Slashdot Log In
What RSS Feeds Do You Use?
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sat Jun 21, 2008 04:14 AM
from the attention-deficit dept.
from the attention-deficit dept.
oncehour writes "I'm looking to broaden my horizons in terms of news, industry information, and generally good-to-know stuff. I've found a lot of great blogs and websites over the years, but I'm wondering what Slashdotters read regularly? What's in your RSS feeds?"
We discussed this back in 2004, but the list of quality feeds has grown quite a bit in the past four years. Try to include at least a minimal description, so we know if we'll be looking at NASA news or up-to-the-minute cowboy boot fashion trends.
Related Stories
[+]
Cool RSS Feeds? 78 comments
mgessner asks: "I'm searching for some new and interesting things to read related to geekdom, humor, the Internet, and all things technological. Normally, I'd search Google for this, but trying to find something like RSS feeds on Google would be like looking for a needle in a haystack: there's just too much to sift through. So, does anyone want to share their favorite RSS feeds (other than our own beloved /.) they'd like to recommend?"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Debian Package a Day (Score:4, Interesting)
The feed for me (Score:5, Interesting)
My list of feeds:
Slashdot main : http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot [slashdot.org]
Obvious Reasons
Linux.com : http://www.linux.com/feature/?theme=rss [linux.com]
Useful tips for using Linux on a daily basis and for my sysadmin job
Lifehacker : http://lifehacker.com/excerpts.xml [lifehacker.com]
Tips for life in general
Hack a Day : http://www.hackaday.com/rss.xml [hackaday.com]
Stuff I wish I had the motivation to do
Google Open Source Blog : http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss [blogspot.com]
Keeping current with The Goog's OSS efforts
Google Summer of Code Blog : http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleSummerOfCodePodcasts [feedburner.com]
Seeing the State of the Program
The Art of Manliness : http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheArtOfManliness [feedburner.com]
Do you really have to ask?
My feeds (Score:5, Interesting)
feeds excerpt (Score:3, Interesting)
Stephan
Some of my feeds (Score:2, Informative)
I use *none* (Score:4, Funny)
If you're browsing as a pastime activity, why would you want to speed that up by using efficient RSS feeds?
Bookmarks ftw!
Re:I use *none* (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:I use *none* (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:I use *none* (Score:5, Funny)
The master will appear when the student is ready
Parent
Google Reader (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't get it (Score:2)
I've tried feeds. I don't read blogs, and when I've tried reading Slashdot or news sites I end up having to click somewhere to read the full article. This seems to be the case for any feed reader I've tried, whether it be on my phone or my laptop pc.
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
With an RSS reader, you simply go to your feed reader of choice (or open your preferred program, or however you get your content - there's hundreds of options) and scan down the list - "Oh, Slashdot updated with three new stories, that one looks interesting, [click]."
Now, say that you want to stay up to date with dozens or even hundreds of sites, and you'll see the benefit of feeds.
Parent
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree with the OP, and am in the "I don't get it" category. I have 3 sites that I visit and check frequently (read: addiction), so it's easier/quicker to hit the bookmark and view the page then use ABC to load feeds, wait for it to update, then I still need to goto the site if it's interesting.
I enjoy this topic because I am hoping that it will expose some new sites to me that I might like.
Your post is valid if you have 20+ sites that you want to keep upto-date on, but I would like to hear your insight on the usefullness of using RSS to view a smaller number.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, say that you want to stay up to date with dozens or even hundreds of sites, and you'll see the benefit of feeds.
Re: (Score:2)
I subscribe to the BBC News, The Register, Ars Technica, OS News and a couple of other feeds. I get a list of headlines, and a short (one paragraph) summary. 90% of the time the headline gives me enough information - just a quick indication that something of note has happened. When I want to read it in more detail, I click on the headline.
Think of it as skim-reading a custom newspaper. Scanning the headlines gives you a rough view of what's going on in the world, and reading the articles gives you more
WHICH feeds (Score:2, Insightful)
China Law Blog, all sorts of interesting stuff about China and IPR. The law is actually pretty good in China, the problem is people don't know how to use it.
Danwei, who are a bunch of pompous self-important Beijing residents, but have some good articles
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Since you're such a language expert, maybe you should tell the guys over at bbc.co.uk to update their material:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/learnit/learnitv175.shtml
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You are in error. The word "which" is used when there is a limited selection. The word "what" is used when there is an unlimited selection.
Thus one would say:
* Which feed is your favorite - slashdot or reddit?
* What feeds are your favorite?
Note that an "unlimited selection" does not refer to infinite choices, rather that the choices are not limited (selected) by the asker.
Feeds (Score:2)
http://en-gb.fxfeeds.mozilla.com/en-GB/firefox/headlines.xml [mozilla.com]
http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot [slashdot.org]
and of course my own
http://www.theinane.com/feed [theinane.com]
Mine (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.cad-comic.com/rss/rss.xml [cad-comic.com]
Stupid webcomic
*Looking for Group
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LookingForGroup?format=xml [feedburner.com]
Webcomic.
*Least I Could Do
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LICD?format=xml [feedburner.com]
Webcomic.
