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

Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 109 posts

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#41

Post by FilterJoe »

keithpeter wrote: post #24

2 gig free, next step up is 50Gb. Anyone else find the big jump means they use the dropbox just for day to day projects? A 10 or 20 Gig price point at $5 a month would be something I could rationally use.

I pay $49/year for 10GB. Dropbox doesn't advertise but if you request it they'll quote you for other storage amounts and let you sign up.

20GB for $49/year is what I really want. Hopefully they'll do that soon.

Here is what they told in late 2009 - don't know if these links still work:

Thanks for writing to Dropbox. We recently ran a market test for intermediate plans that has ended, but I can still offer you the plans:

- 10GB $4.99/month or $49/year - 20GB $6.99/month or $69/year - 25GB $7.99/month or $79/year

You can use the following links to sign up for one of these plans. You need to be logged into the Dropbox website for them to work:

* 10 GB: https://www.dropbox.com/upgrade?plan=10&v=11396bf * 20 GB: https://www.dropbox.com/upgrade?plan=20&v=e6ad6ff * 25 GB: https://www.dropbox.com/upgrade?plan=25&v=9fb5a23

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#42

Post by jcurbo »

JonnieCache wrote: post #26
rkudeshi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea installing Dropbox meant they were modifying the Finder. Why isn't there an option to disable this?

Note that they are injecting code into the running Finder process, which is very different from patching the Finder binary. That would be very bad.

This would also break the code signing for Finder, I believe. (also bad)

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#43

Post by cormullion »

keithpeter wrote: post #24

2 gig free, next step up is 50Gb. Anyone else find the big jump means they use the dropbox just for day to day projects? A 10 or 20 Gig price point at $5 a month would be something I could rationally use.

It is a big jump. And that first 2GB seems (or seemed at the time) very generous for free.

I wonder how many of DropBox's users are 2GB-only? I remember feeling very willing to try it, because it was free, and a lot of space for free. It worked so well for me (I'm still only 58% full) I have no need to upgrade. It's quite a loss-leader for DropBox, but presumably an acceptable one.

But looking at my stuff on disk, I've got:

- text and documents - projects - source files

which fit easily within 2GB, and

- a vast photo library - an enormous music library - a titanic video library

which don't fit easily within anything.

So for me a sensible jump would be from 2GB to, ooh, 2TB... :)

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#44

Post by bonzoesc »

FilterJoe wrote: post #41
keithpeter wrote: post #24

2 gig free, next step up is 50Gb. Anyone else find the big jump means they use the dropbox just for day to day projects? A 10 or 20 Gig price point at $5 a month would be something I could rationally use.

I pay $49/year for 10GB. Dropbox doesn't advertise but if you request it they'll quote you for other storage amounts and let you sign up. 20GB for $49/year is what I really want. Hopefully they'll do that soon. Here is what they told in late 2009 - don't know if these links still work: Thanks for writing to Dropbox. We recently ran a market test for intermediate plans that has ended, but I can still offer you the pla…

> Here is what they told in late 2009 - don't know if these links still work:

They don't.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#45

Post by keithpeter »

FilterJoe wrote: post #41
keithpeter wrote: post #24

2 gig free, next step up is 50Gb. Anyone else find the big jump means they use the dropbox just for day to day projects? A 10 or 20 Gig price point at $5 a month would be something I could rationally use.

I pay $49/year for 10GB. Dropbox doesn't advertise but if you request it they'll quote you for other storage amounts and let you sign up. 20GB for $49/year is what I really want. Hopefully they'll do that soon. Here is what they told in late 2009 - don't know if these links still work: Thanks for writing to Dropbox. We recently ran a market test for intermediate plans that has ended, but I can still offer you the pla…

Well, perhaps I should drop the British reserve and send them an e-mail. I could have all my teaching materials in the cloud then. Everything that I've used in 10 years available anywhere...

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#46

Post by rdp »

My biggest issue with Dropbox, and I am probably not alone in this, is still security. After the lapses earlier in the year, I still store most files in a TrueCrypt share in my DropBox folders. Since I can't access the TrueCrypt volume from my phone or other mobile devices, it limits the portability of the data.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#47

Post by physcab »

While I love Dropbox and have it installed, I think they are right to fear ICloud. After getting a 4s and being able to simply type my AppleID, I instantly had all my contacts, videos, photos, music, settings, and bookmarks instantly and seamlessly synced. Best part of it all was that I didn't even know I was using ICloud. I didn't have to setup or download anything. It was so simple. Since I'm a mac user, I really don't have much use for Dropbox anymore.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#49

Post by profitbaron »

pingswept wrote: post #29
simplekoala wrote: post #8

"Jobs had been tracking a young software developer named Drew Houston, who blasted his way onto Apple’s radar screen when he reverse-engineered Apple’s file system so that his startup’s logo, an unfolding box, appeared elegantly tucked inside. Not even an Apple SWAT team had been able to do that." Can anyone throw more context around this hack. Technical challenges to accomplish this will be bonus.

Also, what the devil is "an Apple SWAT team"? I know this is an article in Forbes, but does it even sort of exist?

There's some information on them here: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/05/business/la-fi-silic...

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#50

Post by simplekoala »

JonnieCache wrote: post #26
rkudeshi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea installing Dropbox meant they were modifying the Finder. Why isn't there an option to disable this?

Note that they are injecting code into the running Finder process, which is very different from patching the Finder binary. That would be very bad.

They are injecting code into running Finder process? Hmmm, so they figured one of the jump instructions target address in Finder process ( for a function invocation, most likely the code to show the pop-up), and changed that location to jump to a different address where they injected their code? Don't you need root privileges to muck with Finder's process space? I see dropbox process running with non-privileged uid. Wonder, how they managed to change the VMM space of Finder process to inject code. Any thoughts? Please correct me, if I am totally off the mark here.
Post reply on HN