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next up: CiL

ae-j — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 02:19:24 +0000

I’m attending my very first Computers in Libraries this week & I can’t wait! I’m presenting at a couple of sessions (on IM) and a panel (Dead Tech), and I plan to blog the rest of the conference sessions I attend too, so stay tuned. There are loads of bloggers this year, keep your eyes on the tag “cil2006″, on Technorati, del.icio.us, & Flickr and you won’t miss a beat. And, if you’d like it all in RSS, here’s an OPML file with all the relevant feeds, kindly compiled by Steve Lawson. Thanks, Steve!

Somewhat related is the image above, it’s what my Netvibes looks like at the moment. There’s certainly a lot to love about Netvibes, but one of the best things about it, for me, is the ease with which you can switch up your subscriptions. I use Bloglines as my staple RSS aggregator, but Netvibes as my “event planning” aggregator. At the moment, it’s all ready for CiL, displaying DC weather, the three tag feeds mentioned above, and a bunch of other utilities that don’t change (email, web search, webnote).
[Technorati tag: cil2006]

google reader

ae-j — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 00:21:47 +0000

Google has launched an RSS reader in beta. I haven’t played around with it all that much yet, mostly because it’s slowlikeyouwouldn’tbelieve, also because it wouldn’t play with my OPML file whatsoever. I’ll probably have more to say about it over the next few days, in the meantime, here’s a pretty comprehensive review.

Later: Still haven’t played much with Google Reader, but just discovered The Official Google Reader Blog which I will probably keep my eyes on.

rss readers for Mac

ae-j — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 13:07:45 +0000

I’m pretty well wedded to Bloglines as my aggregator of choice, but lately I’ve been feeling like I should be more on top of what’s out there, especially for Mac (I “switched” in April of this year). So, this round-up and review of Mac RSS readers has been particularly useful and timely.

google homepage

ae-j — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 17:46:43 +0000

I’ve been playing with Google homepage to-day. Here’s a screen shot of mine (particularly liked the Bertrand Russell quote since my library houses the Russell Archives!). Nothing revolutionary here, I haven’t committed to it yet so I’ve only gotten around to adding feeds to my own blogs as a test. In good Google fashion, it’s easy to use and has a pretty clear interface. Apart from that, no real bells and whistles that set it apart from My Yahoo! or any of the other personal portal sites I’ve seen. It’s a step in the right direction for RSS, but otherwise, still pretty limited in scope.

I don’t think I’ll ever use a portal myself (bloglines is all I need), I just love playing with them because they remind me of PointCast, which I just thought was the bee’s knees back in 1997!

libraries, plucked

ae-j — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:58:34 +0000

Pluck, as most of you probably know, is an RSS reader that comes in both Web-based and downloadable varieties. What I didn’t know about Pluck is that they have this little “Feed of the Day” blog going, and (even better) they’ve recently tuned into the fact that libraries and librarians are tech-savvy like you wouldn’t believe:

As you peruse useful, interesting, and fun RSS-enabled sites, you’ll notice something rather extraordinary: librarians really are cool. That may sound surprising (not to librarians of course), but these masters of the information universe are perhaps best suited to finding, organizing, and serving up information in a truly useful way (read.: they serve water in small Dixie cups instead of using the Internet “information fire hose”). [link]

Today’s feed of the day is Shifted, yesterday’s was ResourceShelf, Tuesday’s was bwal.net (aw, thanks, Pluck!), and Monday’s was DocuTicker. All this heady library/librarian lovin’ just makes me trippy (in the best possible way).

Bloglines for lists

ae-j — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 20:27:00 +0000

Geoff posted a handy how-to for subscribing to email lists using Bloglines. I first tried this last Fall on a trial-run before moving all my lists over, and after about a week’s worth of messages from that list, I made the bold move and unsubscibed from all 8 listservs (eight!) on email, and subscribed to them in Bloglines instead. Here’s why:

obvious: a more manageable inbox!

maintenance: don’t have to suspend all lists when I go away

portability: my subscriptions aren’t tied to an email address that I might not have forever

quick-exit: if you’d like to leave a list and can’t locate the “unsubscribe” instructions, simply delete your subscription/generated email address in Bloglines. Caveat: take pity on list moderators! I am one, and therefore on the receiving end of far too many list bouncebacks. So if you’d like to Do the Polite Thing, stick to unsubscribing to a list the old-fashioned, command way (which you can also do in Bloglines). This will ensure positive karma from list moderators everywhere.

for anyone who doesn’t care about the whats and whys

ae-j — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 21:54:00 +0000

Bloglines for Librarians in Three (and a half) Easy Steps.

aggregator reviews

ae-j — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 21:30:14 +0000

That Dave Winer! You might have already found this page, but I only just did. If you’re looking for an RSS reader/tool and are having trouble picking one, most of the majors are reviewed right here.

great, but not for everyone

ae-j — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 22:15:58 +0000

As much as I tout the advantages of RSS, I will admit that I am personally a reluctant RSS user myself. I’ve sampled a few aggregators and have somewhat settled on Bloglines, but I probably only check my Bloglines page twice a week at most. I’m still far more dependant on my blogroll mostly because I tend to find that blog content taken out of the design context just isn’t what I’m looking for. This guy succinctly outlines a few reasons why RSS doesn’t work for him and I’d agree with just about all of them [via lockergnome, ironically taken off my aggregator this morning!]