A far better Dropbox

David Ells · September 5th, 2013, 06:42 PM

We are living in uncertain times, for sure. But cloud storage is something I need to survive in this ecosystem. I am willing to trade the privacy of my work-related files for more client work. But I also realize that I am on a slippery slope. Who knows how any of us will feel about this stuff in 5 years.

Ervin Farkas · September 5th, 2013, 09:24 PM

I just heard an interesting news piece on NPR Market Place tonight.

"Targeted ads" is huge business and it is growing exponentially. We provide these sharks with all the info they need in order to put together an almost perfect profile and then sell it to advertisers. How to they do it? They use our laziness - most of us use the same password for all the websites where we create accounts. So let's say FB (just as an example) has our password... they try accessing our other accounts using the same password - works in most cases, so now they can have additional info about what we do, who we hang out with, hobbies, shopping habits, travel plans, etc.

Options: close all accounts and move out in a mountain cave... use cash or hunt and gather food.

Or... just put up with all the surveillance and data gathering, give up all our privacy.

And forget encryption... it's as useful as horseshoe on a dead quadruped... also in the news today: the NSA got really good at intercepting even sophisticatedly encrypted data.

But we digress... the topic was cloud storage...

Interesting times we live in, indeed...

David Ells · August 14th, 2014, 06:21 PM

I now completely rescind my endorsement for copy.com.

I've had 4 links to clients expire in the past 2 weeks (all of the ones I've shared) and copy.com support has told me that I went over their 65GB/day bandwidth limit. That is nonsense. The files I shared were around 200MB each, shared with one or 2 others to view and give feedback on.

They also told me I was in violation of their TOS for using copy.com for sharing files with my clients. They apparently mean for it to be strictly personal or internal business use.

The kicker is that they implied that if I upgraded to a paid plan all my problems would go away. That is thinly veiled coercion, in my opinion. I'm now looking into other cloud-based video-sharing options and Dropbox is looking very appealing again. Who would have thought...

Anyone else using a service they recommend? For me it's gotta have browser preview before having to download. Full quality streaming (like copy.com) is even better. I'm willing to pay if they're offering 100GB+ but 9.99/month is a bit steep.

Jeremy Doyle · September 3rd, 2014, 08:15 PM

Dropbox just changed their options. It's $10 bucks a month, but it's a 1tb of storage.

Christopher Lefchik · September 18th, 2014, 05:10 AM

David, you might give Microsoft OneDrive a shot. Individual file size limit is 10GB, and if my recent experience with an 8Mbps VBR encoded H.264 file is any guide it appears they may be streaming the original files at full bandwidth.

You get 15GB of storage for free. 100GB is $1.99/month, and 200GB is $3.99/month.

Or you can get a Microsoft Office 365 Home one year subscription key card from Amazon currently for about $64. That works out to around $5.33/month for 1TB storage space per user. With the subscription good for five users, that means 5TB total storage.

September 5th, 2013, 06:42 PM	#16
David Ells Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Beverly, MA Posts: 87	Re: A far better Dropbox We are living in uncertain times, for sure. But cloud storage is something I need to survive in this ecosystem. I am willing to trade the privacy of my work-related files for more client work. But I also realize that I am on a slippery slope. Who knows how any of us will feel about this stuff in 5 years. __________________ inthecarmedia.com

September 5th, 2013, 09:24 PM	#17
Ervin Farkas Inner Circle Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Atlanta/USA Posts: 2,515	Re: A far better Dropbox I just heard an interesting news piece on NPR Market Place tonight. "Targeted ads" is huge business and it is growing exponentially. We provide these sharks with all the info they need in order to put together an almost perfect profile and then sell it to advertisers. How to they do it? They use our laziness - most of us use the same password for all the websites where we create accounts. So let's say FB (just as an example) has our password... they try accessing our other accounts using the same password - works in most cases, so now they can have additional info about what we do, who we hang out with, hobbies, shopping habits, travel plans, etc. Options: close all accounts and move out in a mountain cave... use cash or hunt and gather food. Or... just put up with all the surveillance and data gathering, give up all our privacy. And forget encryption... it's as useful as horseshoe on a dead quadruped... also in the news today: the NSA got really good at intercepting even sophisticatedly encrypted data. But we digress... the topic was cloud storage... Interesting times we live in, indeed... __________________ Ervin Farkas www.AtlantaLegalVideo.com

August 14th, 2014, 06:21 PM	#18
David Ells Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Beverly, MA Posts: 87	Re: A far better Dropbox I now completely rescind my endorsement for copy.com. I've had 4 links to clients expire in the past 2 weeks (all of the ones I've shared) and copy.com support has told me that I went over their 65GB/day bandwidth limit. That is nonsense. The files I shared were around 200MB each, shared with one or 2 others to view and give feedback on. They also told me I was in violation of their TOS for using copy.com for sharing files with my clients. They apparently mean for it to be strictly personal or internal business use. The kicker is that they implied that if I upgraded to a paid plan all my problems would go away. That is thinly veiled coercion, in my opinion. I'm now looking into other cloud-based video-sharing options and Dropbox is looking very appealing again. Who would have thought... Anyone else using a service they recommend? For me it's gotta have browser preview before having to download. Full quality streaming (like copy.com) is even better. I'm willing to pay if they're offering 100GB+ but 9.99/month is a bit steep. __________________ inthecarmedia.com

September 3rd, 2014, 08:15 PM	#19
Jeremy Doyle Major Player Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Brainerd, MN Posts: 287	Re: A far better Dropbox Dropbox just changed their options. It's $10 bucks a month, but it's a 1tb of storage. __________________ Jeremy Doyle www.silentshoutproductions.com

September 18th, 2014, 05:10 AM	#20
Christopher Lefchik Trustee Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: US Posts: 1,152	Re: A far better Dropbox David, you might give Microsoft OneDrive a shot. Individual file size limit is 10GB, and if my recent experience with an 8Mbps VBR encoded H.264 file is any guide it appears they may be streaming the original files at full bandwidth. You get 15GB of storage for free. 100GB is $1.99/month, and 200GB is $3.99/month. Or you can get a Microsoft Office 365 Home one year subscription key card from Amazon currently for about $64. That works out to around $5.33/month for 1TB storage space per user. With the subscription good for five users, that means 5TB total storage.