*Linux Kernel
http://www.kernel.org/kdist/rss.xml [kernel.org]
(no explanation)
*NationStates
http://69.60.14.82/cgi-bin/rss.cgi?nation=windhelm [69.60.14.82]
A sort of game where you have to govern a nation. I develops based on the laws you vote.
*Questionable Content
http://www.questionablecontent.net/QCRSS.xml [questionablecontent.net]
Webcomic
*The Book of Biff
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheBookOfBiff [feedburner.com]
Webcomic
*The Perry Bible Fellowship
http://pbfcomics.com/feed/feed.xml [pbfcomics.com]
Webcomic (not updated i a looong time)
*VG Cats
http://www.vgcats.com/vgcats.rdf.xml [vgcats.com]
Stupid and bad webcomic
*xkcd
http://www.xkcd.com/rss.xml [xkcd.com]
FANTASTIC webcomic
*Linux Journal
http://feeds.feedburner.com/linuxjournalcom [feedburner.com]
I dunno why it's in there. I like the articles
*Slashdot
http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot [slashdot.org]
I guess that's about it. I'm going to delete a couple of webcomics though. Some are just too awful.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Feeds (Score:2)
I read a whole bunch, but the best/most useful are:
Digg [digg.com]: Sure, the commentary here is better, but it's nice to know what the Obamanation thinks of the latest political scandals.
Ars Technica [arstechnica.com]: They've got good articles on various technical issues. Relatively low-volume.
Boing Boing [boingboing.net]: Quirky news, with a slant towards privacy concerns, steampunk, and general weirdness.
Wired's Threat Level [wired.com]: Alerts on various privacy issues, as well as other things the government is doing that you don't want them to be.
My suggestions; less obvious yet prob. worthwhile (Score:2)
http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/rss.xml [chaosmanorreviews.com] (Jerry Pournelle, author etc, sort of tech diary)
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default [blogspot.com] (Fake Steve Jobs, 'interesting views')
I've got more but I thought these were less obvious, yet as 'must-have' as theregister and slashdot.
BOFH!! how could I forget... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not a standard theregister-rss-feed, but since Simon only does the BOFH on theregister, it works, and the feed is good for at least a bright smile every Friday.
Feeds (Score:2)
If you insist... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll leave out really common feeds and a few that won't interest many people, but here are the top 25% or so of my feeds:
A Gentleman's C http://gentlemansc.blogspot.com/rss.xml [blogspot.com]
An Angry Professor gripes about stuff
Armchair Generalist http://armchairgeneralist.typepad.com/my_weblog/index.rdf [typepad.com]
Blog by a moderate-left military analyst
Arts & Letters Daily http://aldaily.com/rss/rss.xml [aldaily.com]
Three interesting links every day (actually usually one or two INTERESTING ones)
Breaking News (History News Network) http://hnn.us/roundup/rss_full/41.xml [hnn.us]
Stories about History with a slight conservative bias
Consumerist http://consumerist.com/excerpts.xml [consumerist.com]
Shoppers bite back.
indexed http://indexed.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss [blogspot.com]
Note card humor, usually featuring Venn diagrams
Inside Higher Ed http://feeds.feedburner.com/insidehighered/OxmP [feedburner.com]
Stories from academe, with fairly grumpy comments
Junk Charts http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/rss.xml [typepad.com]
Redraws charts to make data analysis easier
Obscure Store and Reading Room http://obscurestore.typepad.com/obscure_store_and_reading/index.rdf [typepad.com]
Well-known wierd news site with comments
PostSecret http://postsecret.blogspot.com/rss.xml [blogspot.com]
Secrets on postcards, every Sunday. Fascinating.
ReelViews New Reviews http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReelviewsNewReviews [feedburner.com]
My favorite currently-active film reviewer
SCOTUSblog http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/index.xml [scotusblog.com]
Get the skinny on the latest Supreme Court actions
Slashfood http://www.slashfood.com/rss.xml [slashfood.com]
Because I love food
Slate Magazine http://www.slate.com/rss/ [slate.com]
The best of the online political mags; lefty bias
Spluch http://spluch.blogspot.com/rss.xml [blogspot.com]
Always something interesting. Similar material to the extremely popular Boing Boing, but with fewer posts per day.
The Monkey Cage http://www.themonkeycage.org/atom.xml [themonkeycage.org]
Analysis from political scientists. Much better than the usual partisan approach.
The Onion http://feeds.theonion.com/theonion/daily [theonion.com]
Most of the humor is usually contained in the headlines, so I seldom read more
My list (Score:2)
I have quite a few.
Apple Trailers [apple.com] - New movie trailers.
BlizzCast [blizzard.com] - Blizzard podcast, not that great.
GameTrailers [gametrailers.com] - Latest game trailers.
The Perry Bible Fellowship [pbfcomics.com] - Amusing comics though seem dead lately.
Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com] - Enough said.
TED Talks [ted.com] - Insightful talks about many subjects.
Three Panel Soul [rsspect.com] - Mac Hall is dead, long live Three Panel Soul.
