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Links
Dark Neon :: Back To The 80s
Listen to all 80s Radio
Visit the i80s.com forums
Ruby on Rails IDE
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NOTE: The button above identifies the
80sEmpire RSS feed.
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What is RSS?
RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication'. It's a way of getting
the web sites you are interested in to send new pages (and other
information) to you rather than you having to go back to the web
site to try to find new pages yourself.
How Do You Use It?
First you need an RSS 'reader' application (also known as an 'aggregator').
Once you have this installed you just subscribe to RSS feeds provided
by sites that interest you. These days many big news sites such
as the BBC and CNN provide RSS feeds, which are identified by a small
orange button. Once you've subscribed, your RSS reader will keep
track of your selected feeds and will
let you know when anything new pops up on them.
Where Can I Get An RSS Reader?
There are quite a number of these around for operating systems such
as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Some are free, others you must pay
for. Here are links to a few sources of RSS reader programs.
www.feedreader.com - Free (Windows)
www.feeddemon.com - (Windows)
www.newsfirerss.com - (OS X)
For more alternatives, see the Google Directory
OK, I Have a Reader, Now What?
Every reader will be slightly different so be sure to read any documentation
that come with it. In essence, though, the steps you need to take
can be summarised as follows:
- Find some feeds (look for the orange RSS or XML buttons)
- Subscribe to feeds by copying their shortcuts (the URL or web
address) into your reader.
- Now your reader will let you know when new items are added to
each feed
- Click any items of interest to view the information or its associated
web page
Using RSS In Five Easy Steps
Here is a step by step guide showing how to subscribe to a
feed (such as the 80sEmpire) using FeedReader for Windows...
When you see the orange RSS button (on some sites, it may be called XML), right-click it
and select Copy Shortcut. This will copy the location of the RSS 'feed' - a
file that contains items of information, often about new additions to the web
site. (NOTE: If you just left-click an RSS button, you may cause a
page of complicated-looking text to appear - this is the special format 'XML'
file that defines the feed. The data won't make much sense when viewed like
this!)
Different RSS readers have different ways of adding a feed. With FeedReader
you can just select 'Add Feed' from the File menu.
In the dialog box, paste the address which you copied when you right-clicked
the orange RSS button. In FeedReader you can finish adding the feed by clicking
the Next button.
You can see that the 80sEmpire feed has now been added to the list in the left
window. The reader program will normally check at regular intervals to see
if any new items have been added to the feed. If so, these will be shown
in a list (seen in the top-right window here). When you select an item, a
short text description appears in the bottom right-hand window...
Items usually contain links to specific web pages. Double-click the item in
the top window to display the entire web page in the bottom window. Your
reader application may provide various options to control the display of
web pages. For example, in FeedReader you can right click an item and use
a menu to open the page in a separate web browser window.
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