Amazon - 5 GB of free Cloud Space to Registered Users

    Browsing on Amazon this morning I noticed they now offer 5 GB of free cloud storage space to their registered users.  Kind of neat.  Although its scarcely larger than my smallest USB flash drive, it's...free.  It's probably not a bad option for storing important files, in an encrypted container (see my 'TrueCrypt' posts elsewhere on this blog), just as a backup.

LogMeIn - Free VPN for Non-Commercial Use

https://secure.logmein.com/ offers a free VPN solution where one can set up one’s own virtual networks.  This means one can link devices, on the Internet, as if they are on the same LAN.

LogMeIn allows one to invite others, to the VPN, and have those connections expire after a certain amount of time, or remain permanent (until kicked off or the VPN is taken down).

For gaming, this means games like ‘Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2’ should be able to see LAN servers, on the same VPN, as if they were on the same network.  This should allow players to bypass GameSpy and connect via the old fashioned LAN server option, in -game, just like was possible in older games (where one could type-in the IP address of the game server).

It is worth checking this out.

[Thanks to Marc C. for pointing this out!]

MozBackup - A Free tool to backup and restore your Firefox and Thunderbird settings

    I recently decided to use Thunderbird, on multiple PC's, in IMAP mode (versus POP).  To facilitate the ease of duplicating my Thunderbird and Firefox set up's, on multiple PC's, I backed up the settings, using MozBackup (http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/), and then restored the settings to the other PC's.

    Note you can simply use this tool to back up your settings, in case of an emergency.  I back mine up to an external drive, for the day when (not "if") my hard drive crashes.

    Make sure you are running the same versions of Thunderbird and Firefox on each PC to ensure compatibility among your instances.

UPDATE (2011/08/05): I have successfully used MozBackup across Thunderbird and Firefox versions, and it works great. At least as of Thunderbird 5 and Firefox 5, MozBackup works fine going back to at least version 3 of each of the two applications.

Premature Epiphany

I'm coining a new term: Premature Epiphany

Example #1: When you realize where to find a data element, in a database table, to use in a query, only to realize, after testing, that the information is not what you seek, and that you had thought it would be useful due to the lack of a related data dictionary entry for the field.

Example #2: The moment it occurs to you that you can limit the number of TMZ episodes to keep, on the DVR, due to someone in your house having added it with the 'Unlimited' option, only to later realize you could simply have deleted the show's entry instead, because no one really ever wanted it anyway.

Automobile Upholstery Decorator

When I was a kid, before anyone had ever heard of a "DC Power Outlet", we still had great gadgets with which to occupy our time, while waiting for Mom to emerge from the liquor store with a carton of Salem Lights.

Cleaning the garage today, I found such a toy. I remember my Mom's excitement when I fashioned a Micky Mouse head and an Olympic symbol on the back seat of her '65 Mustang. She taught me some new adjectives that day, and if you'd known my mom, you would know how impressive that really was.

Now Retired Blog Header

Often waxing techno-sophical, he dreams someone might stumble across his words, engendering a one-way feed from his mind to theirs, a mild viral form of e-progeny. In reality, few will visit, and those who do will not do so again. At least he can imagine he'll leave a legacy. The aliens that some day discover Google's ancient, crystal storage units will, upon rubbing their eyes in exhaustion, skip it.

Running Multiple Versions of Firefox on one PC

I decided that I wanted to update to Firefox 4 and yet also not yet have to upgrade my RoboForm (see prior posting) password/identity manager. Thus, I needed a means by which to run multiple versions of Firefox on the same PC.

I accomplished this by creating a new Firefox profile (called Dan_v3.6x), and then re-installing Firefox 3.6, in a separate folder, creating a shortcut, to the 3.6 executable, and adding an argument, after the shortcut's target location, to use the 3.6 profile when running the 3.6 executable.

I can now run both Firefox 4 and Firefox 3.6 on the same PC. The catch is that only one version can be running simultaneously, but it works great. [Note that if one tries to launch the other version, while one version is still running, the system will simply launch another window of the same version.]

So now, when I absolutely need my RoboForm information, it's there, but when I want the Firefox 4 experience, I can have that too.

Steps:

• Create a new Firefox profile

• Run the Firefox Profiler Manager via the command prompt (or via creating a shortcut) as follows:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -Profilemanager

• Install Firefox 3.6 into a custom folder via the 'Custom' installation option. I suggest the following:

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox _3.6x

• Create a shortcut to Firefox 3.6. exactly as follows, including quotes:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox _3.6x\firefox.exe" -P "Dan_v3.6x"

The key to the above steps to work is that one needs to create a new profile, in Firefox 4, prior to installing the older version.

Downloading Older Firefox Versions:

To download Firefox 3.6 or other older Firefox versions, go here:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/ .

Jump to

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/3.6.16-candidates/build1/win32/en-US/

for the Win32 version if you're a Windows 32-bit user.