Dean Nelson

Despite the many softwares that are available today to read RSS content, it seems that very few people – even the truly internet-savvy folks – know what RSS is, much less use it. Never fear, true believers – I’m here to help.

What does RSS mean? Amongst other meanings, it’s commonly defined as Really Simple Syndication. You might see different versions of RSS – 1.0, 2.0, Atom – but they all do the same job.

What does it do? RSS subscriptions (called “feeds”) bring new content to you. Rather than the traditional approach to websites where you have to go to the site to view new content, RSS allows you to bring content from several sources all into one centralized location, thus saving time and energy. RSS feeds are automatically updated whenever a website has new content, saving you the trouble of going to the site to find new content yourself. Like a magazine subscription, RSS brings the content to you – all you have to do is wait for it.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m testing out a new way of publishing posts right now, through an extension called Performancing. The tool, which I discovered through Wil Wheaton’s website, allows you to not only publish directly from a convenient AJAXy half-window (leaving room for all of your other tabs on the top half of the screen) but you can create a free account with Performancing Metrics to track your site’s stats. Not that I get a ton of traffic here, but I love studying traffic and seeing which sites people are coming from.

Top half – browser; bottom half – Performancing.

Read the rest of this entry »

I wish I could set up my computer so that, when I opened new programs, the Autobots logo would pop out towards me from the middle of the screen, then turn around and reveal the Decepticons logo as it shrinks back into the middle. It should make the transforming noise , too. I bet somebody could make a Yahoo! Widget that acts like a dashboard where all programs opened through that widget would have that Transformers effect.

In related news, the Transformers teaser site looks way cooler than I thought it would. I really didn’t think the giant machines would transition well from cartoon to live-action format, but I’d love to be wrong.

I found this cool article on the always awesome Lifehacker that shows you how to upgrade the firmware on your Linksys router. I haven’t done it yet but I plan to tomorrow night; should be good times assuming all goes smoothly. Which always happens.

The upgrade modifies your router’s firmware to the open source DD-WRT, which installs to the router’s built-in flash memory. The new firmware does a multitude of things, but all I really wanna do is boost the signal strength so I can take my laptop to Mexico and still get a signal. Like I said, there are tons of other options for the geek-minded to explore as well.

CDex allows you to take the tracks from your CDs and transfer them – rip them – onto your computer. Setting it up the way you want it can be a little confusing but it’s super easy to use once you get past that. CDex will turn you into a CD ripping machine in no time. Keep in mind that CDex will only rip CDs so if you want to burn CDs then use DeepBurner.

Read the rest of this entry »