Drop Box lands

[sri]

Dropbox is very useful. I use 3 computers (one home laptop, one work laptop, one work desktop) and installed Dropbox on each of them. The beauty of Dropbox is that it works even from behind a corporate proxy since it takes the settings from IE. Here is how I am using it:

PhraseExpress: I installed PhraseExpress on all my 3 computers and set the PhraseExpress data file to that in the Dropbox. So no matter which computer I add a phrase in, the same phrases are available everywhere everytime. So essentially I am getting the functionality of network edition of PhraseExpress w/ just its free version and Dropbox.

RoboForm: I have moved the RoboForm's passcards to a folder in Dropbox and all my sites' login and password info is available on all the 3 machines.

Portable Applications: I also use few portable s/w. I just place them in Dropbox on any computer and they get auto replicated on the other 2 systems. I plan to uninstall some installed programs like IrfanView, Notepad++ and get their USB versions and put them in my Dropbox.

[Grorgy]

Does anyone have an invite for this they could send me?  I signed up at the site some weeks ago and so far nothing, so I would appreciate it if someone has one as it might be just the solution i'm looking for, from what i can see it does what i need anyway, and at the right price (loves free  )

[Deozaan]

Does anyone have an invite for this they could send me? 

-Grorgy (July 22, 2008, 02:40 PM)

If you're still looking for one, send me a PM with your e-mail address.

[Grorgy]

Thanks Deozaan, I'm all hooked up and ready to go now 

[MrCrispy]

I am using Live Mesh instead. Dropbox's current limitations (only 2gb, all data has to be in the dropbox folder) are too much. Mesh does l lot lot more than Dropbox, but its not as fast yet.

[Armando]

thanks sri! Interesting.  

[tomos]

anyone using it for backup / versioning of files?

it claims to just update the difference to a file (partial file update) and at the same time keep a version of file for each change (for each save presumably)
Would that be a bit like incremental imaging in Acronis TI for example:-
saves file
saves changes
saves changes
etc
(not sure what happens there if part of file is deleted? presumably that part simply marked for deletion . not important anyways)

advantages:
less bandwith used - less S3 space to pay for

disadvantages(?):
not sure how secure/successful this would be - seems like a lot more chance of something going wrong if merging a file with 20 incremental updates (of course they could be differential, I'm not sure...)

[justice]

It's really easy to sync folders outside the My Dropbox folder:

1. Install Link Shell Extension
2. Open two explorer windows and move the folder you want into the My Dropbox folder, then drag it back to the original location using the right mouse button
3. from the menu that pops up use Drop here... => Junction

The folder will remain in the same place and will be synced using dropbox using NTFS junctions. Immediately the files are available from the Web Interface. I've not checked the another DropBox installation with it yet.

With junctions it seems to work better to move the folder to your dropbox, and junction back to the original location, I think you'll find that new subfolders in the juntioned folder don't sync until you restart dropbox.

[Armando]

Nice tip. Thanks Justice!

[justice]

Another tip then, you can tell uTorrent to automatically load torrents from a certain folder. Also set it to delete torrent files after they're loaded. Make a seperate torrents folder and you can dump any .torrent files in there from any location and utorrent will download it while you're away or next time it starts.

That's what's excellent about DropBox it works even when only one pc is on at a time, unlike foldershare (that won't sync to a intermediate server).

Of course this will work with any other files that can be used by programs. Especially if you have some kind of autohotkey script to monitor a folder and start files if they have a certain extension.

[allen]

Just FYI, invites are no longer necessary -- the beta is public. As I understand it, the 2GB will remain free. Still no word, that I can find, on the pricing scheme for larger (unlimited?) storage options.

[Deozaan]

I signed up for the waiting list to be accepted to the beta, then got an invite by srikat which allowed me to make an account immediately.

Well, just in the past week I got accepted (waiting list ended now that it's public I guess) with the chance to win a bigger storage account, and just got invited this morning by someone else (Thanks!) who didn't know I had it already.

So even though I doubt I ever would have won the larger account I'm a little perturbed that I didn't get the chance when I signed up.

[allen]

I'd signed up way back, got accepted at some point, but forgot until a few days ago. . .

So far, I like it sufficiently. It works better than g.ho.st for me, anyway

I wonder what arse would send you an invite after it was no longer invitation only . . .

[lanux128]

they have even released an update to their desktop client which allows the Dropbox's default folder to be moved around.


• http://forums.getdro...d=2371&replies=1

[Deozaan]

So far, I like it sufficiently. It works better than g.ho.st for me, anyway

-allen (September 15, 2008, 03:10 PM)

Yeah, G.ho.st was more of a novelty than anything else. After toying around with it for a couple days I realized how useless it really was.

I wonder what arse would send you an invite after it was no longer invitation only . . .

-allen (September 15, 2008, 03:10 PM)

Some kind of shrimp, I suppose.

[justice]

Next week, you’ll be able to buy a 50GB Dropbox for $9.99/month, or $99.99/year. Don’t worry — the free 2GB accounts will always be free, and you can keep the amount of space you had in the beta. Stay tuned for more on this.

-http://blog.getdropbox.com/

I hope there's a middle way, 20GB for $5 or something, or even 10GB for $3, spending $10 a month on a web service I still can't get around to.

[anjan_oleti]

A word of caution:
http://tech.shantanu...word-of-caution.html

[Grorgy]

Aha, thanks anjan, I shall keep my stuff private!

[Grorgy]

I just went and read the details at their site, and yes, if you put your stuff in a public folder then you make it public, seems logical to me, the (offending?) paragraph is

Your Public Folder

While you own the content contained in Your Files, files placed in your public folders are automatically available to other Dropbox users and to the general public. By placing Your Files in your public folder, you hereby grant all other Dropbox users and the public a non-exclusive, non-commercial, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use and exploit Your Files in your public folder. In other words, a file in your public folder can be used by anyone, for any purpose except commercial use. If you do not want other people to be able to use Your Files in this manner, then simply do not place Your Files in your public folder. By placing Your Files in your public folder, you agree and acknowledge that Dropbox has no responsibility or obligation to monitor or notify of you of any non-compliance related to the license you have granted and that Dropbox has no responsibility to enforce or police, or aid you in enforcing or policing, the terms of that license.