DropBox for Online Backup and More

DropBox is a cool idea, very well implemented. Thanks to Genotrance for tweeting about it.

It starts with online backup of your data. I’ve wanted this for a while. Install the DropBox client on your system, create an account, and start putting your stuff into “My DropBox”. Everything inside that folder is automatically sync’ed up to their servers. You can even access all folders and files from their website. So far so good.

Then comes sync between two or more computers you own. Once you install the DropBox client on two systems, the data in your DropBox stays synced to both your computers. Modify on one, have it synced magically to the other. Neat!

Next: I have a folder with several files I’m collaborating on with my wife. I add it to my DropBox and share it online with her to her DropBox. Now we can both modify files in that folder from our respective computers. No more emailing attachments back and forth. Cool!

There’s also a “My Pictures” folder inside your DropBox. If you drop your pics to that folder, the website creates a flash-based gallery for you to share with friends and family. Since I’m on Flickr I don’t see myself using that feature much… except for quick-n-dirty picture shares perhaps.

Support for Windows, Mac, and Linux? Check.

Security? They say all data is SSL encrypted during transfer and all files are 256-bit AES-encrypted on disk (Amazon’s S3). Obviously the security of DropBox’s software and architecture also matter a lot. So far I haven’t stored anything sensitive on DropBox. I can see myself using encryption in future. (Some people are storing TrueCrypt volumes on DropBox.)

Free to try? Check. You can keep using it for free with 2GB of space, with paid upgrades to 50GB and 100GB. And if you refer others to it, you get additional space. If you want to try DropBox, click on the image below, and you and I will both get 250 extra megabytes (drool).

Go on, try it. You know you want it.

Saambaar

He told her that it couldn’t be done, and she was sure that it could.

For the two of them he had six dosas to make for dinner. He preferred to make them on a slow flame, patiently roasting each one to crisp perfection. Usually she would eat her three dosas hot off the tawa as he made them, but today she was determined to finish what she had started instead.

Minutes earlier he had got up from his evening meditation to observe with the mildest of irritation that she had dozed off on the couch after her own sadhana. The toor dal was already boiled and was patiently waiting to be made into what she called “saambher” in her annoyingly cute Gujju way. He was sure it would take her longer to make saambaar than it would for him to prepare all the dosas and sit for dinner, and it was already nine. So he told her not to. They would just have dosas without saambaar tonight.

But she was determined. As he was warming up the tawa into the perfect temperature for the first dosa to come off cleanly, she was in a whirlwind of activity with cilantro, tamarind, water, tomatoes, and the bottle of pungent powder that his father had lovingly labeled as “saambaar podi” to distinguish it from rasappodi in the neighboring bottle.

The kitchen of their apartment was just large enough for them both to cozily work together. And work together they did.

As the dosas came off the tawa one by one, the flavor of saambaar in the air grew from a faint hint to a strong certainty.

By half past nine the sixth dosa was rolling off the line, and the saambaar was ready. He accepted defeat, and as he had agreed, proceeded after dinner to post the episode on his blog for all to read.

That, dear reader, is what you’ve been reading.

Austin’s First YES!+

Words cannot express it, so I will post a picture collage instead. Click on the image for a bigger version where you can see the faces clearly.