Creative Uses for Dropbox?

[Neftren]

So in my everburning desire to simplify my computer setup, I've turned towards Dropbox (http://db.tt/CfxAdvC1) (yes, that's a referral link, because hey, why not?) to try and simplify my setup between my seven operating systems spanning two computers, plus my iPhone. I was just curious as to what you guys have come up with in terms of creative uses. I was thinking maybe utilizing Dropbox as a cloud iTunes repository, as I've got a lot of audio files extracted from game music and OSTs, which wouldn't show up on iTunes Match. I've been mostly using it for small files, such as documents and pictures, but what else could I potentially take advantage of?

I've also been thinking about symlinking/junctioning to the folder, but I'm not sure how running applications or editing documents on Dropbox might function. Any comments here as well?

[valadil]

Let's see, I've got some media (wallpapers and limited music) in mine. I use plaintext on my iPhone to edit text files. This lets me keep my todo list in a simple text format instead of relying on some service's web interface. I store my notes here too, which is great for D&D - I can write on the computer and still have access to all my plans on the phone.

The most interesting thing I've done with it is actually for Windows. I don't like Windows because I'd rather use a terminal. I installed cygwin into my Dropbox folder (despite the warning that there are spaces in the path, yadda yadda yadda). Also a copy of puttycyg, for a faster terminal. Now I've got the same terminal environment synching between all the windows machines I use. There is some weirdness with usernames and paths, but I've documented that here (http://code.sagotsky.com/?p=23). Unfortunately dropbox has a lot of overhead when syncing lots of small files, so changes in cygwin take some time to propagate.

I do a lot of synching of things on other services. My dotfiles (think preferences for linux applications) are all on github. There's no reason you couldn't use dropbox instead though if you wanted to avoid explicitly pushing and pulling new updates. I also use xmarks for synching my bookmarks, but that works well enough out of the box that I wouldn't put it in dropbox (pun not intended, then realized, embraced, and fully intended).

[Neftren]

Hmm, that cygwin idea is pretty creative. I'll have to give that one a spin.

How is Dropbox responsiveness when running entire applications out of Dropbox though?



Actually, better question. If I drop and/or install an application to Dropbox, is the application running locally, or is it pulling files out of the cloud, editing them, and then reuploading them?

[Weezer]

I use mine for dwarf fortress, allowing me to indulge my desires for insane death traps and magma wherever I may go.

[valadil]

Hmm, that cygwin idea is pretty creative. I'll have to give that one a spin.

How is Dropbox responsiveness when running entire applications out of Dropbox though?



Actually, better question. If I drop and/or install an application to Dropbox, is the application running locally, or is it pulling files out of the cloud, editing them, and then reuploading them?

The files live on your computer. If you kill the Dropbox process, the files are still right there. If you're working with the same files at the same time across multiple machines there will be some lag between when they're synced. But as far as cygwin is concerned, it's not aware it lives in Dropbox and won't have any waiting to do.

[Neftren]

The files live on your computer. If you kill the Dropbox process, the files are still right there. If you're working with the same files at the same time across multiple machines there will be some lag between when they're synced. But as far as cygwin is concerned, it's not aware it lives in Dropbox and won't have any waiting to do.

What if I edit a file locally, and lose internet connection, and then edit the file elsewhere? I now have two versions of the same file... how does Dropbox reconcile that?

[valadil]

What if I edit a file locally, and lose internet connection, and then edit the file elsewhere? I now have two versions of the same file... how does Dropbox reconcile that?

You end up with "file.ext" and "file.ext.(conflicted copy from compname)" coexisting. It's up to you to choose one of them and delete the other. Recently one of my bandmates clogged up our shared Dropbox folder by doing this with an 800mb file he was working on...