Firefox Profiles for Increased Productivity

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I know this is a personal finance site, but occasionally I like to write about my first love... technology. One of my favorite pieces of technology is the Firefox web browser. I like to root for the underdog company for more competition leading to more choice for consumers. For that reason, I've never been a fan of Internet Explorer, even when it looked like Netscape was dead. Thus I have been using Firefox's main code back when it was Mozilla 0.7 (who remembers Phoenix and Firebird? Anyone?).

A few weeks ago, that came very close to changing. Firefox had started to slow on my computer. On a lark, I loaded up Google Chrome and found that it was really fast. So it seems like a no-brainer to switch, right? Well not so fast. I have a lot of extensions for Firefox and I couldn't work the same way with Chrome. Right as I was about to bite the bullet and switch to Chrome, I had an idea. What if Firefox is a little like Windows... the more you use it, the more it slows down with extra junk sticking around pulling resources? If Firefox is like that, perhaps I could clean it. I thought about deleting all history, cookies, many plugins, etc., but then I had a better idea.

I remembered that back in the old days Firefox had something called "profiles". Everyone using Firefox had a profile, but they are often not aware of it. These are kind of like users in Windows. However, Windows shares a single registry and most of the "extra junk" goes there. What was slowing me down was the information in my Firefox profile. Solution: Create a new, clean profile and use that. The result was a fast new Firefox again. The article that I used to help me get started with profiles mentioned that it might be best to have different profiles for different tasks. That's exactly what I decided to do. I created one for general browsing. I then created one for blogging, web development, work, and one that I just label as "fast". The blogging one has bookmarks, saved passwords, and extensions that help me blog more efficiently. The web development one has a number of web development extensions.

There are three main advantages to Firefox Profiles:

• Faster Performance - My "extra junk" is now divided amongst 6 segmented profiles. The general browsing one still gets the most junk, but it's not nearly as bad.
• Increased Focus - Because my work profile is all work-related, I'm not tempted by Evil Mike Reiss and his continuous coverage of the New England Patriots.
• Multiple Gmails at the Same Time - One of my biggest issues with web applications of all kinds is that it's hard be logged into multiple personas at the same time. Want to Tweet about your personal and business life in two different accounts? You'll be logging in and out of Twitter quite a bit. Have a couple of Gmail accounts that you want to keep separate? Same thing. With different profiles, there is a whole new instance of the browser. I can be logged into a Gmail account in my work profile and an entirely different Gmail account in my blogging profile.

The day after setting up my profiles, Lifehacker published this very helpful guide on Firefox profiles. My timing is, as always, very poor. The big take-away in this guide is to get the Profile Switcher plugin. It's a must-have for getting the most out of Firefox profiles.

(Note: Yes, I'm realize that I'm ripping of Lifehacker's title a bit, but I had already started this article before Lifehacker published that guide. I'm sticking with what I had.)

This post deals with:

firefox, profiles

... and focuses on:

Technology Tip

Posted by Lazy Man on March 19, 2010 in Technology Tip

Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss Reviewed

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Tim Ferriss’ Book 4-Hour Workweek has been around for some 2-3 years now… and yet, while it’s right in the Lazy Man wheelhouse, I hadn’t read it until recently. Why didn’t I read it? Here are the two biggest excuses:

I Hate Books – I’d like to blame Ethan Frome for my hated of [...]

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four hour work week, tim ferriss

... and focuses on:

Book Review

Posted by Lazy Man on March 17, 2010 in Book Review

Palm is Dead (and Personal Finance Links)

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I’ve been very bullish on Palm phones in this space and in person. I have found that multitasking adds so much to the smartphone experience. You can’t currently get that out of the box with the Apple IPhone. Google’s Android devices allow for that, but from what I’ve read on Lifehacker, Google [...]

This post deals with:

cell phones, palm

... and focuses on:

Technology Tip

Posted by Lazy Man on March 15, 2010 in Technology Tip

How to Waste $55 in Washington D.C. (Hint: Take a Bus Tour)

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I had never been to Washington D.C. Recently my wife had the opportunity to go for work and I figured this was a good opportunity for me to see the sights. She was able to get a couple of days off of work and on her first day she suggested we go on [...]

This post deals with:

lincoln, smithsonian, washington

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Vacation

Posted by Lazy Man on March 11, 2010 in Vacation

Ask The Readers: Favorite “Speculative” Investment Now?

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With tax season around the corner, I finally got around to opening up a SEP-IRA at Fidelity. (I don’t know what took me so long, the process was very, very quick.) For those unfamiliar with SEP-IRA’s, they are a retirement vehicle for self-employed individuals (Read more about SEP-IRAs here). As income from [...]

This post deals with:

etfs, fidelity vanguard

... and focuses on:

Investing

Posted by Lazy Man on March 9, 2010 in Investing

Personal Finance Links (Blogger Get Together Edition)

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Last night, my wife and I were fortunate enough to entertain a few bloggers at our home. While we typically hang out with The Digerati Life and Stop Buying Crap once a month, this time, a couple of other bloggers dropped by while they were in town. If you are a reader of [...]

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Links

Posted by Lazy Man on March 8, 2010 in Links

Build Your Financial Home Brick By Boring Brick

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Recently I’ve been rocking out to a new song by the band Paramore. If you haven’t heard of them, well they’d probably say that ignorance is your new best friend. In fact, I’ve been rocking to them so much lately that lead singer Hayley Williams has replaced Taylor Swift in the category of [...]

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Brick by Boring Brick, Paramore

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Financial Planning

Posted by Lazy Man on March 5, 2010 in Financial Planning

Don’t Lose Your Shirt in Las Vegas

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If you were wondering why I haven’t posted very much this week, it’s because I spent the weekend in Las Vegas. It was my first trip there in about ten years. It’s a little hard to say which changed more, Vegas or me. It’s probably pretty close.
We went for a friends’ military [...]

This post deals with:

casino, Food, hotel, las vegas

... and focuses on:

Spending, Vacation

Posted by Lazy Man on March 3, 2010 in Spending, Vacation

The Key To Living Frugally

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This guest post comes to you from The Digerati Life, a site that covers financial topics that range from which online brokers to choose, to how you can teach your kids about money. The blog is up for a Plutus Award for best career blog… I encourage you to vote for The Digerati Life [...]

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Frugal

Posted by Lazy Man on February 25, 2010 in Frugal

Can America Learn To Save From My Dog?

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When you think of great minds in personal finance you may think of Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, or Jean Chatzky. You probably don’t think of a dog, but perhaps you should.
A few months ago my dog started doing something I had only read about in children’s books… burying dog biscuits in our yard. [...]

This post deals with:

dog, saving

... and focuses on:

Money Management

Posted by Lazy Man on February 24, 2010 in Money Management