Running Firefox 3.x and 4 Beta in parallel

I like running the latest browser - even beta - but don't like upgrading my existing profile and loosing all my extensions. Here's a way to run them in parallel.

• I install Firefox 4 beta, and add the -p -no-remote to the shortcut before I even run it. This lets me create a brand new profile I called Beta.4
  
• Run the new FF and close it to set up a new Firefox 4 profile for the transition
• Copy the contents of my old Firefox 3 profile (under your user app data folders) to the newly created Firefox 4 profile folders
• Update the shortcuts for the new Firefox 4 and old Firefox 3 to include the profile names so I'm not prompted each launch, and then I can run them both independently!!
• FF3 sample shortcut - "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p default -no-remote
• FF4 sample shortcut - "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 4.0\firefox.exe" -p Beta.4 -no-remote
  

Reference
http://www.techspot.com/guides/306-how-to-run-two-firefox-instances/

Microsoft just can't get it right - XBOX 360

I'll start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and hope you had an excellent Christmas.

One of the new additions to our household was an Xbox 360. My son has had an Xbox since they came out, and was looking for a new console. Since he was always happy with Xbox and enjoyed the Halo series that's the path we stayed on. After opening it, setting it up and playing with it we were very happy with it, and he loved it.

Then we went to a friends house whose son got the PS3. Well, it too looked like a nice unit and we started comparing notes. I know his unit was more expensive, but right off the bat that was offset by the fact that it has built in wireless connectivity, and uh...we don't. But for another $100 we can buy a proprietary wireless adapter. (Why I wonder am I not able to use any standard USB wireless adapter - even support a few of the major players. How tough could that be to add for half the price!)


So now we are on even footing cost wise. Well I'm sure the Xbox is still the superior console. My friend points out that his console has a Blueray player built in. Nice, but I can't see myself spending a lot of cash at this point on Blueray movies so not a huge loss.

Then he points out how he can just hook up his external drive to the PS3 and copy over movies and play them from his console. Can the Xbox do this he asks. I tell him that I'm sure it can - afterall its made by the PC people right?

Well to my shock I find I don't have this option available to me. I pay the premium for the 120GB drive, and can't put anything on it. Talk about useless. Yet Sony (of root kit infamy) can do this without a problem. To say that I'm disappointed with Microsoft and their narrow minded approach to home entertainment would be a great understatement. Maybe they are bowing to the copyright people out there and think they're gaining some favor and maybe avoiding more lawsuits. In reality all they are doing is loosing market share and irritating their customer base.

Maybe they will wake up in time to save their product line, and reverse this line of thinking. Until then they just leave me shaking my head wondering once again 'what happened to microsoft'.

Install XP after Vista - more than you bargan for

In my desire to go back to XP I thought I'd simply dual boot them (well triple boot counting Ubuntu). After all, drive space is plentiful and then I can migrate my data back slowly and still boot into Vista occasionally for nostalgia.

Well, had I done the research I'm sure I'd have found that it's not as easy as multi booting other OSs. Seems Vista isn't compatible with XPs boot loader that gets written to the MBR during setup. So when it comes time to reboot after the inital portion of the install I get a black screen with some lovely hieroglyphs. Oh oh. Booting from the XP install CD gives me the same. I quickly throw in my Vasta DVD thinking I'll repair the boot loader, and instead of it booting from the DVD, it seems to try and boot from a combo of the DVD and hard drive - not too sure what is happening here. The DVD goes for a bit, then the drive, then the DVD and so on until I get a bluescreen IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

So now I see no way to boot my system at all. (sweating a little). In the end I try booting Vista from DVD into safe mode and finally get to the repair screen and I'm back in business. I should also add that it too 4 boots into safe mode before I got the repair options. Each boot would have various levels of 'success'.

What started out as a routine procedure end in adventure. I guess that's the nature of adventures though.

