Dropbox is awesome
Apr. 13th, 2011 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackFor ages I've been using dropbox for a few personal text files, and over time that has gradually grown to anything it's convenient to be able to access from anywhere.
It fulfils a similar function to source control, in synchronising changes to files in multiple places. Except it doesn't have specific control over versioning, or for merging conflicts, or for branching parallel change sets, or any of the other things source control is really good at, but I don't really need for random lists of things, but it does have few weeks of rollback (I think, I've never tried it), and most importantly is simple and seamless and reliable in synchronising a folder of text and binary files across multiple computers.
A few years ago, it could only handle one folder in one specific place, but it still worked smoothly and reliably. Now it's a bit more fully featured. It's completely free for 2GB storage, and you can pay for 50GB or more if you want.
The smoothness is what makes it incredibly valuable. I could do the same thing in many ways, but the fact that I _never_ need to worry about it makes it so much easier, because if there were even 0.5% errors, I'd always have to double check, but as it is, it just works.
Of course, is relies on a broadband internet connection -- if one computer is offline, and you edit on the other, there'll be a conflict (which it will do something sensible but simple about). But the vast majority of time, I _do_ have an internet connection, and never need to edit a file on different computers close together in time, so if there's ever a hiatus, it doesn't matter, because it doesn't produce weird errors, or leave files inaccessible, it just syncs them up when the connection comes back. Which is normally what I need.
Today I added another feature -- I created a secondary account with a throw-away email address and shared a folder from my main account with that account, so I could have a folder at work for bits of lists I jot down in my lunch hour, but have them at home to transcribe if I need. And it was all easy.
However
This also means that your files are automatically backed up. However, as I put more stuff there, I'm wondering. What's a worse case scenario? Probably that dropbox either (a) have a bug that wipes out ALL the files on ALL the computers or (b) they go bust and are sold to someone who auctions off anything stored on their servers they think they can make money out of (or worse, auctions off access to my computer).
Now, I don't think either of those are very likely. Dropbox, although I know little about them, have always from the start been unfailingly reliable and professional. So I am inclined to think them a very good risk.
However, if I wanted to be sensibly cautious, is there anything I should do to mitigate that risk (other than taking occasional outside backups, and not storing massively sensitive secrets in it)?
It fulfils a similar function to source control, in synchronising changes to files in multiple places. Except it doesn't have specific control over versioning, or for merging conflicts, or for branching parallel change sets, or any of the other things source control is really good at, but I don't really need for random lists of things, but it does have few weeks of rollback (I think, I've never tried it), and most importantly is simple and seamless and reliable in synchronising a folder of text and binary files across multiple computers.
A few years ago, it could only handle one folder in one specific place, but it still worked smoothly and reliably. Now it's a bit more fully featured. It's completely free for 2GB storage, and you can pay for 50GB or more if you want.
The smoothness is what makes it incredibly valuable. I could do the same thing in many ways, but the fact that I _never_ need to worry about it makes it so much easier, because if there were even 0.5% errors, I'd always have to double check, but as it is, it just works.
Of course, is relies on a broadband internet connection -- if one computer is offline, and you edit on the other, there'll be a conflict (which it will do something sensible but simple about). But the vast majority of time, I _do_ have an internet connection, and never need to edit a file on different computers close together in time, so if there's ever a hiatus, it doesn't matter, because it doesn't produce weird errors, or leave files inaccessible, it just syncs them up when the connection comes back. Which is normally what I need.
Today I added another feature -- I created a secondary account with a throw-away email address and shared a folder from my main account with that account, so I could have a folder at work for bits of lists I jot down in my lunch hour, but have them at home to transcribe if I need. And it was all easy.
However
This also means that your files are automatically backed up. However, as I put more stuff there, I'm wondering. What's a worse case scenario? Probably that dropbox either (a) have a bug that wipes out ALL the files on ALL the computers or (b) they go bust and are sold to someone who auctions off anything stored on their servers they think they can make money out of (or worse, auctions off access to my computer).
Now, I don't think either of those are very likely. Dropbox, although I know little about them, have always from the start been unfailingly reliable and professional. So I am inclined to think them a very good risk.
However, if I wanted to be sensibly cautious, is there anything I should do to mitigate that risk (other than taking occasional outside backups, and not storing massively sensitive secrets in it)?
no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 09:14 am (UTC)I'd be cautious about storing anything much more secret than something you'd be willing to publish on a public web site. It appears Dropbox's authentication is based only on a single host_id number, which is transportable between hosts.
Also, there are claims that any individual file can be retrieved via its SHA256 hash.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 05:05 pm (UTC)