Video Copilot [videocopilot.net] - Nice video compositing tutorials.
xkcs [xkcd.com] - Master of all geek webcomics.
Zero Punctuation [escapistmagazine.com] - Game reviews amusing enough you don't need to care about the gam
Re:My list (Score:5, Funny)
Ahh crap, and I spelled xkcd wrong.
Parent
I only read 1 (Score:2)
The only one I read is the one for the Wizards website [wizards.com] so I know when they've updated it.
Make your feed aggregator public ! (Score:2)
Most important one (Score:2)
I have more than 50 feeds in my aggregator (Sage), but easily the most important of these is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ICanHasCheezburger [feedburner.com] .
Off-line RSS reader for Linux? (Score:2)
About the feeds, here are the ones I read the most (I guess almost all are self-descriptive for slashdot reader's).
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I've never tried it on Linux, but you can use Google Reader in offline mode if you install Google Gears.
Photography feeds (Score:3, Informative)
RSS feeds for the photographer geek:
Strobist http://www.strobist.com/ [strobist.com]
Off-camera lighting, and possibly the geekiest popular photography blog around. Give this site a serious look.
Joe McNally http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/ [joemcnally.com]
National Geographic shooter, photojournalist extraordinaire. Less about the mechanics than Strobist.
Flash Flavor http://www.flashflavor.com/ [flashflavor.com]
Insights from a very popular wedding shooter.
The Big Picture http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/ [boston.com]
A blog attempting to fill the shoes of LIFE.
Library of Congress http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/ [flickr.com]
The Library of Congress has been putting their archives on Flickr. Some are slightly dull, but it's an interesting exposure to first half of the 20th century.
These all link to the main site, where you should hopefully be able to find the RSS feed.
My big themed list (Score:5, Informative)
Finance & Economy
Space
Tech
Misc
Thought Experiments (Score:2)
Nigeness - http://nigeness.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com] - acute observation and a connoisseur of many forms of art, a welcome port in the verbiage-strewn seas of the net. Feed = http://nigeness.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default [blogspot.com]
The Lumber Rood at http://elberry.wordpress.com/ [wordpress.com] - why moan about the end of the world and the collapse of civilization whe
Best /. article in a while (Score:2)
And of course the KDE feeds that come preset with Akgregator.
Two (Score:2)
http://truth.gooberbear.com/rss.xml [gooberbear.com]
An ongoing series of arguments against Intelligent Design
http://http//feeds.feedburner.com/Http/ablankpapercom [http]
A Blank Paper: A political blog written by a guy who believes (amongst other things) that political parties are the problem with the American political system.
My RSS feeds (Score:2, Interesting)
Useful information for designing websites; particularly when in it comes to standards compliance and CSS.
An honest blog about living with an electric car, and modding it.
These ones (Score:2)
http://www.wirelesscouch.net/cgi-bin/headlines/headlines.pl [wirelesscouch.net]
isitchristmas.com's rss feed (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.isitchristmas.com/ [isitchristmas.com]
yesterday: no.
today: no.
Paul Graham (Score:3, Informative)
The banality of RSS (Score:4, Insightful)
I was hoping to hear about some interesting feeds that I've been missing out on. Most of the suggestions seem to be in the categories of Comics, Tech/Gadgets, Coding, Politics, Photos.
Meh. Comics can be fun for five seconds, but won't really solve the problem of being online and bored. Tech/Gadgets is interesting a few times a year but not every day. I don't code enough to warrant reading about that unless I'm trying to solve a specific problem. Politics is moderately interesting in an election year, but it's a lot like talking about baseball scores (and I don't think much about sports). Photos are like comics, interesting for about five seconds.
Here's my list of Web sites that I visit daily. Because I'm older (or just less compulsive) I check them manually rather than as a feed:
Slashdot
Ars Technica
Digg
New York Times
Rotten Tomatoes (weekly)
On a good day there's an hour of interesting material on those sites combined. Maybe I need to go back to reading more magazines, books, and newspapers. But in this age of bite-size, instantaneous news at least two of those three seem to be dying.
My Offical Feed List (Score:3, Interesting)
Second Life Blogs - Blogs about the Second Life virtual world. Usually I list these by avatar name.
Political Blogs - This is stuff with a right-wing bent, and is the section that will probably be most responsible for this post being modded down. :-/
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I use a local feed aggregator:
http://thepile.net/woodland [thepile.net]
That's it.
Eating Betty Rules! (Score:2)
Yeah!
I've been playing Eating Betty on my radio shows for years now.
I only have "in Dub", but it rocks!, nice to see newer music.
If you like DUB, then this is for you.
Listen up... I'll be announcing acts tonight (Sat, 06-21) at the Sierra Nevada World Musical Festival.
- Derek Dubwise on KZYX FM
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
On topic, a nice RSS feed-providing website for women I fell in love with recently is geeksugar [geeksugar.com], the gadgets and tech part of the Sugar bloglomerate. A site that's willing to colour coordinate and discuss ARM processors in Android? Yes please!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
On topic, a nice RSS feed-providing website for women I fell in love with recently is geeksugar [geeksugar.com]...