That Not So Fresh Feeling

Whoops! Looks like the TechMeme snippet finder grabbed the advertising block rather than the more important headline/content block from this Washington Post article about Steve Ballmer and Yahoo!. Stupid computers!

I’ve switched.

I’ve used Google Reader exclusively for a full week and I’m officially hooked. I think it’s successful for a few reasons:

1. The “river of news” view is the first implementation of this view that I think works. It loads fast, it will mark items as read as you skip over them, and you can either skim through using your mouse wheel (which works really well), or by using the familiar ’space’ keyboard shortcut (or ‘j’ if you like it better). I get through feeds much faster now. Much faster.
2. I can use it anywhere I have an internet connection. I can stay synchronized at home, work, and even on my phone. The only place that it wouldn’t come in handy is on a plane (or other place you might not have an internet connection), where a desktop client could download the feeds and store them locally. I think that’s why RSS Bandit will always have a place on my computer.
3. The ability to create a shared list of items you find interesting is ridiculously simple and effective.

It just works really well. I’m hoping it gets moved out of Google Labs and becomes a first-class Google application, since I think it’s a hell of a lot better (and more useful) than Google Groups or even Google Docs/Spreadsheets.

The only thing it’s missing is an API to allow you to sync a desktop client (like RSS Bandit) to Google Reader. That ability would be fantastic: use Google Reader whenever you can, but when you need to log off, you could sync your feeds to your client, take it with you, and then sync back up when you’re done.

I guess favicon support would be pretty good too.

I’m into about day 4 of using Google Reader for my RSS feed reading. So far, so good. I’m getting through feeds much more quickly; I’ve even added a few more feeds because I’ve found it faster getting through feeds in the Reader interface.

Only a couple of flaws at this point:

1. If you keep the Reader open in a tab or browser window, it can seemingly get out of sync. I’ve had a couple of times when the reading window thinks the feeds are read, but the left column doesn’t, and moving back and forth results in things getting weirdly out of sync. I’m guessing it’s just a web-performance issue (as it’s doing a ton of HTTP/XML work everytime you read a bunch of feeds), but that’s something you don’t run into when you’re using a desktop client.
2. I miss being able to highlight/color code certain feeds or search terms. That’d be a nice feature, as right now, feeds aren’t differentiated particularly well when you scroll down.

Otherwise, I haven’t found a reason to move back to a desktop client yet. I’m rather impressed.

I use my RSS reader a lot. Currently, I use RSS Bandit, which I like a good bit. It does RSS very well, and doesn’t try to do too much more, i.e. it does exactly what I need. I don’t need podcatching abilities (though they’ll be there in the next version) since I use an iPod and iTunes does an OK enough job.

It even allows me to do some manual syncing of my home computer with work, by FTPing the data files up to my FTP site, then downloading in the new location. So, I can keep my RSS/information habit under control by checking my feeds every few hours at work and at home, and never get overloaded. It’s crude, but it works well.

Now, one of the things that popped up in my feeds the past week was about the interface and functionality improvements in Google Reader, Google’s online feed reader tool. So, given that I use GMail and GCal, I figured I’d give Reader another shot. I’d tried it when it first came out and found it to be a complete abomination.

I exported my OPML feedlist from RSS Bandit, imported it into Reader, and off I went. The “River of News” view (all stories are sort of thrown together in one long column of news and you scroll through it), which is a view people swear by, but I’ve found cumbersome in every tool I’ve ever used. It’s perfect in Google Reader. Literally, perfect. I had a few hundred items to read when I imported my feedlist, and I just scrolled through them. It marked them as read as I scrolled past. See something interesting? Stop and read it more closely. It works remarkably well and immediately made me realize I could probably add more feeds to my feedlist and move through them more quickly than I do through RSS Bandit. This shouldn’t be construed as a knock on RSS Bandit — I just think that the Google Reader team has nailed the interface. I’m probably going to spend next week only in Reader and see if I like it enough to switch permanently.
Oh, and, like GMail, you can use it from your mobile device (i.e. your cell phone). Again, it just sort of works the way you’d expect, and gives me something to read when I’m grabbing a meal or waiting in line.

