[ale] Dropbox opinions wanted

[Jerald Sheets]

Sounds like they do some sort of metadata changes-only upload so that when you need to retrieve the whole file they reassemble you file some sort of way.

interesting.

--j


On Sep 16, 2010, at 10:29 AM, James Sumners wrote:

> Looks like they do use some trickery:
> 
> http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=13313&replies=6#post-83928
> http://serverfault.com/questions/52861/how-does-dropbox-version-upload-large-files
> 
> On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 10:08 AM, Geoffrey Myers
> <lists at serioustechnology.com> wrote:
>>> Some manuals can be rather large so my thought is that they take a MD5
>>> sum of the manual and look in their database for something that matches.
>>> If it does then they simply copy the match to my account instead of
>>> uploading what I placed in my Dropbox directory.
>> 
>> In theory, I would have a problem with that.  I don't think they should
>> be snooping around in my data for the sake of someone elses.  I
>> perfectly understand the issue though, still, I don't like it, if in
>> fact, that is what they are doing.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> James Sumners
> http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/
> 
> "All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
> pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
> is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
> drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
> 
> Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
> CH:D 59
> 
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