DropboxDiff Chrome Extension

2012/06/24 update: version 1.0.2.6 is out, which handles the latest Dropbox site format (no table header).


I've written DropboxDiff, a Chrome extension which allows you to compare different versions of text files you have on Dropbox.  It basically triggers a diff tool you have installed on your local machine already, which you must configure.

1. On the Dropbox website, browse to the "Previous versions" page of any text file.
2. A "Diff" column has been added where you can select which two versions to compare.
3. Click the "Diff" button.
1. If a diff tool is not yet configured, the options page opens where you can specify one. If you don't have one installed already, I recommend kdiff3. The setting is accessible from Tools > Extensions > DropboxDiff > Options.
2. Otherwise, your diff tool should open.

This should run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.  Please let me know if any issues come up.

Get DropboxDiff.

Blame it on the Tron

I watched old school Tron the other night. So much awesome kitch in that movie, I couldn't stop grinning during the whole thing.

Some things I noticed, since last time I watched it, a few decades ago:

The "Watseka" street sign sounded really familiar. Lo and behold:

View Larger Map

I live within 10 miles of Flynn's! We'll have to pay homage some time. Here's the wider shot.

I don't think they used the same spot for Tron: Legacy, though.

I also don't remember this blatant Easter egg:

They even sampled the Pac-Man sound effects. I remember Pac-Man being such an incredible craze at the time (we sang the "Pac-Man Fever" song in school once, badly), but somehow I never caught it here.

The Messianic overtones of the movie were pretty interesting too — Flynn being the User/god, come to inhabit the world of programs in order to save them. I certainly didn't pick that up as an 8-year old. Then again, it's only these days that I spend any time wondering whether our reality is just a computer simulation.

Here's a bit of dialogue I liked quite a bit.  Flynn has just revealed to Tron that he is actually a User, and not just a program, like the rest of them.

Tron: "If you are a User, then everything you've done has been according to a plan, right?

Flynn: "You wish! You guys know what it's like; you just keep doing what it looks like you're supposed to be doing, no matter how crazy it seems."

Tron: "That's the way it is with programs, yes..."

Flynn: "I hate to disappoint you pal, but most of the time that's the way it is for Users, too."

Tron: "Stranger and stranger."

Wise words.