Of course, since it’s web-based, I can view my feeds from anywhere. No cumbersome syncing. That’s handy.

The only knock on it, at least so far in a few days of use, is that it’s not nicely integrated into the Google interface, I’ll say. I don’t use the Google Personalized homepage that much (I generally search right out of the search toolbar in Firefox). It’s not part of the upper left nav in GMail or Google Calendar. I know Google Reader is technically still part of Labs, but I’d love if I could customize the Google upper left nav and add/replace links there. A real integration, just as a link there, would make it much easier for me to pop open the 3 Google apps I use.

Hopefully, I’ll check back next week to update on how my switch to Reader has worked. I haven’t even scratched the surface of some of the functionality — like reading lists, where you can mark something you’ve read to share and then publish your reading list (as HTML or as a feed), which is kinda like del.icio.us without tagging. It’s the old link-blog model, but done in a really really easy way.

On to other topics …

I’ve been on vacation this week, with the last few days spent with some friends who came up to visit (and go to a football game that shall not be mentioned). Stories forthcoming. However, it sort of caused me to fall behind on my podcast listening. My RSS-based information consuming habit is sort of overbearing at times, but I’m becoming very good at skimming and not needing to check everything out.

I open iTunes, find 10 podcasts to listen to, and notice that 5 of them are the new Gillmor Gang episode. The show has already started testing my patience with it’s 4.5 minutes of ads to start the show, and another 30 seconds at the end. Sure, I can skip through it with my iPod or iTunes (and I do), but it means that each individual episode is about 20-22 minutes of real audio, broken up into 4 or 5 chunks, and I just find it terribly annoying. On top of that, I’ve just found the content utterly lacking in anything meaningful for probably the past few months. It’s not the Gang of old, with Jon Udell and nice guests talking about identity or groupware. You know, interesting technology discussion driven by the technology and accentuated by the knowledge and personalities of the participants.

Since the move to Podshow, the Gillmor Gang has been pretty much unlistenable and a general waste of time. There’s little insight to be found, as it’s simply a platform for the participants to bitch or proselytize for their meme of the day. I’ve stuck with it, hoping that it would eventually veer back into what made the show great. It hasn’t, and after listening to one chunk of the latest show, I’ve decided I’m done. It’s like 24. I gave it two years and gave up.

Now, what that has done, is reminded me that I most enjoyed the work of Jon Udell on the show. Fittingly, he had left the Gang a while back, and the show lacked his ability to take a new technology and immediately make real world sense of it. It was his explanation (and demo) of del.icio.us that made me go “a-ha” and realize what it was all about. Well, he’s got a weekly podcast that much closer to what the Gillmor Gang used to be, and I’ve dropped the Gang in favor of his show, and I’m smarter for it.

Finally …

For those of you who missed it, I’m trying the podcasting thing. Check out my last post for the details and give it a listen. I realized today that I hadn’t included and obvious link to the podcast feed to add it to your iTunes or your podcatcher of choice, so that’s now linked there. I’ve also submitted it for inclusion in iTunes, so we’ll see how that goes.

I went out after work a couple of nights this week. Good times.

Then I came home.

• 3 movies from Netflix.
• 13+ hours of new stuff to watch on the DVR/TiVo.
• 450+ items in my feed reader.
• 10+ hours of podcasts in iTunes.

I’m slowly working through it all. Thankfully, looks like the weather will cooperate and this will be a nice weekend to catch up on some TV and movies. I get weirdly stressed when this happens. But then I just browse through it, remind myself I’m not really missing out on anything, and I feel better about things. I lead a somewhat puzzling (lame, boring, ridiculously stupid) life.

