Drop Boxed to NZ
It's a special day when hardware guys recommend something that is software. I apologize if this sounds like a bad infomercial at 2AM. Dropbox has completely won me over. If you are like me, and have multiple computers that need to share files, Dropbox solves the file sharing and backup problems. I installed Dropbox on my home PC and a little icon sits in my task bar. I've got files on my home PC like my Eagle projects, my excel files, my docs, and my various collections of C code. So I drag and drop these into a folder on my C: drive, a folder called 'My Dropbox'. Simple enough. Then I go into work and install Dropbox. A couple minutes later I've got a folder on my C: drive called 'My Dropbox' and it's got all the files that my home PC had. I've got 2GB free, to
Things to remember:
- Free Day is coming January 7th, 2010
- The Free Day side bet is active and running
- January 18th Arduino miniconference in New Zealand
I'm headed to New Zealand in January. If anyone (Kiwi or other) wants to
meet up in Wellington on the 18th of January, I'll be connecting up with
the
linux folks including Jon Oxer and hopefully Derek Elley of Ponoko. I might even get to give a guest presentation at the
Arduino workshop! So if you're interested, let me know (spark at
sparkfun.com).
It's a special day when hardware guys recommend something that is
software. I apologize if this sounds like a bad infomercial at 2AM.
Dropbox has completely won me over. If you are like me, and have
multiple computers that need to share files, Dropbox solves the file
sharing and backup problems. I would not call myself 'tuned-in'. If
there is some other program out there that does this and then some, by
all means, tell me I'm behind the times.
I installed Dropbox on my home PC (this was a few months ago) and a
little icon sits in my task bar. I've got files on my home PC like my
Eagle projects, my excel files, my docs, and my various collections of C
code. So I drag and drop these into a folder on my C: drive, a folder
called 'My Dropbox'. Simple enough.
Then I go into work and install Dropbox. A couple minutes later I've got
a folder on my C: drive called 'My Dropbox' and it's got all the files
that my home PC had.
Wait, what? I can open up the excel spreadsheet I was working on at
home? From my work PC? Do I need to login to some website? Nope. It's
just another file on my local machine. Dropbox defines seamless.
I've got 2GB free to load up junk. I cannot tell you how amazing it is
to be able to layout a PCB at home, and then be able to quickly and
easily access that file from work. Neither machine has to be on. (Ok, so
the one I'm sitting in front of is on...)
Now add in my Netbook and things get really amazing (HP Mini 1000 is the
greatest netbook ever). I can edit board layouts, work on code, you name
it and it's happily sitting in my Dropbox synchronizing itself to the
other machines (work, home, portable). Before Dropbox I cannot tell you
how many un-reconciled files I had between machines. A version here, a
picture there...
A few days ago Pete in engineering came to me. His laptop harddrive
died. It contained firmware of which he had not emailed, copied, or
otherwise backed up for 6 months (bad Pete!). I don't care if it's a
picture of your couch - if you lose it, it hurts. Dropbox is my hedge
against hard drive failure. Dropbox has redundancy and security. All three of my machines do not (RAID nothing).
A 2GB Dropbox is free. More than that you have to pay for, which is
fair. I don't need it yet, but I'm happy to pay once I do. Mmmm, the
koolaid tastes good here.
