In article ,
News wrote:
You and me both, Chris. Just one requirement to add - the ability to
play the same thing all over the house without wires everywhere, so that
I can wander from room to room without missing whatever is playing.

Did just that many years ago with cables. When re-wiring the house ran a
10 pair telephone cable to every room. So 5 stereo balanced circuits. One
of which is what's playing on the main system in the living room. So you
can select that - if say the TV - and not have a delay or whatever in an
adjacent room, like the kitchen. The other four circuits have radio
tuners. Rarely listen to more than four radio stations anyway. Currently
set to R4, R4 extra, R3 and Magic. A mixture of FM, DAB and FreeView.

--
*Cover me. I'm changing lanes.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
scribeth thus
In article ,
News wrote:
You and me both, Chris. Just one requirement to add - the ability to
play the same thing all over the house without wires everywhere, so that
I can wander from room to room without missing whatever is playing.

Did just that many years ago with cables. When re-wiring the house ran a
10 pair telephone cable to every room. So 5 stereo balanced circuits. One
of which is what's playing on the main system in the living room. So you
can select that - if say the TV - and not have a delay or whatever in an
adjacent room, like the kitchen. The other four circuits have radio
tuners. Rarely listen to more than four radio stations anyway. Currently
set to R4, R4 extra, R3 and Magic. A mixture of FM, DAB and FreeView.


A bit like a BBC studio "ring main" ?.....
--
Tony Sayer

In article , pamela
wrote:
In the same way, perhaps iPlayer audio varies. However it seems more
than good enough for the OPs purpose (listening to R2 and R4).

It may depend on how you access it! One of the possible snags of using a
closed commercial box for access is that the stream might have been mucked
about on the way by a 'third party' paid by the box-maker to provide the
access if their device can't directly accept the BBC streams.

Given 'direct' access you should be able to get 128/320 kbps aac for BBC
radio *if* you are in the UK. They are moving to this as their common
standard.

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html

pamela wrote:

I'm lost by the detail below but I get the impression they seem to be
taking quality seriously:

BBC Audio Factory
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...58f-4fb2-a23c-
71680c49882f

It is certainly a tangled web from which they seem to have
extricated themselves.

Have you tried iPlayer Radio on Android? It's features and user
interface are impressive while being easy to use.

That may well be so, but since I spend much of my time at or near
my desktop, it seems a shame that the BBC's rationalisation seems
to have removed previously useful features.

Podcasts work well, but I don't fully understand why I have to go
to another platform to be able to download other radio
programmes.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

On 01/12/2015 12:15, John Williamson wrote:
On 01/12/2015 10:44, Chris J Dixon wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

Yes. Needs to be backed up - in the cloud, on another drive, or on
optical media.

No problem - I have an Office 365 subscription, which comes with
far more storage than I will fill. It took a while to get the
initial data uploaded, but updates are much more manageable.

You actually trust Microsoft with all your data?

I checked on whether Office 365 would do what I want and it turned out
that if I couldn't get an internet connection, I had no access to my
data. The same with Outlook.com. So I paid for a decent system that
keeps all my data local and secure, unless I deliberately let it out.
Even my phone doesn't use the cloud for anything even remotely private.

I just synchronise my computer with a network attached HD or another
computer every time I close down, and haven't lost any data due to
hardware failure in 30 years or so. In fact, my system makes it almost
impossible to *deliberately* lose any data, as it gets restored the next
time my sync software connects to a copy anywhere on the network.



Just hope you don't have a flood or a fire or someone pinches the
servers and computers.

I have compromised on a couple of Synology NAS and an encrypted backup
on to onedrive. There are a couple of disk images too. At least no
single event should be able to destroy the data. Maybe an asteroid can.

In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
Did just that many years ago with cables. When re-wiring the house ran a
10 pair telephone cable to every room. So 5 stereo balanced circuits. One
of which is what's playing on the main system in the living room. So you
can select that - if say the TV - and not have a delay or whatever in an
adjacent room, like the kitchen. The other four circuits have radio
tuners. Rarely listen to more than four radio stations anyway. Currently
set to R4, R4 extra, R3 and Magic. A mixture of FM, DAB and FreeView.


