Dropbox Uploader Zoom

The Problem

I needed to be able to allow people I know to deposit files into my Dropbox account. I looked online and came across the popular solutions which include emailing files to Dropbox using a service like Send to Dropbox. However, these didn't fit my bill. I did try using JotForm but gave up eventually since it didn't look like it was too reliable - even though it seemed to (more or less) meet all my requirements (see below). So, after looking some more, I came upon Amit Banerjee's solution - which in turn uses code written by Jaka Jančar - and liked what he'd done with it. But this still didn't cut it. I wanted the software to

1. Enable multiple files to be submitted to Dropbox
2. Organize files by folder
3. Include an upload progress bar (to indicate what percentage of the files have been uploaded)
4. Notify select people by email when files have been deposited to Dropbox
5. Allow only files with specific extensions to be deposited into Dropbox

So, I decided to come up with my own solution called Dropbox Uploader Zoom and would like to present it here.

 

The Solution

I started off by downloading Amit Banerjee's implementation and changing it to include all the points mentioned above.

I don't necessarily want to bore you with the technical nitty-gritties but I will add that I had some trouble initially hurdling over the problem caused by not implementing a Post/Redirect/GET (PRG) design pattern - which causes a form to be submitted multiple times (in this case, this resulted in the file being submitted multiple times too). This forced me to rethink how I was approaching the problem and I ended up adopting the PRG model to fix the issue. To this end, I borrowed code from the PHP Programming Tutorial website. I also looked hard for a good, free, upload progress bar and decided to settle in on using the Flash version of Uploadify (with some modification to the code written by Ronnie Garcia).

 

The Not So Small Print

Note that someone who knows what they're doing on the web could possibly steal your Dropbox account info if you're using Dropbox Uploader Zoom. So, please bear this in mind (and don't hold me responsible).

I'm not necessarily sure how to make things safer but am open to modify the code to do so if someone would like to suggest a solution and help out with the actual implementation details.

 

The Goodie Bag - Video, Tutorial and Software

So, without further ado, here's a short demo video showcasing Dropbox Uploader Zoom. This is followed by the link to the download of the tutorial / instruction manual and a link to obtain Dropbox Uploader Zoom.

Note: The URLs that follow have all been shortened so I can keep a tab on the downloads. If you'd rather not click on shortened URLs, feel free to unshorten them. 

 

Video

 

 

Tutorial

 

The step-by-step tutorial on how to set up and use Dropbox Uploader Zoom may be downloaded from here.

 

Dropbox Uploader Zoom

 

The latest version of Dropbox Uploader Zoom may be obtained from here.

The Jumble Tumble

Spoiler Alert: This blog discusses the answer to the Daily Jumble for October 15, 2013

I love solving the Daily Jumble as it appears in the Comics and Games section of The Seattle Times. However, on some days, I have a rather hard time guessing the "punny" phrase at the end - since the final set of letters can be arranged to form legit words other than the correct answer. For example, consider the Jumble that appeared on October 15, 2013

After rearranging the letters of the four jumbled up words we have

1. RODEO
2. BRISK
3. ICONIC
4. PIRACY

 This leaves us with the following 11 letters to come up with the final phrase

R, E, B, S, K, I, O, N, P, R, A

Now, if we examine the cartoon closely, we observe that the man who's touring Alcatraz seems to have has fallen down a flight of stairs and appears to be in pain. There's some lightning-type lines around his right leg. So, it's probably safe to assume that he is hurting quite bad.

Next, we note that the first word in the phrase comprises 6 letters and the second word has 5. The word "PAIN" might be a good guess but it's only 4 letters. Going off that if we were to add the letters "S", "P", and "R" in front of "PAIN" we obtain the word "SPRAIN". This seems like a great guess since its' 6 letters and fits in well with the tourist's plight. With the letters

S, P, R, A, I, N

gone, we are left with the following letters

R, O, B, K, E

The one word that jumps out given these letters is "BROKE". With this in mind, the final phrase could be

SPRAIN BROKE

But, not really. The two words make sense individually in this context but don't fit in overall.

