Fly Gracefully describes the usefulness of the free tool, dropbox.com.
It’s not new, but some folks may not be aware of it, it’s like having a hard drive full of data anywhere you go. The young’ins call
Dropbox shows up as a folder on my desktop. I place a file in there. It uploads it to dropbox land. I go to dropbox on my phone or nook and download the file and transfer it where I need it.
Dropbox will let you alone have access to files, or let you share files as well which is great for passing along powerpoint presentations that are too large to email. It’s also a handy place to keep travel documents like copies of passports. I’ve long kept scanned copies on my laptop, but this is great because my laptop could die mid-trip. Alright, the odds of that happening on the same trip as my passport is lost are stolen are low. But what if my passport and laptop are stolen?
Fly Gracefully outlines the ways you can earn additional storage for free, on top of the basic account level.
•Sign up via a referral link (extra 250 MB) – Here’s Mine http://db.tt/YLtSueV
•Complete steps such as the tour to become a “Dropbox guru” (extra 250MB)
•Connect Dropbox to social media (up to 640MB) – http://www.dropbox.com/free
•Register .edu email address (extra 500MB) http://www.dropbox.com/edu
•Refer other users (extra 250MB each)
•Refer fellow students (extra 500MB each) – dropbox.com/edu
You can also use my referral link if you’d like, but no worries if not! Nice that referring and being referred both earn extra storage.
Contra Grace, I think that if you register a .edu address then anyone you refer – not just students – will earn you 500 megs of storage apiece rather than the standard 250 megs.
Interesting post. Another way to keep passport information saved is to scan them, and email them to yourself. I do this along with copies of credit cards and so on, and keep it saved in my yahoo account.
You should put passwords on these scanned docs esp for credit card / passport #. People (at least their Admin staff) have access these files or your email account.
Fly Gracefully’s wording originally came from my post on mile point. It’s exciting to see something I authored on your blog!
You are correct in pointing out that you would receive the .edu bonus as long as you had an .edu address to verify – no student status necessary.
Adam:
I understand your desire for added security on sensitive documents. There is a clever technique for securing such files which I mention on the discussion at mile point (http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/dropbox-file-storage-and-syncing-for-travelers-and-students.3790/) I have also cut-n-pasted my post on encrypting sensitive files below:
Firstly, I want to point out that Dropbox encrypts all files with AES-256 before being sent to their servers over an SSL connection (similar to when you make a credit card purchase online). This however may not be enough, especially if your laptop is lost or stolen.
For added security, I rely on TrueCrypt ( found at http://www.truecrypt.org/ )
TrueCrypt allows you to create a virtual encrypted disk within a file which can be mounted on your computer as an ordinary disk. This virtual encrypted disk mounts is stored in your Dropbox as a standard file that can be mounted as a drive when needed or automatically with the Truecrypt software. The encryption adds to the read/write times (depending on the level of encryption), but it is worth it for the added security. There are also some tricks for hiding undetectable encrypted disks within a TrueCrypt volume.
Lifehacker has a good tuturial on TrueCrypt at – http://lifehacker.com/#!178005/geek-to-live–encrypt-your-data
Cool, thanks for sharing. I have been looking for a cloud type of system where I can have everything I need from any computer, but this looks like it might work. I’ll be sure to use your referral link.
If you are running Mac you may use 2 Dropbox accounts for Personal/Business – Or for just more free space. See Google, two dropbox instances on mac os x.
I’m getting over 30GBs between 2 accounts for free. Used referral link at local college on various PCs. Do not need admin privileges to install.
i’ve been using Dropbox for awhile and have it synced amongst 3 different PCs. it’s been a LIFE SAVER. you could also use my referral code too, if you wanted: http://db.tt/r9r4SDw 🙂
I have been using Dropbox since day 1, and it is absolutely amazing. I have 3 computers I use to sync documents, and while it hasn’t quite been a life saver, it is so insanely helpful for keeping vital documents up to date on my different machines.
Anyone using The Cloud for security storage has their head up their behind.
You could also use my referral code too, if you wanted:http://db.tt/KKP5GjpB 🙂