10 ms·

Dropbox Webhooks

210 points by smarx 12y ago

daniel_levine 12y ago
If anyone has questions, feedback or comments about webhooks or the Dropbox API more broadly, feel free to post here You can also ping me at levine at dropbox
- vladgur 12y ago
  Whats the best/recommended way to test webhooks with a server running locally? Do you require webhook urls to be SSLd? P.S. Also eagerly waiting for your Shared Folder API [1] :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484409
  - smarx 12y ago
    Webhooks don't require SSL. We're going to publish a little Python script soon that can generate fake webhook notifications for local testing, but in the meantime, I'd suggest just using curl. Something like this: curl http://127.0.0.1/whatever http://127.0.0.1/whatever -d '{"deltas": {"users:" [12345]}}' Another possibility is to use a tool like ngrok or localtunnel, which is what some of our beta testers did.
    - smarx 12y ago
      I went ahead and published Python code to generate fake webhook requests. See https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox_hook https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox_hook.
  - johns 12y ago
    http://john-sheehan.com/blog/a-survey-of-the-localhost-proxying-landscape http://john-sheehan.com/blog/a-survey-of-the-localhost-proxy...
- jpallen 12y ago
  This is great, thanks! Quick question: Is there a best practice for handling rate limiting? I.e. if you send us X number of web hook updates in quick succession for a user, are we ok just sending X delta requests back at you in quick succession? Or do we need to worry about rate limiting? What's the maximum rate we can expect to be sent web hook requests for one user?
  - smarx 12y ago
    Take a look at https://www.dropbox.com/developers/webhooks/tutorial#best-practices https://www.dropbox.com/developers/webhooks/tutorial#best-pr..., specifically the part about managing concurrency. There are rate limits (per user) on the Dropbox side, but they're pretty high. I think the bigger concurrency issue is going to be on your end (making sure you don't process the same changes multiple times). Taking a lease per-user is a good start, and we're going to publish a more advanced sample in the coming weeks that uses a queue to really eliminate duplicate calls.
- exarch 12y ago
  I have a question: How do you feel about working for a company that employs a war criminal on their board of directors, and that lied to the public about its collusion with the NSA over PRISM and other warrantless surveillance programs?
- davedx 12y ago
  Feedback: I moved my file syncing from Dropbox to Spideroak after you announced Rice was coming on board, and recommend all my friends, family and coworkers do the same. It's a shame because I love the product.
  - badsock 12y ago
    Same here, except I went with BTSync. Really glad I did - it's a nice little product.
- taejo 12y ago
  I have a question: why does Dropbox hire board members better known for their support for torture than their business acumen?
- eric_cc 12y ago
  After reading the comments here and learning that you have hired Condoleezza Rice you have lost yourself another paying customer.
- deciplex 12y ago
  What features have you added to your API to allow various intelligence agencies to more easily snoop on your customer data?
ollysb 12y ago
Wow, they've been building up to this one for I think years. Very happy to see it. Having a real-time* filesystem available is going to great for not only the big projects like web hosting but I can imagine a ton of little in house tools that could make use of this. * We know which type of real-time we're talking about...
- daniel_levine 12y ago
  It has been a long time coming and we're really excited to see what folks do with it!
  - masterkain 12y ago
    At AudioBox (https://audiobox.fm https://audiobox.fm) we have a strong use case for it. We are already providing our users a "live filesystem" with Box, exciting that Dropbox is also adding this. We'll have a look at this after our next release.
tannerc 12y ago
The Dropbox team has been working hard on Webhooks for some time now, it looks like this is a much-needed tool for developers. For example, a little under a year ago I released a mobile writing app that synced using the Dropbox Sync API. Right out of the gate there were problems syncing large documents, specifically due to slow mobile connections. The webhooks functionality (while I haven't launched a version of the app that implements this) allows me to check for changes quickly on a server before syncing files on the user's device. Kudos to the team on adding a much-needed feature to the Dropbox functionality.
leorocky 12y ago
Stuff like this is why I like Dropbox even though it's more expensive. File syncing is their bread and butter. It's their main business, not a sideshow. They're always going to do this better than anyone else.
- CSDude 12y ago
  Can you give another example than this? Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to justify the huge price difference.
  - wasd 12y ago
    LAN sync is only available on Dropbox and is incredibly useful.
    - ceejayoz 12y ago
      I really wish all the Dropbox clients on a LAN would coordinate and not all download the same file from Dropbox. We had our three work machines all downloading a ~400MB file the other day. No reason Dropbox couldn't figure that out and have one machine download the file and then distribute over LAN.
