue how well they would work on a slot load mac for example.

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What about the other two discs? – DragonLord Jul 15 '11 at 3:43
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I believe they are all types of miniCD. Here's a random website that sells all sorts of odd shapes.cdduplication4less.com/shaped.htm – Tremmors Jul 15 '11 at 3:45
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They are all mini-CDs/DVDs. The recordable area is determined by the minimum distance from the inner edge of the recordable area to the outer edge of the recordable area. In the case of the one on the lower left, the extra "flanges" at the top and bottom-right and -left are not recordable. – BillP3rd Jul 15 '11 at 3:47
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The link at the top of the question, from which the picture is derived, states that these discs cannot be used in a slot-loading Mac. – DragonLord Jul 15 '11 at 4:12
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Some of those shapes from the link in the second comment, like the heart shaped one, would surely cause quite a lot of oscillation when being read at 8x speed. I've had old music CDs explode when being ripped at 52x speed (probably because they had a tiny chip in the centre hole). – paradroid Jul 15 '11 at 5:40
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up vote 1 down vote

They are, as you say, oddly-shaped optical media. There is no specific name given to them beyond a few specialized ones; the rest are all just art projects.

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This doesn't quite answer the question. – DragonLord Jul 15 '11 at 3:41
There is no answer. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jul 15 '11 at 3:46
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