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<h1 class="article-title">Dropbot for Geeks®</h1>
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<time class="article-timestamp" datetime="2014-11-20T09:48:15-0800">November 20, 2014</time>
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<p>I propose the following cloud storage and syncing service model of the future. I call it <strong>Dropbot for Geeks®</strong>, and it totally rules. It's designed for geeks who are tired of the highly limited, miserably unproductive traditional services (based on clicking around). It has the following features:</p>
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<li>Standard Unix file system commands exposed as an API, e.g., <code>cat</code>, <code>cd</code>, <code>cp</code>, <code>du</code>, <code>df</code>, <code>file</code>, <code>find</code>, <code>head</code>, <code>ln</code>, <code>ls</code>, <code>mkdir</code>, <code>mv</code>, <code>pwd</code>, <code>rm</code>, <code>rmdir</code>, <code>tail</code>, <code>touch</code>, etc.</li>
<li>A rudimentary shell emulator through the web interface exposing the commands above.</li>
<li>Secure shell access to the file system, also exposing the commands above. Provide two-factor auth for SSH. Clearly, <code>scp</code> should also be supported.</li>
<li>Checksums. Expose, for instance, <code>md5sum</code> or <code>sha1sum</code>, in the API. Provide checksums on download pages, probably on demand.</li>
<li>Programmable selective syncing, down to per file level.</li>
<li>Scriptability. Allow clients to run custom scheduled jobs or daemons with the API above. To prevent the service from becoming full-featured IaaS, though, clients might be limited in CPU time, memory, or command selection. This bullet point is arguable.</li>
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<p>With the level of command line integration illustrated above, we'll finally get rid of clicking around and not being able to automate chores. Navgating the remote file system will be a breeze — click, click, click, click, click (sometimes click should be replaced by double click, which is even more painful) just to navigate to a directory will be made a thing of the past. <code>ln</code>, in particular, saves disk space for duplicates — Dropbot for Geeks does <em>not</em> want to charge you extra for multiple copies of the same file in different directories. (To facilitate syncing hardlinks, clients should be able to specify hardlinked files in a config file. Or maybe some better mechanism. This might be hard.) At last, checksums are a must. I’ve had traumatic experiences like having downloaded an eight-part RAR, 1 GiB each, only to find that it wouldn’t unRAR. Without checksums, it was impossible to find which part was corrupted. As a result, I had to re-download everything — a nightmare. I never want to experience similar problems again. Hence the precious checksums.</p>
<p>Dropbot for Geeks looks like a pretty good (well, not really, but at least pretty cool®) model. Maybe I should patent it before anyone else? Then if some similar service surfaces in the future, I can <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/jury-apple-must-pay-23-6m-for-old-pager-patents/">sue their ass off and enjoy some hot cash</a>.</p>
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