Project Me
Project Me

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FEBRUARY 2004 ARCHIVES


Sharing Bookmarks the iFolder Way

It seems one of the problems that people still grapple with is sharing their own bookmarks between different machines. It used to make me crazy to have my work links out of sync with my home ones, but that was before I came across iFolder (insert whishing sound as Novell iFolder man jumps into frame). It’s a small Windows app that runs in your system tray and syncs files between a network folder and a local directory of your choosing.

A network drive isn’t a new idea, but I’m pretty sure most of the free services have dried up. It looks like iDrive is still in business, but it will cost you $3 a month for 50MB. If you miss the good old days of getting something for nothing, go download iFolder. You can still get a demo account and 10MB of space. It’s not a ton of room, but certainly ample for storing a small bookmark file or folder.

Here’s how to share bookmarks if you’re using Firebird (should work the same way for Firefox):

  1. Install iFolder (duh)
  2. Copy the “bookmarks.html” file from its original location in “C:\Program Files\MozillaFirebird\defaults\profile\bookmarks.html” to your default iFolder directory. In my case, that’s: “C:\iFolder”
  3. Browse to “C:\Documents and Settings[user name]\Application Data\Phoenix\Profiles\default" Replace user name with the name you use to login to your machine
  4. Open the directory ending in “.slt”
  5. Open “user.js” with any text editor
  6. Add the following to the beginning of the file: user_pref(“browser.bookmarks.file”, “C:\[iFolder default directory]\phoenix\bookmarks.html”);” where iFolder default directory is your iFolder home directory
  7. Save and close “user.js”
  8. Repeat steps for each machine you want to sync your bookmarks

Here’s how to do it in IE:

  1. Install iFolder (duh)
  2. Run Regedt32.exe
  3. Select the Favorites value in the following registry path: “HKEYCURRENTUSER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer \User Shell Folders”
  4. Click to select the Favorites value
  5. On the Edit menu, click String
  6. Change the current path to reflect the your iFolder default directory (for example, “C:\iFolder\Favorites”)
  7. Repeat steps for each machine you want to sync your bookmarks

UPDATE (6-21-04): There’s an even easier way to do this now, and it’s cross platform. Whoops, no secure FTP support yet.

February 19, 2004

Back From the Dead

This website has remained dormant long enough. The other day I read a quote that resonated with me: "Better today is greater than perfect tomorrow." Well, this is the "today" version of Project Me.

It's going to look a little sparse around here for awhile until I fatten up the site with some new content. I'll be digging up the old stuff too, so be on the lookout for pictures and stories from the 90s! (at least whatever isn't too embarassing or goofy). Going back and looking at your past creations can be a painful and sobering affair.

And now to get this party started, a picture of my cat Ed. Long may he run.

February 16, 2004