Raamenchan

Currently, I’m working on getting styling and portfolio websites online so that I have a place to put all my work. And since that’s not going to get done tonight (at least I don’t think so), I thought I would share some information about RSS and Gravatars for those who don’t know about them already. I actually had no idea about them until I started this blog, but for those who like to follow multiple blogs, I have to say that they’ve made life a lot easier.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is used in many blogs and news sites. To explain it in simple terms, these sites have RSS feeds, which contain all the basic information in each post. You can then use an RSS reader to put all these feeds into the same place and automatically retrieve updates when they’re available! In other words, you don’t have to manually check websites just to see if there are updates or not. It’s all done for you.

The particular RSS reader I use is actually built into the browser I use, called Flock. In case you’re not familar with Flock, it’s a browser based on Mozilla Firefox (which means that Firefox add-ons and extensions work for Flock, too!) that is geared towards social networking. It has facebook, twitter, myspace, an RSS reader, a blog writer, youtube, flickr, etc all kinda built into it. Here are some screenshots of the browser and how the RSS reader works.

If you do decide to use Flock, it comes with a tutorial video that shows how to use it as well. Currently, though, due to the new Facebook update the built-in Facebook function isn’t working. When it does, basically puts Facebook chat and notifications in your status bar so you can keep an eye on things even while browsing different websites!

Granted, Flock isn’t the best for everything. It’s a slower browser than a clean installation of Firefox or Google Chrome, but it can save a lot of effort to keep on top of communication if that’s what you like to do!

Now on to Gravatars. If you want to be more easily remembered, it’s best to have a photo of yourself wherever you make your mark online. That could be on social profile sites like Facebook and Myspace, or it could also be wherever you like to comment on blogs. BUT, it’s honestly a pain to upload images to every single site you’re a part of. Not to mention updating each image if you decide to change the photo.

That’s what Gravatars are for. On Gravatar enabled websites (like this blog), if there’s a place to upload a photo, Gravatar.com will automatically insert your photo if it detects your email. So that way, you can easily change them all at once by logging into your Gravatar account and changing the photo.

Finally, you might also be interested in password managers like Lastpass and Keepass. It honestly is kind of annoying having to type in username and password over and over again, so programs like these help simplify the process. They actually help increase your security, as well. If you get into these, though, put aside a couple hours to figure out how to use them and get them all set up. It’ll pay off immediately once you’re done, but there’s a little time involved with learning how to use the programs.

Hope these tools help! And of course, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help as well.

Categorized as Appendix, Storyline