October 5, 2010

Quicknote: Dropbox as your web development drive?

I’ve recently discovered a really great use for Dropbox.  I started keeping all my website files in my Dropbox folder and I actively edit (notepad, FileZilla, etc.) these files in that location.  As I’m editing and saving files, Dropbox does it’s magic and syncs to the Dropbox service as well as all other computers I have Dropbox running on.  The beauty of this is that not only do you have realtime backup, you also have multiple recovery points if you decide you don’t like the recent change you made.  It really streamlines the file editing process because you no longer have to perform manual backups before you start making changes (although doing this from time to time is still advisable).

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August 30, 2010

Dropbox and TrueCrypt: Sync your data securely

If you haven’t heard of Dropbox, it’s a cloud based file syncing service. You get 2GB of storage for free that you can use as you want.  You simply install the Dropbox client on your computer and drop some files into the Dropbox folder, which by default is located under My Documents in Windows but you can specify a different location if you wish.  In the background those files will sync up to your online Dropbox storage.  It gets even better!  Install the Dropbox client on multiple computers and now those same files will be in sync on all computers as well as your online Dropbox storage.  Not only do you have easy and convenient access to your files from any computer (or mobile device like iPhone, Droid, etc.) but you also have multiple backup copies on each computer you installed the client on.  Plus, if you make changes to files Dropbox has file versioning.  Simple right-click a file and choose Dropbox | View Previous Versions.  You will then be taken to your account via web browser where you can then select which version of the file you want restored.  Want more space than the 2GB you get for free?  You can add 250MB for each person you refer to Dropbox (assuming they sign up) for a maximum of 8GB.  They offer pay options for more space as well.  Dropbox isn’t likely going to be a total online (cloud) backup solution unless you don’t have a ton of data, but the sync convenience makes it easy to have universal access to your most commonly used files.

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