Me and my Dropbox

Okay, I’ll admit that I was ecstatic to find out about cloud computing. I mean, be able to access my files from any computer anywhere? Due to the highly mobile lifestyle I lead and my desire to run everything using a mouse and keyboard, I jumped on it, till I found out the costs. It was quite expensive to store large amounts of data. Being a high school student at the time with no employment, I sorely had to turn down the idea.

I revisited cloud computing later on when my friend had told me about Dropbox. Apparently, it had the ability to link a folder between multiple users and transfer files between them. Copies of the files and every version of the file were also stored on the website, so if we were all working on a graphics project and someone made a mistake in coloring some lineart, we could simply restore an older version.

This was phenomenal and I was immediately in even with a simple 2 GB of space.

Eventually, I managed to expand the space through referrals (which allows you to expand the space to 8 GB with enough referrals) and thus began my virtual life at school. Copies of my homework assignments were online so I can easily print them out if I’m in a hurry or I can work on things while on the go thanks to the Dropbox app for iPod Touch/Phone/iPad. Best of all, I can work on projects with friends through our linked folders. No more file transferring through instant messaging clients or sending emails with attachments they will never read. Once I upload it, they immediately download the file onto their hard drives. 2GB of space went a long way.

If you’re often working and you need to file transfer in a pinch, try Dropbox along side your normal USB Drive saves and portable hard drive saves, or even hard print outs. I can’t tell you how much it saves your hide when you forget to print out something and don’t have the file on hand. Just load it off the Dropbox server at the website and print it out at a library or even at your office if they aren’t too stingy with paper. (I guarantee it is a huge lifesaver for students as well.)

Sign up and try it!