Category: Tools

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that Typepad hosted blogs appear to be remarkably profligate in the way they regenerate their RSS feeds? Last weekend, in what has become typical, I opened up my news aggregator, which is Radio, to discover approximately 1,000 items eagerly awaiting my attention. Of those 1,000 items, nearly half were items repeated multiple times from Typepad sites.

I can’t quite figure out whether this is an interaction between the way Radio and Typepad work or whether it is something more specific just to Typepad. Sure, it would help if I could tell Radio to only poll a site once or twice a day instead of once an hour. But on other sites, Radio appears smart enough to now pull a feed if nothing has changed since the last time it polled a site.

What is it about the way Typepad generates, or regenerates, its RSS feeds? Can someone enlighten me?

UPDATE: Mark Paschal suspects this may be related to the way that Radio handles RDF feeds. And Jenny Levine has also noted the same kinds of problem. For those with more knowledge of these things, here are some typepad feeds that illustrate the problems Jenny and I are encountering:

http://buzzmodo.typepad.com/buzzmodo/index.rdf

http://ernieattorney.typepad.com/ernie_the_attorney/index.rdf

http://reilly.typepad.com/cameronreilly/index.rdf

http://jd.typepad.com/blog/index.rdf

http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/index.rdf

Thought I would give this a try, although all it may reveal is how few people hit this site. We’ll see what the data looks like tomorrow when it updates. You’ll find more information at the project page for HitMaps.

HitMaps comes out of the closet. KMi’s Jiri Komzak has extended the nifty little blog-gutter-tool that you now see along the upper left side of Get Real, which shows you the locations of everyone who has visited this page (after a once-nightly update, that is)…. [Get Real]

I’ve got an old IBM Thinkpad available. With a little rearranging in the study, this could be a worthwhile investment.

Multiple Monitors – put that extra laptop to use.

MaxiVista is out with their new 1.5 version. This new version has a few bug fixes, but also supports up to THREE secondary displays via three other PCs. If you’ve got other laptops or Tablets around, you’ve GOT to try MaxiVista. Don’t confuse it with ShareKMC or VNC.

This is a SOFTWARE DISPLAY ADAPTER that shows up in your Display Properties. Treat it like any other monitor. Here’s my setup. It’s pure sex.

[ComputerZen.com – Scott Hanselman’s Weblog]

All around interesting piece from James Fallows in today’s N.Y. Times. My good friend Buzz gets some well deserved praise for ActiveWords, which I’ve used and recommended for several years now. Here’s what Fallows had to say about ActiveWords:

Tinker With Your Computer, and Reap the Rewards

The most striking improvement in basic computer function comes with ActiveWords, $19.95 for the basic version and $49.95 for the advanced, from a small company of the same name in Winter Park, Fla. Most computer users understand the concept of macros, or shortcuts – abbreviations the computer expands into full words or phrases. ActiveWords applies that concept to nearly everything you would like the computer to do. It lets you create keyboard shortcuts – say, typing “WH” to visit the White House’s Web site – for a wide variety of functions. With just a few keystrokes, you can start a report, edit a specific spreadsheet, address an e-mail message to your brother, place an Internet phone call to the home office, go to a particular Web page or fill out a form. (You press a key to signal that a shortcut is coming, then type the relevant letters.)

This is especially useful for those who, like me, hate using the mouse. I had known about this program for years before trying it seriously; now I regret the lost time. But I figure that its efficiencies give me enough extra time to keep tinkering with the list of shortcuts, until it’s just right.

I’m also using this to experiment with a new tool to support my blogging – Qumana.

I have no immediate need for this. On the other hand, it is cool, which still matters to me even if it does brand me as totally out of touch. Which also makes it worth an entry here.

Online Stopwatch. I’m trying my hand at radio commentary, where time limits are critical. But I didn’t have a stopwatch to use for practice. A little Googling and, presto, I found an online version. It’s actually easier to use than a “real”… [Dynamist Blog]

Although I’ve been using OneNote off and on for several months now, it has still not become part of my default toolkit. For Microsoft it is an excellent early stage product. At the same time, their compelling need to make products that appeal to the broadest possible audience make it feel more homogenous than I would like.

One of the best aspects of OneNote is that it is extensible. If it manages to draw a developer community to it, then it may evolve into something that will become part of the toolkit. This may be a step in that direction.

Update to OneNote Virtual PowerToy. Yesterday, I wrote about the marvelous new OneNote PowerToy by Darron Devlin. Evidently, some users had problems printing from Word. I m pleased to report that Darron has already posted an update to the OneNote driver that fixes the problem. Be… [Working Smart]

One more plus in “Radio”‘s camp. They are about to release atom support for their aggregator. I’m testing it now. It has handled most of the atom feeds I’ve tried. It still chokes on some, but that’s to be expected. More complications to my effort to choose my next blogging environment.

Beta: Atom support for news aggregator in Manila and Radio UserLand. We’ve got a new feature for testing: Atom support for the news aggregator in Manila and Radio UserLand. Before a general release, we would like to invite anyone interested in testing the changes.

You can find the instructions and post any feedback here: Radio UserLand (radio-dev) or Manila (manila-dev). [UserLand Product News]

I’ve been experimenting with making both of these tools part of my default environment. This is for when I need it.

Firefox problem with FeedDemon? Here’s the fix..

If like me you’re using Firefox as your default browser, you may have run into a problem recently when using it with FeedDemon. Several FeedDemon users (and users of other tools that rely on Firefox) have reported that every time they try to use Firefox as an external browser, they get a message that Windows cannot find the URL.

Luckily, a FeedDemon customer posted the solution in the FeedDemon support forum:

1. Open Explorer
2. Select Tools and then Folder Options
3. Select the File Types tab
4. Select Extension: (NONE), File Type: HyperText Transfer Protocol
5. Click Advanced toward the bottom of the window
6. In the Edit File Type window, select open and click Edit
7. Clear the DDE message box (which should contain “%1”)
8. Click OK, Click OK
9. Repeat for File Type: HyperText Transfer Protocol with Privacy

By Nick Bradbury. [Nick Bradbury]