Sending Big Files

I used to champion a service called Senduit, from Davidville. You may know them as the makers of Tumblr, but before they had that blockbuster, they did contract work for clients and other agencies. And one of their little side projects was this great file-sending service. 100MB max, no hassle, no privacy issues, security through obscurity. Nobody – sending or receiving – had to register or enter their e-mail or get endless spam. I really liked it. And it’s still there, but it just doesn’t work any more.

So on Wednesday, I made my own version of it in Rails. Files are stored on Amazon S3, links are random and non sequential, and you send the link yourself, not through a form, so there’s no capture of e-mail addresses at all.

http://fling.walterdavisstudio.com

Give it a try, let me know how it works for you. If it gets popular, I’ll put some ads on it or a donation button to pay for the S3 bill. But given that FreewayCast costs me about 63 cents a month on average, I am not worried about the costs.

Walter


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I like it… Very nice.

Julie
On Jun 8, 2012, at 9:20 PM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:

I used to champion a service called Senduit, from Davidville. You may know them as the makers of Tumblr, but before they had that blockbuster, they did contract work for clients and other agencies. And one of their little side projects was this great file-sending service. 100MB max, no hassle, no privacy issues, security through obscurity. Nobody – sending or receiving – had to register or enter their e-mail or get endless spam. I really liked it. And it’s still there, but it just doesn’t work any more.

So on Wednesday, I made my own version of it in Rails. Files are stored on Amazon S3, links are random and non sequential, and you send the link yourself, not through a form, so there’s no capture of e-mail addresses at all.

http://fling.walterdavisstudio.com

Give it a try, let me know how it works for you. If it gets popular, I’ll put some ads on it or a donation button to pay for the S3 bill. But given that FreewayCast costs me about 63 cents a month on average, I am not worried about the costs.

Walter


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Walt,

would this be good for my students that want to send files to themself but do not have email?

For instance, they work on something on a school computer and save it there. if they have email they email it to themself and open at home.

if they do not have email they are stuck b/c the file is at school.

Also often times the kids do work at home and cannot print because of many reasons so they send the files to themself and open at school to print.

But if they do not have email they are a little stuck.

Not sure if FLING helps them?

barry


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Barry, do your students have access to usb thumb drives? They are so
inexpensive and ubiquitous, I have like a charm bracelet of them. And they
are still slightly faster than email or ftp.


Ernie Simpson

On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 10:03 PM, Hoffman email@hidden wrote:

Walt,

would this be good for my students that want to send files to themself but
do not have email?

For instance, they work on something on a school computer and save it
there. if they have email they email it to themself and open at home.

if they do not have email they are stuck b/c the file is at school.

Also often times the kids do work at home and cannot print because of many
reasons so they send the files to themself and open at school to print.

But if they do not have email they are a little stuck.

Not sure if FLING helps them?

barry


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Drop box is free. As is We Transfer.

Nathan Garner
Senior Designer

+44 (0)1202 597 140
email@hidden
http://www.rla.co.uk

Sent from my iPhone

On 9 Jun 2012, at 04:09, “Ernie Simpson” email@hidden wrote:

Barry, do your students have access to usb thumb drives? They are so
inexpensive and ubiquitous, I have like a charm bracelet of them. And they
are still slightly faster than email or ftp.


Ernie Simpson

On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 10:03 PM, Hoffman email@hidden wrote:

Walt,

would this be good for my students that want to send files to themself but
do not have email?

For instance, they work on something on a school computer and save it
there. if they have email they email it to themself and open at home.

if they do not have email they are stuck b/c the file is at school.

Also often times the kids do work at home and cannot print because of many
reasons so they send the files to themself and open at school to print.

But if they do not have email they are a little stuck.

Not sure if FLING helps them?

barry


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Probably not. The address of the file is obfuscated in the interface until you actually add it to an e-mail, so you wouldn’t have any way to see it on a locked-down school computer.

Walter

On Jun 8, 2012, at 10:03 PM, Hoffman wrote:

would this be good for my students that want to send files to themself but do not have email?


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I have Drop Box, and it’s a massive pain to have someone send me a file if they don’t have a Drop Box account. The whole point of this is to be the most friction-free way to send a large file. I don’t want to register for something, install something, and I especially don’t want to coach someone else through those steps just to get a large file.

Walter

On Jun 9, 2012, at 12:34 AM, Nathan.Garner wrote:

Drop box is free. As is We Transfer.