A bit like a BBC studio "ring main" ?.....

Damn. Thought I'd invented it. ;-)

--
*The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 01/12/2015 18:35, dennis@home wrote:


Just hope you don't have a flood or a fire or someone pinches the
servers and computers.

Encrypted discs, password protected, and my offsite backup is wherever I
am at almost all times. Then again, there's only a terabyte of data to
worry about.

Shrug I lost a day's worth of emails when someone stole the laptop
once. But I got them back when I logged onto the mail server and
undeleted them from the recycle bin when I'd replaced the computer.


--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On 01/12/2015 18:59, John Williamson wrote:

Encrypted discs, password protected, and my offsite backup is wherever I
am at almost all times.

That's not a real offsite backup.

I reckon some form of "cloud" backup is a no-brainer these days unless
you've got serious paranoia issues.

On 01/12/2015 19:02, Clive George wrote:
On 01/12/2015 18:59, John Williamson wrote:

Encrypted discs, password protected, and my offsite backup is wherever I
am at almost all times.

That's not a real offsite backup.

I reckon some form of "cloud" backup is a no-brainer these days unless
you've got serious paranoia issues.

Maybe we all need to be more paranoid about our data. I won't install
Windows 10 due to its documented security problems, starting with the
default built in keylogger that sends a lot of your keystrokes to M$ so
they can sell the data to advertisers and an always-on-by-default
listening post, which sends all it hears back to a server in the USA for
the same reason (At the moment, who knows where it will be next year?).
All these can be turned off now, but how long before one of the
non-refusable updates removes that capability?

All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and
you lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a
cloud backup to do the job we all used to do locally.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and
you lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a
cloud backup to do the job we all used to do locally.

The cloud should be as well as local backup.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
On 01/12/2015 19:02, Clive George wrote:
On 01/12/2015 18:59, John Williamson wrote:

Encrypted discs, password protected, and my offsite backup is wherever I
am at almost all times.

That's not a real offsite backup.

I reckon some form of "cloud" backup is a no-brainer these days unless
you've got serious paranoia issues.

Maybe we all need to be more paranoid about our data. I won't install
Windows 10 due to its documented security problems, starting with the
default built in keylogger that sends a lot of your keystrokes to M$ so
they can sell the data to advertisers and an always-on-by-default
listening post, which sends all it hears back to a server in the USA for
the same reason (At the moment, who knows where it will be next year?).
All these can be turned off now, but how long before one of the
non-refusable updates removes that capability?

All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and you
lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a cloud
backup to do the job we all used to do locally.

Trivial to use more than one so that doesn't happen.

On 01/12/2015 19:48, John Williamson wrote:
On 01/12/2015 19:02, Clive George wrote:
On 01/12/2015 18:59, John Williamson wrote:

Encrypted discs, password protected, and my offsite backup is wherever I
am at almost all times.

That's not a real offsite backup.

I reckon some form of "cloud" backup is a no-brainer these days unless
you've got serious paranoia issues.

Maybe we all need to be more paranoid about our data. I won't install
Windows 10 due to its documented security problems, starting with the
default built in keylogger that sends a lot of your keystrokes to M$ so
they can sell the data to advertisers and an always-on-by-default
listening post, which sends all it hears back to a server in the USA for
the same reason (At the moment, who knows where it will be next year?).
All these can be turned off now, but how long before one of the
non-refusable updates removes that capability?

What cr@p.
The beta had a key stroke logger in it and everyone that signed up was
told so.
The released version does not have a key logger and never has had one.

The only sound sent back is when you use cortana as it works the same
was as apples system, the speech recognition is done on the servers not
the PC/phone.


All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and
you lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a
cloud backup to do the job we all used to do locally.


