ducttape.it

Aside from the typical Y! perks (free coffee, coffee bar, and soda) every now and then companies will give a handful of software licenses to Y! developers in an attempt to generate buzz for their software. Some of the software is really strange but every now and then I get a nugget of ones and zeros that changes the way I work. ExpanDrive by Magnetk is one of those. It's basically a wrapper for fuse-ssh (which has always been a bit buggy for me) that works flawlessly.

Features

• Map drives using SSH (sftp) or FTP/FTPS
• Automatically reconnect drives at login
• Fast access from a menu bar icon
• Directory listing caching to prevent TextMate lockups (see below)

TextMate + ReMate + ExpanDrive
One of my biggest gripes about working with network drives is that TextMate constantly refreshes the directory tree upon gaining window focus. This is fine for small folders but large rails apps for example, this can lead to a visible lag. ExpanDrive utilizes some sort of magic caching above what your standard fuse-ssh stuff does to cut down on this but Magnetk recommends using ReMate by Ciarán Walsh to reduce this lag even further.

I've found ExpanDrive especially useful here at Y! when working with virtual machines hosted on my linux desktop from my mac laptop. No more copying .vimrc or .profile files among virtual machines that I'm simply throwing away after finishing a task. I can edit and test away all from the comfort of my macbook pro.