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Yeah fair enough, it is a long winded way of doing it.

Nathan Garner
Senior Designer

+44 (0)1202 597 140
email@hidden
http://www.rla.co.uk

Sent from my iPhone

On 9 Jun 2012, at 06:28, “Walter Lee Davis” email@hidden wrote:

I have Drop Box, and it’s a massive pain to have someone send me a file if they don’t have a Drop Box account. The whole point of this is to be the most friction-free way to send a large file. I don’t want to register for something, install something, and I especially don’t want to coach someone else through those steps just to get a large file.

Walter

On Jun 9, 2012, at 12:34 AM, Nathan.Garner wrote:

Drop box is free. As is We Transfer.


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Sounds pretty cool Walter, bookmarked!


Ernie Simpson

On Sat, Jun 9, 2012 at 1:31 AM, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

I have Drop Box, and it’s a massive pain to have someone send me a file if
they don’t have a Drop Box account. The whole point of this is to be the
most friction-free way to send a large file. I don’t want to register for
something, install something, and I especially don’t want to coach someone
else through those steps just to get a large file.


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Hi guys,

Yeah the 1st thing I would recc would be a thumbnail drive to the kids and parents early in each school year.

I see how Fling would not replace this; it is more for BIG files that cannot handle email?

I agree- very useful though.


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Nice one Walter, will give it a go.

Tony


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On Jun 8, 2012, at 6:20 PM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:

I used to champion a service called Senduit… and it’s still there,
but it just doesn’t work any more. …So on Wednesday, I made my own
version…

Walter,

I’m surprised you haven’t gotten more responses from this. I also used
to use Senduit – until it went away. Lately, I’ve been using
YouSendIt, but I don’t like having to sign up. Your service looks
fantastic, and I’m looking forward to trying it.

Good luck with this, and THANKS for offering it. These are the kinds of
simple (and respectful of our privacy) things that are so useful!

Richard


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Wow, that’s pretty generous Walt. I normally use YouSendIt, with their free limit of 50mb being a problem sometimes. This will very handy…but do you really want the responsibility?
I’m also a bit worried that anyone receiving a link to this who is paying attention and has never heard of it may refuse to click the link.


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I disclaim all responsibility! Read the TOS to see. And it costs me virtually nothing, although if it gets onerous, I may put a donation button on it in a prominent spot. My AWS bill is never more than a dollar a month, even with all of FreewayCast stored in S3. As far as people not wanting to click, I can certainly understand that. The e-mail is sent from you, from your desktop, so it’s up to how much they trust you, I’d think. I stay right out of the middle of it.

Walter

On Jun 20, 2012, at 2:48 PM, chuckamuck wrote:

Wow, that’s pretty generous Walt. I normally use YouSendIt, with their free limit of 50mb being a problem sometimes. This will very handy…but do you really want the responsibility?
I’m also a bit worried that anyone receiving a link to this who is paying attention and has never heard of it may refuse to click the link.


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The e-mail is sent from you, from your desktop, so it’s up to how much they trust you, I’d think.

Yeah, well most of the people I deal with are department flunkies in some corp. Trust is not high on their lists.


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It’s been said before Walter, but you are indeed a clever and helpful man!

Most of the free services have an upper size limit of 50mb before requiring payment and DropBox is indeed a pain to access as a casual visitor.

So again, many thanks!


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Just gave it a little test and it worked great. I’ve been gently trying to get a luddite client of mine to try drop box to send big PDFs…but it is a horse to water situation. I think even he might be able to figure this out.


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Sent a 96 meg avi to a friend no problemos

Sent from my iPod

On Jun 21, 2012, at 5:53 AM, “Rich Gannon” email@hidden wrote:

Just gave it a little test and it worked great. I’ve been gently trying to get a luddite client of mine to try drop box to send big PDFs…but it is a horse to water situation. I think even he might be able to figure this out.


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Very nice Walter!

Just used this service a couple of times as my usual send client is messed up at the minute and had to get files sent in a hurry. So simple to use.

Would it be possibe to add a progress upload/download bar? - it needs nothing else.

Thanks for this - really useful.

Trev


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When I next find some free time, sure.

Walter

On Jul 6, 2012, at 12:23 PM, t50ufo wrote:

Very nice Walter!

Just used this service a couple of times as my usual send client is messed up at the minute and had to get files sent in a hurry. So simple to use.

Would it be possibe to add a progress upload/download bar? - it needs nothing else.

Thanks for this - really useful.

Trev


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