News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by danhak on Monday July 21, 2008 @05:12AM (#252105)
There's no need for a flash navigation bar.

You may disagree, but It's my opinion that flash should only be used when absolutely necessary.

Great idea, though. Great domain and great design.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @05:46AM (#252111)
Thanks. Got your point and to some parts agree, let's see what we deside on.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by nirmal on Monday July 21, 2008 @08:02AM (#252161)
some jQuery code can give you the same effect

UPDATE: here's my shot at it: http://www.nirmalpatel.com/menu.html

The font sizes and padding may not be exact, but I got it close.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @09:55AM (#252231)
Nice work Nirmal, just sent you an email..
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by natch on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:26AM (#252049)
So, if I understand this correctly, I could start uploading a 2GB file, and, while it is still uploading, my recipient could start downloading it, even before the upload has finished?

Did I get that right?

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by nailer on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:45AM (#252061)
It might be good to have some kind of visualization to show the process (along with a better explanation).
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by zacharye on Monday July 21, 2008 @07:57AM (#252158)
On this note, I love the concept and the simple design but with all of that open real estate on the homepage you might consider one short explanatory blurb to greet visitors and pull them right in.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @08:19AM (#252172)
Agree. Actually, We will shortly add an embedded movie clip that greets visitors with a short presentation and explanation of the service.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by aditya on Monday July 21, 2008 @11:30AM (#252322)
People don't watch those things, they _barely_ read. so two quick sentences will get you much further...
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @12:12PM (#252371)
I agree, however we would like not to get users confused that Stremfile.com is yet another web 2.0 app with large headlines etc. We want it to breathe backend and be very minimalistic. I mean look at Google.com?
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by aditya on Monday July 21, 2008 @12:47PM (#252420)
Good copy written in large headlines (or not?) goes a long way compared to a video that no one will watch, no?

Don't take my word for it though - do A/B on your homepage with a video and with text and see which results in higher number of uploads, perhaps?

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by zacharye on Monday July 21, 2008 @04:07PM (#252631)
Agreed regarding a video. It's a nice addition to have on an About or Tour page but never rely on a video to be the piece of content that tells potential users who you are and what you do.

You guys have a terrific and unique service offering - one or two well-placed sentences (and perhaps a more link) will work wonders...

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by bayleo on Monday July 21, 2008 @04:49PM (#252666)
In my opinion no explanation should be necessary on the homepage. I went straight to the navigation bar to find an explanation but was tripped up a bit because "How it Works" is the third link on the bar and not the first.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @05:20PM (#252694)
bayleo: good point, maybe we should change the order on the bottom navigation bar..
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by xenoterracide on Monday July 21, 2008 @02:23PM (#252525)
yeah I don't watch those... personally I opened the page and all I can think is... what exactly does this do for me?
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by there on Monday July 21, 2008 @11:03AM (#252289)
what happens when your recipient is on a faster connection and "catches up" with your upload?
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by nickb on Monday July 21, 2008 @11:11AM (#252300)
You probably get blocked until your browser times out. Then the question is if your browser can resume (tools like wget can easily resume, for example).
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by aaroneous on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:44AM (#252060)
Haven't seen this idea before, and I really dig it.

There are a lot of times where I want to transfer something over Adium, but the connection between the parties can't be established. I always was frustrated by the asynchronous workaround of uploading the file, waiting for its completion, and then distributing the url, so your site will come in handy for me. I also like the https option.

Right now the site is running a bit sluggish, hopefully you guys can remedy that shortly.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @04:32AM (#252090)
Streamfile is thought to work as a service aimed to enterprise environment where bittorent clients and ports are blocked on most client computers & networks. I agree that the streaming progress can be presented in a better way, we are working on this as we speak.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by thorax on Monday July 21, 2008 @11:55AM (#252355)
Man, I tried this a bunch of times and it never sent any email and just stared at me pretty blankly.

Until I realized the problem is that your site doesn't except "+" characters in emails and then fails silently entirely, leaving me the expectation that it might be waiting for me.

Anyway, please change the site to something that allows + signs in email addresses so I can try this out that way. Thanks in advance!

You should also fix it such that it doesn't ever fail blankly without any feedback to the user of the problem.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @12:10PM (#252368)
Will look into and solve this asap.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by quickpost on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:58AM (#252067)
I actually read about this earlier this week on this site here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=249823

I've used it several times already to exchange files with friends. Just today I sent a 700mb movie to a friend of mine - love the service...

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by jgamman on Monday July 21, 2008 @05:28AM (#252108)
i was the poster of that question and this service and using a complicated name on limewire were the two options i could come up with for my non-IT friends (and even then limewire was 10 steps too far). well done.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by louislouis on Monday July 21, 2008 @04:09AM (#252072)
Love the simplicity of the site. Awesome service. I just sent a pic of myself to myself: http://www.streamfile.com/id/ZmkDG4QW1YhbiI90YNbCNgyM754Ke/1...

It's a shame I cant view the jpg in the browser but great work nonetheless. Though I think bandwidth will get very costly quick.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by cstejerean on Monday July 21, 2008 @10:44AM (#252279)
I can view it in a browser just fine.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by louislouis on Monday July 21, 2008 @06:24PM (#252749)
Oh yeh, looks like it works in IE but not FF. I get presented with a download box in FF
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by cstejerean on Tuesday July 22, 2008 @12:08AM (#252993)
I was trying Safari so I'm guessing it's only FF that's broken.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by mmelin on Monday July 21, 2008 @08:45AM (#252186)
This is a very useful service, kimovski, and I wish you the best of luck with selling it.

