my friends have one of those things! The first time I saw it, I held it in my hands analyzing its design attempting to comprehend what it was for. At first, I thought "paper cutter" (e.g. like the ones that people like to cut wrapping paper with), but after the initial inspection I scratched that thought out. Then I saw the groove that was the perfect size to slide over a CD case, but without a CD case on hand the size of the gap didn't register in me noggin. Then I noticed the tiny little sharp tip off center in the groove, and ~really~ started to wonder.
During this whole time I think my friends glanced over at me puzzling over this item maybe 4 times, and never said a thing. I guess they were too busy with their stuff for it to register in their minds what I was doing with that thing. Finally, after maybe 5 to 10 minutes of studying this apparatus I gave up and ~had~ to ask what the heck it was for. I gave them a really puzzled look and asked, "what the heck is this thing supposed to cut with an off center blade that sticks out 1mm in that groove?" The response I got back was, "OMG, you mean to tell me you've been sitting there this whole time trying to figure out what that's for? It's for opening CDs."
Once I heard the purpose, the design of the tool made total sense to me, but up 'til then I'd never seen one so I didn't recognize what it was.
Of course, I was taught a new method for opening CD cases that still have the edge sealed on them. I've BEEN opening them by pealing the tape off the edge. This past week, a lady friend watched me sitting there with one of her CDs scratching at the tape with short nails, and apparently she got impatient (I guess she really wanted to hear the CD /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif ) snatched the CD from my hands and pried one side of the hinge off and flopped the top over so that the 'sealing tape' acted like a hinge. From there removing the tape was as easy as pulling the two pieces apart. When I saw that method and how easy it was to get inside the packaging I felt foolish for doing it the hard way all these years... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif