Do it yourself dropbox

[daddydave]

What I am most interested in for my own "Do it yourself dropbox" is being able to resume a file transfer. I can't even transfer folders with large camera files across my home network because the destination computer will go into sleep and then the transfer times out. And I don't want to have to turn off power save mode or run mouse wiggle programs!

[40hz]

@daddydave-You could always go with a NAS box -  or build your own low-power Atom or ARM based miniserver if all you wanted was to do file transfers and storage. Most of them run ~20 or less watts and don't need a fan. So it's not a big power bill just leaving them on 24x7.  

[Deozaan]

I can't even transfer folders with large camera files across my home network because the destination computer will go into sleep and then the transfer times out. And I don't want to have to turn off power save mode or run mouse wiggle programs!

-daddydave (June 19, 2011, 08:50 AM)

Try TeraCopy for transferring files across your home network. One of the features I really like about it is that it can do a checksum hash comparison to verify that files copied accurately.

In your situation, if the transfer fails partway through, just start it over again, and when/if it asks you if you want to overwrite existing files, select the "Older Only" option. Any files that were successfully transferred the first time will not be transferred again. And any files that broke partway through will fail the checksum validation and you can then "Clean Up" the list (remove all successful transfers from the list) and tell it to copy over the files that failed checksum validation, this time telling it to overwrite all of them.

A screenshot and more instructions

In the screenshot above, it lists which files successfully copied and which ones failed validation. It's still testing, but if it were finished, that button in the bottom left corner that says "Skipped: 126" would be the button you press to "Clean Up" the list, which shows only the files that don't have a CRC match. Then the buttons near the top that currently say "Pause" and "Skip" would say "Copy" and "Move" and you could just click Copy and then select overwrite and it would copy the files over and test them to make sure they made it.

[Shades]

Yep, most (if not all) functionality from Teracopy should already be incorporated in Windows Since Windows 2003...

[daddydave]

I can't even transfer folders with large camera files across my home network because the destination computer will go into sleep and then the transfer times out. And I don't want to have to turn off power save mode or run mouse wiggle programs!

-daddydave (June 19, 2011, 08:50 AM)

Try TeraCopy for transferring files across your home network. One of the features I really like about it is that it can do a checksum hash comparison to verify that files copied accurately.

In your situation, if the transfer fails partway through, just start it over again, and when/if it asks you if you want to overwrite existing files, select the "Older Only" option. Any files that were successfully transferred the first time will not be transferred again. And any files that broke partway through will fail the checksum validation and you can then "Clean Up" the list (remove all successful transfers from the list) and tell it to copy over the files that failed checksum validation, this time telling it to overwrite all of them.

-Deozaan (June 19, 2011, 08:16 PM)

I can try it, but do you think Teracopy will be able to resume partial file transfers? Since these are LARGE files, if all it does is start a file copy  that failed from the beginning of the file, I think it would just time out again.

[40hz]

Your destination computer shouldn't be going to sleep if a transfer is in progress unless something is wrong with it's power management feature or the transfer hangs on the transmit side and the receiving machine goes to sleep because the transfer has stopped.

Try initiating the transfer from the receiving side. Since TB will be running, that should be enough to keep it awake when you 'pull' rather than 'push'  your file over the network. If it times out because the sending pc got hung, you know it's not the receiving machine.

What I suspect might be happening is there's just too much data being sent without any transfer management in place other than a simple Ethernet/consumer-grade router setup. You might be flooding out the network just doing a drag&drop. One lost or bad packet and your transfer will come to a screeching halt without something like FTP or Terrabyte riding honcho.

You could mess with low-level network settings (i.e. framesize, timeouts, buffers, etc.) to fix it. But it's hardly worth it, and often breaks other things in the process unless you really know what you're doing. So give TB or another file copy utility a try rather than do that.

[daddydave]

Try initiating the transfer from the receiving side.

-40hz (June 20, 2011, 08:58 AM)

For some reason that didn't occur to me, good idea!

[40hz]

Try initiating the transfer from the receiving side.

-40hz (June 20, 2011, 08:58 AM)

For some reason that didn't occur to me, good idea!

-daddydave (June 20, 2011, 12:29 PM)

Do it yourself dropbox

Thx. I figured you were probably on your way over to hit it with a baseball bat anyway.  

[superboyac]

^^ Love that movie!  In a similar vein, I just saw Visioneers and thought it topped Office Space.

[Deozaan]

Amahi hit with Cease and Desist order from Apple:

http://blog.amahi.or...nd-desist-wait-what/

[40hz]

Amahi hit with Cease and Desist order from Apple:

http://blog.amahi.or...nd-desist-wait-what/

-Deozaan (June 22, 2011, 06:50 AM)

Leave it to Apple to do something totally jive.

On a positive note, that bonehead move is creating quite a bit of buzz in the blogs and tech columns thereby making a lot more people aware of Amahi than ever before.

That can only be a good thing for Amahi in the long run.

Amahi is also running a name their store contest. They decided it wasn't worth fighting about - and they don't have the financial resources for a legal battle with Apple even if they did think they were getting screwed over.

So it goes...

I honestly believe "what comes around, goes around."

With luck, Apple will discover it applies to them as well.  

------

P.S. Uh-oh! Just noticed Amahi published the text of Apple's legal notice on their website.

How much you wanna bet Apple hits Amahi with a DMCA takedown claiming that putting their letter up on the web is a copyright violation and unauthorized use of Apple's intellectual property once the story gets picked up by the majors?

Of course it wouldn't be the first time some corporate bully or troll has tried that move if they do.

[superboyac]

We'll see how Apple deals with getting more and more users and becoming bigger and bigger.  Their entire business model is based on having a tightly controlled and restricted ecosystem, and that will just get harder and harder to maintain as they get bigger.  But they're getting bigger.  It's going to be interesting.  More people will jailbreak.  More people will find the workarounds to the restrictions.  Then what?  Then again, it seems like most users are less and less aware about how tightly they are being controlled.  Or maybe I'm just cynical as usual (man that latest South Park episode was a doozy!).

[40hz]

(man that latest South Park episode was a doozy!).

-superboyac (June 22, 2011, 09:38 AM)

+1

re: getting bigger

Yeah. Apple's has had the luxury of preaching to the choir for a long time. But I think you're very correct in your observation that it will be interesting to see what they do when John Q. Public shows up in droves on their formerly 'sacred' turf. Especially the diehard NIX and hack crowd who never took kindly to doing what they're told "just because."

Most of us worked far too long and hard to go back to the days of Mom and Dad telling us to do things "Because I said so!"

It was part of the growing up process (for most of us) to stand up to our parents and say NO from time to time. Even if what they were ordering us to do was, in fact, for our own good.

Maybe Apple will finally be forced to grow up a little bit itself in the wake of gaining a bigger user base.

Which is a good thing. Because Apple has operated too long under Steve Jobs' never ending quest for legitimacy and adulation. I personally think he never got over being given up for adoption by his natural parents. I think that's why so much anger and resentment lurks behind every word, gesture, and decision he makes. Which is a problem.  Because if that really is his 'issue,' there isn't enough "payback" in the entire world to atone for that kind of pain.

[Carol Haynes]

I like the little shoot apple game they have put up if you make a suggestion.

[40hz]

Nice straightforward legal analysis (including a conclusion why Apple shouldn't have a leg to stand on) can be found here.

 

[daddydave]

Amahi hit with Cease and Desist order from Apple:

http://blog.amahi.or...nd-desist-wait-what/

-Deozaan (June 22, 2011, 06:50 AM)

I gave them my suggestion for an alternate name to App Store: Apphole