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RSS (Rich Site Summary) is an XML format developed by Netscape that's used to syndicate Web
content. Suppose I wanted to make this column available to other sites, I
could choose what sections were available for syndication, then publish them
using a custom-built RSS script. The possibilities are enormous with the
average choice today being news feeds, event information, project updates,
published content and corporate data.
RSS focuses on pull technology where the client makes an information request
from the host. In email, its push technology that broadcasts a message
regardless of the destination client's ability to accept or process the data
sent. Unfortunately, the global upsurge in spam messages has resulted in the
use of often inexpert filtering. That 9 instances out of 10 will reject or
tag a genuine mail as spam.
This often has a cascade effect with either the source message being deleted
on the server in extreme cases, or rejected as undeliverable. It could also
be routed to a junk mail box (common on Web-based mail services) that most
users don't even look at any more. And the few messages that do manage to
traverse all these dangerous pathways and pipelines, often fall victim of
desktop-computer spam killers. Just a few lucky ones are actually delivered
into your Inbox.
Even the mail re-director service I use for my primary mail is anything but
foolproof. It has tagged mail I expressively signed up for on the basis of
the originating mail server belonging to a spam-tainted cluster, to an ISP
notorious for sending spam, or for being a bit too aggressive in the content
of message body! This all and nothing approach does allow me to check mail
wrongly tagged as spam. But the process is tedious and only seems to work
for a single month. Then the filters appear to reset themselves.
As a consumer you are merely irritated that mail you depend on for
information and knowledge updates isn't delivered. But what about the
hapless publisher who more often than not remains in the dark. And a mail
delivery receipt is not an option. Trust me! All it needs is one
standards-non-compliant mail server to break the chain.
Publishers are turning to RSS that uses either Perl. Or XML to format a
page than when parsed by an RSS reader pulls information from a data store
(or database) and presents it in a Webpage-like format. Since RSS uses pull
technology where the client has to intentionally order the server to make
available content, the risk of spam is reduced to zero. And no, RSS
is not the same as news groups that are a collection of mailing lists where
the messages are arranged by topic (subject). Even the clients used to view
and post messages to news groups have more in common with email than RSS.
Tools of the Trade
Having recently jumped on the RSS bandwagon, I naturally checked out the two
best RSS readers. FeedReader is an open-source software (last updated in
April 2003) that verges on the simplistic. A more advanced version is
target="_blank">FeedDemon (currently in time-limited Beta versions) from
Nick Bradbury. Nick originally owned Alliare Corporation that used to sell
Homesite; the first HTML editor. Alliare was later acquired by Macromedia
whose DreamWeaverMX is still largely based on the original Homesite code.
Nick also developed
target="_blank">TopStyle, a CSS WYSIWYG editor.
The free FeedReader
is in a state of arrested development with no updates since April 2003. The
developer seems to have washed his hands of the project citing a lack of
time. That said, the interface is exceeding simple but you need to manually
add (subscribe to) RSS feeds.
FeedDemon is a good tool for both beginners and advanced users. This neat
tool is laid out like Outlook Express with a channel bar listing RSS
channels available on the left. Clicking on a channel displays its contents
in the upper window on the right (where OE displays messages received).
Clicking an RSS feed displays its contents in the preview pane below. This
information is usually just a brief line with hyperlinks to online content
or a complete article. And the best part about both RSS readers is you don't
need to open a Web browser to view online content. It open within the
preview pane.
What I especially liked about FeedDemon was its ability to define favorite
feeds called News Bins. All you need to do is right-click a displayed feed
to mark it for a News Bin. There's also a set of built-in font and display
styles so you can customize the feed preview. And its very easy to add new
channels, and update existing ones. One day, Nick will become unkind and
make us pay for this tool. But until then enjoy!
And if you don't mind paying $30 but want to use Outlook as a mail client,
plus a news and RSS reader, get
(2 MB, Windows 98/2k/XP, 14-day trial). NewsGator needs the .NET framework
installed as well. Right Outlook uses Outlook Express to view news groups.
Free, Fast, Storage Device
But it's all thanks to an RSS feed from Lockergnome that I learned about a
free RAMDisk add-in for Windows 2000/XP. Christiaan Ghijselinck has
developed a software-based
target="_blank">RAMDisk from an existing Microsoft proof-of-concept
target="_blank">utility. The core difference is Microsoft's version is
difficult to configure. Of course Christiaan Ghijselinck's version forces a
system restart when you change the disk size. But you get up to 64 MB of
disk space. If you want more you have to either pay anything upwards of $10.
Or struggle with Microsoft's version.
Why a RAMDisk? Well, readers who grew up on a diet of DOS will remember how
fast they were. And how often system recovery tools would setup, then load
themselves into a RAM disk so that they could work on the primary (boot)
drive without being affected by anything -- viruses, disk damage -- plaguing
it. Actually, installing both Windows 2000 and XP writes a compressed copy
of the setup files into a RAMDisk. There's more on the efficacies of
RAMDisks
target="_blank">here.
I use my RamDisk (configured to 32 MB) as a scratch disk for both Photoshop,
as well as for the IE browser cache. The disk throughput is incredibly (when
compared to conventional solid state media) fast. I recently tried a CD burn
test using a 5 MB test file with Windows XP's CD writing software. Writing a
CD session from hard drive took about 75 seconds while from the RAMDisk took
less than 57 seconds!
The only disadvantages with RAMDisks are their contents are volatile and the
disk is erased when the computer shuts down or restarts. The RAMDisk size is
a bite taken out of your installed memory. It's fine with 256 MB or higher
systems, but I advise against if for 128 MB computers with Windows 2000/XP
installed. So get your
target="_blank">copy now (667 kB, Windows 2k/XP/2003 Server, free)
G Menon
These are the views of Govind Menon and CIOL does not necessarily subscribe to the same