      - gumby 12y ago
        "No reason Dropbox couldn't figure that out and have one machine download the file and then distribute over LAN." They could have each machine download a chunk and have them swap chunks locally. That would asymptote in time towards a single download. That would handle cases of the "one" machine going offline close to the end, or having it being the slowest machine available.
        ceejayoz 12y ago
        That's a great idea to handle those sorts of edge cases.
        rhizome 12y ago
Xdes 12y ago
I'm guessing the boycott is over?
- msoad 12y ago
  Not for me. I've moved to Google Drive. Cheaper, faster, better and less pro-war!
  - sidcool 12y ago
    Interestingly your name anagrams with mosad.
    - spacefight 12y ago
      But... it's missing the second 's'.
      - msoad 12y ago
        soad = system of a down :)
- vdaniuk 12y ago
  Not for me. All I care about this announcement is the hooks that Mamdouh Habib was hanged on while he was tortured in Egypt, sent there by the CIA. And one of the Dropbox board members was an ardent supporter of this and other despicable practices(also known as torture). If Daniel Levine is fine with this, then I am definitely not fine with paying, using or promoting his product API. edit: I switched to spideroak and am quite happy with the product.
  - gmacdon89 12y ago
    I lolled.
    - vdaniuk 12y ago
      Look up the story of Mamdouh Habib. It's really sad, he was tortured physically and mentally, labeled a terrorist and was released without charges by the USG after 4 years in detention.
thrush 12y ago
Is there a file storage protocol? On the same note, it would be cool to have this protocol to drive the development of Dropbox (and other file storage services for that matter) in the same way that Git drives what is capable on Github.
- rsync 12y ago
  Agreed. I am trying to see if this framework allows for a simple polling and synchronization of a particular dropbox to a unix system. That is, a simple way to clone my dropbox to any old unix system that is running their python code, and keeps it updated via the polling mechanism. This is interesting because we (rsync.net) would then "freeze" that python app[1] (whatever it ends up being) and let users clone and sync a dropbox to their rsync.net account. We already do this with s3cmd and git, and dropbox would be a nice addition. [1] We don't allow interpreters (python, perl, shell) in our environment, so we have to "freeze" python to a binary exe.
  - smarx 12y ago
    If you're polling client-side for a single account, you should just be using longpoll_delta[1] and delta[2]. But maybe I misunderstood the use case? [1] https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#longpoll-delta https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#longpoll-delta [2] https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#delta https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#delta
adamnemecek 12y ago
Can I use this new API to be notified when Dropbox board members resign?
- vdaniuk 12y ago
  You can use this API to get a boilerplate non-response full of hypocritical "commitment" about user privacy.
nextstep 12y ago
I refuse to use Dropbox after Condoleezza Rice was appointed to their board. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/protests-continue-against-dropbox-after-appointing-condoleezza-rice-to-board http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/protests-continue-a... I hope these protests hurt Dropbox's image and business and they replace Rice with someone who isn't a war criminal.
- nathannecro 12y ago
  How exactly is Rice a war criminal?
  - sampk 12y ago
    http://www.drop-dropbox.com/ http://www.drop-dropbox.com/
    - rjohnk 12y ago
      Again, how exactly is Rice a war criminal? You linked to an OP-ED page. That's like linking to Greenpeace after someone asks what the benefits of Oil is to the World Economy.
      - bdisraeli 12y ago
        The American invasion if Iraq, whose planning and execution Condeleeza Rice was involved in was clearly a violation of the UN charter, which prohibits aggressive action by one nation against another without the authorization of the UN Security Council.
      - nathannecro 12y ago
        I have no idea why you're being downvoted. It's not random trolls who're downvoting you either as this is HN...right? Business is traditionally played as a game of market advantage/disadvantage. To Dropbox, Rice's international connections and political clout are far more valuable to them (obviously) than a few users throwing a hissy fit and dropping their service. Again, rather obviously, the method to change that view is if John Q. Public can create enough unrest and antagonism towards Rice, then that disadvantage outweighs the edge Rice brings. There are two issues I see: 1. The power Rice brings to the table is ridiculously significant. Regardless of what she's alleged to have done, she is one of tens of western female political leaders. She has deep connections with major businesses within the US. Etc, etc, etc. 2. The article written at 'Drop-Dropbox' is full of strawmen arguments and subjective analysis. This, among other points, makes the article a piece of crap. I don't really have the time, nor the willingness to actually pull apart the article, but I'll point out a few things: "Choosing Condoleezza Rice for Dropbox's Board is problematic on a number of deeper levels, and invites serious concerns about Drew Houston and the senior leadership at Dropbox's commitment to freedom, openness, and ethics. When a company quite literally has access to all of your data, ethics become more than a fun thought experiment." This is a slippery-slope argument, designed to instill fear into the reader. The author provides nothing of substance but insinuates: "Because Rice joined the Board of Dropbox, all of your data is going to be used for unethical (like what?) purposes". The author also shows a significant lack of understanding about how large corporate businesses work. The Board of Directors make broad, sweeping, general directions for the company to proceed in. In addition, if people are concerned with Rice making "unethical" decisions, keep in mind that there's a voting process (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_directors#Exercise_of_powers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_directors#Exercise_of...) to keep power in check. Even further, once the company becomes publicly traded, a creation of a separate board who normally consist of outside members, are required to audit the company; this, in theory, prevents companies from "unethically" treating your data. Now even though this paragraph has nothing to do with the NSA and associated programs, I'm sure if anybody responds, it's going to be the first thing out of their mouth. To this I respond: Rice is not the US government. Much less, she's not even part of the NSA. I'll point out another annoyance I've noticed: Strawmen Arguments. Statements like: "She helped start the Iraq War" "She was involved in the creation of the Bush administration's torture program" "Rice was on the Board of Directors at Chevron" All are designed to instill fear, hatred, and disgust towards Rice. But really?... Americans, Canadians, British, French, German, Australian, etc, etc, etc all helped to start the Iraq War. Americans are especially guilty. If anybody was around during 9/11, I'm sure we can all recall the fear and anger we had towards the suicidal fundamentalists who piloted planes into the Towers. Now, I'm not one to call for war, but I can remember that I wanted to do anything and everything in my power to hit back (somehow) at those who caused me and my country pain and harm. Same can be more or less said for the other 'headlines' but I care far too little about changing a few random stranger's thoughts over the internet. Thanks.
mariocesar 12y ago
What I'm feeling about this? This is a great feature, but I don't trust the brand. I'm really anxious about Canonical releasing the Ubuntu One Server project as open source https://launchpad.net/ubuntuone-servers https://launchpad.net/ubuntuone-servers, soon as it happens I will dedicate to make it mainstream. Can you imagine the possibilities? decentralized synchronization, multiple storages protocols like S3 or FTP. File synchronization is a hard thing to do, but I don't see common sense on making it centralized. Really have high hopes when Ubuntu One is released.
- icebraining 12y ago
  Can you imagine the possibilities? decentralized synchronization, multiple storages protocols like S3 or FTP. At the risk of sounding like a shill, that's already possible with git-annex. It's decentralized, and it supports remote storage on S3, FTP, rsync, Webdav (e.g. Box.com), Tahoe-LAFS, Google Drive, Mega, SkyDrive and more. I personally have a node on my laptop, one on my VPS, one on my RaspPi, one on my Nexus 7 and a bucket on S3, all happily syncing.
  - voltagex_ 12y ago
    git-annex is quite difficult to use, even more so if one of your nodes is a Windows box.
  - nodata 12y ago
    The sheer number of symlinks put me off git-annex.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      You should try the direct mode, then: http://git-annex.branchable.com/direct_mode/ http://git-annex.branchable.com/direct_mode/ Normally, git-annex repositories consist of symlinks that are checked into git, and in turn point at the content of large files that is stored in .git/annex/objects/. Direct mode gets rid of the symlinks.
kingnight 12y ago
Interesting the company they feature, Picturelife, seems to be a direct competitor to their own new Carousel app.
us0r 12y ago
Speaking of the devil... as of a few hours ago she is still defending the NSA programs. http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25762917/condoleezza-rice-defends-nsa-spying-at-tech-conference http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25762917/condoleezza-...
Navarajan 12y ago
I hope http://www.site44.com/ http://www.site44.com/ is also implemented the Dropbox Webhook.
- smarx 12y ago
  Of course. :-)
sireat 12y ago
Webhooks or no, Dropbox has already nailed down the core features but the Rice situation is gnawing at me. I would love to see a canonical list of alternatives to Dropbox, I still have 30GB in free layers(thanks University promotions), but the more I think about it, the less I want to keep using Dropbox. So some options are to set up your ownCloud at VPS, use Google Drive, or Microsoft Skydrive or something else. Problem with latter two is that those are not exactly highly ethical choices either. On the other hand ownCloud fails the grandma test something that Dropbox has been excellent at. What other options are there?

