Tales of interest

I really like blogs. I read the blogs of my friends, most of whom spend their time moaning about their experience studying abroad (it seems to be a Canadian trait). I read tech blogs, Apple blogs, TV blogs, news blogs and even management blogs.

Naturally, blogs by their very nature need to be constantly updated. Nothing is more frustrating that visiting the same website over and over again just to realize that nothing new has happened in hours / days / weeks. Hence my frustration with maintaining my own blog; I simply don't have the time to write insightful and witty posts twice a day. Or even twice a week, for that matter.

Of course, the beauty of RSS feeds is that you don't actually have to visit a website to check whether there is new content or not. That's the job of your feed reader. Google Reader informs me when Angus finally follows his first post with some elusive thoughts on how to fix a washing machine in Paris. Or when a new movie trailer is available on the Apple website. This means I have to physically visit sites only when there is something of interest for me there.

One of the wickedest recent innovations in Google Reader also allow me to share with you, my reader(s), the cool articles I come across on a daily basis with a simple click. They are displayed in the box on the right titled "Tales of interest". Check it out.

Unfortunately, for most people out there, RSS feeds are still known as "RSS whaaaaa??" and I fear they might be a technological step too far for a certain generation of web users. And when I say generation, I don't necessarily mean old people - it always comes as a surprise to me how many young professionals suck at using a computer, the web, or both, properly (One of my first jobs was in tech support and I often think I left part of my sanity there).

For more info on RSS, check out this BBC guide. Firefox 2, Safari and IE7 (but you don't want to use that) also have integrated RSS support. Look for the orange icon (as shown above) in the address bar...