Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Migrating Firefox Profile from one computer to another

Recently, I had to get a new laptop at work since the lease on my old laptop had expired and it was acting weird. I transferred the data swiftly using this cord. But Firefox was a big deal since I stored a lot of bookmarks and passwords for some sites on the Firefox. First I tried copying the profiles folder directly but it didn't work and Firefox was giving me the message "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system." Here is how I got it working.

Lets say you want to transfer bookmarks, history, passwords from Computer A to Computer B. Firefox calls it profiles.

On Computer B, install firefox. Go to Windows Run, and type firefox -P. In the next screen click Create New profile, and give a name of your choice. Now go to (C or D drvive):\Documents and Settings\(your user id)\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles. Identify the profile you just created. You need to be able to see hidden folders to see this folder.

On Computer A go to the same location and the contents of your profile to a Flash drive and copy the contents. On Computer B, replace the contents of the profile folder you just created with the contents from the flash drive. Do this when Firefox is closed and you checked in Task Manager that its not running. That's all there is to it. Open firefox on Computer B and its exactly the same as Computer A with bookmarks, passwords and Master password too.

Friday, January 1, 2010

3 idiots - emphasizing the need to follow your passion

Saari umar hum mar marke jee liye,
ik pal tho ab hamein jeene dho jeene dho .....

Saari umar hum mar marke jee liye,
ik pal tho ab hamein jeene dho jeene dho .....

(All our life, we have been dead while we were alive, at least for a moment let us live, let us live..)

Give me some sunshine,
give me some rain,
Give me another chance,
I wanna grow up once again ...

The song above pretty much sums up the entire movie from a student's perspective. The pain in Joy Lobo when he just doesnt get another chance to follow up his passion and commits a suicide, haunts you long after you leave the movie theater. As Aamir puts it, Education is supposed to be about learning and growing wiser and not about cramming some lines from a textbook for an exam. In our search for riches and society-defined comfortable life, we lose the emphasis in following our passion, the passion that defines a meaning to our life. And yet, we put our children in the same path thinking about what Mr. Kapoors' and the like would think of our children if they don't become doctors or engineers. And the cycle never ends.

An excellent movie with an excellent emotional and comic mix, 3 idiots touches your heart though it takes some cinematic liberties. At the end of the day, "All izz well"

Do yourself a favor and watch it. If it doesn't make you change your lifestyle and the way of thinking, it will atleast make you think for some time about what your passion is and the meaning of life for you is. It will define the importance of following your passion which would be followed by success and not the vice-versa.

At the outset, I think it's a great move by my friend who chose to leave a society-defined great job and comfortable life style in USA to follow his passion through to India. I sincerely wish him all the very best in his endeavors...

And by the way Happy New year 2010 everyone...