links for 2008-06-26
links for 2008-06-25
June 25th, 2008
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links for 2008-06-24
June 24th, 2008
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me too. we’ll see
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browser.cache.disk.parent_directory
links for 2008-06-23
June 23rd, 2008
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links for 2008-06-20
June 20th, 2008
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links for 2008-06-19
June 19th, 2008
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firefox + dropbox = profile synchronization across machines
June 18th, 2008
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UPDATE: I’ve found it useful to store the cache locally. you can do that by adding a new user preference for the cache location with browser.cache.disk.parent_directory.
now that i have firefox 3 running on all my machines i was able to try a little experiment. using dropbox as as central storage repository, i have been able to synchronize my user profiles across multiple machines, mac and pc. it’s not incredibly difficult, and seems to work even with browsers open on both machines.
set up
first, to set this up do the following (the process of backing up a firefox profile can be found here. i have repeated it for convenience:
- pick the machine that hosts the browser whose profile you wish to replicate across machines. close the browser on that machine.
- Locate the backed up profile folder on your hard drive and copy it to dropbox. i put it in the “root”.
- Open up profiles.ini in a text editor (see examples below)
- In profiles.ini, locate the entry for the profile you’ve just moved. i only had one profile per machine. if you have more than one, be sure to reference the correct profile. now, Change the Path= line to the location within dropbox.
- Change the line with the text IsRelative=1 to IsRelative=0.
- Review the changes made and save profiles.ini.
- Start Firefox.
your profiles.ini will look like this (mac version, which is here: /users/[username]/application support/firefox/)
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=/users/[username]/Dropbox/Profiles/[profile-identifier].default
on a pc, your profiles.ini is here: C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox and will look identical except the path:
Path=C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Dropbox\Profiles\[profile-identifier].default
Having opened the browser on the first machine, close it, and give dropbox time to synchronize on your other machines. once synchronization has occurred, open your browser on a second machine. at this point i had some add-ons that were different versions, make and updates necessary, and restart your browser. repeat this process on any additional machines and you are good to go.
now when you go back and forth between machines, not only are your bookmarks and extensions in sync, but your sessions are too. if you always have just one browser open, you can bounce back and forth and pick up where you left off no matter what.
multiple browsers open
so, what happens if you open more that one browser at a time? i tested this a few times, and between firefox session management magic and dropbox file synchronization magic, everything seems to be just fine. on the second browser instance, firefox acts as if your last browser session crashed, and asks if you’d like to restore the prevoius session or start a new one. when i chose “restore previous” i picked up right where i left off. in fact, i was editing this post, wordpress had saved a draft, and when the second browser opened the post was exactly where i left off. pretty cool! when i selected “start new session” instead, i got my default home page, as expected.
managing the chaos
dropbox works nicely with growl, so the entire time i was starting and ending sessions on my second browser (a pc) i would see exactly what files were being updated. i did some additional browser session starts and resumes and observed the following:
- authenticated sessions across browsers were not maintained
- resuming a session on a second machine, closing the browser, then opening it again, did not invoke the restore session dialog. to my understanding, dropbox stores all files locally, and synchronizes each machine with a copy when the network is available. so, given this, a second invocation of the browser runs off the “local” copy.
all told, i was quite satisfied with the results and the ability of firefox and dropbox to manage the chaos. no doubt, opening and closing a bunch of sessions and not allowing dropbox to synchronize the machines will get you in trouble. i would expect as much. however, given my primary use case is to keep extensions and sessions in sync between my home and work machines, this is quite a satisfactory solution. the fact that keeping a browser open in one location does not totally break the second browser instance - so i can leave a browser open at home and recover to some predictable point at work and again when i return home again is quite good enough for me. sure, this solution won’t be for everyone, but i imagine there will be many others like me.
btw, i’ve been using dropbox from a very early beta and am quite pleased with it. i have 2 dropbox invites left. get in touch with me and i’ll send you one, particularly if you have a soocial invite in return :-).
links for 2008-06-18
June 18th, 2008
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the office of the future
June 18th, 2008
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a colleague of mine, ruth kaufman, recently wrote a thoughtful piece on the impact of social networking in the enterprise. i responded with a pithy tweet, everyone - individuals and enterprises - is a brand working in their own self interest. at its best the relationship is symbiotic
yet what did i mean? how did i come to such a conclusion? and what does it suggest for the future of employment?
david brooks, of the new york times, appears weekly on the pbs newshour in a segment entitled “shields and brooks”. brooks is an opinion writer, and i follow him for his opinion. whether i read him in the times or hear him on pbs, it is brooks that i am interested in and therefore he that is creating value. the times, pbs, and others benefit from his presence and have their reputation enhanced by it. brooks is a brand and this is reflected in the segments title - shields and brooks. the situation is not unique to him. celebrities are brands. athletes, actors, and writers all receive opportunities outside of their specialty because of who they are. this is not new. what is new, is that the internet has created a long tail of celebrities. blogs, social networks and open source projects have created affinity groups around heretofore obscure topics, and the individuals who excel in these topics have become local celebrities.
it has been a long road to employee empowerment. the industrial revolution was dominated by the priciples of scientific management put forth by frederick taylor in 1911. until the early eighties, when japanese “just in time” principles empowered individuals to stop the manufacturing line when some process had gone awry, assembly line workers were essentially mindless, powerless, drones whose every movement and output was measured and rated for efficiency. today, this situation is turned on its ear, with employees judging their employers. how can my inbox be full when gmail offers me nearless infinite storage they ask? when they can’t access their email or files and don’t have vpn, they’ll forward their email to a home account or signup for cloud storage and store thier files there. for employers, these improvisations not only create fickle employees, but create security concerns, as customer records and secrets are potentially exposed to the public. consequently, employers must react quickly or lose face with their employees and customers.
with regard to employee retention, employers are threatened by blogs, social networks, and open source projects. while consultants have always been able to establish a personal brand with a client such that their services are requested for subsequent engagements, today’s online services offer many more individuals the opportunity to establish a reputation which can then be parlayed into better working conditions. and for consultants, the opportunity is even greater. establish a reputation, strengthen that brand on a blog or social network, attract your clients as followers and you’ve created a virtual business card. clients no longer have to reach you through your parent agency, they can contact you directly, wherever that may be.
so how should a modern enterprise react? first employers must recognize that these trends are beyond their control. policies that attempt to corral workers and prevent them from doing their jobs better (from their perspective) will prevent them from retaining their best and brightest employees. want a company wiki? create a means for your employees with blogs and social network identities to contribute in the course of their regular online activity. don’t ask them to cross post, or create a new identity, it likely won’t happen. second, harness your employers ambition to your advantage. zappos, an online shoe company, has nearly 200 twitter users. they’ve transformed customer service representatives into consultants. instead of off-shoring this important business function to individuals they’ve never met, zappos has created a way for employees to bolster their own reputation (which they may someday parlay into greater opportunity) and in so doing help them sell more products. moreover, the company pays its employees to quit. in a much publicized story, it was revealed that potential zappos employees are offered $1,000 not to work for them. in the process of empowering workers, they’ve created committed ones. lastly, and this is an idea i want to explore further in a post, employers must create a workplace more compelling than the home office. google does this with services: food, on-site dentists and physicians, daycare facilities. while this makes employees lives easier, it doesn’t help employees do their jobs. think about an employee’s home office. it likely won’t include advanced collaboration tools and emerging technologies. providing access to these types of tools gives employees insights and ideas, and the means to discuss them with each other. enabling these ideas to percolate and blossom will ultimately benefit customers and should create engaged employees as well.