So use one that isn't going broke and backup to another too.

On 01/12/2015 19:48, John Williamson wrote:
On 01/12/2015 19:02, Clive George wrote:
On 01/12/2015 18:59, John Williamson wrote:

Encrypted discs, password protected, and my offsite backup is wherever I
am at almost all times.

That's not a real offsite backup.

I reckon some form of "cloud" backup is a no-brainer these days unless
you've got serious paranoia issues.

Maybe we all need to be more paranoid about our data. I won't install
Windows 10 due to its documented security problems, starting with the
default built in keylogger that sends a lot of your keystrokes to M$ so
they can sell the data to advertisers and an always-on-by-default
listening post, which sends all it hears back to a server in the USA for
the same reason (At the moment, who knows where it will be next year?).
All these can be turned off now, but how long before one of the
non-refusable updates removes that capability?

On the other hand MS are actually quite keen on making their online
platforms secure. I don't use them, because the solution I found works
better for me, but I've seen the corporate services MS offers and
they're actually pretty secure.

All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and
you lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a
cloud backup to do the job we all used to do locally.

If they go bust, yes, I'll have to move to another provider. That's not
a big deal.

I get quite a lot of reminders when it's time to pay for another year.

On 01/12/2015 20:32, dennis@home wrote:
On 01/12/2015 19:48, John Williamson wrote:
Maybe we all need to be more paranoid about our data. I won't install
Windows 10 due to its documented security problems, starting with the
default built in keylogger that sends a lot of your keystrokes to M$ so
they can sell the data to advertisers and an always-on-by-default
listening post, which sends all it hears back to a server in the USA for
the same reason (At the moment, who knows where it will be next year?).
All these can be turned off now, but how long before one of the
non-refusable updates removes that capability?

What cr@p.
The beta had a key stroke logger in it and everyone that signed up was
told so.
The released version does not have a key logger and never has had one.

MS admit during Windows 10 installation that "typing and inking data"
will be sent back to MS to "improve the recognition and suggestion
platform" and although this can be disabled at the moment, it would only
take a minor update (Which Windows 10 users can not refuse) to remove
this ability, should too many take it up. This is shown on the install
screens. If it's not a keylogger, it's a very good imitation. Also by
default, it sends your calendar and contact information to MS, and
again, the off switch for this could easily be disabled by MS.

The only sound sent back is when you use cortana as it works the same
was as apples system, the speech recognition is done on the servers not
the PC/phone.

By default, Cortana is always on, as is Siri. And as the speech
recognition (even for the initial call phrase) is done on a remote
server in a country which is not only not governed by EU data protection
laws, but one where the security agencies are doing their best to ensure
that all data stored there is accessible to them, what guarantee is
there of data security? Bearing in mind that MS say that they will use
the data they receive to "improve" the user experience by helping third
parties interact with you more efficiently, and use this as a marketing
point.

To see what information Microsoft admit to collecting, read their own
FAQ on Windows 10 privacy, and note what use they admit to making of
data received.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/w...ws-privacy-faq

All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and
you lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a
cloud backup to do the job we all used to do locally.


So use one that isn't going broke and backup to another too.

Or just use the system I use which isn't noticeably broken and has
served me well for the last three decades. One improvement which I'm
looking at is to store another data backup on the SD card in my phone,
so if I need to evacuate in a hurry, there's a very good chance I'll
have a recent backup with me, but I'd need to work on the security of
that. Maybe I can run Truecrypt or something similar on a hidden partition.

I'm working on getting Linux to do what I need to do at the moment, as
it has a better security record than Windows, and can do 90% of what I
want to do out of the box. The other 10% is what's stopping me from
using it as my only OS.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On 01/12/2015 21:33, John Williamson wrote:

Or just use the system I use which isn't noticeably broken and has
served me well for the last three decades.

