NetNewsJunky (was Re: ::scr semantic)

[Alex Robinson <scr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>I downloaded NetNewsWire and it did not change my life.

Well, as has been pointed out, this isn't semantic web per se, it's just
another delivery mechanism. In fact, in many ways this could be done better
as email (here be trade offs between unnecessary requests and being able to
subscribe and unsubscribe remotely at will)

However, that's only the tip of the iceberg. Brent Simmons has released the
source code for both the rss and opml parts of NetNewsWire. So build your
own. Use it as a front end to your own dipsy/linkbot. Get it to track
sources and go out and find new stuff for you. It's the beginning, not the
end of the process. (Brent Simmons is also a very nice guy and always keen
to hear feedback and feature requests - well at the moment)


>The main reason is that the value of the content depends on how
>people set up their feeds. Some, for example, just have a link to the web
>page and sometimes (if you're lucky a comment). And Slashdot's feed is
>just a headline.

Yep. That is the problem. From the feeds that have no description to those
like Doc Searle who seem to republish their entire live blog complete with
full-on html aberrations to Daypop who root everything via their own
redirect scripts meaning that the URI field is essentially useless.

However, you can always scrape using that information. For instance, I've
got my own scribot feed (sorry it's not publicly accessible and blech will
have an "official" one soon).

And now that the "masses" can get their hands on these feeds I'm sure that
there will be pressure on rss creators to do the right thing.

One of the things I chatted with Brent Simmons about was enabling
preferences for the depth of information you want. Mmmkay?

>Call me a weirdo, but I read sites for the articles, and the headlines and
>index pages are here I scan headlines and standfirsts. It doesn't seem
>worth it to me to use an extra app to fill this function. Seems to me that
>the process than becomes two steps instead of one. Especially when I don't
>find design deciphering and semiotic grokking a huge cognitive load
>(especially because the sites I read regularly are ones I get feeds for,
>and as I've been reading most of them for a while I'm very familiar with
>them).

I hate going to sites and finding that nothing has changed or that there's
nothing there of interest. Especially if the pages take an age to load.

So, back to where you came in Celia... It changed my life - and it took me
2 weeks to stop overdosing on it. Plus I was about to build a piss-poor
version of my own using the CamelBones framework. Now I don't need to, so
lifechange++