Great way to have your files around when you need them as they sync with your desktop/notebook and are web available if you need an important file. You get 2 GB of space for free:

Dropbox - Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy.

__________________
Rich
PCA, Northern VA
Student, New Geneva Theological Seminary

WebsiteMaven - Web Hosting Reviews, Guides, and Advice to build and promote your web site.
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Yeah, and Semper Fi gets an extra little bit of space for each person who clicks his referry link!!

So sign up. I already use it and it is great. You can also share the space (or parts of it) with others. I share a folder with my fellow-elder and we maintain church admin documents there, like preaching schedules etc.

__________________
Jonathan Hunt

Elder holding forth the word of life at:
Cheltenham Evangelical Free Church (Confessionally Based)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
-- Thomas Elsworth

One of the fringe benefits of owning the board my friend.

Dropbox is great. The latest version (which you can download from their forums) has a LAN peer to peer syncing feature as well. There is also an iPhone app that is awaiting approval if Apple ever gets off their shiny, "just works" behinds.

The new website layout is also very nice, and it has a build in search function.

__________________
Fred Greco
Senior Pastor, Christ Church PCA (Katy, TX)
Christ Church Blog

"The heart is the main thing in true religion...It is the hinge and turning-point in the condition of man's soul. If the heart is alive to God and quickened by the Spirit, the man is a living Christian. If the heart is dead and has not the Spirit, the man is dead before God." (J.C. Ryle)

Does anyone else have an account through which I could link so I don't accidentally support Rich?

__________________
Ruben
Moderator
F.P.C.I.
Indiana

Vanities and disguises have covered us, and thereby we are naked; licenciousness hath inflam'd us, and thereby we are frozen; voluptuousness hath fed us, and thereby we are sterved, the fancies and traditions of men have taught and instructed us, and thereby we are ignorant.
John Donne

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Calvinistas Conversando
Teología en Mexico
The Howling Wilderness

As soon as I max out my benefit I'll change the link for somebody else to get some free upgrades...

I signed up. Thanks for the referral - and you are welcome for the extra 250mb.

__________________
Curt Lovelace
Pastor, Covenant Baptist Church (CBA)
Acton, Maine
Director, Lifework Forum
Sermons at SermonAudio.com/CBCActon
Blogging at Coffee with Curt

You could support the administrative ministry of Christ Church

https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTEwMzU1NTg5

(That referral is not mine, but my Associate Pastor's)

I'll stick it in the top link as soon as I get one more referral.

Spideroak is another contender you might consider. 100 GB per month for $10 ($5 if you have a .edu address). Sweet deal. Very secure. Syncs across both Macs and PCs flawlessly. It also gives 2 GB for free. It doesn't have a referral program (as far as I know), but $10 is pretty cheap. And even cheaper if you are a student!

__________________
Joshua F
Layman
Mountain View Community Church (Missionary Church Denomination)
Johnstown, CO

I got it in even a portable version on my USB stick. It's a great resource when I have to change between Linux and windows

__________________
Doug
Baptist
Hemet, Ca
Old Time Radio Podcast

Okay, can I have a short, very non-tech explanation of how it works and/or why I might need it?

__________________
Anna
Wife of Tim/Marrow Man
Louisville, KY
Member of Midlane Park Presbyterian (Associate Reformed Presbyterian)

Anna,

When installed, Dropbox creates a folder in your My Documents folder called My Dropbox. Any files you copy into or save into this folder are uploaded/synchronized with your Dropbox account. The files are then available on your Computer and online.

There are a couple of major benefits:
1. You have an online backup of important documents/files that you can recover in case of problems with your computer.
2. You can get to these files from any other computer by going to dropbox.com and logging into your account.
3. As Fred also noted, you can set up shared files within workgroups or with friends to easily share files.

Can you use it for mac's too?

__________________
sarah
WI
OPC
My Pastor's Sermons: Mark Jenkins...he's awesome!!!

I am.

Curt,

Just out of curiosity, how does Dropbox link to Macs? Is there a My Dropbox folder?

Follow-up question: (This may be what 3 is talking about, but I'm slow at this stuff.) Our house is networked, plus Tim has another computer at church. Can we all upload to one account, or would we need multiple accounts?

Anna,

The beauty of Dropbox is that you can have multiple computers on one account (I have two), or you can share files/folders in the Dropbox (or even its entire contents)with another Dropbox account. This makes it very flexible. So in my entire system, I have set up several Dropbox accounts:

1. My account
2. My wife's account
3. Our church (secretary's) account
4. Our Associate Pastor's account.

Here's a PDF that shows visually how I have it working. It provides sharing, syncing (when my PC is offline, if I need a file, I can get it from my wife's computer) and backup. I've restored files from the "cloud" several times.

You can think of it as MobileMe that actually works, does more, and is not junk.

Attached Files

Map1.pdf (40.7 KB, 5 views)

Can you create subfolders in the dropbox folder to keep things organized? I"m currently using Amazon's product (jungle disk) for daily backups but this looks better. Can it function as backup or is the main thing file sharing?

