FeedReader3

I made another attempt at using an aggregator to streamline my web surfing. This time I tried FeedReader3. There are no frills with this. The left side contains the list of feeds you have set up and the right side displays the feed you choose to read.

I used it for a couple months and found it quite user friendly and functional. Adding a feed is as simple as cutting and pasting. Organizing the feeds is easy as well with the folder setup. If the feed you are reading includes pictures, they load very quickly within the applet. You also have the option to open the feed you're on in a browser window. Quite useful if you want to explore the site.

I did have some technical difficulties. Fortunately, they did not involve my computer being taken over by addware as another aggregator is prone to do. Rather, it impacted the functionality of my browser. When I would navigate within my browser I would occasionally experience an unrecoverable error. This only happened when the FeedReader3 was active. I would also receive an exception error in the aggregator itself. I decided to try repairing the aggregator to fix the problem. Unfortunately, when I went to add/remove programs it was not in the list.

It turns out, that the FeedReader3 is installed in the root directory. The only option you have is to delete the program and reinstall it. After deleting the program I no longer experienced the error in the web browser. It has been a couple weeks now and I still haven't reinstalled the FeedReader3. It worked out OK. I found nothing on the support pages of the website about the errors I was experiencing so I am not going to reinstall it. Maybe it was something unique to my system, maybe not. Either way FeedReader3 was not a WOW experience. I can and will live without it.

If I hear about another aggregator that has a strong following, I will certainly give it a try.

E*LEADER - Robert Hargrove

This is an interesting perspective on corporate leadership. The traditional company has everyone working in one location. Ok, maybe that isn't exactly true. These companies often have offices in several locations but, everyone working for them lives near and works in that location. More and more companies are employing people without much consideration to their geographic location. When you are managing a team of people who don't commute to the office, there are some unique challenges you will encounter. Hargrove argues that in order to be an effective leader in this environment there are some fundamental changes to the leadership philosophy that must be embraced.

One of the key changes I took away and am recognizing in my own job has to do with how the leader approaches decision making. Successful leaders in an e-economy need to be "sourcing" leaders rather than "reactive" leaders. Basically, in the traditional leadership profile there is a significant emphasis on understanding what is working, what has worked and how to keep it working. This is reactive. Letting history guide your decision making and influence your creativity. A sourcing leader envisions the future with no concern for history. Often these ideas are initially considered impossible. They have little to no resemblance to traditional processes or models.

In this sourcing style of leadership, the team has a more important role. The team must have more decision making ability. To create the future requires the team to be able to not only think outside the box but be empowered to blow the box up. With this emphasis on changing the culture of the team and the leader, Hargrove envisions companies becoming embattled in "talent wars."

The survival of companies in the e-economy will be more dependant on individual contributors. Getting and keeping the top talent is a critical key to success. Once you have the talent, the real test of the leader begins. Your talent must be able to effectively work together. Your talent must gain shared vision on where they are going. Your talent must trust each other and their ideas. Your talent must be willing to admit that someone else may have a better idea and abandon their competing concept.

This is a very interesting perspective of the leadership role in an evolving 21st century economy. I am employed in a tech firm and we have recently taken action to blow up a support model that has been very effective for 25 years. The new support model we are using has very little recognizable from 6 months ago. It is quite an adventure as we are tweaking and refining it.

I found this book very helpful personally. I have a better understanding of why our company is changing in the manner it is. If you are in a company that is making changes that seem to make absolutely no sense, you might give this book a read. It may not apply but, it just might. And even if it doesn't, the concepts will really make you think.

NetLibrary

I have been travelling a fair amount for work and have found audio books to be a good way to fill those stretches where I cannot find a radio station that appeals to me. My local library subscribes to a couple providers.

NetLibrary allows you to download the audio books and transfer them to your iPod or other MP3 player. The ebooks are delivered in a single file. This is nice if your MP3 has bookmarking capability. You can mark your spot and return to it later. If your MP3 player doesn't have bookmarking capability this can be a pain.

You will need to remember how far into the book you were and then fast forward to that spot if you listen to anything else or if your MP3 doesn't resume from the spot it was shut off at.

I bought a new MP3 player for a trip I recently made to the Philippines. I bought it because it has a battery life of 24 hours. It charges via the USB port on my computer. I loaded a couple books onto it from NetLibrary and was off. Once in the Philippines I needed to charge it so connected it to my computer.

Here is the problem with NetLibrary. The licencing process needs to validate every time the MP3 connects to your computer. Your computer must be connected to the Internet because the licence is not on the computer but is validated against the NetLibrary website. Needless to say, this was more than a little inconvenient.

Personally, I will not be using NetLibrary again. There must be better options out there. If you have any suggestions, let me know and I will give them a try.

RssReader

I have a lot of favorites stored in my Internet browser. I go through them looking for stuff that interests me. That's how they go to be favorites in the first place. As I went I visited a few sites that had nothing to grab my attention. I considered removing them from my favorites but, what if they had something tomorrow that really interested me?

This dilemma has been solved by the aggregate reader programs. These programs allow you to surf your favorite websites without having to actually surf the web. It is a pretty cool concept. I decided I would give it a try.

There are a number of people at work who use these. I spoke with half a dozen people and and got 10 recommendations. Some of my co-workers use multiple programs for this purpose. That is what I get working for a software company. (I am not a programmer, that is why I am asking people about it instead of telling you about my experiences with it for the last 20 years.)

After consulting a few people "in the know," I was no closer to a decision about which reader to use. I decided to let Google choose for me. I typed in "rss reader" and hit enter. 4 of the top 10 hits were for RssReader. One was for Google Reader, of course. Decision made. I downloaded and installed RssReader.

During the installation process it gave me the opportunity to choose some feeds. I chose a few nature feeds from National Geographic, Discovery and such. I also chose some news feeds. And a couple tech feeds. Once it finished installing and launched, it went out and started grabbing articles. In less than 2 minutes there were nearly 600 articles waiting for me to review.

I diligently spent the next couple hours going through my new feeds. I found I had made a few impulsive choices that weren't so good and deleted them. When I was done, I still had enough energy to go through a few of my favorites and add them as feeds.

At least, I thought I did. It said it was compatible with Atom feeds. I had site I almost always find interesting that has the little Atom icon displayed. I read the help files about how to add the feed and followed the instructions diligently. Still, i got the message it could not validate the feed. So I moved to another site with the Atom logo and tried it. Same result. Finally tired, I gave up and went to sleep.

Next day, I decided to give it another shot. 10 minutes in or so, my browser started opening on its own. Sometimes it opened to add ware sites, but sometimes to porn. Most of the time though, my firewall blocked the site. Great. I got a nice malware virus. Thanks Google, this was your recommendation. Fortunately, I have been the victim of malware before and I learned my lesson. I had a system restore point from the previous week.

RssReader...what piece of crap. Avoid it at all costs. Thinking back, none of my co-workers had recommended it.

Henry Rollins Speech for Net Neutrality

Henry embraces the theme that our freedoms are under attack in America. He contends that politicians, media and corporations are leading the assault.

The Internet is the last true bastion of freedom. But not for long. The legislation is just around the corner prevent us from being able to express ourselves as we wish. Sites like this, free today will not be tomorrow. We will be paying AOL and the other providers to have our sites on the Internet. FCC type regulation of content will be right there with it.

I cannot do justice to Henry's speech. The passion he brings to the subject is completely engaging and his language choice is, well, quite pointed.

It is a short rant, only 2.5 minutes. Go watch it on You Tube. See if it inspires you as it has me.