The Gomez Blog

I haven’t done a technology post in a while, but I wanted to highlight a technology that has changed the way I’ve used my computers.  Yes, computers is plural there.  See, I had a problem as a technology manager at Red Rocks.  The problem was that there were 5 or 6 computers that I would use on a regular basis, one in my office, one in the computer lab, my personal laptop, my work laptop, my personal desktop, my wife’s computer, etc.  So my files were in a lot of different places and I would often find myself emailing myself a file or saving it to a flash drive, but then file versions got mixed up.  I’d revise a file on one computer and then access it on another and realize I was dealing with an old version of the file.  It was very frustrating.

I almost gave up on local files altogether in favor of a completely online workflow using Google Docs.  But Google Docs was a bit too simplistic for some of my needs, especially when some of my files were graphics files made with Fireworks or Photoshop.  That’s when I ran into an article about Dropbox.

What Dropbox does is so elegant and simple its the kind of thing you wonder, “Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?”  After downloading and installing Dropbox, it places a folder (under My Documents by default) labeled “My Dropbox”.  When you put a file in here, Dropbox syncs it with their web servers and makes it available to you via a simple, clean online interface.  But that’s not where the magic happens.  If I have more than one computer, I can install Dropbox on every computer I use and configure it with the same login credentials on each computer.  Now, when I place a file into the Dropbox folder, it syncs it with every other computer that I have installed Dropbox on.  So, I create a file or change a file on my personal laptop, that creation/change gets synced out to my school laptop, my personal desktop, my office computer, etc.  The online interface keeps track of versions as well so I can revert to a previous version of a file if I need to.

Another plus to this is that each of those files is being backed up in multiple places as well as online.  If every one of my computers crashed and burned, I could still access my files through the online interface.  If I delete a file by accident, no problem, I can find it in the trash in the online interface for a certain number of days after I deleted it.

The best part about Dropbox is that its basic version is free.  Using the basic version, you get 2GB of space.  So far, using it regularly, I’m up to 1GB.  I’ll probably need to upgrade soon, which will be $10 a month for 50GB.  Or you can get 100GB for $20 a month.  Pretty good pricing for online backup, not to mention the ease of accessing your files on any computer you use.

For me, Dropbox has completely replaced flash storage.  I naturally store any file that I think I might possibly need to access on a different computer in my Dropbox folder.  And if I’m at a public computer, like at the library, I can upload a file to my Dropbox account using their online interface.  Awesome.

The only downside is that you need a broadband internet connection.  Some files can be very large and need to be transmitted over your internet connection to sync with your other computers.  I’ve had basic DSL as well as cable internet and have had good luck so far.

So visit getdropbox.com and watch their tour and see if it would work for you.  I’ve been really pleased with it so far.

Tagged as Dropbox + Categorized as Tech, Tech, Websites