Recently in blogging Category

I'm trying out a new feed reader this week. I wholeheartedly intend to try it all week long, too. I've grown accustomed to using Google Reader for following the blogs, news, and any other feeds I find. However, lately Google Reader's just not doing it for me. I tried the new and improved version of Bloglines, but still was left wanting a bit.

Not long ago, Feed Demon ( a product from NewsGator ) was released as a free download. I kind of spaced it off, but decided to try it out yesterday.

This is a screenshot of Feed Demon in the wild. As you can see, it lists your available feeds to the left in a collapsible pane with the text from the feed in the larger window on the right. A pretty common layout for most feed readers.

Feed Demon allows you to start out with a bunch of popular feeds from various categories like news, entertainment, gaming, technology and gossip. I went ahead and let it subscribe me to all the feeds it recommended as I can always get rid of them later.

You can also add feeds that you subscribe to by importing an OPML file. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to work using the OPML file that Google Reader allowed me to create. So I ended up importing all the subscribed feeds from the Bloglines account since I had used it when I started using Google Reader. That worked just fine.

Certainly, there are times when you want to use a web-based feed reader and times when a desktop reader is more appropriate. The nice thing about Feed Demon is that you can synchronize your desktop Feed Demon with an online account - NewsGator Online. The interface is very much like the desktop version of Feed Demon - although the desktop is packed with many more features. Regardless, either version will be aware of where you left off.

One week without using Google Reader. Is it possible? I'll let you know.

No TV? No problem. There are 120 + links to sites on this page in which you can watch a plethora of videos including streams to popular television series like South Park, Lost, The Simpsons, etc . . .

Photoshopping is definitely an art form. Which one of these 40, top photoshpped images do you think is the best?

If you missed all the controversy surrounding Wikileaks and haven't yet checked out the site, here's a link to Wikileaks.

Economy got you down? Need free stuff? Visit ThunderFap.com. There's loads of free samples and other stuff that you might find interesting.

Looking to boost your health by juicing? You'll find 10 juice recipes that will clean your skin, freshen your breath, as well as many other healthy benefits at HealthMad.com.

I've gone back and forth through the years using Movable Type, Blogger and Wordpress. They each have their pros and cons. When a new version comes out I try to get my hands on it and give it a shot. This afternoon my son wanted his blog upgraded so that he could use tags. He uses Wordpress. Using tags in posts has been around for MT for quite some time, but Wordpress is easier for him to use and he has grown accustomed to it. I don't force change where it isn't needed. Like the saying goes, "if it ain't broke don't fix it." Needless to say, I upgraded him to Wordpress 2.3.1. Seeing an opportunity to try out a new version of Wordpress, without hesitation I prepared my site for the change. So far, here's what I've found if you should happen to decide to move from MT to Wordpress:

• Using Wordpress' import for MT will cause all of the posts you've published under MT to lose their tags and categories. They don't lose any comments and the formatting seems to have worked out just fine. But be prepared to face the consequences of having to go back and re-tag everything you've ever published.
• The categories all get imported. But they don't get applied to the posts. Everything gets thrown into the "Uncategorized" category.
• Links to other posts you've published under the same blog will most likely be broken. So set aside some time to hunt those down and fix them.
• I have yet to find a theme that actually says it is for WP 2.3.1 and has the code for displaying tags rather than categories already in it. ( I had to go hunt it down so that my son could have it on his blog )

So now comes the fun of hunting down a theme and fixing all the broken stuff. I've only had this installed for an hour or two so I'm bound to find more things to complain about.

I imagine I could always re-install MT . . . and I may. Until then, I'll play with this.

In the past I've been subscribed to way too many rss feeds, as I've come to realize. Over the last week I've slowly weeded many of the feeds out of my reader. The majority of these feeds disappeared because:

• There was nothing really captivating. They couldn't hold my attention. I'll admit that's pretty hard to do anyway - if it's not bright and shiny you're already operating at a deficit with me anyway.
• No boobs. Ok, it's not required, but it does hold my attention.
• Too many posts to weed through in order to find interesting stuff.
• It was a blog about blogging or a blog about blogging to make money. I mean, aren't there enough of these by now? And all they seem to do is regurgitate the same information over and over and over again.
• Blogs without personality. Very subjective, I know. But when I read a blog I want to be able to get to know the person behind it.
• Feeds that don't give me the content. If you're putting blurbs ( or excerpts ) in your feed, you can pretty much count on the fact that I unsubscribed. Don't force me to visit your site. Publish the whole post. Make it easy to enjoy your content.

I imagine there will be more to be banished to the circular file in the coming weeks. It was just taking too long to sort through what was interesting and what was not. I also realized I was reading very few feeds and skipping through the majority of them.

I wish I had something insightful, profound, inspirational or enlightening to post tonight. But I don't. Sometimes things just work out that way. Perhaps tomorrow will turn out differently.