Category: Resources

RSS Feed Full Posts.

A couple of reminders recently to provide readers with what they really want.  RSS Feeds that contain the full post.  It’s now done – isn’t choice wonderful?  You can choose.  If you desire a full post rather than the excerpt, please change your subscription to:

Full Posts (XML) http://www.henshall.com/blog/index2.rdf 

Why is it that MT’s default setting is excerpts?

Makes me think about my own newreader.  I wish I could toggle between full and excerpts.  Even better scan quickly on excepts and then toggle to full posts.  Early on I tried AmphetaDesk and currently just use the Radio one.  Except I get posts that blow its formating from time to time.  Is there a newreader that can improve my experience?  Is there one I can install on my server? That is also easy to do?How does a group go collective newsreading?  A my, yours, ours subscription file? Are there tools mapping subscriptions in this format? 

[Unbound Spiral]

Of course, I updated my subscription list right away. I’ve been tracking Stuart’s excellent observations on the world of knowledge work for a while now. With full feeds it will be that much easier.

Stuart does raise some important points about some needed evolution in RSS feed readers. One tool that I have added to the mix that helps in my “Radio” environment is Mikel Maron’s MyRadio tool. It lets me do some of the things Stuart asks for.

Kevin Kelly’s Recomendo. Before Kevin Kelly was the executive editor of Wired, he edited Whole Earth Review. I became hooked when he took over WER, and loved his Whole Earth book, Signal (which was based on an issue of WER that turned me on to Factsheet Five and the zine world). For the past few months, Kevin has been quietly publishing the wonderful Cool Tools email newsletter. It consists of reviews of “cool stuff”:

I include any books, tools, software, videos, maps, gadgets, hardware, websites, or gear that are extraordinarily handy or useful for individual and small groups. The best items are those that open up new possibilities. I depend on friends and readers to suggest things. Generally I try something out first if I can. I only recommend things I like and I ignore the rest. Tell me what you love. Suggestions for tools better than what I recommend always welcomed.

I bought a first aid kit for my trip to the islands based on Kevin’s review in Cool Tools. You can see all the past picks from Cool Tools on Kevin’s Recomendo site. Also, if you email him, he’ll put you on the Cool Tools list. Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]

Kevin Kelly’s Whole Earth Review was one of my favorite reads. The tools perspective was (and still is ) a powerful one, especially because it demands a level of mutual respect between tool and tool user. Tools are multi-purpose and what you create with them depends on the skill and discipline of the user as well as on the quality of the tool. That’s a lesson that gets forgotten in the marketing speak that makes empty promises of pushbutton ease of use and productivity for nothing.

Turns out that the Recomendo site also has an RSS feed, although it is titles only.

Creative Computing 1976 archive online. Stefan sez, “From the primordial depths of personal computing history: A collection of scanned pages from the pioneering educational/entertainment zine, Creative Computing. I read a lot of these pieces in the original magazines, circa 1976. It has a BASIC listing for one of the very first computer games I ever played, DEEPSPACE. Volume 1 is also available on the site. Look for the advertisement by Roger Crumb!” Link Discuss (Thanks, Stefan!) [Boing Boing Blog]

Lots of great stuff here. For example, look for Terry Winograd’s Reactive Engine paper. Still worth reading and thinking about.

Eradicating bugs & software testing. I’m the kind of guy that software vendors either love or hate: I dive into software to figure out how best to use it for me or my organization. But that also means that I turn up bugs and usability… [Knowledge Jolt with Jack]

Jack Vinson provides some great pointers here to some great resources on software testing.

On a side note it’s good to welcome Jack to the blogging world. He’s been lurking for a while and we’ve finally got him adding his own voice to the mix. Welcome!

Commons Sense. Information Commons has a weblog. Fantastic. [Copyfight: The Politics of IP]

And the RSS feed is here (Commons Sense Weblog feed)

A couple of quotes to pass along. The first courtesy of Adam Curry:

qotd may 28. Thomas A. Edison: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” [Adam Curry: Adam Curry’s Weblog]

The second courtesy of the Dear Abby column in this morning’s Chicago Tribune:

“The story–from ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ to ‘War and Peace’–is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind, for the purpose of gaining understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.” – Ursula K. LeGuin, 1979

Geneaology of computer languges. I'm sure I'm late to the blogosphere with that one, but what the heck, I was away from blogs for the past three days.

[The Scobleizer Weblog]

This is a partial geneaology of programming languages from Fortan, Algol, and Cobol to C#, Java, and Python. I'd take it with a grain of salt (It misses the morphing of Smalltalk into Squeak for example), but it does offer some interesting perspective.

PowerPoint Remix. Edward R. Tufte s The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint Presented in the Form of a PowerPoint Presentation Overview PowerPoint is standard. .. [Aaron Swartz: The Weblog]

A funny and accurate summary of Tufte’s most recent rant against powerpoint. It’s well worth getting your hands on your own copy of Tufte’s essay.

Radio UserLand tech support via RSS. The Radio UserLand discussion group, the best place to receive user-to-user technical support on the software, now is available as an RSS newsfeed. [Rogers Cadenhead: Workbench: Radio Userland Kick Start]

In news we hope you'll appreciate: Corante now offers RSS for its blogs!

Ad Hominem
Amateur Hour
The Bottom Line
Brain Waves
Connected
Copyfight
Corante on Blogging
Got Game
IdeaFlow
In the Pipeline
Living Code
Many-to-Many
Moore's Lore
Open Mind

We'll be adding links to them from the respective pages over the course of the day – please alert me to any hiccups you encounter. Huge thanks to the WebCrimson crew!

[Corante: Corante on Blogging]

Got an email this morning from Hylton Jolliffe alerting me to this great piece of news. Corante has been publishing some great material; now it's readily available to those of us who prefer aggregators to stay current.