210 points by smarx 12y ago

If anyone has questions, feedback or comments about webhooks or the Dropbox API more broadly, feel free to post here You can also ping me at levine at dropbox

vladgur 12y ago
Whats the best/recommended way to test webhooks with a server running locally? Do you require webhook urls to be SSLd? P.S. Also eagerly waiting for your Shared Folder API [1] :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484409
- smarx 12y ago
  Webhooks don't require SSL. We're going to publish a little Python script soon that can generate fake webhook notifications for local testing, but in the meantime, I'd suggest just using curl. Something like this: curl http://127.0.0.1/whatever http://127.0.0.1/whatever -d '{"deltas": {"users:" [12345]}}' Another possibility is to use a tool like ngrok or localtunnel, which is what some of our beta testers did.
  - smarx 12y ago
    I went ahead and published Python code to generate fake webhook requests. See https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox_hook https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox_hook.
- johns 12y ago
  http://john-sheehan.com/blog/a-survey-of-the-localhost-proxying-landscape http://john-sheehan.com/blog/a-survey-of-the-localhost-proxy...
jpallen 12y ago
This is great, thanks! Quick question: Is there a best practice for handling rate limiting? I.e. if you send us X number of web hook updates in quick succession for a user, are we ok just sending X delta requests back at you in quick succession? Or do we need to worry about rate limiting? What's the maximum rate we can expect to be sent web hook requests for one user?
- smarx 12y ago
  Take a look at https://www.dropbox.com/developers/webhooks/tutorial#best-practices https://www.dropbox.com/developers/webhooks/tutorial#best-pr..., specifically the part about managing concurrency. There are rate limits (per user) on the Dropbox side, but they're pretty high. I think the bigger concurrency issue is going to be on your end (making sure you don't process the same changes multiple times). Taking a lease per-user is a good start, and we're going to publish a more advanced sample in the coming weeks that uses a queue to really eliminate duplicate calls.
exarch 12y ago
I have a question: How do you feel about working for a company that employs a war criminal on their board of directors, and that lied to the public about its collusion with the NSA over PRISM and other warrantless surveillance programs?
davedx 12y ago
Feedback: I moved my file syncing from Dropbox to Spideroak after you announced Rice was coming on board, and recommend all my friends, family and coworkers do the same. It's a shame because I love the product.
- badsock 12y ago
  Same here, except I went with BTSync. Really glad I did - it's a nice little product.
taejo 12y ago
I have a question: why does Dropbox hire board members better known for their support for torture than their business acumen?
eric_cc 12y ago
After reading the comments here and learning that you have hired Condoleezza Rice you have lost yourself another paying customer.
deciplex 12y ago
What features have you added to your API to allow various intelligence agencies to more easily snoop on your customer data?

ollysb 12y ago

Wow, they've been building up to this one for I think years. Very happy to see it. Having a real-time* filesystem available is going to great for not only the big projects like web hosting but I can imagine a ton of little in house tools that could make use of this. * We know which type of real-time we're talking about...

daniel_levine 12y ago
It has been a long time coming and we're really excited to see what folks do with it!
- masterkain 12y ago
  At AudioBox (https://audiobox.fm https://audiobox.fm) we have a strong use case for it. We are already providing our users a "live filesystem" with Box, exciting that Dropbox is also adding this. We'll have a look at this after our next release.

tannerc 12y ago

The Dropbox team has been working hard on Webhooks for some time now, it looks like this is a much-needed tool for developers. For example, a little under a year ago I released a mobile writing app that synced using the Dropbox Sync API. Right out of the gate there were problems syncing large documents, specifically due to slow mobile connections. The webhooks functionality (while I haven't launched a version of the app that implements this) allows me to check for changes quickly on a server before syncing files on the user's device. Kudos to the team on adding a much-needed feature to the Dropbox functionality.

leorocky 12y ago

Stuff like this is why I like Dropbox even though it's more expensive. File syncing is their bread and butter. It's their main business, not a sideshow. They're always going to do this better than anyone else.