"No backups at all" would probably fit that bill for many people :-)

"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
On 01/12/2015 20:32, dennis@home wrote:
On 01/12/2015 19:48, John Williamson wrote:
Maybe we all need to be more paranoid about our data. I won't install
Windows 10 due to its documented security problems, starting with the
default built in keylogger that sends a lot of your keystrokes to M$ so
they can sell the data to advertisers and an always-on-by-default
listening post, which sends all it hears back to a server in the USA for
the same reason (At the moment, who knows where it will be next year?).
All these can be turned off now, but how long before one of the
non-refusable updates removes that capability?

What cr@p.
The beta had a key stroke logger in it and everyone that signed up was
told so.
The released version does not have a key logger and never has had one.

MS admit during Windows 10 installation that "typing and inking data" will
be sent back to MS to "improve the recognition and suggestion platform"
and although this can be disabled at the moment, it would only take a
minor update (Which Windows 10 users can not refuse) to remove this
ability, should too many take it up. This is shown on the install screens.
If it's not a keylogger, it's a very good imitation. Also by default, it
sends your calendar and contact information to MS, and again, the off
switch for this could easily be disabled by MS.

The only sound sent back is when you use cortana as it works the same
was as apples system, the speech recognition is done on the servers not
the PC/phone.

By default, Cortana is always on, as is Siri.

Siri isn't always on, you have to tell the phone when
to have it use what you say to the phone with Siri.

And as the speech recognition (even for the initial call phrase)

That only works when its on the charger.

is done on a remote server in a country which is not only not governed by
EU data protection laws, but one where the security agencies are doing
their best to ensure that all data stored there is accessible to them,

And Apple makes an obscene gesture in their general direction
when they try that and goes out of its way to ensure that it is
much harder for them to keep track of what an individual
does with the server based stuff like the navigation systems.

what guarantee is there of data security?

I couldn’t care less what they know about what
I have asked Siri or google maps etc to do.

Bearing in mind that MS say that they will use the data they receive to
"improve" the user experience by helping third parties interact with you
more efficiently,

Fine by me. I'd rather stuff like Cortana and Siri
knows what I am doing so it does its job better.

Currently when I tell it to navigate to Waugh St,
its too stupid to even work out that its rather
unlikely that I am about to drive to Wall St from
the other side of the ****ing world and it would
make a lot more sense for it to work out where
I am an offer a street that sounds the same that
is just a tad closer to where I am than Wall St.

and use this as a marketing point.

They would be stupid not to with something like that.

To see what information Microsoft admit to collecting, read their own FAQ
on Windows 10 privacy, and note what use they admit to making of data
received.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/w...ws-privacy-faq

Fine by me and I wish they would make more
use of that data like in the above example.

And I love the fact that Siri is actually smart enough to use my Contacts
to work out who I am asking it to call, instead of just trying to guess from
just what I have actually said. It does a pretty good job most of the time,
but sometimes when I tell it to call Glenn, asks me which one and when
I say Glenn Curry, is stupid enough to say that it doesn’t understand
glengarry. Get it right much more often than it ****s up tho.

All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and
you lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a
cloud backup to do the job we all used to do locally.

So use one that isn't going broke and backup to another too.

Or just use the system I use which isn't noticeably broken and has served
me well for the last three decades.

Much more convenient to use a decent modern automatic cloud now.

I used to manually move stuff between the desktop and phone,
particularly stuff like lists that I mostly update on the desktop
and use on the phone. Much more convenient to do nothing at all
once its setup initially and have that done completely automatically
now instead of updating manually before I head out etc.

One improvement which I'm looking at is to store another data backup on
the SD card in my phone,

Makes a lot more sense to use more than one cloud.

so if I need to evacuate in a hurry, there's a very good chance I'll have
a recent backup with me, but I'd need to work on the security of that.
Maybe I can run Truecrypt or something similar on a hidden partition.

No reason you can't do that with any of the decent clouds.

I'm working on getting Linux to do what I need to do at the moment, as it
has a better security record than Windows, and can do 90% of what I want
to do out of the box. The other 10% is what's stopping me from using it as
my only OS.

