Posts from December 16, 2005

another RSS reader for consideration

I am using the Newsgator Online RSS reader and simply want to order my most important, must-read blogs (i.e mine) at the top. It doesnt seem like an unreasonable requirement. From a cursory glance at the documentation, it is not immediately clear if I can even do this in Newsgator. This is a little irritating as I now have to do some work to scroll down to 'Oracle' or rename the folder as 'AAAOracle'. And, yes, you're right, I am very lazy.

Then I stumbled across a blog article on SearchFox which is another Web based RSS reader (like Newsgator) but with an interesting personalisation and recommendation engine which automatically bubbles your favourite, most frequently read articles and blogs to the top of your reading list.

This sounds interesting. It is a pity that SearchFox is another Web 2.0 application that is in beta and currently open to a selected few who must apply for an account. Still, I sent them a polite email citing my recent review and asked for access to evaluate their product. I even used a Gmail address to prove my Web 2.0 credentials. I sent the email yesterday and am now polling my Google Inbox every ten seconds.

I stumbled across SearchFox on a arbitrary blog search on feedster about RSS and it struck me that, in the past, I would use Google (Web, Groups), TuCows, SourceForge, Freshmeat to find OpenSource, free RSS readers.

However most of these sources are relatively out of date and had failed to unearth SearchFox when I was recently looking for RSS readers. The fast moving blogosphere is much better suited to finding these sort of hip, new Web 2.0 applications.

UK edging towards 1984

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Just got my car a shiny, new MOT certificate as an early Christmas present. The MOT certificate is a pre-requisite for renewing the tax disc which expires at the end of the month.

The format of the MOT test certificate has changed and all MOT's will be recorded on a computer system at the Vehicle and Operator Agency (VOSA).

This means that you can now apply for your road tax online as VOSA can also verify that the vehicle is insured using another computer system.

Good news for me. One less trip into the Post Office.

Bad news for car criminals.

RSS feeds from the BBC

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I subscribe to an RSS feed from the BBC about Manchester United.

This feed contains match reports, previews and general news about Manchester United.

However, the BBC has an infuriating habit of throwing in content from the Message Boards which are a forum for 'fans'. Think 5 Live's 606 radio phone-in but worse.

Worse, this article appears in the feed as a new article on 15 December. This is a thread from the '606 message boards - Liverpool'. Newsgator displays the title as 'If Liverpool don't give Chelsea a run for their money this season, then we certainly will soon - DG' and the Web page thread is named 'well played today' referring to Liverpool versus Chelsea.

Why ? What possible relevance does this content have to MUFC ?

so farewell then, Pete and Geoff

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Not many things make me laugh out loud.

Pete Mitchell and Geoff Lloyd on the Virgin Radio breakfast show were very funny.

Now they are leaving. Time to burn a few more CD's for the tedious journey into work.