RSS Readers Roundup
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
For anyone not accustomed to RSS yet, it means “Really Simple Syndication”. It’s basically a way for websites to tell the world that they have added new content. Both users and other websites can view the summary of fresh content, and with a feed reader you skip most of the ads… for now.
In my quest to stay informed I’ve tried many a feedreader, but I’ll say right now that Bloglines is working the best for me. The main reason for this choice is that it’s entirely web-based but still has many features of desktop clients. With my desktop pc at home “undergoing maintenance,” I’m forced to live online until I have a hard drive to save everything to again.
Another bonus of an online app: you can always access it. I can be at work or a friend’s place and bring up anything I’ve seen in my feeds. There is broadband almost everywhere I go, so I can even get to the mobile version through my ppc.
Now to cover some of the free rss desktop clients I’ve tried:
I was using Flock’s rss reader until I was forced off of my computer, and it works pretty well. I’m still using Flock for reasons I’ll save for another post, but it was cool having the reader built into the browser I already had open. It’s easy enough to learn that anyone can figure it out, and well integrated with the browser. If a site has an rss feed, it shows up as an icon in the address bar where you can subscribe to it. I also like the ability to see folders down the side and how many new items are in each… something Google Reader is lacking. I do wish the front page would show more than 1 entry per folder however, maybe the newest entry from each feed.
Before Flock I was using Feed Reader, which has recently been upgraded and given a really nice look. It’s a fairly small program with all the standard features and more. Sometimes the pop-up alerts next to the tray are good and other times annoying, but you can customize those. One rare feature in Feed Reader is Smart Feeds, where you can specify criteria much like a search folder in Outlook. The views are also very configurable as shown on the screenshots page.
Next we have my breif stint with Google Desktop’s Web Clips in the sidebar. Depending on your level of interest with RSS, this may be enough for you. While google is scanning through your browsing history it adds rss feeds for websites you visit. This is great for people who don’t want to go through the hassle of finding the rss feed url and adding it and so on. There aren’t any folders to organize feeds, and the posts are displayed as text-only, but its a good light-weight reader.
Google Reader is another web-based application for reading RSS feeds. It has its merrits, but I’d rather use a scroll wheel to go through 20 new posts instead of clicking over and over. Especially if you finish reading a long post that made you scroll the page – then you have to go back up to click on the next post, etc. They probably have keyboard shortcuts by now but I prefer the mouse most of the time. It probably sounds pretty bad, but the rest of the features are pretty strong, such as labeling feeds, starring items, viewing feeds on a cell phone…
I’ll briefly mention a lot of the portal pages are starting to support rss feeds too. I expect this is the most common way for users to access rss as they gravitate to whatever the big companies make them use. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and more are providing users with ways to customize their page and make it worth setting as a homepage.
Another freeware program i briefly tried was Klipfolio, which lives on your desktop and more closely resembles a desktop widget. Personally I prefer a full-fledged reader as opposed to a panel of numbers, but again this might better suit your news needs – it is awful purdy.
This is only the tip of the iceberg summarizing some of the readers, but as you can see there is something for every taste.
Readers:
- Bloglines
- Flock
- Feed Reader
- Google Desktop
- Google Reader
- Personalized homepages from Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google.
- Klipfolio
Tags: Freeware, Software, Web Apps 2.0
MyNote Digital Notepad
Posted by admin | Filed under Gadgets
Here’s another device for the wishlist: a digital notepad. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it looks much more usable than my pocket pc, or a tablet pc. The 1000 lpi display would be fantastic resolution and probably feel the most like real paper. Its not clear whether it uses e-ink or another technology for the display.
I also like how its not trying to fit windows or another os not designed for this purpose. There wouldn’t be much boot time and it would be very stable.