My friend Greg Joyce made a movie a few years ago when we were working together. It’s a little indie romantic comedy called Working Stiff.

It’s quite funny.

However, being that Greg is neither a Hollywood bigwig, nor related to one, he busted his ass to get as many people to see it as he could. Local film festivals, showings at theaters in Belmont, Arlington, and Newton, and DVDs. The movie was well received and pretty much enjoyed by everyone, but still, if you didn’t know someone, or stumble into the theater on one of the nights it was showing, you never got a chance to see it.

Now you have that chance.

Greg has just opened up Project: Working Stiff, his website/blog devoted to getting the word out …. and letting you watch the movie. The movie is going to be released in bite size chunks via an RSS feed–a video podcast, in other words. Even better, it’s all nicely formatted for the iPod Video. You can also watch it right there on the web page. Brilliant. Flat out brilliant.

Go check it out. Check out the trailer. Go post comments on the blog. Mostly, just go check it out because the movie is worth seeing.

I just finished watching Season One of The Adventures of Pete and Pete which arrived from Netflix a week or so ago. If you’ve never seen Pete and Pete, it’s a show that aired on Nickelodeon in the early-to-mid 90s about two brothers named … Pete. The show started out as some 60 second shorts, which were popular, so Nick said “here’s more money, make some 30 minute specials,” which were more popular, which lead to Nick saying “just make us lots of shows.” And they did, and it rocked.

It rocked because it was this surrealist, absurdist kid’s show, teaching a moral in each episode, but doing it in a style that was edgy for the time (and holds up surprisingly well 10 years later). Topping it off, the creators/writers (who’ve gone onto stuff like Newsradio, Shrek, King of the Hill, and Buffy) worked in as many pop culture references and jokes as they could. What other show would have Juliana Hatfield as a cafeteria worker, Steve Buscemi as a nerdy dad, and Iggy Pop with a recurring role as a dad who acts remarkably like Iggy Pop. It’s the type of show where the family finds a car buried at the sand in the beach, uncovers it, and drives it home … like it’s completely normal.

Watching it now it reminds me a lot of Scrubs. So much so that I don’t think it’s possible to say that Scrubs wasn’t at least partially influenced by Pete and Pete. Both shows about a nerdy character who narrates the show, with a dizzying array of transitions into fantasy/surreal situations, that play as if they’re completely common place. Both shows featuring a soundtrack of the “indie” rock sound of the time, and playing basically with the single camera format.
All of this made me think about how cool it is that a show like this can survive and live on in DVD format. Poking around this weekend, I found that there’s two really cool video podcasts on iTunes that send out an old cartoon that has entered the public domain a few times a week. The coolest one is ReFrederator. A few times a week you download a 5-10 minute cartoon of Bugs or Daffy or Mighty Mouse. It’s insanely cool and a wonderful way to keep those old cartoons fresh. The same idea is done by Vintage Tooncast, though they seem to be focused more on showing things that you wouldn’t see today (because of the racial and cultural sterotypes that were so pervasive). It’s an ingenious use of syndication technology.
It also made me think about how cool it would be if networks did this with more content. Sure, the big networks are putting there shows on iTunes for 99 cents a pop. And Fox has talked about putting shows online with ads for free. All fantastic stuff. However, wouldn’t it be great if networks (especially networks that own most of their own content) put up old shows on iTunes? NBC has done this with some stuff, but I’d love if Nickelodeon let me grab an episode of Welcome Freshmen or Disney let me grab an episode of Duck Tales at my leisure. Pay them $30 and get a weekly podcast of shows automagically downloaded to your computer until they ran out of shows. Or pay the 99 cents to get the ones you want.

Outside of content clearances and figuring out how royalties and whatnot are paid out, there’s not a legitimate reason not to do this. Well, other than fracturing an already fragile television landscape. The first network to really embrace this is going to make lots of money (assuming they do it right).