Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

5 million Dropboxes

blog.dropbox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 80 posts

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#61

Post by derefr »

bj wrote: post #56

I really like the dropbox experience but I really wish they didn't limit the download bandwidth. My dropbox is about 35 GB, I just installed dropbox on a brand new computer and the download speed is 7KB/sec. It will literally take almost 20 days to sync my files. That's terrible. By the way, I'm an early adopter and have introduced dropbox to many people, I just hope download speeds were somewhat decent.

Where are you getting 7KB/s? Did it start that way, or decelerate after a while? I usually get ~700KB/s, at least.

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#62

Post by bj »

derefr wrote: post #61
bj wrote: post #56

I really like the dropbox experience but I really wish they didn't limit the download bandwidth. My dropbox is about 35 GB, I just installed dropbox on a brand new computer and the download speed is 7KB/sec. It will literally take almost 20 days to sync my files. That's terrible. By the way, I'm an early adopter and have introduced dropbox to many people, I just hope download speeds were somewhat decent.

Where are you getting 7KB/s? Did it start that way, or decelerate after a while? I usually get ~700KB/s, at least.

It actually started at 0.9KB/s and a couple hours after it increased to 7KB/s. The fastest it has been in about 4 hours has been it 10KB/s.

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#63

Post by bj »

derefr wrote: post #61
bj wrote: post #56

I really like the dropbox experience but I really wish they didn't limit the download bandwidth. My dropbox is about 35 GB, I just installed dropbox on a brand new computer and the download speed is 7KB/sec. It will literally take almost 20 days to sync my files. That's terrible. By the way, I'm an early adopter and have introduced dropbox to many people, I just hope download speeds were somewhat decent.

Where are you getting 7KB/s? Did it start that way, or decelerate after a while? I usually get ~700KB/s, at least.

By the way I just ran this speed test:

http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1

My network downloads 4MB/sec

The computer has a fresh install of snow leopard and everything else is fast.

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#64

Post by wtallis »

mynameishere wrote: post #7
swombat wrote: post #3

Awesome. Dropbox is an awesome product. I install Dropbox on every single machine I have.. it's one of the first things I install. And it's saved me countless hours. Now if only they could sort out the folder sharing model so large folders shared by someone else (who upgraded) don't use up my personal space... (yeah, I know they're working on it.. hurry up!)

Little bit of adjective inflation here? I mean, it basically just uploads and downloads files.

Clearly, it has not occurred to you that what Dropbox does is easier said than done.

What Dropbox does may not be awe-inspiring when considered in isolation, but the sheer number of failed predecessors who couldn't solve this conceptually simple problem is very impressive.

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#65

Post by nzmsv »

Sukotto wrote: post #54
teej wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it basically just uploads and downloads files. Except I didn't have to teach my mom how to use it. Except that I never have to worry if it's working correctly. Except that it works on every platform I use. Except that it's just a folder on my computer. These aren't features you put on a retail box, but they are the features that set Dropbox apart. "Just works" is incredibly easy to say but incredibly hard to en…

The dealkiller for me was it saves version info in it's application dir. Since my C:\ drive is typically very small it blows out the available space. So... back to using gmail-drive

I don't use Dropbox, but this sounds like something that can be easily solved with a symlink. And Windows actually (sort of) supports them: they are called junction points.

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#66

Post by ThinkWriteMute »

matthew-wegner wrote: post #19

Anyone else notice that Dropbox globally indexes files? If you upload a large file already elsewhere on their servers (Linux distro ISO, scene-made TVRip or DVDRip, etc), it "uploads" instantly, and will begin downloading immediately on your other linked Dropbox machines. Makes me wonder how hard it is to download a file by hash (via the Linux client, parts of which are open-source), without having the file, or how e…

You know this makes me think: If you could find out if two files are exactly alike, could you then make a cloud storage services that doesn't require uploads of files it already has on the entire cloud?

IE, John uploads True Blood Episode 4, Season 12.

Paul tries to upload the same file. They match exactly (Except maybe for names). The Uploader negates the upload and makes it look like the file is now in Paul's list, when really only one copy exists.

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#67

Post by Groxx »

elblanco wrote: post #32
mynameishere wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My god people, he just described a toaster. Is a toaster awesome because its operation is straightforward? Or, if you don't like that example, compare it to just about any online game. Consider the incredible complexity and operation requirements of Call of Duty (or whatever you like) and then come up with an adjective for it. How about "awesome". Well, no, that won't do, because Dropbox is "awesome" and Call of Duty…

> Is a toaster awesome because its operation is straightforward? Yes. We all own one don't we? Ever tried to toast bread without a toaster? It takes far more effort, is far less efficient, and the results are usually far less consistent.

And if you do it over a gas stove, it tastes like gas * bleh *.

Toasters kick a lot of ass, and certainly qualify as awesome. Though I still think mankind's greatest invention is air conditioning (seriously).

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#68

Post by derefr »

bj wrote: post #63
derefr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you getting 7KB/s? Did it start that way, or decelerate after a while? I usually get ~700KB/s, at least.

By the way I just ran this speed test: http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1 My network downloads 4MB/sec The computer has a fresh install of snow leopard and everything else is fast.

Very interesting; try downloading a file from your Dropbox public folder via HTTP, and see if that's any faster. If it is, your ISP is probably throttling/QoSing Dropbox, the ports it uses, or the kind of traffic it generates specifically, and you should get in touch with them about it. If it's slow as well, your ISP might be having a peering problem to Dropbox's colo.

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#69

Post by rdj »

stanleydrew wrote: post #16

Side note: does anyone know what visualization tool was used for the dropbox-client-data-traffic-globe-thing video? I've seen that same visualization all over Google's campus in various buildings showing the location of their searches. Is it an open-source visualization library?

Check http://processing.org .. This globe seems to be one of the first data visualizations used in several projects. Here's a cool one that uses Flickr geotagging info: http://www.flickr.com/photos/revdancatt/3398050524/

Re: 5 million Dropboxes

#70

Post by atlei »

mynameishere wrote: post #28
zzzmarcus wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think so, right? It's a little more than that though. Dropbox is useful to me for the following reasons: --It is an easy way to share music with a couple friends who aren't tech savvy. Installing it was easy for them and I was able to say "just drag it from iTunes to your dropbox folder" and it worked. Other ways of sharing were too complex. --It keeps software that doesn't have built in syncing synced. I use i…

It's a little more than that though. Exactly as I said. It basically uploads and downloads files; your hyphenated examples are all under the category of "uploading and downloading". It does other things, but that's basically it. I hate it when I speak plain facts and get everybody disagreeing with me.

Excellent example of Benefits vs. Features

- features: Upload and download

- benefits: Easy way to share music, easy way to transfer files home/work, easy way to keep software synced etc

Post reply on HN