__________________
Chris Coldwell, Lakewood Presbyterian Church (PCA), Dallas, Texas.
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The Regulative Principle: The Scriptures are the “only infallible rule of faith and practice, no rite or ceremony ought to have a place in the public worship of God, which is not warranted in Scripture, either by direct precept or example, or by good and sufficient inference” (Samuel Miller).

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I'd love to use Dropbox, but the university where I work classifies it as a "file sharing" app like BitTorrents and blocks the IP port it uses.

__________________
David
Member, Providence Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Lubbock, Texas
("Nebrexan": Born in Nebraska, born again in Texas)

It can function as both. I use it mostly for sharing/syncing, but that is because you don't (at least I don't) think about backups until I need it. But it is nice to know that all the files in MyDropbox can be easily restored if I have a complete meltdown.

If Anna and I both have multiple computers under the same account, does all of that count against the 2 GB limitation (under the free service)?

If we were to sign up under different accounts, how would this affect the service? Would be both be able to utilize 2 GB freely, but not be able to file share (which we can do on Vista as is, though not always "easily")?

__________________
Tim Phillips
Pastor, Midlane Park Presbyterian Church (ARP)
Louisville, KY
Husband of Scottish Lass
My Blog: Gairney Bridge
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"Wherever the gospel is preached, it is as if God Himself came into the midst of us." ~ John Calvin

I need such a tiny fraction of space, it's not even a real concern, imo.

But you might be needing more space for pictures soon.

So I downloaded this because my husband often works on things at school and at home (or so I can help him at home), but I am wondering if you need to save your document in My Documents AND dropbox, or just in your dropbox? What happens if dropbox changes someday and starts charging $$ and I didn't want to pay, or if dropbox fails or something...will you be able to access the My Dropbox folder in your My Documents folder forever, even if you someday quit the program?

Hope that question makes sense. Basically, should I save in My Documents AND My Dropbox (thus saving as two files on my computer) or just in the Dropbox?

Thanks!!

__________________
Shalom,
jessi
PCA
Steelers fan exiled to Virginia


“Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.”
Martin Luther

It put a little icon on my toolbar. I just double click it to access it. On the PC (ugh) that I have at the church office, I have the same thing. I can just share between the two very easily.

If you save it in MyDropbox, it stays on your computer. You don't need to save it twice.

If for some reason you cancel with Dropbox, the files will still be on your harddrive.

__________________
Raymond Victor Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Yes. Think of the "My Dropbox" folder as like any subfolder in My Documents, that also syncs with the "cloud." If you cancel, it stays on your PC.

Also, Dropbox is working on allowing you to "watch" or sync any folder on your computer, which would remove the necessity of the My Dropbox folder.

If you have the same account, all files in the Dropbox will appear on both computers, and the content will count against the 2GB limit. But only once. So let's say you have one account with 500MB of files in it. The files appear on both PCs, and you have 1.5GB of space left.

If you have two accounts, whatever is in the Dropbox of each counts against its account. So if you have 500MB on PC#1, and you share it all with PC#2 (really easy to do), and 500MB on PC#2 that you do NOT share with PC#1, you end up with:

PC#1 used space: 500MB
PC#2 used space: 1GB (500MB shared, 500MB not shared).

You can see that visually in my screenshot. One advantage to multiple accounts: you can "refer" one person, and then when the second account signs up, you get another 250MB each.

Attached Images

9-14-2009 1-18-57 PM.png (6.3 KB, 3 views)

Great advice all Fred. You gave me some ideas on how I can use it.

It just dawned on me today that it also provides for me a way to do something that has nagged me for a while that I currently use a process that requires I be very careful.

Although I use Gmail I also set it up to POP3 download the messages I want to store in various PST's in case I ever lose Gmail for whatever reason. Anyway, I have a personal desktop and a personal notebook and I don't want two PST files so I typically use Goodsync to copy one PST over the other. I just realized, however, that I can move my PST files into a Dropbox folder and keep them synced without having to keep track as the two computers are using the same Dropbox account.

Honestly, it's like you aren't even speaking English here

Each activity in a Service Management process (or
each component used to provide a service) is
monitored as part of the Service Operation processes.
The operational team or department responsible for
each activity or component will apply the Monitor
Control Loop as defined in the process, and using the
norms that were defined during the Service Design
processes. The role of Operational Monitoring and
Control is to ensure that the process or service
functions exactly as specified, which is why they are
primarily concerned with maintaining the status quo.

■ The norms and Monitoring and Control mechanisms
are defined in Service Design, but they are based on
the standards and architectures defined during Service
Strategy. Any changes to the organization’s Service
Strategy, architecture, service portfolios or Service
Level Requirements will precipitate changes to what is
monitored and how it is controlled.

■ The Monitor Control Loops are placed within the
context of the organization. This implies that Service
Strategy will primarily be executed by Business and IT
Executives with support from vendor account
managers. Service Design acts as the bridge between
Service Strategy and Service Operation and will
typically involve representatives from all groups. The
activities and controls will generally be executed by IT
staff (sometimes involving users) and supported by IT
Managers and the vendors. Service Improvement
spans all areas, but primarily represents the interests of
the business and its users.

That's much better.

Jessi,
I'm glad I'm not the only one!