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Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

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Re: Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

#141

Post by user24 »

sesqu wrote: post #61
user24 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so you're happy to share your personal files with dropbox, but not your twitter account? Odd priorities. Not saying they're wrong priorities, but just not what I'd expect.

It's a lot harder to automate abuse of a random person's semistructured data without metadata than it is to automate abuse of a random person's twitter account. Sure, it's also more lucrative, but I wouldn't worry about it for a couple more years.

I don't really know what you mean.

You're right. But I don't see how that's relevant. My point was that people have a choice "I trust dropbox not to abuse my personal files" and they draw the line at their twitter account?!? This I find odd. I don't see how your comment makes it less odd.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

#142

Post by aidanf »

jodrellblank wrote: post #125
ivankirigin wrote: post #26

I work at Dropbox and came up with this page. Thanks for throwing confounding variables in this soft launch experiment, Hacker News. A few points that might interest yall: 1. We won't publish to facebook or twitter without your explicit permission. 2. We ask for information about your facebook profile because it will make Dropbox better. It's mainly about learning about our users without annoying surveys. We won't ma…

A dropbox server to run locally for company data that we don't want in the cloud (chargeable or free). Any plans along those lines?

You could set this up with unison(http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/) if you want to go the self-host route.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

#143

Post by jodrellblank »

zcid wrote: post #128
poi98u7y6tryuio wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to do that then encrypt the files with truecrypt or something you trust and let DB sync the truecrypt container file. But everytime you slightly change the contents, Dropbox will have to resend the entire container - thats one of the features of good encryption

I do this currently, but I wish there was a more elegant solution. As far as I can tell from my own usage, the only portion that is uploaded is the changed portion. I have a 1GB container currently synced and when I change files in that container, I can assure you that it doesn't upload 1GB of information. It appears to only transfer the delta.

One of the properties of a good hash algorithm is that a small change in the input makes a big change in the output, and one of the properties of a good encryption algorithm is that the output looks random.

I don't know how the two are supposed to combine, but the prediction is that for a truecrypt disk image, any change in the contents produces a very different disk image all over - so transferring "the delta" is still a much larger amount than you'd expect.

Although, if this were the case it would also have to rewrite the disk image a lot and that might be quite bad for just local use.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

#144

Post by Dylan16807 »

jodrellblank wrote: post #143
zcid wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do this currently, but I wish there was a more elegant solution. As far as I can tell from my own usage, the only portion that is uploaded is the changed portion. I have a 1GB container currently synced and when I change files in that container, I can assure you that it doesn't upload 1GB of information. It appears to only transfer the delta.

One of the properties of a good hash algorithm is that a small change in the input makes a big change in the output, and one of the properties of a good encryption algorithm is that the output looks random. I don't know how the two are supposed to combine, but the prediction is that for a truecrypt disk image, any change in the contents produces a very different disk image all over - so transferring "the delta" is st…

The encryption is block based. Change a bit and you're completely scramble the block, but no more.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

#145

Post by andreyf »

peteforde wrote: post #127
andreyf wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But do you really want to pull down 109GB on every laptop you install Dropbox on? Or would you manage that via multiple Dropbox accounts? From what I can tell, Dropbox hasn't yet tried out the "backup solutions" space, but I'm also hoping they will, as most of my machines are constantly running out of disk space.

One of the best (and yet seemingly little-known) tricks that Dropbox uses is that it will sync over a local LAN before attempting to download from S3. Between the tight OS integration and the hash table lookups (it checks to see if that MP3 is already in their storage cloud, leading to regular "instant upload" scenarios) I believe that Dropbox is the best new software tool of the decade.

I'm not talking about upload/download, I'm talking about 109 gigs of movies on my 120/160GB SSD drive on both my home/work laptops, respectively. Or is everyone else walking around with multi-TB spinning drives in their laptops?

Re: Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

#146

Post by andreyf »

danielh wrote: post #134
andreyf wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But do you really want to pull down 109GB on every laptop you install Dropbox on? Or would you manage that via multiple Dropbox accounts? From what I can tell, Dropbox hasn't yet tried out the "backup solutions" space, but I'm also hoping they will, as most of my machines are constantly running out of disk space.

There is a new feature called selective sync, which is available in the pre-release (>0.8) version of Dropbox [1]. https://www.dropbox.com/help/175

Tried that, but my preferences have no "advanced" tab: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/404957/no_advanced.png

:(

Re: Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

#147

Post by ivankirigin »

greattypo wrote: post #122
ivankirigin wrote: post #26

I work at Dropbox and came up with this page. Thanks for throwing confounding variables in this soft launch experiment, Hacker News. A few points that might interest yall: 1. We won't publish to facebook or twitter without your explicit permission. 2. We ask for information about your facebook profile because it will make Dropbox better. It's mainly about learning about our users without annoying surveys. We won't ma…

Why does Dropbox expect casual users to understand concepts like symlinks in order to sync their desktops (or any existing folder outside of the dropbox directory for that matter)? Are their plans to make this more intuitive, given this is how you yourself find dropbox most useful?

We don't expect casual users to understand. If there is anything like this built into the basic product, it wont involve anything more than maybe asking if a user wants a feature. Everything should just work.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

#148

Post by ivankirigin »

jodrellblank wrote: post #125
ivankirigin wrote: post #26

I work at Dropbox and came up with this page. Thanks for throwing confounding variables in this soft launch experiment, Hacker News. A few points that might interest yall: 1. We won't publish to facebook or twitter without your explicit permission. 2. We ask for information about your facebook profile because it will make Dropbox better. It's mainly about learning about our users without annoying surveys. We won't ma…

A dropbox server to run locally for company data that we don't want in the cloud (chargeable or free). Any plans along those lines?

In my personal opinion, there is a big shift towards the cloud. Making tools for companies that haven't yet made the shift isn't a good idea.
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