[cumbria_lug] RSS

[Schwuk]

Roger Cope said:
> Does anyone have any views on RSS? I keep reading articles that say it's
> going to be the next big thing but on the occasions that I've tried to get
> into it, it hasn't done anything for me...

Been there, done that. In theory, RSS is apparently the saviour of the
internet. In practice, it can be useful but's that as far as it goes.

As far as the technology goes, it is very good, lightweight, and can be
useful - I've written a couple of small systems that use RSS for
(non-realtime) monitoring, and they work well.

In terms of content/link sydication, I can see it's attraction.
Unfortunately, due to it's parentage it too suffers from XML-itis (in
laymens terms - bloat) - an RSS feed can consist of anything from a
collection of links to a full blown copy of the website, sans graphics.

I've experimented with a few readers - Amphetadesk (
http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/ ) was my favorite - but I prefer to
read sites, not summaries, and as I said above, the content varies too
wildly to be 100% useful.

Cheers,
-- 
Schwuk