Nothing can get at what I don’t want anyone to get at on my Win systems
and the phone has MUCH better security than any android ever has.

On 01/12/2015 12:38, News wrote:

[1] Except when that little scote who calls me Dad ...

Did you mean scrote or is this some slang description for today's yoof
that I've missed out on?

Albert Zweistein wrote
News wrote

[1] Except when that little scote who calls me Dad ...

Did you mean scrote

Someone should remind him who will be picking his nursing home |-(

or is this some slang description for today's yoof that I've missed out
on?

In message . com,
Albert Zweistein writes
On 01/12/2015 12:38, News wrote:

[1] Except when that little scote who calls me Dad ...

Did you mean scrote or is this some slang description for today's yoof
that I've missed out on?

Whoops! The former :-)
--
Graeme

In message , Rod Speed
writes

Someone should remind him who will be picking his nursing home |-(

Hopefully I'll be too doolally to care by that stage :-)
--
Graeme

In message , pamela
writes

We have had fun with a Chromecast Audio [1], and the above would be at
least partially solved if one could cast to more than one device
simultaneously. Anyone know whether that is possible?

There are mumblings uttered in some discussion groups that multi-casting
will be included in a firmware upgrade to Chromecast Audio.

Excellent. I browsed the VLC site and noted they are looking into
casting direct from the media player, which will be useful.
--
Graeme

"News" wrote in message
...
In message , Rod Speed
writes

Someone should remind him who will be picking his nursing home |-(

Hopefully I'll be too doolally to care by that stage :-)

Most aren't.

On 02/12/2015 08:35, pamela wrote:
On 08:11 2 Dec 2015, News wrote:

In message , pamela
writes

We have had fun with a Chromecast Audio [1], and the above would be at
least partially solved if one could cast to more than one device
simultaneously. Anyone know whether that is possible?

There are mumblings uttered in some discussion groups that multi-casting
will be included in a firmware upgrade to Chromecast Audio.

Excellent. I browsed the VLC site and noted they are looking into
casting direct from the media player, which will be useful.

I've seen old posts where people describe how they used the original
Chromecast for TV to cast audio by adapting the device's HDMI output to
provide an audio signal for their stereo.

Seems a good idea but no longer sensible now the audio Chromecast has
become avaialble. Makes me think how much more you get with Chromecast
for TV for the same price as the audio version.

By the way, I see Currys have a logo on their two web pages advertising
the Chromecast dongles which says "When they're gone, they're gone". I
wonder what that's all about.

It's on the pages of lots of items, it's just a bit of trickcyclery to
induce fear of missing out panic and make you press the buy button. BTW
I bought my Chromecast 2 from Currys as they were the first to have it
online, it arrive after two days and was up and running easily, I like
the new dangly format.

On Tue, 1 Dec 2015 19:48:55 +0000, John Williamson
wrote:

All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and
you lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a
cloud backup to do the job we all used to do locally.

Although DropBox is a cloud, the DropBox folder exists on any computer
on which you have it installed which are then synchronised to the cloud.
If you have, as we do, two PCs, a laptop, a Mac, two iPhones and two
iPads this is invaluable. A change on any one of those is sent to the
DropBox cloud which then synchronises all the other kit so that
everything remains in step.

If DropBox goes bust, then all the local kit has everything
synchronised.

If all the local kit is destroyed, then DropBox still has everything.

It costs $99 a year and is worth it for the amount of data we're
storing.

--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
By Loch Long, twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.co.uk/weather

"Alan White" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 1 Dec 2015 19:48:55 +0000, John Williamson
wrote:

All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and
you lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a
cloud backup to do the job we all used to do locally.

Although DropBox is a cloud, the DropBox folder exists on any computer
on which you have it installed which are then synchronised to the cloud.
If you have, as we do, two PCs, a laptop, a Mac, two iPhones and two
iPads this is invaluable. A change on any one of those is sent to the
DropBox cloud which then synchronises all the other kit so that
everything remains in step.

