Introduction to RSS

By now most of you have heard of RSS or have seen the RSS logo / icon on a website.  It is difficult to find a professional website that does not have an RSS Feed option.  This entry will attempt to explain what RSS is and how you can benefit from using RSS feeds for your own website and for getting content from other websites.

So many topics, so little time

I just checked my Outlook Notes.  I still have over 60 older topics to cover before I start getting to more details with newer material.

Items that I intend to cover soon are ...

Filezilla File Transfer Protocol (FTP) app

If you need to use the FTP protocol to upload and download files from a file server, check out Filezilla. 

There are two primary methods of transferring files over the internet:  HTTP and FTP.

Quality WYSIWYG web page editing for Free

Do you need a WYSIWYG web page editor?  Check out Kompozer, an Open Source option for web page creation and editing.

Another Great Blogging Tool

ScribeFire - Fire Up Your Blogging!

I have written about Windows Live Writer a couple of times. It is a great blogging tool.

I have recently found another great blogging tool, Scribfire. Scribefire is a Firefox extension that allows you to right-click on a website and blog about that site. In addition, Scribefire places an icon in the lower right corner of your Firefox screen. Clicking on this icon will bring up the Scribefire editing window.

The Scribefire editor allows you to enter the blog entry without logging into your blog. I am actually writing this blog entry using Scribefire.


Other features include, inserting images and media files. Like Windows Live Writer, Scribefire handles saving drafts for later editing & publishing, tags, and categories.

Click here to download Scribefire.

I love Windows Live Writer

It is quickly becoming an indispensable blogging tool.  Think of it as a Word Processor for blogging.  I can easily start on a topic, then save it for later.  I know Wordpress and Blogspot allow drafts to be saved, but WLW makes it tremendously easier.

One big advantage is that if I want to include the same post (like this one) to my multiple blogs, I can easily publish to one blog then publish to another and another (without re-typing any info).

Graphic Editing Software - GIMP

OK, do you need to create a logo, touch up a photo, create a collage?  Most people think of Adobe Photoshop for these tasks.  In fact, Photoshop is often used as a verb when working with graphics.

Just let me photoshop it to remove the spots from that picture.

If you already have Adobe Photoshop and have knowledge on how to use it, then great.  You have an extremely powerful tool at your disposal.  However, for the rest of us who do not have $500 + to spend on a software program for the previous mentioned tasks, let me recommend GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program).

GIMP is yet another high quality Open Source application.  GIMP's features rival most commercial graphic editing package's.  Some of GIMP's features include ...

• Painting
• Photo Retouching
• Advanced Layers and Channels
• Animated Graphic Formats
• Compatible with an Extensive Array of File Formats
• Allows for plugins to be installed to increase the functionality of the program
• Versions are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac
• Extensive Tutorials are Available Online.

A Better Email Client

So, how to you check your email? 

If you have Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL Mail, etc, you are probably using a web browser to check your email.  If so, this post probably will not concern you (unless you use Gmail). 

Most other types of email will have what is called POP3 access.  If so, you might be using a webmail interface or using an email client. 

The most popular email client in use by PC users is Outlook Express (OE).  OE comes standard with Windows.  It is a decent email client, but often susceptible to attacks (due to its popularity and how it handles emails and attachments).  Others use Microsoft Outlook (as part of the MS Office Suites).  Outlook is a useful program with a lot of features.  Unfortunately, Outlook also has similar vulnerabilities as OE.  Also, some corporate mail systems require Outlook.  Therefore many corporate mail users must use Outlook for their email systems.

For those PC users who want a safer email reader for their POP3 email, the best alternative is Mozilla's Thunderbird.  Thunderbird is an Open Source email client from the same development team who brought us Mozilla Firefox.

Thunderbird has several advantages over OE.  First, it is somewhat safer in how it handles email and attachments.  Second, it includes a RSS Feed Reader (more on this later),  Third, it can be run as a Portable Application (more on this later).  Finally, its data files are easier to locate and backup than OE's. 

By the way, if you are a Gmail user, you can setup your Gmail account in Thunderbird to use POP3 email readers.

Web Browsers

So, what do you use as your primary browser?  For better or worse, you have several choices for web browsing.

• Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera
• Lynx
• Safari

Most PC users are still using Internet Explorer.  However, over the past year I have noticed more and more mainstream PC users begin to use Firefox.  Firefox is my current default browser.  However, it is not my only browser.  I also use Internet Explorer and Opera (depending on my task). 

Why do I prefer Firefox?  Its not because I am anti-Microsoft.  In fact, I like a lot of Microsoft products.  I like Firefox 3's performance and optional plugins to enhance my web browsing.  Thanks to the support of the Open Source Community, there are hundreds of additional plugins for Firefox that add functionality to basic browsing.

Affordable (Free) Audio Editing

If you need to record and edit audio on a PC, you have plenty of choices.  Some are good; some are junk.  Some are fairly inexpensive; others are extremely cost prohibitive to anyone without the last name of Jobs or Trump.

My main audio editor of choice is Audacity.  It is an Open Source (FREE!!!) audio editor for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.