Friday, May 13, 2005
Safari RSS Contributes to Information Addiction
Unfortunately, I had to remove the RSS folders I had in Safari. For those of you who don’t know. Apple released a brand new operating system (OS) — Mac OS X: Tiger. One of the 200 plus new features and functions within Tiger, was a brand new version of Safari, Apple’s web browser. The new version of Safari, Safari RSS, handled syndicated feeds natively. Basically, this means, that for sites that allow subscriptions, you could be notified immediately of new articles and content added to the site.
Now I manage a ton of RSS feeds. I use MultiNewsReader, a Konfabulator widget for my four main news sites — the BBC, MacDailyNews, Slashdot, and the New York Times— then use NetNewsWire to manage the other 50 or 60 subscriptions. What I had been noticing is that I opened NetNewsWire less and less, not because it sucked (It’s a great app!!), I just didn’t want to open a new application. So when Safari RSS offered the opportunity to not have a new application open (since my web browser is open almost 24/7), I started using this, so NetNewsWire got religated to third place.
Well, after a week of this, I’ve changed my mind. Being able to know if a site has an RSS feed automatically in Safari is GREAT. Being able to read that newsfeed in Safari is FABULOUS! Managing news feeds in Safari on the otherhand is EXHAUSTING. I’ll state up front, this has nothing to do with Safari’s implementation, as opposed to my own obsessiveness.
With MultiNewsReader, whenever a new story pops up, or when the news refreshes itself, it ALWAYS catches my eye. The nice thing about it is the titles are right there, and a mouse over gives me a brief summary, so I can make a decision on whether or not to click on the title. THIS IS MASSIVELY GOOD. Why? Because with Safari’s notification of 5 new articles, 12 new articles, 34 new articles, and little else, I find myself interrupting my work, and even my games, just to see what is being said. Massive disruption. As I said, not Safari’s fault, all mine. I’m certain there are people capable of glancing up, seeing the notice of new articles, and ignoring them for a hours or days. I’m just not one of them.
After I caught myself, breaking off my web reading to, well read the web, I had to acknowledge that Safari RSS exploits my information addiction behaviour. Yes. Yes. My name is Alnisa Allgood, and I’m an information junkie. I’m not proud, but oddly unashamed as well. It just is. I’m not looking for a twelve step program, just better management abilities; and Safari RSS IS NOT the answer.
With the massive amounts of time, I spend in my web browser--reading technology news, nonprofit news, bug reports, software announcements, fan fiction, playing games, downloading television shows, posting content to my web sites, coding or adding new content to client websites, handling purchase request, handling tech support requests, etc., etc., etc. you get it. I’m in my web browser probably ten times more than traditional applications. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point over the last two to three years, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and FileMaker were usurped by Safari, Eudora, Expression Engine (EE), BBEdit, and the iLife Suite.
As it stands today, I typically only open up Microsoft Office products when I’m creating contracts, or end of the year reports, almost everything else gets written in Eudora or Expression Engine. PHP, MySQL, Apache, and the Internet are that tools that drive my day to day work life. I feel useless without an Internet connection. Even when I’m doing research, I take notes in a web browser. Sure I have StickyBrain and NoteTaker, both which I love and use regularly. But less urgently than before. For example, when I’m developing a clients web site, using EE, I just create a new weblog/section on my personal website. This is where I post my design notes, code snippets, thoughts, and self-criticisms about the site, navigation, and my view of the client’s needs. It’s quick. It’s easy! And it’s accessible, regardless if I have my trusty laptop with me or not. Admittedly, FileMaker is still a strong application in my life, but more for client development, than my actual work anymore.
So what was happening was Safari RSS was becoming disruptive technology for me. Having the little notification counting off new messages for me to read, just had me jumping back and forth all the time. So I’ve reorganized my RSS system yet again.
- New RSS System
- MultiNewsReader: Limiting my every 30 minute updates to just four sources works (for me). Also the displaying of the titles, and rollover summaries, provide me with enough information so that I don’t click through for items that aren’t of interest to me (very good for the news addict).
- NetNewsWire: Ranchero software rocks, and NetNewsWire 2 rocks hard. With the given ability to handle my podcast subscriptions as well as my news subscriptions, I’m in information hog heaven. Plus, without the running notice of how much new information there is for me to devour, I can set aside time in my day, currently once in the morning and once in the afternoon, to open, download, and click through items of interest.
- Safari RSS: I still love the RSS features in Safari, but I’ve removed the RSS feeds from my Bookmark Bar. Now I just use the auto-RSS discovery to add new sites to NetNewsWire, or to have easy access to content from sites that aren’t so easy-to-read.
I can’t say, how long this new RSS System will last, but for now, its working.
Footnotes
Other Details
Categories: Technology •
Viewed: 559
Comments: 0
Permalink: http://www.wide-eyed.org/main/article/safari_rss_contributes_to_information_addiction/
Comments
-
Sorry, no comments right now; but you could be the first.