What is RSS?

Blogging veterans will already know all about RSS and its uses, however if your new to blog reading you’ll see lots of mention of RSS and maybe wonder what it is. Before writing this article I wasn’t 100% sure as to exactly what it was so I did a bit of digging around to find out more.

Basic Definition
A RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is universal system that allows websites publishing regularly updating content, to provide an option to subscribe to the RSS feed associated with that content and receive updates as and when new content is published. These RSS feeds are usually used in conjunction with an RSS Reader of some kind, (e.g. Google Reader) which allows the subscriber to receive content from multiple feeds.

Why subscribe to RSS feeds?
The main advantage of the RSS system, only really becomes apparent if you want to check multiple different content sources, such as news sites and blogs. Conventionally you would bookmark these web pages and visit the individual sites every so often to read their latest articles. However when you amass a list of different sites who’s content you wish to regularly check up on this becomes impractical, because loading each website and searching to find the information you want takes time.

Hence having a RSS feed deliver you the latest content from all your favorite websites direct to your reader, allows you to quickly and easily scan through new content and decide what to read and what to ignore. Feed readers update regularly, checking for new content usually every 10 minutes or so. This means you get the content and news almost immediately after it has been published.

Another advantage of online feed readers, (also known as aggregators), such as Google Reader is that you can log into your account from any computer with an internet connection and check all your feeds.

RSS aggregators feed our need for constant information and being up to date (Do you suffer from Infomania?).

Benefits to web publishers/bloggers
Subscribers to your site RSS feed are much the same as subscribers to a magazine. These are your loyal readers. The more you have the better. It means you have an audience. These loyal followers trust what you write and want to keep up to date with it. This is also why many blogs reward their RSS subscribers with prizes and competitions. A high subscriber count gives a good measure of the quality and successfulness of a blog.

Other uses for RSS feeds
Recently a new breed of website has become popular. These sites have very little if any content of their own yet are immensely popular. What they do is show the headlines from a number of similar or related sites. A great example of this is Alltop. Here under various categories you can see what the key players in each categories latest posts are. Under the category Technology, the top of the page shows the latest from popular social media sites Digg, del.icio.us and reddit, images from Flickr, videos from Youtube, the latest from popular news sites then the latest from some blogs such as Wired and a load of other sources.

Give it a go
If you are new to RRS why not give our RSS feed a try, simply click on the big orange RSS button, then you can choose to sign up to an online feed reader or you can view feed updates through your web browser. Alternatively you can enter your Email address, (next to the orange button), to receive updates directly to your email account. Experiment and see what works best for you.

If you want to find out more about the history of RSS, read Mark Pilgrim’s What is RSS.

Already amassed a huge RSS feed list? How do you view your feeds?

What is Technology?

Technology is a term that is often used by society today and is most commonly associated purely with machines and various electronic trinkets. However this is just one area, the “high tech” area, that this broad term covers.

The concept of technology actually refers to anything that has been crafted by something or someone to achieve some particular purpose. The earliest man made technological inventions include things like tools made from wood and rocks to assist with simple tasks crucial to survival, such as hunting and keeping warm. Over time the range of technology used by mankind has increased however the fundamental aims remain almost unchanged, (to survive and to make our lives easier). We now live in houses rather than caves and use guns rather than sharp sticks to hunt and fight amongst ourselves.

With the development of modern technology have we forgotten how to use some of the earliest forms of human technology? How many of us could actually use a spear to catch a fish or kill a wild boar? In truth probably not many of us. Do you think this is purely due to lack of practice rather than a disregard for older technologies or in truth have we completely lost these basic instincts?

Maybe it’s in our nature to drop and forget about one form of technology when we devise a newer seemingly better one, but is this always wise? In the current age of capitalism where someone is always trying to sell you something new, it makes sense to be technologically savvy and gain an understanding of what new technology can do for you. You can then decide if you need to buy into a certain new technologies and be aware that there may be alternative, already existent products or methods that are just as suitable, maybe even more so depending on the desired purpose.

Do you always buy the latest most lavish feature packed gadgets, or do you stick to more modest products?

Hello World! – Get Some Gumption

Hello.

Having spent a lot of time sitting around surfing the information superhighway, producing a fairly general purpose web log, (or blog as they are more commonly known), seemed like the natural thing to do, so here we go…

Welcome to Technogumption dot com. This unusual name came as a result of a quick brainstorming session. We wanted the name to reflect the content of the site in some way. Our main intellectual(ish) pursuits can be broadly described as being based on technology and going about the business of life. So we came up with some words that described the blog feel we wanted to achieve, then using online dictionary and thesaurus websites to find definitions and alternative words and phrases, we came up “technogumption”. Technogumption is the amalgamation of two great words, “technology”, (which is fairly obvious, although covers a wider field than most people initially assume), and “gumption”, is a sense of drive, audacity, having the capacity to achieve, etc.

If you have “technogumption” you have the ability to overcome real world obstacles through researching and learning about technology and techniques, from the ground up, allowing you to achieve virtually anything.

We hope you enjoy our blog.