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Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

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Re: Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

#21

Post by sreitshamer »

cletus wrote: post #14
joelhaasnoot wrote: post #7

The one thing that Dropbox fails on, together with just about every other version control system, is that novice users (or your business-type cofounders), easily create conflicts with Word, Excel and other files. There's no easy way to handle it, but the current way is very annoying at best. Most of the time I guess it, and delete the one I think is wrong, but one day that will lead to the loss of some important chan…

While I don't agree with you that version control doesn't work well for Word, Excel, etc, I'd say the problem there is the format isn't built for version control. VC works great for source code because it's all line based with (either by convention or required by the grammar) one statement per line. Diffing is pretty trivial in these cases and meaningful . Binary formats are a whole different ballgame. Even XML-based…

From what I've been told, Office docs are made up of objects accessible via an API. So theoretically one could build a version control tool that works effectively for Office docs.

Re: Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

#22

Post by VomisaCaasi »

ugh wrote: post #4
r00fus wrote: post #2

Hmm... so you can publicly share your mp3s and videos? Haven't we heard of this before (mp3.com)... I wonder how they'll deal with "infringement" cases from the media cartel? As a current dropbox user, I'm a bit concerned about this functionality (since by default public means public but unlisted, it can still be shared). Hope these guys did a bit of homework here.

You can already publicly share files in Dropbox, even with those who don’t have a Dropbox account. They have to be in your “Public” folder (if you don’t have one you can create one). Here is a link to a file in my public Dropbox folder: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/Dropbox.txt I have never actually seen anyone share Dropbox links to pirated content. I don’t know why that is (pirates seem to use all other services…

I have had my Public Folder disabled twice after sharing few non-copyrighted music sets to reddit's underground. I don't think they really care about copyright, since I did in fact have copyrighted music in my Dropbox as well that I shared only to friends, but rather by monitoring bandwidth. Dropbox isn't saying out loud what exact number is, but I figure it could be around somewhere 10GB of traffic per month per user.

Re: Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

#23

Post by ddlatham »

patio11 wrote: post #12
joelhaasnoot wrote: post #7

The one thing that Dropbox fails on, together with just about every other version control system, is that novice users (or your business-type cofounders), easily create conflicts with Word, Excel and other files. There's no easy way to handle it, but the current way is very annoying at best. Most of the time I guess it, and delete the one I think is wrong, but one day that will lead to the loss of some important chan…

Thankfully, if you ever blow away something important, Dropbox gives you an undo. (Create a file, let it sync, delete it, then go check their website.)

Do deleted revisions count against your quota?

Re: Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

#24

Post by Groxx »

joelhaasnoot wrote: post #7

The one thing that Dropbox fails on, together with just about every other version control system, is that novice users (or your business-type cofounders), easily create conflicts with Word, Excel and other files. There's no easy way to handle it, but the current way is very annoying at best. Most of the time I guess it, and delete the one I think is wrong, but one day that will lead to the loss of some important chan…

Dropbox syncs every time you view an Office document because Office creates hidden lock files every time you open something in not-read-only mode. It's synchronizing the lock file, which is designed precisely to prevent conflicts.

I'd like a local-conflict view, yes. They do actually exist on your machine (in a hidden folder inside your Dropbox folder), Dropbox downloads all conflicts all the time. I ran across this behavior when I caused a conflict in my work TrueCrypt file - pulling a gig took a while. But the web interface is almost entirely useless for comparing such a file, or any file metadata conflicts, because you need to open it to examine the contents.

Re: Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

#25

Post by ugh »

VomisaCaasi wrote: post #22
ugh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can already publicly share files in Dropbox, even with those who don’t have a Dropbox account. They have to be in your “Public” folder (if you don’t have one you can create one). Here is a link to a file in my public Dropbox folder: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/Dropbox.txt I have never actually seen anyone share Dropbox links to pirated content. I don’t know why that is (pirates seem to use all other services…

I have had my Public Folder disabled twice after sharing few non-copyrighted music sets to reddit's underground. I don't think they really care about copyright, since I did in fact have copyrighted music in my Dropbox as well that I shared only to friends, but rather by monitoring bandwidth. Dropbox isn't saying out loud what exact number is, but I figure it could be around somewhere 10GB of traffic per month per use…

That might be what makes it unattractive for pirates. I think filehosters pirates use don’t have that kind of bandwidth limitation. (If 10GB is the cap, a 600MB movie could only be downloaded about 17 times.)

I think that hosters like Rapidshare have an upload quota but no bandwidth limit. Bandwidth is limited for downloaders, not uploaders. (It’s impossible to download much without paying but an uploaded file will not become inaccessible because too many people download it.)

Rapidshare obviously makes money with piracy so they cleverly encourage it without overstepping legal boundaries. Dropbox is a very different company, I don’t think it would be good for them to be seen as a tool used be pirates which is why the cleverly discourage it.

Re: Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

#26

Post by Groxx »

sreitshamer wrote: post #21
cletus wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't agree with you that version control doesn't work well for Word, Excel, etc, I'd say the problem there is the format isn't built for version control. VC works great for source code because it's all line based with (either by convention or required by the grammar) one statement per line. Diffing is pretty trivial in these cases and meaningful . Binary formats are a whole different ballgame. Even XML-based…

From what I've been told, Office docs are made up of objects accessible via an API. So theoretically one could build a version control tool that works effectively for Office docs.

Theoretically.

There are .NET interop assemblies[1], for working with Office documents, and they require Office to be installed to work. Outside of that, you're stuck rolling your own Office-document-parser.

There is a built-in "track changes" mechanism, though I don't know if all Office types handle it. Word does, at least. Though that's pretty basic.

[1]: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsto/dd183191.aspx

Re: Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

#27

Post by cemregr »

ddlatham wrote: post #23
patio11 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thankfully, if you ever blow away something important, Dropbox gives you an undo. (Create a file, let it sync, delete it, then go check their website.)

Do deleted revisions count against your quota?

No, deleted files don't count. http://www.dropbox.com/help/14

Re: Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

#28

Post by rufo »

ddlatham wrote: post #23
patio11 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thankfully, if you ever blow away something important, Dropbox gives you an undo. (Create a file, let it sync, delete it, then go check their website.)

Do deleted revisions count against your quota?

No, though deleted files/revisions are purged after 30 days unless you have a paid account.

Re: Dropbox Founder on New Features and Global Expansion

#29

Post by dustinchilson »

VomisaCaasi wrote: post #22
ugh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can already publicly share files in Dropbox, even with those who don’t have a Dropbox account. They have to be in your “Public” folder (if you don’t have one you can create one). Here is a link to a file in my public Dropbox folder: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4073000/Dropbox.txt I have never actually seen anyone share Dropbox links to pirated content. I don’t know why that is (pirates seem to use all other services…

I have had my Public Folder disabled twice after sharing few non-copyrighted music sets to reddit's underground. I don't think they really care about copyright, since I did in fact have copyrighted music in my Dropbox as well that I shared only to friends, but rather by monitoring bandwidth. Dropbox isn't saying out loud what exact number is, but I figure it could be around somewhere 10GB of traffic per month per use…

They do say it in text if one looks....

https://www.dropbox.com/help/45

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