Let's try again. Observe that if we add "N" to "BROKE" we obtain  "BROKEN" - which again seems like we're heading in the right direction. Since the man says he can't walk, it's possible that his leg is broken. So, with the letters

B, R, O, K, E, N

unavailable, we're left with this set of letters

A, P, I, R, S

now there are a couple words that can be formed with these letters. One is "PAIRS" and yet  another is "PARIS" (it's a proper noun - but anyway). Close, but no cigar. Neither of these paired up with "BROKEN" make sense.

They say third time's the charm so let's give this a final shot. Since the tourists are at Alcatraz - which is a famous jail - perhaps if we look for a synonym of this word we might finally solve the puzzle. We observe that we can indeed form the word "PRISON" with the gamut of letters at our disposal. This is exactly the word we're looking for. This leaves us with the letters

R, E, K, B, A

Previously, we used the words "BROKE" and "BROKEN". So, bearing this in mind, it seems that "BREAK" might be a good bet. Arranging these two words beside each other we have

PRISON BREAK

and this indeed the solution. Huzzah!

So, yeah, guessing the daily puzzle isn't always so straightforward. Sometimes you have to tumble first in order to Jumble!

On the "Right" Side?

I've seen another growing traffic trend in India that has me on tenterhooks. Consider the figure above that depicts a two-way road and on which driving occurs on the left-hand side. Assume that there's a vehicle in the spot marked by the blue arrow and that wants to take a right turn onto the road. It's reasonable to suppose that the driver of this vehicle will wait for the traffic to clear in the lane with the green up arrow and then join the lane with the green down arrow - as is indicated by the blue lines. Of course if there's traffic in the lane marked with the green up arrow, then the driver of the vehicle has to wait for this to clear before they make the turn. Right?

Wrong. What I've repeatedly seen - and this habit is growing exponentially popular - is quite exasperating. A large number of vehicles - most notoriously two-wheelers - follow the path taken by the red arrow and lines when taking the same right turn. In other words, rather than wait for the traffic in the lane marked by the green up arrow to clear, they come barreling down on the wrong side and then "merge" into the lane marked with the green down arrow when they see a chance. So, if you're happily cruising along in your lane, you have to watch out for oncoming traffic on both sides! It's very stressful. To make matters worse some people turn on their lights and continue heading up the wrong way - as if this gives them some royal right of way to continue on!

Waiting a few moments to make the turn correctly to ensure the safety of all involved doesn't seem too much of an ask. In this case, being on the right side is actually being on the wrong one.

The Hazard of it All

The hazard warning button- that activates both blinkers - is typically used to indicate that a vehicle is in some sort of distress or that caution must be used by traffic around the vehicle. Examples of when hazard warning lights might be used is when there's a flat and the vehicle is pulled over to the side or if it's pouring so heavily that visibility is severely reduced.

Though hazard warning lights employ blinkers, they are in no way used to indicate a turn in direction - well, or so I thought. I've seen a noticeably growing and worrying trend here in India where people  turn on the hazard warning lights as they approach an intersection to indicate that they're going straight! If flashing the right blinker means that a person's turning right and turning on the left one means that they're hanging a left, does using both indicators means they're going right and left? No. So does this means they're headed straight, then? Again, no. (But, um, straight into trouble? Possibly, yes.) Perhaps the vehicle directly behind or in front of them can see both blinkers flashing - but that would still be sending a "mixed signal" (pun intended). Also, what if someone on the right side of the road sees the right indicator flashing and assumes that vehicle's turning in this direction? And someone on the left sees only the left indicator and assumes they're going this way? Clearly this is dangerous. The hazard warning button is typically placed in the center console of a vehicle so that it's more accessible to all passengers - and not with the gauge cluster that's conveniently located near the steering wheel and to the driver.

So, it'd be great if the use of hazard warning lights is limited to signaling a hazard - else it might leave people hazarding a guess on the direction of the vehicle. 

Adding What Now?

So, what's with the name of the blog, you ask? As someone who has a myriad of ideas and rather enjoys writing, I thought that I'd add these host of thoughts (it) in too or even into the blog - and hope to stir up a delicious dish of words - work-tossed with originality, seasoned lightly with humor and served piping hot. Oh and I always appreciate a good pun - or a even bad one, actually. So, there you have it.