If DropBox goes bust, then all the local kit has everything
synchronised.

If all the local kit is destroyed, then DropBox still has everything.

It costs $99 a year and is worth it for the amount of data we're
storing.

Has anyone found a way of controlling Drop box permissions to prevent
accidental deletion/modification of files?

I presume it's controlled by permissions:

- User 1 owns the folder and has full permissions
- User 1 shares the folder (or a subset of the folders) with User 2 and
gives him restricted permission

But is there a way of controlling what restricted permissions are given to
User 2?

I'd like to give him permission to add new files but prevent him from
deleting or modifying existing files.

As things stand, I could never use my Dropbox folder to store the only copy
of a file because of the risk that if another user with write permission
happened to delete the file from their Dropbox folder it would delete it
from mine.

It would be nice if Windows could be configured to link specific files from
the real location to the Dropbox folder such that Dropbox always saw the
latest version of the "real" file but never had permission to delete/modify
it by accident.

I tend to keep a master copy elsewhere (in a location that gets backed up to
a local backup drive by SyncToy) and manually copy the file to Dropbox
whenever I make a change to it. That means I always have the latest version
of a file on my phone, but safe in the knowledge that I can never accidently
trash the master copy. A "one way link" from real to Dropbox would remove
the need to make a manual update.

On 02/12/2015 08:08, News wrote:
In message , Rod Speed
writes

Someone should remind him who will be picking his nursing home |-(

Hopefully I'll be too doolally to care by that stage :-)

Knowing the current generation of scrotes he'll probably flog you off to
the Soylent Factory as soon as possible.

On 02/12/2015 12:16, NY wrote:
"Alan White" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 1 Dec 2015 19:48:55 +0000, John Williamson
wrote:

All it takes is for your cloud backup provider to go broke (It has
happened already for some) or for you to forget to make a payment, and
you lose access to your data, because normal human nature will trust a
cloud backup to do the job we all used to do locally.

Although DropBox is a cloud, the DropBox folder exists on any computer
on which you have it installed which are then synchronised to the cloud.
If you have, as we do, two PCs, a laptop, a Mac, two iPhones and two
iPads this is invaluable. A change on any one of those is sent to the
DropBox cloud which then synchronises all the other kit so that
everything remains in step.

If DropBox goes bust, then all the local kit has everything
synchronised.

If all the local kit is destroyed, then DropBox still has everything.

It costs $99 a year and is worth it for the amount of data we're
storing.

Has anyone found a way of controlling Drop box permissions to prevent
accidental deletion/modification of files?

I presume it's controlled by permissions:

- User 1 owns the folder and has full permissions
- User 1 shares the folder (or a subset of the folders) with User 2 and
gives him restricted permission

But is there a way of controlling what restricted permissions are given
to User 2?

I'd like to give him permission to add new files but prevent him from
deleting or modifying existing files.

I don't think you can do that unless you use separate folders, some with
edit permissions and some without.


As things stand, I could never use my Dropbox folder to store the only
copy of a file because of the risk that if another user with write
permission happened to delete the file from their Dropbox folder it
would delete it from mine.

You can put it in a shared folder without edit permissions then only you
can update it while others can read it.


It would be nice if Windows could be configured to link specific files
from the real location to the Dropbox folder such that Dropbox always
saw the latest version of the "real" file but never had permission to
delete/modify it by accident.

Its the dropbox app that needs to do this, its not a function of windows
like it is with onedrive on 8.1 and 10.

I tend to keep a master copy elsewhere (in a location that gets backed
up to a local backup drive by SyncToy) and manually copy the file to
Dropbox whenever I make a change to it. That means I always have the
latest version of a file on my phone, but safe in the knowledge that I
can never accidently trash the master copy. A "one way link" from real
to Dropbox would remove the need to make a manual update.

I do a oneway sync with my Synology NAS to onedrive as a backup. Its a
function of the synology software not of onedrive.