I still think you should implement my suggestion of: a) having a splash screen explaining that the file isn't finished yet for recipients or b) sending all files with a content-type to make the browser download instead of trying to play media files.

MMC @ WN.se :)

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @05:21PM (#252697)
We got a bunch of feedback actually on the content-type issue. Definitely something to fix.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by danohuiginn on Monday July 21, 2008 @05:02AM (#252099)
Neat idea. Quibbles:

1) No explanation of what you're doing. Minimalism is good, being completely text-free not so much.

2) Entering an invalid email address, I get something that looks like a mangled smartquote (opera on ubuntu): 'Email address Recipient’s email(s) is not valid.'

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @05:55AM (#252117)
Will look in to the Opera + Ubuntu bug asap. Thanks for that.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by noonespecial on Monday July 21, 2008 @04:26AM (#252084)
Its tight. Its useful. It works.

Well done, I'd say. Good luck to you.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by timm5 on Monday July 21, 2008 @11:54PM (#252986)
Great idea. Most likely recipients of a streamfile dont know what a "stream" as opposed to a "file" so in the recipients email, the subj shouldnt be "you have a new stream..." it should be "You have a file...". This will help minimize users passing it over as spam.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Tuesday July 22, 2008 @02:11AM (#253050)
Good point, thanks.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by avinashv on Monday July 21, 2008 @04:58AM (#252097)
So this is very similar to eatlime.com.

I love the idea (I use eatlime on a very regular basis). Unfortunately, eatlime is faster for me. I'll give you major points for a super clean interface.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @05:54AM (#252114)
I don't believe eatlime have any "streaming" functionality such as starting the DL before the uploader is finished? They may be fast now, but can their platform scale?
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by rossriley on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:54AM (#252066)
Really like this idea, gave it a try and sure enough I was simultaneously downloading and uploading the same file.

It seems to do what Dropsend and YouSendIt do in a much simpler way.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by randome on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:21PM (#252594)
Cool idea... I understood instantly what it does ... and I think most of your audience will too... the term "streaming" has become pretty ubiquitous. How do you plan to monetize?
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @04:54PM (#252671)
The plan is soon to launch an API where you pay a monthly fee to integrate streamfile functionality into your own site/domain. Plus we will charge for the regular service, that are currently for free until the 31st of August.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by truebosko on Monday July 21, 2008 @11:42AM (#252336)
Simple, works great, and great concept. Love it. Curious to see how it would truly work on a large file though, will try a bigger one later today ..
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by marcus on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:42AM (#252057)
Why shouldn't I just seed a file as a torrent? torrents let the people who started downloading, upload segments they have already downloaded...
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by tlrobinson on Monday July 21, 2008 @04:01AM (#252070)
This seems a bit simpler, especially if you don't already have a BitTorrent client. But perhaps Streamfile could be a frontend to a simplified BitTorrent tracker.

I don't know the details of how the BitTorrent protocol works, could it start seeding a partially uploaded file, or does it require knowledge of the entire file before seeding can begin?

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by marcus on Monday July 21, 2008 @10:29AM (#252256)
Yes you start seeding, without uploading a single bit. People connect to your public/private tracker, and start downloading the data from you and from other downloaders who have already downloaded very small chunks of the file.

But you're right this solution is a bit simpler for the average user.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by cstejerean on Monday July 21, 2008 @10:46AM (#252282)
I would have a hard time explaining bit torrent to my parents.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by sosueme on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:44AM (#252059)
Very nice concept. I would use it with my coworkers that can not get ftp or web folders working.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by nailer on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:47AM (#252062)
Agreed. SFTP isn't always allowed through firewalls, FTP is worse, and WebDAV is a bitch to set up easily.

This fulfills a decent need, better than the competitors where you have to wait till you're finished uploading the file.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by mstevens on Monday July 21, 2008 @07:30AM (#252148)
Some explanation would be nice...
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by attack on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:02AM (#252042)
It streams it? That's very useful.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by btw0 on Monday July 21, 2008 @03:24AM (#252048)
The site is slow.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @04:36AM (#252091)
The site may appear slow to north american visitors due to the fact that all servers are located in Sweden, Nothern Europe (this is why we also can afford the bandwith at the moment).

Plans are soon to add server nodes in U.S, Middle East and Hong Kong.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by cstejerean on Monday July 21, 2008 @10:47AM (#252283)
I'm curious, how does the cost of bandwidth in Sweden compare to the US?
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @05:03PM (#252681)
Good question. I'm not sure, but I think it has to do with that Sweden has one of the highest penetration of fiber optic networks due to government subsidization starting early 90-ties.
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by davo11 on Monday July 21, 2008 @08:54AM (#252192)
It's a bit slow from Australia to.

It's a really excellent idea and a very simple implementation, like others though I think it needs some more explanation. Good luck.

Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by agentbleu on Monday July 21, 2008 @06:16AM (#252129)
how will you charge for this?
Re:Rate/Review my startup - streamfile by kimovski on Monday July 21, 2008 @07:45AM (#252154)
In the beginning we will add customers manually and charge them via www.kreditor.se