RSS feeds

[Wood_workur]

Right After the Switch, somebody posed a thread about RSS feeds in the new forums, but it was lost in the backup fiasco. Could the orgional poster please repost. And what is a good program (for windows98) that will sit on my desktop, and scroll rss feeds from multiple sites, without having to enter them every time I start it (Like ENewsBar. I tried it, but I hated it).

[RodKirby]

Windows 98 - you're kidding?

[Wood_workur]

Windows 98 - you're kidding?

Yeah, you're right. It is really windows 98SE. I might be building a new comp sometime soon for my kids, but after hearing about all the problems with ME, 2000 and XP, not to mention the cost, I have just stuck with 98SE. Works for me.

Now do you know any programs?

[MoldnMaker]

I'm running 2000 Pro, and have been for 4 yrs. What problems? I agree about ME that OS is worthless and very problematic. Was on my comp when I bought it. Worked great for a year and then...........lets not go there. 98SE on the other hand IMHO is a PITA. LOML has it on her comp and it drives me nuts. Have to fix the glitches at least once a month. And it takes me twice as long to do the same task on her comp as it does mine. Compatibility with newer tech and software will become an issue for you soon, if it hasn't already. Upgrade dude, you won't regret it. As for price, look on Ebay for OEM versions. XP or 2000 pro is the way to go if sticking with Windows. I've been reluctant to try the alternatives due to availability of software.

As for the RSS program check Cnet.com and downloads.com they have a variety of readers most are free or free trials. Most also have reviews, so you know what to expect before you download or buy.

[Warren]

I've found xp to be very stable. I built the computer I'm using now last year and made the change then. It's every bit as stable as 98, especially with the service pack installed. Can't help you with the RSS that's an acronym I'm unfamiliar with. Clu me in. The daughter is very knowledgable, she's a tech for an internet provider and might have some information.

[Warren]

Ah! The daughter (swke -she who knows everything) had enlightened me. That however is of no use to you. And, since I understood only every third word or so of her explaination it's of no help to me.

I can onnly suggest this web page: https://www..xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/1...-into-xml.html

Hope this helps.

[Wood_workur]

Okay, I found a good program, and I think we should end the discussions about my os (for safety's sake). All i need now is the link for the RSS feeds from BT3central.

[linear]

Hey Alex, I think I was the original poster.

There is a single overall feed for the board, and that's currently the only one advertised. Firefox users will see a feed link in the address bar.
http://www.bt3central.com/external.php?type=rss

There's also an RSS2 feed available, and this is almost certainly the one you want, since there's little detail in the first one:
http://www.bt3central.com/external.php?type=rss2

You can then proceed to narrow the feed down to a single forum by supplying an additional parameter for the board ID. This example shows member classifieds only:
http://www.bt3central.com/external.p...s2&forumids=26

Note that the forums software is abbreviating these longer feed URLs. Make sure to copy the link, not just the text.

reading RSS in Firefox
Firefox supports reading RSS feeds, both "out-of-the-box" through the live bookmark feature, and through using extensions.

Since the only "advertised" feed is the overall forum feed, it's a little harder than it should be to consume the BT3Central feeds in firefox as live bookmarks.

reading RSS in Thunderbird (my preferred method)
Thunderbird is an email client with built-in RSS support. The instructions on the link given are excellent, so I won't tell you all the setup steps.

What you get when you're done is the ability to read the latest happenings on this site (and your other favorite RSS-enabled sites) right in your Thunderbird inbox, as if they were emailed updates. So if you've ever wanted to get email updates when there's new content on your favorite sites, this is the plan for you.

Reading RSS in Thunderbird feels like reading mail, but the underlying technology is RSS feeds. Thunderbird tracks the read/unread status for you like with email, so it's easy to breeze through looking for new items. And you manipulate the messages with familiar tools, so toggling messages between read/unread or setting flags is all just like handling mail messages.

And your saved searches can filter the articles in your RSS feed accounts too. So if you are looking for the latest posts by a forum member, you just need to subscribe to the forum latest posts feed, then save a search that lets you filter down to that member's posts.

And because they look just like mail, you can even forward the items in the feed folders directly to your contacts.

reading RSS in my Yahoo (and this is my suggestion for getting it done in Win98, btw)
If you already have a Yahoo email, you can easily set up a my Yahoo page. Then click "add content" and then "add RSS by URL" and paste in the feed URL for the forum you want to follow. From there you can tweak on the presentation somewhat inside my Yahoo.

the complete list
Here's a list of all the feed URLs you may want:
Member Classifieds
Bargain Alerts
Getting Started
BT3x00 related discussions
Around the coffee pot
Shop Setup, Layout, and Design

Project related discussions
Finished Projects
Tool talk
Turning Talk
Testing forum / Forum related questions
Home Improvements & Maintenance

The other forums mostly don't update enough to have a worthwhile feed.

[linear]

advanced RSS techniques

So there's a couple other tricks possible beyond just using a feed reader to read the boards.

RSS trick #1: simple aggregation
You might have notices that the parameter you pass to select a specific forum is plural. So you can send in more than one forum. If you like to read finished projects and coffee pot, you can do it with a single feed URL:
http://www.bt3central.com/external.p...forumids=23,10

RSS trick #2: persistent searches
I actually mentioned this in the post above without explaining why you'd be interested in doing it. Say you were in the market for a jointer. It turns out that the bargain alerts forum here is an excellent source of hot deals. So you'd save a lot of effort by subscribing to the feed for bargain alerts in Thunderbird (or your favorite reader that does persistent search), and then placing a persistent search for "jointer." This will create another object that looks like a feed, but is really the bargain alerts feed filtered down to just posts that contain your search term. A huge timesaver, especially for high-volume feeds. (bargain/coupon sites that offer feeds are real popular.)

RSS trick #3: repackaging
You can get tools that consume feeds and build web pages out of them, or even just insert a feed into one of your existing pages. I like CaRP for this, but there are other tools. Here's a quick demo of what it can do:
http://linear1.org/bt3-rsstest.php

To build that page, I'm reading the RSS feeds from here, and then building my own (really simple) page from the content. CaRP caches the feed, so this demo is not putting undue load on Sam's server.

[linear]

other RSS feeds of interest

And if there are other feeds you all like, post em in here and share.

Craig's list (local online classifieds with a tool category) has an RSS feed, it's a great one for persistent searching. THe link can be found at the bottom right corner of your local CL page for a category. Mine looks like:
http://kansascity.craigslist.org/tls/index.rss (replace kansascity as applicable for yours)

techbargains.com is great if you are planning a PC or monitor purchase. They have Dell coupons all the time:
http://techbargains.com/rss.xml

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that lets users tag sites they find. You can grab a feed for any tag. Scroll to the bottom of any page to get a feed URL. Here's a few that may interest the forum members:
http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/woodworking << all links tagged woodworking
http://del.icio.us/rss/popular/woodworking << only popular links tagged woodworking
http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/jigs
and so on. You can play around with tags and find things you like--other people hunt down the good sites and put them in del.icio.us for you.

If you haven't tried RSS yet, hopefully this will get you interested.

[Wood_workur]

yeah, tanks a million. That is exactly what I wanted.