Show HN: S3io.com – File sharing and note-taking tool based on Amazon S3 buckets | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: S3io.com – File sharing and note-taking tool based on Amazon S3 buckets

s3io.com

6 pointsiliaznk9 comments

Hello, HN!

I built a web-interface app for Amazon S3 buckets (not for all of them, unfortunately, buckets in Frankfurt or buckets with dots in their name will not work for now) that will turn your bucket into a file sharing and note-taking tool. It’s been quite useful for me, so I decided to give it a try and share it with others.

This app allows you to post notes (saved as JSON files in your bucket) and upload files directly from the browser while the app server only stores metadata and knows nothing else about your files and notes. It also lets you view uploaded photos in a slideshow kind of a gallery and share your notes, individual files or entire folders.

This is still an early beta and has not been actually tested by anyone else except me, so browser support is limited to the latest Chrome for now, although it seems to work fine in Opera and Chromium, not that good in Safari. The situation will get better in the future. If you are interested in testing or using something like that, please sign up for invitation.

The service is free for now but eventually it might get some paid options. I’m currently unemployed, so this project is basically my full-time job right now and I will happily continue to maintain it if it gains some interest.

Would like your feedback. Thanks!

Why not Frankfurt?

It's just that a tool I'm using on the back-end doesn't work very well with the Frankfurt region because of signature version 4. But I'm sure this problem is solvable, I just didn’t put much effort into it yet.

Why JSON files instead of pure plain-text notes?

Because JSON files are just more flexible, seems to me.

For reading and editing plain text you only need a text editor, for reading and editing JSON you'll need a JSON parser (yes, you can do it manually, but non-tech people won't) and a JSON renderer, which means an app with a new interface built for this. Since the JSON format has a schema, the app must know about this schema (so it can display a text area instead of a normal text input in the JSON field corresponding to the body of the note), which means it must be your app and yours only, which means the JSON files saved with your app are unusable elsewhere.

Please consider supporting plain text.

Thank you for your explanation. Plain text shouldn't be a problem anyway. I'll put it on todo.

Though, I think I tried to make JSON files as light and as readable as possible.

This is great. People need better ways to store their things, ways that are not dependent on a totally stupid startup that is ready to abandon all their clients as soon as their money ends.

Storing things on an S3 buckets is much more reliable. Also it is much better than storing things on their own computers, for most non-tech people this means they will lose everything in 3 months, when their disk will collapse, or a virus will wipe everything.

The problem is just one of marketing: how to get normal people to understand what is "S3"? This is complicated.

I will not be using this personally, but I will try it, and if I like it I will suggest it to all my non-tech friends (not a lot of people).

I don't think it will be usable for non-tech people the way it is now. You still have to get a bucket from Amazon and set it up.

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