

Rate/Review my startup - streamfile - kimovski
http://www.streamfile.com

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danhak
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.

~~~
kimovski
Thanks. Got your point and to some parts agree, let's see what we deside on.

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nirmal
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.

~~~
kimovski
Nice work Nirmal, just sent you an email..

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natch
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?

~~~
zacharye
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.

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kimovski
Agree. Actually, We will shortly add an embedded movie clip that greets
visitors with a short presentation and explanation of the service.

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aditya
People don't watch those things, they _barely_ read. so two quick sentences
will get you much further...

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kimovski
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?

~~~
aditya
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?

~~~
zacharye
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...

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aaroneous
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.

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kimovski
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.

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thorax
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.

~~~
kimovski
Will look into and solve this asap.

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quickpost
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...

~~~
jgamman
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.

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louislouis
Love the simplicity of the site. Awesome service. I just sent a pic of myself
to myself:
[http://www.streamfile.com/id/ZmkDG4QW1YhbiI90YNbCNgyM754Ke/1...](http://www.streamfile.com/id/ZmkDG4QW1YhbiI90YNbCNgyM754Ke/1216572155801s.jpg)

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.

~~~
cstejerean
I can view it in a browser just fine.

~~~
louislouis
Oh yeh, looks like it works in IE but not FF. I get presented with a download
box in FF

~~~
cstejerean
I was trying Safari so I'm guessing it's only FF that's broken.

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mmelin
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 :)

~~~
kimovski
We got a bunch of feedback actually on the content-type issue. Definitely
something to fix.

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danohuiginn
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 Recipientâ€™s email(s) is
not valid.'

~~~
kimovski
Will look in to the Opera + Ubuntu bug asap. Thanks for that.

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noonespecial
Its tight. Its useful. It works.

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

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timm5
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.

~~~
kimovski
Good point, thanks.

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avinashv
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.

~~~
kimovski
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?

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rossriley
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.

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randome
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?

~~~
kimovski
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.

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truebosko
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 ..

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marcus
Why shouldn't I just seed a file as a torrent? torrents let the people who
started downloading, upload segments they have already downloaded...

~~~
tlrobinson
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?

~~~
marcus
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.

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sosueme
Very nice concept. I would use it with my coworkers that can not get ftp or
web folders working.

~~~
nailer
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.

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mstevens
Some explanation would be nice...

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attack
It streams it? That's very useful.

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btw0
The site is slow.

~~~
kimovski
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.

~~~
cstejerean
I'm curious, how does the cost of bandwidth in Sweden compare to the US?

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kimovski
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.

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agentbleu
how will you charge for this?

~~~
kimovski
In the beginning we will add customers manually and charge them via
www.kreditor.se

