Nested Cloud Storage

I have used free cloud based file sync services for years.  These services offer various levels of free storage depending on provider: Dropbox 5GB, Box 10GB, Onedrive 25GB and so on. For a number of reasons Dropbox is my favourite. But I have used different providers for subsets of my data that I need in the cloud. This has always had the drawback of not having a complete set of my cloud data in any single app.

So today I decided to nest my cloud drives. This is done by simply relocating the synced folders for each provider. My set-up is as follows:

Google Drive (30GB)
...>Onedrive (15GB)
    ...>Dropbox (5GB)

There are few advantages to this approach:

1. It is easy to navigate through all files.There aren't separate cloud folders scattered in the installer's default location.
2. Multiple cloud providers for backup. Using nested folders all subfolders are backed up to the next level up. Dropbox is backed up to both Onedrive and Google Drive.
3. The top level sync contains all files. I know where my cloud files are. I'm organised. But if I wasn't organised, I'd know that all my cloud files are in Google Drive, because of the nested folders.
4. Saving a file to dropbox makes it available to all services. This makes dropbox a good "inbox" for making files available for all services.

I'm not the first to do this, but this new trick (for me) is working pretty well so far.

Having a play with BBS

I recently discovered  [textfiles.com](http://textfiles.com). This site is was new to me, and the technology of BBS passed me by. Apparently it was a tool of the 1980s, that through dial up let people communicate and post files. Textiles.com hosts some of these old classic forgotten text files. Some of them are pretty amusing. It's a glimpse back into a different time of computing.

As I'm curious, I wondered if this technology is still running?

Apparently, yes it is. A quick google search brings up a few old websites with information.

Getting access:

I followed these steps to get access. It wasn't difficult:

1. Install Virtualbox for Mac (already had this)
2. Install Windows XP in Virtualbox
3. XP already has Telnet installed, just click on the link from this server list and you are away. It fires up a command window and connects to the BBD

The experience was pretty awful if I'm honest. Although this really should be expected from technology that is 30 years old. It felt a bit like teletext but slightly faster, and more confusing.  Here is how the experience went:

1. Clicked on link and the command box popped up.
2. A connection established and some ASCII art header popped up.
3. Promoted with a message of new or exiting user.
4. New user, so had to go through an interrogation into name, location, password etc.
5. Finally in.
6. No clue how to access anything.
7. Randomly hitting ESC and other keys finding a few messages and logs.
8. Quitting without really actually getting anywhere.

I'm sure the experience was pretty decent back in the 80s. It hasn't aged well. As an experiment it was interesting, but I can't see a BBS revival anytime soon.

INSPIRE and the Social Web

Talking about metadata recently with a customer and showing off our new bit of kit - Stratus Gallery. The chap I was talking to made a suggestion that users would want to comment on the metadata records.

Comments that may include items such as:

• Subjective rating 1-10
• Previous Projects the data has been used for
• References to other data that may be useful.

I also notice that IBM have just launched a beta Enterprise 2.0 collaborative working portal type thingy - Bluehouse (strange name)

INSPIRE is all about collaborative working, sharing data, and making great use of the data available. You think those boys over in Brussels may be considering some of these social web-based capabilities - then again maybe not.

Cheers

Bish

Listening to - James Morrison - Songs for you, truths for me