Computer FAQs & Tips

At some instance, you were browsing Internet elsewhere and wishing you could have your version of firefox (installed at home?) with all your settings at that time so you could do what you ‘d want to do with the browser or just want to use it in the way you were used to be.

OK, there are some guys out there made it possible by recompile or rebuild firefox into a portable version by making a few modifications to the original software. However they are not officially available through Mozilla website. I guess a lot of people are happy with it, but there might be “minority people” would preferred the version downloaded from official vendor (Mozilla) like myself.

“minority people”! I’d like to welcome you to this blog and have a read on “Do It Your own” article. It is possible to make your own portable version and it is very simple to get it done.

Did I say “simple”? Yes it is, and here is how.

Below instruction is basically for Windows users.
Linux users, I am sure you can translate this instruction into a linux a version.

Setting it up

• First, download a copy of firefox from http://getfirefox.com
• Install it to your computer as per normal
• Complete the install with default wizard prompted
• Create these foldersC:\Portables\Mozilla\Firefox
  C:\Portables\Mozilla\_profiles\firefox
  
• Go to your firefox installed directory
  (ie. C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox)
• Select all files (Ctrl + A) and Copy (Ctrl + C)
• Paste them in C:\Portables\Mozilla\Firefox
• Now open Notepad
• Paste the following lineSTART Firefox\firefox.exe -profile _profiles\firefox
• Save as Firefox.cmd into C:\Portables\Mozilla directory
• Done!
• Now take a deep breath to release your concentration before you start your new fresh portable firefox…
• Double click on Firefox.cmd and enjoy

You will notice all your thunderbird profile and inboxes will be saved under C:\Portables\Mozilla\_profiles\firefox folder

Bring it with you

• Get yourself a USB Flash Disk or similar. I personally called it PDD (Portable Disk Drive)
• Copy entire Portables folder (created in previous step) from your C: drive to your PDD
• Use it anywhere by double click on Firefox.cmd
• Your Firefox profile and inboxes will be loaded from [drive_letter]:portables\Mozilla\_profiles\firefox where drive_letter is your PDD drive ( eg. F: )

The installed version of firefox is not needed anymore, you can now uninstall it from your computer and forget about it.

Ever wonder if you can bring your mail inbox with you all the time? no matter which Computer you use, no matter where you are, you can access to your inbox at any convenience time?
If you do, please read on…

Let’s start with answering to some questions below

• Are you using Mozilla Thunderbird as email client?
• Are you using email provider which give facility to POP, IMAP? or using Gmail?

If you answered Yes to all questions above, then this article might make you day a pleasant day.

Here is a simple instruction to make your inbox portable

Setting it up

• First, download a copy of Thunderbird from http://getthunderbird.com
• Install it to your computer as per normal
• Complete the install with default wizard prompted
• If the program starts after installed and ask you to create an account, just say “No” and exit the program.
• Now, create these foldersC:\Portables\Mozilla\Thunderbird
  C:\Portables\Mozilla\_profiles\thunderbird
  
• Go to your thunderbird installed directory
  (ie. C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird)
• Select all files (Ctrl + A) and Copy (Ctrl + C)
• Paste them in C:\Portables\Mozilla\Thunderbird
• Now open Notepad
• Paste the following lineSTART Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe -profile _profiles\thunderbird
• Save as Thunderbird.cmd into C:\Portables\Mozilla directory
• Done!
• Now take a deep breath to release your concentration before you start your new fresh portable Thunderbird..
• Double click on Thunderbird.cmd and start creating your accounts

You will notice all your thunderbird profile and inboxes will be saved under C:\Portables\Mozilla\_profiles\thunderbird folder

Bring it with you

• Get yourself a USB Flash Disk or similar. I personally called it PDD (Portable Disk Drive)
• Copy entire Portables folder (created in previous step) from your C: drive to your PDD
• Use it anywhere by double click on Thunderbird.cmd
• Your thunderbird profile and inboxes will be loaded from [drive_letter]:portables\Mozilla\_profiles\thunderbird where drive_letter is your PDD drive ( eg. F: )

The installed version of firefox is not needed anymore, you can now uninstall it from your computer and forget about it.

