NotInList: 2011-02

2011-02-07

Dropbox (x)

One of my friends recommended me this simple utility. I like it and I think that the most impressive feature of it is that you can synchronize your documents between your computers. It can be also used for sharing some things with the public or with some other Dropbox users.

The figure

The idea is a basic one. You register at Dropbox.com and download a service application for your operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac and some mobile devices are supported) and select a newly created directory on your local computer.

Everything stored on the Dropbox server will be synchronized down to your computer's selected folder and when you change or add anything to that folder then it will be uploaded automatically and downloaded by your other computers. You can also access your files via the web interface.

You will get 2 GB of space for free and - of course - you can buy more up to 100 GB.

Dropbox vs Google Docs

It is better than Google Docs because you can share ANY KIND OF DOCUMENT that your computer can handle, not only a subset of them. However Google Docs has some advantages like simultaneous editing of texts and spreadsheets.

Dropbox vs revision control systems

It is not for that at all. There are a limited support for undeleting but that's all.

Internet Explorer vs favicons

The usage of favicon.ico in the root directory of the site was introduced by Internet Explorer 4.0. This icon must be a Windows Icon File (MIME: image/vnd.microsoft.icon). It is used to illustrate bookmark entries, desktop shortcuts, tabs (of tabbed browsing). Time is - again - frozen at Microsoft because...

jeffdav blog entry describes that this must be a Windows Icon File, otherwise Internet Explorer will not display this icon.

All other major web browsers support PNG, GIF and JPEG. Firefox and Opera also supports APNG, and Opera alone can use SVG. If an image type can be handled by a browser then there should not be any obstacle to display favicons of that kind.

2011, Internet Explorer: WINDOWS ICON FILE ONLY.

Good news: You can specify different favicon for each page like that:

<html>
	<head>
		<!-- some things -->
		<link rel="shortcut icon" href="path/something.ico" />
	</head>
	<body>
		<!-- some things -->
	</body>
</html>

PS: If you want to generate more anger inside yourself then you should check out http://animatedpng.com/ and follow the case of APNG support in web browsers. According to the 10 year long story of alpha transparency support in Internet Explorer there is no much hope.