Heh. Pretty funny. To prove my point about being fined, here's an article about Pittsburgh fining people for not separating their trash.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5648030/ns/us_news-environment/t/city-fines-residents-who-refuse-recycle/
City fines residents who refuse to recycle:
"The city has issued about 100 citations since stepping up enforcement in the spring. Fines with court costs are $62.50. A second offense costs more than $500, though Costa said none have been issued.

Costa said failing to recycle costs the city money. It's paid $11 a ton for glass, cans and plastics and $30 a ton for newspaper, Costa said. Statewide, the average cost to take municipal trash to a landfill is about $57 per ton, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection."

1) Using the reason of "cutting down on landfilling" for composting is a straw dog. There is no scarcity of land for landfills. That is a myth. 2) Eventually, the city where separating out the table scraps for composting becomes mandatory, will hire "trash police" whose sole duty is to check and fine people who do not comply with the rules. 3) Rules for what can be composted can be quite complicated and it is easy to violate the rules unknowingly. I lived in Germany there the rules (read:laws) varied from city to city. We had a battle with the landlord since he was fined for a violation he did not commit (one of the tennants violated the laws). She accused us, the "Americans", when it was someone else. 4) Special compostible plastic bags are usually required for recycling compostible material. These bags have limited strength and can burst if overloaded. They have a limited shelf life and if exposed to the sun can fall apart in your hands. And they are not cheap. 5) If it is economical and profitable, then let the private sector handle it. Otherwise, it's a waste of time and money.

External hard drive with syncback SE by 2brightsparks. http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbse.html Syncback is a SOLID program that you set up to either do a backup or synchronize - I think they have a FREE version, too. I choose to synchronize so it's a mirror image of my music directories. You can set it up to sync/backup on a timed schedule. It really is the BEST solution. Syncback also allows FTP backup/sync. I'm currently in Germany and have a computer in the USA set up to sync with. No compression. SWEET! I also back up with DAT tape and use STOMP PCbackup program. But it's not nearly as elegant as the hard drive with syncback. These external hard drives are now cheap enough and reliable enough to be your secondary storage. I tried DVDs for a while but was not impressed with the final product. You still have to sit there and feed your burner DVDs. The FTP sync works so well, I haven't done the DAT backup in a couple of months!