I downloaded FileChute the other day and found it useful for uploading large files that would automagically disappear after a few days ( user adjustable ). Great for providing access to a large file without worrying about email file size limits.
OK, my wife had some ~29 - 40MB files she needed to provide to several ladies. "No problem! I've got just the app!" That may have been my first stoopid utterance...( of the hour )
I didn't have room on my space ( now there's a great name for a web site... ) at Mindspring, but I remembered that Comcast had raved about 'giving' subscribers a large amount of space! OK, I set up the app to use its FTP function to put the files there. When this is done, the app provides you with a URL to give to those who need access, you just paste that into an email, they click the URL and download the file. Simple! Well, at least I am!
What I didn't realize for about 4 hours was that Comcast's definition of a "large" amount of space was 25 MB! Guess what happens when you try to pour ~29 MBs into that container!
Not much, except you get to watch the countdown timer for about 16 minutes...Fortunately the process doesn't affect using the computer for most non-internet things.
Each time I'd 'upload' a file, I would take the URL and dump it into FF to make sure it worked. I hate being seen as stoopid, ya know. Of course, each time I did this, I got nothing but error messages.
I even quit FileChute, suspecting that it was just not working. Used Fetch to do the uploading. Same error message! And then, refreshing Fetch's display would show that the file wasn't anywhere to be found. But the process took so long, it
must have gone somewhere, right? I tried a small file, just because it was quick. Well, that works fine!
Attention: Clue is visible, Stoopid!Assuming that doing the same thing would somehow result in a different result, I'd start the whole process over. I'll leave the reader to decide what happened...
Finally, I noticed the size of the file and the space available and the small print report from Fetch that the upload had failed. Only took me nearly 4 hours to notice. Just hope I notice things like house fires quicker!
I managed to delete enough stuff off my dot Mac space and got everything uploaded by 10:30 pm. Dragged the four URLs to an email and sent them to my wife for resending them to whoever needed them.
Mission accomplished.
NOT!This morning Judy ( my wonderful wife ) tells me that one lady can access the files. She is being asked for a password. What? There
is no password ( although FileChute could have created one )! What kind of idiot is this person? I didn't spend 4 hours beating my head against a wall to have someone tell me this method doesn't work! I tested it myself! I even used the email Judy sent to show how it worked!
Give me a break! How much simpler can it be? 
When I calmed down a little, Judy gave me another clue. She said when the lady went to "
http://snipr.com" she couldn't access the file. "snipr.com" is just the first part of the whole URL, "
http://snipr.com/Abc3X-APOU9" for example. It's actually a 'short URL' provided by TinyURL.com for the convenience of the user ( another function of FileChute ). Why the lady was going to just "snipr.com" is beyond me. All she had to do was double-click the link in her email. Even if she didn't have a browser open, even Windows should be capable of opening one and proceeding to either download or display the file! And she could easily copy & paste the URL into a browser if double-clicking didn't work.
Once again, I've proved that nothing is "fool proof"! There is always going to be someone who can mess up the simplest process. My own stoopidity should have reminded me of that several hours earlier!
Have any of you seen stoopid stuff like this lady and/or me? Look out, I may be driving through your neighborhood one day!
