Improve Your Web Surfing Experience With RSS

What is RSS anyway? It stands for Real Simple Syndication, but it's not all that simple if you don't know what the heck to do.

Here is a little overview of what the point to RSS is. Basically, instead of you visiting web sites the web sites visit you. You run a program on your computer (or use a web application) that is called a news aggregator. As new information is added to a web site, it pops up in your news aggregator. Each web site handles this information a little differently. Either a brief overview is given and if you want more information, you click a link that takes you to the page telling you more. Or, all the information will be in the "feed". What's cool about this is that you don't have to keep going to a web page to see if anything is new. Once something is new, it's brought directly to you.

Most web sites have started to use RSS. Only now are people seeing the value. I myself just started a year or so ago and haven't looked back since.

The first step is to find a news aggregator. I use a program that runs on my PC called FeedDemon. There is a trial if you are interested. But if you want to get a taste, there are a couple free web news aggregators that can be used. Both Bloglines and Newsgator will do the job. Just add the feeds to the web pages you like and the rest is cake. Sometimes adding the url for the feed can be confusing. It's different with each news aggregator. But if you see an icon on the web site that has a graphic (usually orange) that says RSS or XML, right click on graphic and select "Copy Shortcut". Paste that shortcut address into your aggregator when adding a new feed. This method should work with all aggregators. HERE is a link to what some of the RSS graphics might look like.

RSS is being used for many cool things. Podcasting utilizes RSS so you can subscribe to shows. eBay has recently added RSS to their searches. So now as new items are added to eBay under your search, they automatically pop up in your news aggregator without you even trying to look for them. HERE is a search on eBay. You'll see the RSS feed at the bottom of the search.

Think of a news aggregator as a big newspaper. The only difference is you are choosing the information that your newspaper is filled with.

I encourage you to investigate RSS more if you do a lot of web surfing. It'll make the experience much more enjoyable. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me. I certainly don't mind helping you out. You can also find more information HERE.

Subscribe to this blog using http://craiglambert.blogspot.com/atom.xml as the feed url. You'll also see my RSS Feed graphic on the bottom of the right column of my blog. New postings to the blog will automatically pop up in your news aggregator as I release them. The power of RSS!

The Wild & Hoodwinked

So yesterday we hit the theaters and went to see The Wild. Let's just say the people that made the trailer did their job well. Because they sold it to me as something that looked very entertaining. But as you often find, the trailer contained most of the funny parts. Reviews were mainly weak, but we decided to risk it anyway. The story itself really never took off and you kept wishing for more. This is a movie that's probably better for just kids (not entertaining enough for adults) and should just be a rental. Save your money and avoid it in the theaters.

If you are looking for a good movie for both kids and adults I encourage you to check out Hoodwinked when it's released in stores on May 2nd. When I saw this I wasn't sure what to expect. As it turns out it was very funny and entertaining for both kids and adults. Basically it's a spin on Little Red Riding Hood. It's a mystery of sorts in which the story is told from four different people until eventually the mystery is solved. The movie was extremely well done and I was pleasantly surprised. Apparently a sequel is in the works called Hood vs. Evil. I recommend this one even if you don't have kids. :)

Cool Fort

Builders Of Cool Forts

Back when Ken and I were kids we used to always make forts. It appears as though Cade and Cale are in the same boat now.

It's always fun when I see the kids playing together. It reminds me so much of Ken and myself when we were growing up. I even see it when they torture each other. :)

Happy Easter!

Color Me!

Easter 2006 was fun and the kids had a blast. It was your ordinary Easter. We colored eggs the night before. The kids went to bed and then woke up early to open a few gifts and hunt for eggs.

A good time was had by all.

Cade Takes 2nd!

The Happy Karate Student

This past weekend Cade competed in a karate tournament. It was an all day event in which many schools completed against each other. Basically the kids competed in two different events. The first was the kata. In this event the kids perform a karate routine. There is a kata for each belt and the kata is the same for each school. The other event is sparring in which the kids actually "fight" each other under strict guidelines. Of course they wear gear to protect themselves.

The group of kids that Cade competed with ranged from white to orange belt. (FYI... Cade is an orange belt) 15 kids went head to head fighting for trophies. Cade took 2nd in the kata competition. Check out that trophy! Unfortunately, he didn't fair as well sparring. Everyone that competed did get a medal though. We're proud of him.

I also finally uploaded some more pictures to Flickr. Go check them out. :)

How Can This Not Make You Laugh?

This Made Me Laugh

Ok, so if you hadn't heard a C-5 recently crashed here in Dover. No one was hurt, but it was a fairly big deal. The event actually made
national news. Fortunately there were only injuries and everyone survived.

Anyway, a friend of the family sent me this and I nearly wet my pants. Very original! I thought it was worth sharing. :)

Click on the image for a better view.

When It's Good The Cops Pull You Over...

So last Wednesday I was on my way to taking Cade to baseball practice. Shortly after leaving the house Cade said he felt sick. After looking at his face I knew I had to pull over quickly. So I pulled over as fast as I could and got him out on the shoulder. There he puked his guts out a few times. Poor kid. Come to find out he ate a bunch of stuff and had a soda, which we don't normally give him.

Anyway, several minutes later he felt fine and I loaded him back up in the car and headed back towards the ballpark. Cade still wanted to practice and insisted he was ok. I made a turn and suddenly saw flashing lights in my rear view mirror. Thinking they were going to blow by me, I pulled over to the side of the road. But the car pulled right behind me. And another police car behind it. Suddenly 3 Dover Police Officers surrounded my car. At this point Dover PD is actually right down the street. I'm a little confused because I honestly didn't know what I could have done wrong. There wasn't enough time after I made the turn to build up enough speed to be speeding. One of the officers approached the vehicle.

"Is everything alright? I saw you pulled over on the side of the road", he said. Oh, yeah. My son just got sick I said. "Do you mind if we ask him a few questions?" A little confused I said sure, go ahead. So they opened his door and asked him a few questions. First they asked for his name and he said Cade. Then they asked for his last name and he said Lambert. Next they asked him who I was and fortunately he said I was his dad. :) At this point the first officer that came to my window returned. This time he asked for my ID. It was also at this point that the light bulb lit up. They're checking to see if I just stole Cade! Sure enough, they were verifying my name to see if it matched the intel Cade gave up. God bless him for not messing with me or I'd probably be in jail. The officer just stated they saw me put a child in a vehicle in an odd location and just wanted to verify everything was ok and then sent me on my way.

I was kinda taken back by the situation as it was happening. But once he let me go, I really got it. It's one of those times when you don't mind getting pulled over. What they did was a great thing. If someone had stolen Cade they would have busted the guy.

My hats is off to Dover PD's finest!