On Thu, 3 Mar 2011 19:12:44 -0800 (PST), Shaun Eli
wrote:

On-line backup is only as secure as the company's financial situation
allows them to be- although admittedly unless they go broke right
around the time you need your data you have time to replace them. From
what I read in the NY Times, though, it takes a long time for an
initial backup if you have, say, 1 tb of video files. Time as in
months and months with a DSL connection.

But if your house burns down and thus your internet connection's also
gone, let's say you move to a new apt and buy a computer. How long
will it take to get a new internet connection and then download all of
your data? I'd prefer to have it all on DVDs. Worst case I pay a HS
kid to spend a day swapping disks to recover my data, assuming I left
the disks elsewhere (as I do).

USB hard drives are *cheap*. Don't bother with CDs or DVDs.