You're right -- we have an advanced way to actually inspect the file to ensure that it's a valid file. The encryption happens post-check.
Unfortunately, we don't have a way to let you encrypt your data and then upload it up yet (but have a few ideas on how to make this work for the future). Besides, if you did encrypt all your stuff, you wouldn't be able to take advantage of all our media features like video/audio streaming, photo/doc viewer, etc. :).
Fair enough. But you should probably reach out to Lifehacker with a correction to their article. While you guys might not be responsible for what they write, that post is basically an advertisement for your service. Any customer who make a purchase assuming the service is as described by Lifehacker will end up disappointed.
Huh, so I could build a competitor to twitch.tv and host all the media for the website on your servers. Keep the small static html, css, js, swf, etc. files on some other cloud provider.
You'd charge me only $20/month for media storage+streaming and I'll probably only be charged perhaps $30/month from a cloud provider. $20/month for the server just being on and maybe another $10 for the bandwidth of the static files(which would be mostly cached client side after the first couple of heavy usage months).
Maybe another $10 or $20 for the CPU time to make a couple of url-routing decisions server-side; have to maintain my own database of users too.
Probably still much cheaper than whatever twitch.tv currently has to pay.
i think this service is targeted at personal clouds. Hosting some service for thousands of users on it is probably against their terms and you'll be kicked out.
Oh for crying out loud. The number of bytes is unlimited. But the service itself is for storing your media files. The twitch competitor is clearly violating the 'your'.
As a Junior at Berkeley who's had some internship experience, let me add me two cents worth.
Definitely start looking for an internship during your freshman year. Chances are almost nobody will call you back, you won't get many interviews, and the ones you do get you won't be able to answer anything, but all you need is just to get one person to agree and it'll make your resume look infinitely better for the following years.
Startups are definitely a good option for an internship. What I see a lot of the time, especially here at Cal, is that nobody wants to work anywhere besides Google, Apple, Microsoft or Facebook. People don't bother with any company that doesn't have a huge name and since many of these students don't have any prior work experience before applying to these tech giants, they get rejected. I think that's a huge mistake. I learned more from my summer working at a startup than a years worth of schooling (and it's not bad learning while being paid).
One last note, GPA doesn't seem to matter as much as work experience. While it can never hurt to have a good GPA, I've been on dozens of interviews and not once have I been asked for my GPA.
Chiming in as a sophomore from a liberal arts college: you don't even have to be from a top tech school like Berkeley to get an internship your freshman year. BigCos are unlikely to call you back, but you do have a shot at startups. And once you've got some work experience under your belt you'll have a better shot at the BigCos (and anywhere else, really).
Quick plug: Mozilla is another place which cares more about what you can do rather than what stage of schooling you are at. They're hiring and they have an excellent program.
Speaking from a big company point of view, it has a lot to do with the individual candidate, obviously. Someone could be a freshman, but if they are constantly working on projects and have a decent portfolio (doesn't necessary apply to just programming) to review, it is much easier to bring them in.
Personally, when looking at junior hires, personal projects can have a lot more weight than minor job experience. The vast majority of candidates with very little job experience also do not have a lot, if any, personal projects. Anyone who has built anything stands out.
I also went to a school nobody has heard of, but haven't really had issues getting job offers straight out of school (or for that matter, an internship while a high school student). Of course, as you've said, once you have some industry experience under your belt, it ceases to matter altogether.
By the way, awesome handle! I'd refer you for an interview based on that alone.
Unfortunately, we don't have a way to let you encrypt your data and then upload it up yet (but have a few ideas on how to make this work for the future). Besides, if you did encrypt all your stuff, you wouldn't be able to take advantage of all our media features like video/audio streaming, photo/doc viewer, etc. :).