[Krusty]

Alright forum, dumb question first.

I'm considering purchasing 50mb iDisk space for $50 per year. Though the verbage of the agreement seems to imply that it is an "extra" 50mb, it never explicitly states this (for example, "buy and extra 50 megs for a total of 70") Has anyone purchased any extra space? Do you get the space in addition to your base 20? I ask because, compressed to 128kbps mp3, 70megs will hold any album . . . and 50megs will require cutting a track or two from time to time.

And now the tip. Okay, I'm not putting these albums on my iDisk for general usage . . . just to send them from my mac at home so that I can download them onto my PC at work. DropStuff has the nifty option of creating self extracting files on your mac that are windows .exe files (check in the prefs section). These files can be password protected by DropStuff . . . so you can achieve password protection without having to use mac-based file encryption of OS9. Further, you can drop entire folders into DropStuff and it will open-up on your windows download machine with the folder heirarchy and contents intact. Maybe most of you already know this ... but this has made me much more comfortable transferring files to myself. My iDisk "public" folder has become a secure way to send files to myself (mac -> PC) rather than a way to break copyright laws by posting copyrighted music on a web page accessible to the world. The only caveat: Dropstuff will create an file with .exe appended to the name (eg. "Archive.exe"). This seems to make my homepage choke with a server error if I try to download it. So, snip the ".exe" from the archive that DropStuff makes before copying to your iDisk. When downloading on the PC end, reattach the ".exe" when saving the file (or rename it *.exe after you've gotten it to the target machine). This works like a charm and the file will extract itself on whatever machine you download it to.

Thanks in advance for getting back to me on the iDisk space isssue.

[Cipher13]

Hm... well, I'd just sign up another iDisk if I were you.
But, I mean, only if you own another copy of OS9, right?
I can't answer your question, sorry...

Cipher13

[rsh]

I've been considering adding some space too, and had the same question about the 50MB or 70MB. The way the copy is written certainly makes it *sound* as though it is an *extra* 50MB.

Seeing the way Apple in incorporating iDisk into the operating system (including OSX) causes me to wonder if they will be expanding iDisk's functions. (And size.) I would had to spring for an extra 50MB only to have the free capacity increased to, say, 40MB. (Which would be a more reasonable amount of space, IMHO.)

[Camali]

Well I just bought myself an additional 50mb of extra space on my iDisk. And it is an extra 50 (in addition to the 20)

I had only 13mb left after I uploaded *SOME* pictures so that family could see, I bit the bullet and said CHARGE IT!

Anyway, at the moment I have 63mb on my iDisk, but this weekend I hope to upload more pics since I just bought myself a new digital camera (Camedia 2040Z) and I am currently reviewing some home videos (from my Canon ZR10) to put up on the website. So the additional 50mb was necessary.

Up until the time I purchased the extra space I didn't think much of iTools. But now that I can share pictures, movies and some files with family and friends without having to give them a CD or anything else.

So with MacOS 9.1 and iTools something I didn't think I was capable of doing (sharing) I can do with ease!

However most everyone else will be accessing my "homepage" through a PC. But they don't get the benefits of Apple's products.

[Krusty]

Hey Camali, thanks for letting me know . . . I just bumped up to 70. Cipher: yes just adding accounts at 20megs a pop was my first thought . . . but I think breaking up my files into 4 parts <= 20 megs, making 4 separate download pages, retrieving and reassembling to 4 parts on the download machine, keeping track of 4 sets of account info (etc . . . etc . . . blah blah blah) would take enough extra time and effort that I'm happy just dropping 50 smackers for the ease. $50 is only 13.7cents a day, anyway . .. well worth it in my book.

Thanks all for your responses. Happy 'toolin'