So Dropbox is becoming a more-direct competitor with iCloud. Meh. I'd rather they work on an end-to-end encryption system with a focus on ease of use.
I think this is exactly the direction they should take.
Datastore API (beta)
41–50 of 88 posts
Re: Datastore API (beta)
#42The biggest problem right now with online file storage services (sorry, I meant "The Cloud") is that while they all do basically the same stuff, there's no standard protocol for accessing them. It's a bit like if every website used a custom protocol instead of HTTP, and web browser vendors had to explicitly collaborate with each web site (or use the website's SDK) in order to be able to retrieve content. Imagine this…
By Jove, you're right! Perhaps what we need is some kind of universal protocol for transferring files. We could call it the 'File Transfer Protocol' or something.
Re: Datastore API (beta)
#43The biggest problem right now with online file storage services (sorry, I meant "The Cloud") is that while they all do basically the same stuff, there's no standard protocol for accessing them. It's a bit like if every website used a custom protocol instead of HTTP, and web browser vendors had to explicitly collaborate with each web site (or use the website's SDK) in order to be able to retrieve content. Imagine this…
By Jove, you're right! Perhaps what we need is some kind of universal protocol for transferring files. We could call it the 'File Transfer Protocol' or something.
LOL yes ;)
What happened to FTP anyway? I know there were a number of issues with it (security, working through NAT, lack of a standard directory listing format etc); but these were all problems that people managed to solve in different ways.
It just goes to show how far how our industry is willing to embrace change for the sake of change (with the results sometimes being inferior) every time a new buzzord appears. I reckon a modernised version of FTP would do the job pretty well.
What I'm mainly concerned with at the moment is building something that recognises a widely-adopted protocol is going to be very difficult politically to achieve (and get implemented), but a library which abstracts over the different protocols would relieve most of the pain.
Re: Datastore API (beta)
#44Something I don't get about Dropbox API: Why can't I just throw URLs at it? If a user wants to save , I have to pull it to my server and push it into Dropbox. Dropbox could just have grabbed it directly and in many cases, won't even have to thanks, to system-wide caching. (This is based on the last time I looked at the API; maybe this is supported now, but I don't think so.)
How would system-wide caching work unless the HTTP server dropbox requested the file from sent a checksum of the file being requested? Just because something has the same URL doesn't mean that it's the same file at the other end ( http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz for instance)
It obey's HTTP caching controls. Checkout the end of the docs: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/dropins/saver
Re: Datastore API (beta)
#45The biggest problem right now with online file storage services (sorry, I meant "The Cloud") is that while they all do basically the same stuff, there's no standard protocol for accessing them. It's a bit like if every website used a custom protocol instead of HTTP, and web browser vendors had to explicitly collaborate with each web site (or use the website's SDK) in order to be able to retrieve content. Imagine this…
By Jove, you're right! Perhaps what we need is some kind of universal protocol for transferring files. We could call it the 'File Transfer Protocol' or something.
As it turns out, the protocol for actually transferring the files is utterly irrelevant compared to the protocol for getting updates, keeping various local stores synchronized, retaining versions, managing conflicts, handling client-side bugs and surprises, etc.
Re: Datastore API (beta)
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
By Jove, you're right! Perhaps what we need is some kind of universal protocol for transferring files. We could call it the 'File Transfer Protocol' or something.
LOL yes ;) What happened to FTP anyway? I know there were a number of issues with it (security, working through NAT, lack of a standard directory listing format etc); but these were all problems that people managed to solve in different ways. It just goes to show how far how our industry is willing to embrace change for the sake of change (with the results sometimes being inferior) every time a new buzzord appears. I…
> What happened to FTP anyway?
It's too hard to set-up for casual file sharing (backup, docs, photos etc.), and it's less efficient and scalable than BitTorrent for wide file distribution (piracy).
Perhaps with HTTP 2.0 and IPv6 looming though, we will see some progress on an FTP 2.0 that resolves the issues you mentioned.
Re: Datastore API (beta)
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
By Jove, you're right! Perhaps what we need is some kind of universal protocol for transferring files. We could call it the 'File Transfer Protocol' or something.
As it turns out, the protocol for actually transferring the files is utterly irrelevant compared to the protocol for getting updates, keeping various local stores synchronized, retaining versions, managing conflicts, handling client-side bugs and surprises, etc.
It's a good point I suppose. I've never had a need or urge to use a service like Dropbox to keep files in sync though. I prefer just to carry my working copies around, or use Google Docs. Maybe I'm missing out on seamless splendour, I don't know.
Re: Datastore API (beta)
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're describing the Saver Drop-In: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/dropins/saver
Can the Saver Drop-In be used with arbitrary third-party URLs? To me this is what was being described, so if not, then no, it's not describing the Saver Drop-In.
Yes, you can provide arbitrary URLs to the Saver and our (Dropbox's) servers will download them, assuming they are publicly available.
(Note: I am an engineer at Dropbox and worked on this product.)
Re: Datastore API (beta)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
So are you just syncing entire truecrypt .tc files to Dropbox? Does that work incrementally or does the entire .tc file have to get resent every time you modify a file within?
The entire file is resent.
Citation? Other comments are offering conflicting reports.
Re: Datastore API (beta)
#50So Dropbox is becoming a more-direct competitor with iCloud. Meh. I'd rather they work on an end-to-end encryption system with a focus on ease of use.
Hacker News is a tiny audience. I don't see any business sense in focusing on features that 0.1% of users want.
Not to sound self-righteous, but the HN audience (or more plausibly, some subset within) has a high influence on what the rest of the world sees and wants.
Any Dropbox employees read HN?