Have you noticed this icon in the address bar of your web browser?

If you’re not using the Firefox browser, you may not be familiar with that icon.  But if you do, you’ve probably noticed it once or twice, perhaps with more frequency, and may be wondering what it means.

“RSS” stands for “Really Simple Syndication“, and basically refers to a live feed of article headlines which can be published by the owner of a particular website.  If you “subscribe” to a syndication, you will recieve a constantly updated list of headlines that are available on that website.

RSS is non-intrusive – you don’t see the list unless you want to, it doesn’t involve pop-ups or tickers or any such annoyances.  If you use Firefox, you simply save the syndication as a “Live Bookmark” that sits in your “Bookmarks” menu, and when you select the bookmark the menu  expands to show you individual bookmarks to each of the (usually 10) latest stories or articles on that website.

I provide an RSS feed on this blog of my latest entries.  If you have subscribed to my “feed” by clicking on the RSS icon and creating a “Live Bookmark”, you can see (usually within minutes) when I have posted a new entry just by checking your Bookmarks menu.

This is a great way to get news from websites you visit regularly.  Now you don’t actually have to go to the website to check the latest news, you can just see a list of headlines.  If something interests you, then you can click the headline to go read the article.

I have several feeds that I monitor regularly.  Maybe some of  you might be interested in these as well.  By visiting these websites and clicking on the RSS icon pictured above, you can save a live bookmark yourself.

I, Cringely – Inside insight from the tech industry – new article once every Friday.
John C. Dvorak – Often amusing, sometimes off-the-wall opinions from another IT industry expert.
I4U News – Tech Gadgets and stuff
Slashdot – Geek-related news stories
AnandTech – Hardware news and reviews
Tom’s Hardware – More hardware news and reviews

There are RSS feeds for ALL different topics and subject matter.  Pay attention next time you’re on your favorite websites, and look for that RSS icon.

The wonderful world of Wikis. When these things first became popular, I thought the idea was completely ridiculous. Anyone can edit anything they want on someone else’s website? I could see certain situations where this might be useful, but in general I thought they were utterly pointless.

I remember the first time I went to a webpage and discovered I could delete the entire page. Don remembers this. I emailed him and said “go check out this public website” that I had just defaced. I did realize at the time that there was a history of edits and that anyone could just go back to the history and restore the page, but it still seemed to me to be a lot of extra work for what benefit?

I guess Wikipedia has proven me wrong. There have been many similar sites that have popped up that make great use of the Wiki concept. One I just came across today is wikiHow. Basically anything you might want to learn how to do is represented on that site. Granted, some of the instructions are not very detailed, and most do not cover all of the little intricacies and pitfalls you will encounter, but it seems like a great starting point for learning something new. At the bottom of each topic is a list of related topics. In the matter of a couple clicks you could be learning how to do something that you had never even considered before.

How about these for starters:

How to get started in Parkour
How to walk on your hands
How to climb a tree with no branches

Have fun!