CSDude 12y ago
Can you give another example than this? Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to justify the huge price difference.
- wasd 12y ago
  LAN sync is only available on Dropbox and is incredibly useful.
  - ceejayoz 12y ago
    I really wish all the Dropbox clients on a LAN would coordinate and not all download the same file from Dropbox. We had our three work machines all downloading a ~400MB file the other day. No reason Dropbox couldn't figure that out and have one machine download the file and then distribute over LAN.
    - gumby 12y ago
      "No reason Dropbox couldn't figure that out and have one machine download the file and then distribute over LAN." They could have each machine download a chunk and have them swap chunks locally. That would asymptote in time towards a single download. That would handle cases of the "one" machine going offline close to the end, or having it being the slowest machine available.
      - ceejayoz 12y ago
        That's a great idea to handle those sorts of edge cases.
      - rhizome 12y ago

Xdes 12y ago

I'm guessing the boycott is over?

msoad 12y ago
Not for me. I've moved to Google Drive. Cheaper, faster, better and less pro-war!
- sidcool 12y ago
  Interestingly your name anagrams with mosad.
  - spacefight 12y ago
    But... it's missing the second 's'.
    - msoad 12y ago
      soad = system of a down :)
vdaniuk 12y ago
Not for me. All I care about this announcement is the hooks that Mamdouh Habib was hanged on while he was tortured in Egypt, sent there by the CIA. And one of the Dropbox board members was an ardent supporter of this and other despicable practices(also known as torture). If Daniel Levine is fine with this, then I am definitely not fine with paying, using or promoting his product API. edit: I switched to spideroak and am quite happy with the product.
- gmacdon89 12y ago
  I lolled.
  - vdaniuk 12y ago
    Look up the story of Mamdouh Habib. It's really sad, he was tortured physically and mentally, labeled a terrorist and was released without charges by the USG after 4 years in detention.

thrush 12y ago

Is there a file storage protocol? On the same note, it would be cool to have this protocol to drive the development of Dropbox (and other file storage services for that matter) in the same way that Git drives what is capable on Github.

rsync 12y ago
Agreed. I am trying to see if this framework allows for a simple polling and synchronization of a particular dropbox to a unix system. That is, a simple way to clone my dropbox to any old unix system that is running their python code, and keeps it updated via the polling mechanism. This is interesting because we (rsync.net) would then "freeze" that python app[1] (whatever it ends up being) and let users clone and sync a dropbox to their rsync.net account. We already do this with s3cmd and git, and dropbox would be a nice addition. [1] We don't allow interpreters (python, perl, shell) in our environment, so we have to "freeze" python to a binary exe.
- smarx 12y ago
  If you're polling client-side for a single account, you should just be using longpoll_delta[1] and delta[2]. But maybe I misunderstood the use case? [1] https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#longpoll-delta https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#longpoll-delta [2] https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#delta https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#delta

adamnemecek 12y ago

Can I use this new API to be notified when Dropbox board members resign?

vdaniuk 12y ago
You can use this API to get a boilerplate non-response full of hypocritical "commitment" about user privacy.

nextstep 12y ago

I refuse to use Dropbox after Condoleezza Rice was appointed to their board. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/protests-continue-against-dropbox-after-appointing-condoleezza-rice-to-board http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/protests-continue-a... I hope these protests hurt Dropbox's image and business and they replace Rice with someone who isn't a war criminal.

