Archive for September, 2005

Here’s a small but handy Firefox tip for “safekeeping” your bookmarks. It also lets you share your bookmarks across multiple profiles!

1. Navigate to your Firefox profile directory. On Windows, this is usually located somewhere similar to the following: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
2. Copy your bookmarks.html file and paste it in a safe location elsewhere on your hard drive.
3. Back in your profile directory, create a text file called user.js (if one does not already exist). Open the file for editing in your favorite text editor (avoid word processors like Microsoft Word).
4. Add the following line of text to this file, changing the path to the appropriate location (wherever you copied your bookmarks to earlier): user_pref("browser.bookmarks.file", “C:\Path to Bookmarks File\bookmarks.html”);
5. Save the file and restart your browser!

You can use this trick in multiple profiles, allowing them to all point to the same bookmarks file. Additionally, it helps to safeguard against possibly losing your bookmarks if your profile becomes corrupt.

Scott Berkun used to work for Microsoft on the Internet Explorer web browser. So if there is anyone around who can appreciate the machinery behind the web browsing experience, it’s him. Scott recently switched to using Firefox as his primary web browser (his article explains why he made the change). But more interestingly, he provides several things he sees wrong with Firefox. Several of his points are right on target (there is some broken-ness in the Firefox world), and several of his points are a little off the mark (a few of his problems can be solved with extensions).

But Scott has class. He recently posted a followup article, clarifying a number of questions raised by the first one. In it, he admits that after he heard from a number of Firefox users, he saw that some of his views warranted another look. And he also (correctly) points out that there is still inherit broken-ness in the browsing world as a whole. Thanks for an insightful post, Scott. And here’s to your switch to Firefox: you won’t regret it.

I just won 10 more Prince Valiant books at eBay, bringing my library to a total of 27 titles out of the available 50 (the auction I won was actually for 14 books, but I already have four of them). The price per book in this auction was fairly reasonable: only $11.75 each! I’ve found that buying the books in bulk is the only way to get them at a reasonable price.

Unfortunately, this lot of books was listed in “fair” condition and the picture provided didn’t fully show their actual state (at least the spines look to be in decent shape). I guess I’ll see what condition they are in when I get them. The beautiful thing about eBay is that I can always turn around and sell them to someone else if I don’t like them.

Interestingly enough, I’m still awaiting my order of volume #2 from Amazon. They apparently don’t have any, so they have delayed my order for some time (up to November if I recall correctly). But I’m willing to wait - the early volumes are hard to get, especially at the low price of just over $11.00!

New Cheat Commandos!

I have recently come across two computing articles that I highly recommend:

Code Craft: Freedom Languages
Author Kevin Barnes discusses the differences between the “safety” programming languages (C++, Java, etc.) and the “freedom” languages (Perl, Python, etc.). His points are well organized, his argument well written, and the article highly insightful.

The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security
Recently featured on Slashdot, this article points out exactly what’s wrong in computer security. Allow the following quote to provide a taste of this excellent work:

“…if the conventional wisdom was working, the rate of systems being compromised would be going down, wouldn’t it?”

Want a good laugh? Head over to the Thorax Corporation’s website, created by The Brothers Chaps (the masterminds behind Homestar Runner). You won’t regret it.

A day or two ago, I replaced my primary Firefox install with the 1.5 Beta release. This afternoon, I went back to 1.0.6. As excited as I am about the upcoming 1.5 release, this beta simply has too many problems to switch to it full time. Too many errors crop up in the JavaScript console, too many extensions and themes do not yet work with it, and its overall stability is questionable (the beta crashed on me minutes after installing it for the first time). I think I might go back to running the nightly branch builds on my “nightly” profile. Had I been thinking clearly at the time, I would have used this profile with the beta install. Unfortunately, I contaminated my normal profile instead. So now I’m having to build a new one. *sigh*

Such is the price of progress.