I have enjoyed the convenience of my zip drive-  My university's graphics computers have zip drives, the local Kinkos have zip drives in their computers, my parents even have a zip drive now.  Its a nice, accepted standard, and for the price the disks read fast and work well- unlike 3.5  floppies, no zip disk has ever corrupted data for me. Zip disks are made of  sturdy plastic which you can safely keep in your (shirt) pocket without  damage.