l(usb2, usb3, lightening, fibre optic, etc?)

I propose a fibre optic verion of Lightning: I am going to call it "Frightening"!

Whether you find it funny or not, XKCD at least has creativity and intelligence, and it's unfair to compare it with the awful "User Friendly". AFAICT, that only got where it was by targeting and pandering to the geek audience and being an online webcomic in the mid-to-late-90s when the former was still rare and the latter still somewhat novel.

The fact that it was badly-drawn (*) and not actually that clever in itself- so much as giving its oft-maligned (**) target audience an excuse to feel superior to others- didn't seem to matter.

As I once commented elsewhere:-

(*) XKCD isn't exactly detailed in the artwork stakes either, but that comes across as an intentional style, whereas User Friendly just looks like a wannabe of better-looking cartoons.
(**) This is before it was (allegedly) cool to be a geek.

The reliability of tape has been very low when I used them in the past.

You might want to find out why. You probably are not doing it right. Tape may not be perfect, but its better than anything else long term for high capacity (Paper is better for ruggedness and lifetime, but wont work for 20TB).

LTO is 6.25TB per tape. Tapes are about $100. Drives are NOT cheap, but if you have 20TB now, I am guessing you will soon have 40TB

The benefits of tape are:

Data will probably last 30 years (I have read 30 YO tapes myself) HD interfaces go out of fashion every few years.

You can have a pool of tapes, and recycle them when you no longer need the data.

Tapes will survive serious abuse. (A lot more than HDs anyway) definitely included the back of a station wagon (except in tropical climates).

You can use Amanda, Bacula or tar for free. (I recommend tar if you want to keep the data for 30 years).

LTO6 tapes hold 6.25 TB, so you probably only need 4. Hardly fills a station wagon - the basket of a push-bike would do fine.

Of course, you might want to make more than one copy of your data. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006K1FSKA

Why the fuck should Apple be exempt?

Because they are Apple. No other reason needed.

And will we need to be wearing ear-plugs when you reply?

(Also using OBSD on Sparc64 servers)

Mod parent +1: informative

I have never seen a Blu-Ray disk, and I am not too sure anyone I know has. You must live in the USA (not a device for connecting hardware).

Perhaps someone should conduct a survey on Slashdot posters' reading comprehension.

Or perhaps not. The results could cause serious depression.

Some of us here think the VAX is new technology.

Get off my lawn

Sent from my PDP11 using RSX11

Come now, Ian Fleming wrote a documentary on it, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I don't know why this is, but it just is.

It is because if one party talks louder, the other party assumes thst more volume is required and an increases his volume too - result: positive feedback (procedure works in absense of phone).

When one party talks so loud that the microphone is overloaded, the other absolutely screams to blot out the distortion!

This is well documented in the annals.

Who the hell has a credit card these days? the charges are outrageous. Most people have debit cards. Maybe the US is different.

Call me back when I ran run my Captain Keen from Floppies!