Internet file sharing
With the introduction of services like Google Picassa (my favorite), Flickr, Shutterfly, etc, hosting photos online has become pretty easy. Sites like YouTube, Blip.TV, MetaCafe, and others have likewise risen to the challenge of hosting video on the internet. But what if wanted to host a file that wasn't a photo or a video? If you wanted to share a program, for example, where would you go?
File hosting sites have been around for a while. As with any new service, we can look to the big players to get a feel for how mainstream the technology has become. Yahoo doesn't seem to have any stake in this market. Google has offered a Docs service that allows users to share documents but the types of files supported is limited. When you try to upload a Java program, for example, you get a nasty dialog with the message "Sorry, we do not currently support '.class' files." SkyDrive, Microsoft's recent purchase, surprisingly has no problem with files like Java programs.
The thumbnail above shows a Java applet hosted by the SkyDrive service. An image of the applet is included (labeled "snapshot") for those without Java support. The applet is included in this page using the following HTML code. For java Applets I copy the link from the SkyDrive "Download button" and use that for the codebase. I use name of the class file in the code attribute.
<applet border="1" alt="Browser has Java disabled" width="118" height="143" code="HelloWorld.class" codebase="http://ykgi6g.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pipM0-AxCEOFWt1bqbty2pa90XRBICS6TLDOF7gY3umPxkW-NaYImBiZV0e-kVDD4ZkX_cKoDBpk475OFjhd2ZJowN9JbNobK/HelloWorld.class?download"> </applet>