In a previous post I asked for suggestions about what icon/button would be best to allow the user to subscribe to a feed. Well, I think I have finally come up with an answer: get rid of the orange button altogether. Let the browser do the work. For example, both Safari and Firefox can automatically determine if a feed is available by looking at the HTML. Both browsers display a button informing the user that a feed is available. If you click on it, it displays a rendering of the RSS feed. Nice, but not quite there. If I click on it, I want the feed adding to my existing collection of feeds that I am subscribed to.

Browsers need to support a one-click subscription mechanism. The user clicks on the button, they are subscribed. This doesn’t happen at the moment. Flock has a nice feature that allows you to look at an aggregrated view of all the feeds you are subscribed to instead of just the individual feeds.

Obviously this solution depends on all browsers natively supporting RSS, which at the time of writing they do not. Still, it will happen. It’s just a question of when.

I have just downloaded and installed <a href=”http://www.flock.com”>Flock</a>, a new browser based on Mozilla. It has a built-in editor that allows you to post to your blog. It’s easy enough to configure.

If you can read this, it worked.

[Update: as you can see it doesn’t appear to handle HTML correctly. I typed in the HTML for the link by hand but it appears to have escaped some of the characters. Still, it is only a beta version. Interesting idea anyway. I imagine it would be more useful for managing more than one blog.]

Damn I love TRAMP. No, not the kind that hangs around on street corners asking for spare change but the Emacs extension that allows you to edit remote files locally.

To edit a (remote) file do C-x C-f to open a new file and then type /ssh:<username>@<domain>:<path-to-file>

Just read a report commissioned by Yahoo into the current use of RSS. It includes facts and figures about your typical RSS user as well as discussing the various tools used to read feeds etc. I was quite surprised to see that the use of tools such as Newsgator and NetNewsWire is not that prevalent. Could it be that people don’t want to install yet another application in order to read a bunch of feeds?

The section titled, “Awareness and Usage of the XML Button”, was particularly interesting. It’s on page 9. Looks like I am not the only one who thinks that the XML button is not the best way of subscribing to a feed. According to the report only 17% of Internet users have seen the XML button on a site and only 4% have ever clicked on it. It’s important to define the term “Internet user” used in the report. The vast of majority of people that use the Internet are not technical so it is unreasonable to expect them to know what RSS is or what XML means. It is this reason why subscription methods should be developed that make it easy for this type of user to subscribe to feeds. I’m a developer so I know what RSS is and I know what the button is there for but I would not class myself as your typical Internet user.

It’ll be interesting to see how this develops, if it does, over the next few months.

Another great post from Joel Spolsky. It’s good to rant! He does have a point though, particularly about podcasts that are about podcasts. Yawn! Suddenly everybody is a frickin’ DJ. There’s too much crap out there. The description of this podcast sums it all up really.

To quote a quote:

Principal: Mr. Madison, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Billy Madison: Okay, a simple no would’ve done just fine.

Sound like anyone you know?

If you use the tube a lot this may be familiar. Warning: if you are at work you may want to turn the volume down. If you are on the tube, crank it up!

Did you see the headline in the paper the other day about Microsoft signing The Rolling Stones? No, neither did I because I just made it up. “What are you talking about? Microsoft is not a record label”, I hear you cry. True. But what if?

I was listening to Ken Radio the other day when the co-host came up with an idea that I thought was too good not to share. Microsoft ended license talks with four major record labels at the beginning of the week because of the high royalty fees demanded by the record labels. Sounds familiar. You would think with the success of iTunes the record labels would have learnt a thing or two but apparently not. Greed. That’s all it is. It makes me laugh when record companies cite piracy as the reason why sales have dropped etc. Err, no! I think they will find it’s the extortionate prices that they still charge for a CD. I buy most of my music from Amazon and iTunes.

If the record companies won’t play ball, build another stadium. Companies like Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo have the distribution channels, and the cash, so why not create their own record companies? Artists could sign deals directly with the aforementioned companies so there wouldn’t be any issues around downloads; that could be included in the contracts they sign. All they would need to do is hire a few veterans from the music industry, stump up the cash and there you have it: Microsoft Records. Apple is already halfway to becoming an entertainment company anyway, as is Yahoo. Why not notch it up a level?

Here is an interesting blog post about Skype trying to break into China. This is particularly interesting as over the last few months I have read several articles in various business magazines that have expressed similar sentiments: to do business in China you have to partner with a Chinese firm. A lot of businesses talk about China being the next big thing, if it isn’t already, and how there’s a massive opportunity to make money. Sure, but for who? At the moment it appears to be a tightly controlled market in favour of large Chinese firms. I am not saying that there isn’t money to be made in China, I just think it will be a lot more difficult than some people think.

So before you hop on the next flight to Beijing with a suitcase full of your company’s merchandise to sell (which was probably made in China), remember to read the terms and conditions first, oh, and don’t forget to find a Chinese firm to partner with.