nathannecro 12y ago
How exactly is Rice a war criminal?
- sampk 12y ago
  http://www.drop-dropbox.com/ http://www.drop-dropbox.com/
  - rjohnk 12y ago
    Again, how exactly is Rice a war criminal? You linked to an OP-ED page. That's like linking to Greenpeace after someone asks what the benefits of Oil is to the World Economy.
    - bdisraeli 12y ago
      The American invasion if Iraq, whose planning and execution Condeleeza Rice was involved in was clearly a violation of the UN charter, which prohibits aggressive action by one nation against another without the authorization of the UN Security Council.
    - nathannecro 12y ago
      I have no idea why you're being downvoted. It's not random trolls who're downvoting you either as this is HN...right? Business is traditionally played as a game of market advantage/disadvantage. To Dropbox, Rice's international connections and political clout are far more valuable to them (obviously) than a few users throwing a hissy fit and dropping their service. Again, rather obviously, the method to change that view is if John Q. Public can create enough unrest and antagonism towards Rice, then that disadvantage outweighs the edge Rice brings. There are two issues I see: 1. The power Rice brings to the table is ridiculously significant. Regardless of what she's alleged to have done, she is one of tens of western female political leaders. She has deep connections with major businesses within the US. Etc, etc, etc. 2. The article written at 'Drop-Dropbox' is full of strawmen arguments and subjective analysis. This, among other points, makes the article a piece of crap. I don't really have the time, nor the willingness to actually pull apart the article, but I'll point out a few things: "Choosing Condoleezza Rice for Dropbox's Board is problematic on a number of deeper levels, and invites serious concerns about Drew Houston and the senior leadership at Dropbox's commitment to freedom, openness, and ethics. When a company quite literally has access to all of your data, ethics become more than a fun thought experiment." This is a slippery-slope argument, designed to instill fear into the reader. The author provides nothing of substance but insinuates: "Because Rice joined the Board of Dropbox, all of your data is going to be used for unethical (like what?) purposes". The author also shows a significant lack of understanding about how large corporate businesses work. The Board of Directors make broad, sweeping, general directions for the company to proceed in. In addition, if people are concerned with Rice making "unethical" decisions, keep in mind that there's a voting process (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_directors#Exercise_of_powers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_directors#Exercise_of...) to keep power in check. Even further, once the company becomes publicly traded, a creation of a separate board who normally consist of outside members, are required to audit the company; this, in theory, prevents companies from "unethically" treating your data. Now even though this paragraph has nothing to do with the NSA and associated programs, I'm sure if anybody responds, it's going to be the first thing out of their mouth. To this I respond: Rice is not the US government. Much less, she's not even part of the NSA. I'll point out another annoyance I've noticed: Strawmen Arguments. Statements like: "She helped start the Iraq War" "She was involved in the creation of the Bush administration's torture program" "Rice was on the Board of Directors at Chevron" All are designed to instill fear, hatred, and disgust towards Rice. But really?... Americans, Canadians, British, French, German, Australian, etc, etc, etc all helped to start the Iraq War. Americans are especially guilty. If anybody was around during 9/11, I'm sure we can all recall the fear and anger we had towards the suicidal fundamentalists who piloted planes into the Towers. Now, I'm not one to call for war, but I can remember that I wanted to do anything and everything in my power to hit back (somehow) at those who caused me and my country pain and harm. Same can be more or less said for the other 'headlines' but I care far too little about changing a few random stranger's thoughts over the internet. Thanks.

mariocesar 12y ago

What I'm feeling about this? This is a great feature, but I don't trust the brand. I'm really anxious about Canonical releasing the Ubuntu One Server project as open source https://launchpad.net/ubuntuone-servers https://launchpad.net/ubuntuone-servers, soon as it happens I will dedicate to make it mainstream. Can you imagine the possibilities? decentralized synchronization, multiple storages protocols like S3 or FTP. File synchronization is a hard thing to do, but I don't see common sense on making it centralized. Really have high hopes when Ubuntu One is released.

icebraining 12y ago
Can you imagine the possibilities? decentralized synchronization, multiple storages protocols like S3 or FTP. At the risk of sounding like a shill, that's already possible with git-annex. It's decentralized, and it supports remote storage on S3, FTP, rsync, Webdav (e.g. Box.com), Tahoe-LAFS, Google Drive, Mega, SkyDrive and more. I personally have a node on my laptop, one on my VPS, one on my RaspPi, one on my Nexus 7 and a bucket on S3, all happily syncing.
- voltagex_ 12y ago
  git-annex is quite difficult to use, even more so if one of your nodes is a Windows box.
- nodata 12y ago
  The sheer number of symlinks put me off git-annex.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    You should try the direct mode, then: http://git-annex.branchable.com/direct_mode/ http://git-annex.branchable.com/direct_mode/ Normally, git-annex repositories consist of symlinks that are checked into git, and in turn point at the content of large files that is stored in .git/annex/objects/. Direct mode gets rid of the symlinks.

kingnight 12y ago

Interesting the company they feature, Picturelife, seems to be a direct competitor to their own new Carousel app.

us0r 12y ago

Speaking of the devil... as of a few hours ago she is still defending the NSA programs. http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25762917/condoleezza-rice-defends-nsa-spying-at-tech-conference http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25762917/condoleezza-...

Navarajan 12y ago

I hope http://www.site44.com/ http://www.site44.com/ is also implemented the Dropbox Webhook.

smarx 12y ago
Of course. :-)

sireat 12y ago

Webhooks or no, Dropbox has already nailed down the core features but the Rice situation is gnawing at me. I would love to see a canonical list of alternatives to Dropbox, I still have 30GB in free layers(thanks University promotions), but the more I think about it, the less I want to keep using Dropbox. So some options are to set up your ownCloud at VPS, use Google Drive, or Microsoft Skydrive or something else. Problem with latter two is that those are not exactly highly ethical choices either. On the other hand ownCloud fails the grandma test something that Dropbox has been excellent at. What other options are there?