Here’s the description from the manufacturer’s website:
The digital notepad for portable use without any PC. Uses standard Q4 notepads and the supplied standard stylus. In addition, all written information is also stored as digital pages. Post-editing can be done by direct page selection (LCD display) at any time. Easy post-editing via supplied Windows® software. Memory upgradeable via SD cards. Battery status display on stylus and tablet. Max. notepad thickness 13.5 mm (135 sheet). Works up to 20h with one battery set. Ideal for portable use for capturing data. Writing with stylus onto paper notepad plus digital storage. Post-datum changes are possible. 32MB of memory (upgradeable via SD cards)
MS CRM 3.0 Multi-Select Boxes
Posted by admin | Filed under Random
Note: This was posted in 2006 when I was using MS CRM Software. I haven’t been near MS CRM in a couple years and I cannot provide help for the software.
If you were not already aware, MS CRM only lets you choose one value from a select field. The workaround is normally to have one picklist field listing all possible values, and selecting one from that list adds it to the end of a disabled text field containing all the values. However this solution requires that you either have a special option in the list that clears the list, or you have to let users manually delete options, which gets messy. Knowing users, you can’t leave it open to them to modify the text.
I’m still getting accustomed to the methods Microsoft uses in CRM, but I’ve improved on the solution many are using for multi-select fields. My solution builds on this idea with the picklist of values to add to the disabled text field. Note that disabled text fields aren’t normally submitted with crm, but whenever the list is updated it will set that field’s attribute ForceSubmit to true, causing it to save. It also has a picklist for removing values, which lists only the values that are in the text field. I haven’t seen this done before so hopefully this will catch on and make CRM that much more usable.
Edit (Aug 30): I was reminded today that this solution makes global edits impossible for multi-select fields. Adding a value to a multi-select field erases any existing values. The solution normally proposed to get around this is to make a lot of bit fields and have a tab full of checkboxes. I’ve read users prefer to see all options at once, but I don’t like the idea of making 300 more fields.
Tags: MS CRM 3.0
Blog Desk
Posted by admin | Filed under Random
I’m pretty picky when it comes to blogging software, but BlogDesk is working very well with my WordPress blogs so far. I was using Performancing, but I occasionally have crashes with Flock.
BlogDesk has all the standard features of a WYSIWYG editor plus Spell Check and HTML source editing. It even supports uploading images and when you insert one, gives you a lot of control for changing image formats, size and other options. There is a built-in Technorati tags generator and a field just for trackbacks.
One feature that is great for managing multiple blogs is the ability to check off the blogs to send the post to and then the categories in each blog. There are even tabs for editing the post, “more”, and an excerpt.
I’ve gotten so used to these types of programs wanting to live in the tray, but the closest thing with BlogDesk is a quick launch icon – which is all you really need for this tiny app.
ZuluPad Personal Wiki
Posted by admin | Filed under Random
You’ve probably heard of Wikis, and you must know what Windows’ Notepad is. Zulupad is a combination of both, and calls its self a personal wiki. It’s a simple application because it’s all plain text like notepad, yet it hyperlinks to other pages in your wiki as you type – no codes to learn! Store tons of text with links to anything you want. Plus the entire wiki is stored in 1 xml file, and you can save and open the wiki files like any other document.
You could have one page titled Bob and have information about him there. Then whenever you type the word Bob, it will be instantly linked to the page titled the same. Even though it doesn’t use real webpages (making it really fast), there are back/forward/home buttons for navigation, as well as a drop-down box for every page you’ve created.
It sounds like the perfect program, right? Well this is a very basic version, which a lot of people love. It’s the KISS (Keep It Simple, Silly) theory, right? Well as with most basic programs there are a ton of feature requests for things as simple as being able to change the font used everywhere in the program, though you can already change the size of the text. I’d like to see aliases for pages so abbreviations/nicknames go to the same place as the full name, as well as the ability to link to a heading in a page.
I have tried many, many programs to try and organize my thoughts, but this one is the best yet – and free. If I was capable of existing on a Mac, I’d probably already have Voodoo Pad for $30, but for now this program is working great from my USB Jumpdrive.
Tags: Freeware, Software, Web Apps 2.0