I found this site to be a good resource during the problem:
http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

Upgrading from Vista to XP

I've had enough. I like the pretty and the candy as much as the next guy, but Vista has run its course for me. Since I assembled my new PC in the summer I've been limping along with Vista Ultimate waiting (and hoping) that SP1 would help improve the situation. I'm running an AMD64 X2 4000+ dual core with 4GB of RAM, and the machine seems slower than before I upgraded the hardware when I was running XP.

My wife's machine (3600+ 2GB) running Vista would crash frequently without cause or being able to find a solution. She begged me to put XP back on which I did and she's as happy as can be. I thought I'd wait it out just a little longer, so I was very happy to see the SP RC show up in my Windows Update. I grabbed it right away and waited for it to install.

I was rewarded with 4 system crashes the first night I put it on. I might add that system stability was not an issue prior to this. So I uninstalled the SP RC and am left now with the task of upgrading to XP - or spending more time in my other installed OS (Ubuntu 7.10) which is becoming more and more attractive all the time.

Maybe XP SP3 will finally give me the performance I was hoping for from Vista - http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20071126/tc_nf/56872

What happened to the great innovative company that changed the face of computing? I guess no one stays on top forever. R.I.P. Microsoft.

Stumblin around on the net

Sometimes I find myself sitting on the at the computer not really having anything to do or with a particular destination in mind. What's one to do? Stumble of course!

Stumble is a really cool extension for Firefox (and if you aren't using Firefox that's another story!) that allows you to participate in a community of user recommended sites based upon interests.

I like to equate it to channel surfing for the internet. You can be directed to sites of any category that users recommend or restrict your Stumbling to specific categories of interest to you. More than once I've forwarded links to friends and family and been asked where I find the stuff I do. Usually I respond 'in my stumbles around the net'.

If you are looking for a fun way to break up some, why not give Stumble a shot.

Trevor Matthews
http://www.tdmatthews.com/
http://www.tdmhost.com/

Cool Features Coming Soon

After another long hiatus I'm back to write some more. I find its hard to find the time to blog, but its not so much time that stops me from writing more, but topics. So my approach for my next few posts will be just to have short but frequent posts featuring cool sites, apps, and gadgets around the web.

I spend most of my day immersed in the web and its related technologies and take for granted that most people in my circles get that same exposure. The more I think about the questions I get daily from family, friends and clients the more I realize this isn't the case.

So forward and onward on my new journey of discovering more of the nets cool features and what will make life online more interesting and hopefully more fun. Look for my first update along these lines in the next couple days.

Trevor Matthews
http://www.tdmatthews.com/
http://www.tdmhost.com/

Google Apps for Domains - Mail

Continuing my review of Google's services. I'm currently looking at Google’s Apps for Domains. I've been using this service now for a few months - since Beta. I have to say that once again I'm more than impressed with this free offering from Google. I decided to give this a shot with my consulting domain (http://www.tdmatthews.com) and signed the domain up for the Mail service. With a simple change to the MX record of my DNS, I've pointed my incoming mail to the Google mail servers. Now I can create up to 25 accounts each with a storage limit of 2GB. Amazing. Setup is simple and can even be automated using an uploaded spreadsheet.

I haven't had a single glitch with the service, I can get my mail anywhere in the world at any time using one of the best web mail clients around, and even have the option to download my mail into a mail client using the POP3 connection. Even the GUI can be branded to a degree with a corporate logo.

Bolted on top of this main service is Calendaring (which may warrant a review of its own), and chat. The calendar is incredibly easy to use, has cell phone integration - that works with Canadian carriers - and map services from Google maps .

For a small firm I can't think of a better option. As an added benefit you could use this as a DR mail service. Setup your hosting provider with all mail accounts, and then use the automated spreadsheet option to do the same in Google. In the event of a major outage to your hosting provider your mail is still available with a simple DNS change. I think you'll find with a little time on the service that it will be your primary solution using your hosting provider as the backup system.

Google continues to dominate and impress in the internet space, and for the price, the services they provide are top notch.

What's next for Google? Hmmm, a phone service ala Skype (with in and out numbers and voicemail) would provide the underpinning for the virtual office of the future. You hear that Google?

Trevor Matthews
http://www.tdmatthews.com/
http://www.tdmhost.com/