When you create a global variable, you are making it available system wide (for all users). It is an alias of a certain command or directory which/where it should be available and can be access from anywhere in the system. For example, you are installing Java Development Kit manually and javac command need to be accessed from anywhere, then you create a variable for java home directory and the alias to javac command.

eg.

alias $JAVA_HOME=/usr/shared/jdk1.5
alias javac=$JAVA_HOME/bin/javac

Below is how to setup the global variables in linux. I am using Ubuntu Server 7.04 at the time I post this walk-through instruction.

The file /ect/profile is a system-wide profile for Bourne shell it’s also compatible with bash, ksh, ash. Edit this file to add your new environment variables.

• type: sudo vi /etc/profile
• Enter root password if prompted
• Add the following lines

  export VARIABLE_NAME=path_to_your_destination

• Repeat this line until you finish adding your variables
• Exit current shell window and re-open (not reboot the machine)
• type: env to list all environment variables that available to your current login,
• You should see VARIABLE_NAME=path_to_your_destination

To test it

• type: cd $VARIABLE_NAME
• It should change current directory to path_to_your_destination

Today, the number of internet domains is exponentially increased and keep counting. There are wanted and unwanted websites/domains to visit. In most case users have no control of how/what page contents are being displayed. Some users can affort to purchase a software which run at the system level to block unwanted contents while some cannot affort or they don’t like to purchase the third party software because of the cost is not reasonable enough.

Well, you don’t have to live with it if you don’t want to. There are some work-around to prevent a certain page content from being displayed while you are browsing. Let’s take advantage of the hosts file and make your browsing experience more pleasure.

Read more about host file

This file contains a list of mappings of IP addresses to host names. You can use this file to block an unwanted or ads site/domains by following a few simple steps below.

Locating hosts file

This will depends on which OS you are using

• Windows 95/98/Me : %windir%
• Windows NT/2000/XP : %SystemRoot%system32driversetc
• Linux : /etc
• Max OS X : either /private/etc or /etc

Backup

In term of files download off the internet, MD5 (Message Digest version 5) is a signature of the that file which available for user to double check to make sure their download file is preserved the orginal bits.
Make sure you check the MD5 key against the original key from the file owner.

I’ve written a small program to check this key signature every time I download file from the internet, It is hosted it at netmd5.sourceforge.net, below is a screenshot of it.

It is an open source program, if you are programmer you can use the source code under GPL License.

Let’s get started,

• Go to Download page
• Download the right package for you, either setup and zip version. Most user prefered setup version so they can install it in one click.
• Install it with prompted wisard
• Run it
• Now put the original key given by the file owner
• Select File as for Source type
• Browse to your file or drag-drop your file in to Source data field
• Click on Make key button
• Now, if the key matched it should give you green color otherwise red color will be painted

Done!
Have a safe download day…

Before you start reading, please make sure you if your computer supports Hibernate feature.

Check if Hibernate option available

• Click Start
• Click Control Panel
• Double click on Power Options
  
• If Hibernate tab appear, mean your computer can hibernate

Enable Hibernation

• On the same window, click on Hibernate tab
• Tick Enable Hibernation (if already ticked, just leave it as is)

Now there are 2 ways to hibernate your computer.
Hibernate with Turn Off Options or Create the Hibernate shortcut
The easy and simple way is to create a shortcut link and keep it at your desktop. So you can hibernate your computer with just one click.

Decide on which option then go a head and make work, below is how:

Hibernate with Turn Off Options

1. Click Start
2. Click Turn Off Computer
3. You should see this
   
4. Press Shift key
5. You should see this
   
6. Click on Hibernate

Create Hibernate Shortcut Link

1. Go to you desktop (Windows key + D)
2. Right click
3. Select New > Shortcut
4. In field Type the location of the item: enter this line below
   %windir%System32rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState
5. Click Next
6. In field Type a name for this shortcut: enter Hibernate
7. Click Finish

Now you have a shortcut link icon on your desktop, when you are ready to hibernate your computer, just double click on it.
Note that, there won’t be any confirmation message. If you accidently double click on it, just wait until your computer is completely powere off, then just power it back on and it will take you to where you were and restore everything to the original state before hibernation.

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