SharePoint Thoughts

DropBox, is a multi-platform, folder synchronization software. It handles synchronizations and updates efficiently and in the background. From what I can tell, the service is very fast, updates are processed within seconds of changing a file on the originating machine, from there its dependent of bandwidth to update the other locations where your DropBox is synchronized. Notifications from the system tray (in Windows) lets you know when files have been updated or modified, either by yourself or someone you’ve shared folders with.

This is good for small code projects, where Team Foundation Server is overkill anyways. You can share your Visual Studio project with a select number of people who can also work on the same project as you. There isn’t a sense of Checking IN and Checking OUT as there is in TFS, but there is conflict resolution and revision history for your files.

DropBox has versions available for Windows, Mac, as well as Linux, but you can also access your files through a web interface if you don’t have DropBox installed on the machine you need to access a file from.

The best part about this service is that its free, 2Gb with the free service level, with plans if you need more space. This should be more than adequate for any small project needing code backup as well as synchronization. The data ends up on Amazon’s S3 service and is Encrypted.

If you want to try it out yourself, see
www.getdropbox.com

DropBox Benefits for Code Management:

Fast - Uses Amazon’s S3 Service for fast transfers

Redundant - Using the S3 Service, its backed up on the Dropbox Servers as well as your client machine(s)

Team Friendly - Share Your Project Directories with your Team, have them make changes to your code or add their own

Revisions - View file revisions via their web interface

Multi Platform - Have Cleint/TeamMate that doesn’t use Windows, not a problem, Linux and Mac versions are available

These benefits aren’t just limited to .Net projects, but good for many other types of development.

Chris O’Brien makes an argument for using Solutions and Content Deployment for scenarios that Features may just not cut it. One instance is content updates using features on multiple machines can be troublesome at best. Read More at his blog, and see why he advices using Solutions in some cases.

http://www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com/2008/09/sharepoint-dev-strategies-it-not-all.html

I’ve decided to bite the bullet and get some more information on Speech Server, forums and blog posts are great, but sometimes you just can’t beat a book. So I went ahead and got Pro Microsoft Speech Server 2007 by Mike Dunn, and I’ll post some more information on the book here as I read through it.