Do you sit there regularly refreshing the mikull.com homepage waiting for an update? Or have you given up, and only check infrequently? More seriously, are you or have you ever done this with any other websites in the past? We all do- Well there is an answer for you: RSS. Over the past week, I have randomly instant messaged a few readers asking what you all knew about RSS- the common response was “Dude, what the $%&! are you talking about?”- If you are ready, you are going to love RSS.

So what is RSS?
RSS is a special technology used by many news websites, with it you can be alerted of news updates without having to visit the website directly.

You do this by using a news aggregator, this can be a special item of software, a feature within existing software, a plug-in or even a portal website that you already visit. A news aggregator reads a specially created RSS page and presents the headlines in a way that suits you. See the wikipedia entry for a most detailed history and exploration of RSS itself.

Where’s mikull.com’s RSS?
mikull.com has 2 main RSS URLs, they are:

mikull.com blog posts

mikull.com message board posts

Personally, I use the Sage Extension for Firefox, and Thunderbird to read my RSS feeds. Recommended!

Tell me about other news aggregators!
Let’s start with one of the easiest options, the web based aggregator. All of the big portals have versions such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN - and label them a “my page” or “personalised homepage”. The reason they offer this is to get you to return to their website on a regular basis by providing the content you want. These services are normally linked to a free web based email account that you’ll need to sign up for. When adding Content/RSS Headlines, just make sure to search for mikull.com.

Next is software designed for something else but just so happens to also have RSS features. For example Mozilla’s Firefox (a web browser) and Thunderbird (an email client). For Thunderbird you create a new account as if you were adding a new POP account but instead select RSS, then on the folder options use the manage subscriptions option to enter our RSS URLs mentioned at the bottom of the this page. For Firefox you just add the URLs as “live bookmarks”.

Another option is software plugins, Trillian is one of the most popular instant messenger clients and the best example of this. If you own a version of Trillian Pro then look for the News plugin. Once installed just enter the URLs at the bottom of this page into the plugin preferences and whenever we post a news item or review, a small “toaster” box will appear on the right of your screen for a few seconds with a summary of the headline - clicking it will take you to the page on mikull.com.

For a full list of news aggregators click here - including dedicated web and software based news aggregators.

Filed under: Geek, Web Development