Several months ago I chanced across the Firefox Weave extension that lets you synchronize your bookmarks (aka Favorites), passwords, (browser) preferences, (browsing) History and even open tabs across multiple Firefox setups. The extension works with both installed and Portable Firefox version 3.5 or later (including 3.7 with Nightly Tester Tools installed) . As well as the mobile Fennec browser!
The initial Weave release was limited to bookmarks and passwords. So after playing around (er, testing) I stopped as I didn’t really find much use for the plug-in. Plus (this is important) I forgot the ID I’d registered with and the passphrase. So there’s probably a copy of my data somewhere on Mozilla’s servers that I (and everyone else) is locked out of!
By default your data is stored on Mozilla’s Weave server. If you are wonderfully paranoid about ‘Big Brother’ and have the technical skills you can roll your own Weave server on LAMP.
Weave has improved a lot since those early days. And in Dec 2009, it has gone from Beta to RC. But some things haven’t changed. Like the authentication interface. If you forget the email account you used to sign up (not a problem with most people but it is for me 
. Or worse (everyone) forget your pass phrase. You are permanently locked out of your account!
Firefox setup is easy. Firefox users can click this link. Just visit Mozilla Labs. Then restart Firefox (which can be bore even though it takes a few seconds). You’ll notice a new status bar icon to the extreme right. That you right click to setup your account. Or if you already have an account to sign in.
New users need to provide an email ID. Then authenticate that it exists. You have to provide a sign-in name and a password. And the first time you sync data a pass phrase as well. The more secure this phrase. The more secure your data.
Once you set your pass phrase you can’t change it later without first deleting all your data. So when registering I highly recommend using a highly secure 16+ character mixed content (i.e. lower & uppercase alphabets, numbers & special characters) phrase. Make sure write it down because if you every forget you won’t be able to synchronize your data.
I recently downloaded and installed the free (for home/personal use) TeraCopy. I was looking for a high speed set and forget file copy utility that didn’t lockup up the host application. In Windows Explorer (XP, Vista, Windows 7) when you initiate a file copy or move, the source Explorer Window is locked. You need to open a second session that then leaches into available system resources: a key issue with all 32-bit Windows that only address 3.5 GB of RAM. Windows 64-bit versions are a bit better. But Explorer is still a memory hog. And even third-party replacements like TotalCommander with file management running as background processes aren’t exactly speed hounds.
I recently invested in a 500 GB portable drive. And had to clone an entire tapped-out 320 GB drive. While Windows 7 file transfer is much quicker than previous Windows versions. transferring 120 GB of archived mail files took nearly an hour. I then switched to TotalCommander with its expert mode Big File Copy option enabled. But transferring another 120 GB wasn’t much faster. And I had to keep (Explorer and) TotalCommander open until the transfers were completed.
I then lucked into TeraCopy Portable Version 2.05. This is not the latest version (2.10) but I really like its ability to queue a long list of files using drag ‘n drop. Then set the destination drive folder. And click the copy button. Before TeraCopy begins a transfer it verifies that the destination has sufficient free space. And displays the total queued file size. You can also add more files to a transfer queue as long as they are being transferred to the same target folder. The Test option is great as it compares source and destination file CRCs eliminating copy errors. A situation that has lost me critical backups in the past when I deleted the source without testing the copy. The Close option closes TeraCopy on queue completion. And Shutdown shuts down the computer when a queue is complete. It would have been nice from within the app’s Options dialog to be able to change the shutdown option to Hibernate which is more work friendly.
TeraCopy also keeps trying to transfer files with errors several times before giving up and trying the next file. Explorer halts losing the queue. You can also pause a transfer mid-way (no such Explorer option). And even skip files (again no Explorer option). But you need to be careful when skipping files. As TeraCopy skips the file being transferred and not the file you highlight from the queue. Pausing a transfer to select files to be skipped causes the active transfer to be skipped and the next file transferred. To process skipped files later requires you first click the Skipped file(s) button (bottom of app window) to remove successful transfers and re-queue skipped files. You then can choose to change the destination folder (if you like) before deciding to Copy or Move these files.
When a transferring is complete you see visual status confirmation with number of errors (if any) encountered. This information can also (in the Portable Version) be written to a log file saved into the app folder.
The Portable Version is limited in that it doesn’t let you enable shell integration making the app either the default copy/move handler. Or add it as an option to Windows Explorer. But you can set it as an alternate file copy/move utility directly into TotalCommander or Directory Opus; a similar Explorer replacement. To enable the missing features you need to install the Standard version. Or the Pro version.
I now use TeraCopy for all transfers between hard drives. To and from portable disks including pen (USB) drives. Overall it seems to get better transfer speeds than Windows or TotalCommander. And my system has more free resources. I have also transferred complete folders. And even clone drives. I haven’t been able to test network copy because my Windows IP stack is corrupt and can’t see other Windows computers on the network. And our file servers run Linux supporting only FTP or SCP (for which I use the excellent WinSCP utility) connections.
Tags: drives, file management, windows
Would you like to send a free Christmas Card through the post to someone you like (or love) in the United States (of America)? Google is offering a free send-a-card-through-snail-mail service at gmail.com/holidaycard. It’s a limited offer on account of “limited Gmail elf availability” and its limited to US addresses only.
The service offers one of 7 card designs. That you can customize with a short (255 character) message.
Way back when Apple too offered a similar free iCard service that let you send customized cards from their collection. Sadly the service was terminated in 2008. Now only Apple users can send cards through their mail program.
Maybe we can blame the downturn for the loss of such free services. But I think its the same infamous ‘bean counter’ at work again. Said counters destroyed the American car industry in Detroit. And paved the way for the rise of Japanese. And Korean. And re-badged Chinese automobiles in the US. And let’s not forget the short-lived Yugo mini car. Maybe the BRIC revenge will continue in the form of the Tata Nano mini car.
Tags: Apple, cars, e-card, free stuff, iCard