Thoughts
on 09.10.05, 08:10am in computers • digg this • comments (5)
I’ve been spending alot of time lately thinking about how I use computers. It’s weird - some things are so completely overcomplicated that you would expect to ‘just work’ (such as backing up files, editing video), how some are just plain wrong or simply broken (dealing with codec hell, UPNP), and other things in my life are way beyond what the typical home user would ever do (home theaters, terabyte servers, 7 computers, etc). More on this later - I’ve been getting a bit of technology induced cognitive overload lately that I need to solve.
Anyways, I found this interesting: One thing I’ve seen plenty of people going gaga over is Folder Share. Pay $50 a year for 20,000 files and 2 computers or $100 a year 5 computers for unlimited files.
Maybe I just don’t get it, but I’ve had a WebDAV box setup for over a year, which not only enables me easy access to any files that I put there, I can sync programs such as RSS Bandit and bookmarks in Firefox between my laptop and desktop, and access it from ANY platform (since I use both Mac and PCs). Best part: I have access to hundreds of gigabytes that I don’t have to pay a yearly fee for.
Omar Shahine (September 10, 2005 @ 10:48 am)
I’m not interested in having a central point of failure (my home) of my critical data, and keeping a server up all the time.
Also, it’s 20,000 per folder. You can have 100 sync folders. That’s 2,000,000 files.
Steve (September 10, 2005 @ 11:19 am)
On one hand, I can see what you’re saying, but with it costing $90 for 200gb drives, I’d rather have full control of my own stuff.
Not to mention the fact that I’m tired of paying for all of these little $15-$20 services all over the place. I pay $50 for cable modem, that should be it.
Clubbedseal (September 10, 2005 @ 6:05 pm)
I agree on the pricing side of things. (dont really like subscriptions) Folder share is something which should be built into windows though. We use it primarily for backup, and mirroring. It makes the whole process transparent, as soon as a file is changed on one server its automatically synchronised to various other machines at remote locations. I personally use it to keep my laptop and desktop in synch. I can save my source on the desktop and know that as soon as login to my laptop all the files will be current. Webdav works but does give you a single point of failure. If the server goes down when you’re on the opposite side of the country there aint much you can do. Foldershare will just keep track of any changes and once the peer is back up and running the copy will be updated. It makes keeping files in sync as simple as activesync makes keeping contacts current.
Omar Shahine (September 11, 2005 @ 3:42 pm)
I think that’s pretty naive. I pay for things I find usefull. Regardless of subscription vs one time per year you will find that you pay just as much for these “one time” expenses. Of course, there are also the non technology related expenses.
Of course “usefull” is completley subjective. Discretionary Income is exactly that, discretionary :-).
Steve (September 11, 2005 @ 7:46 pm)
I think I’d disagree with your usage of the word naive. For someone like myself, who’s gone from dual incomes to a single with my wife staying home, it’s just plain silly to pay for services that I can easily host and control myself.