Rising Card Magic App for iPhone
A while back, I wrote a story on various magic tricks you can do with your iPhone, iPad or iPod. Shortly after I posted it, someone let me know that I had missed on. Namely, Rising Card by theory11.com.
Today, I set about rectifying the error of omission by recording this mini video with the help of @davesalter84 (on camera) and Loran from MacStation in Abbotsford, BC.
Rising Card is a simple trick to do and is very convincing. You have your participant name any card, it doesn’t matter which. Then bring out your iPhone and hand it to the participant to launch the app themselves. You don’t even have to be in the room as the participant shakes the iPhone and witnesses their chosen card rising magically from the deck on the iPhone screen.
Rising Card sells for $2.99 US and is brought to you by a professional magic effect supplier—theory11.com.
No Flash? No problem—click here!»From iPhone to your blog to Twitter and Facebook in three taps
This is a little trick I showed to my buddy @JamesProps a little while ago that has allowed him to quickly take pictures with his iPhone, have them posted to his blog at JamesProps.com and then out to Twitter and Facebook.
It’s so quick he only has to launch an iPhone app, take a picture and tap send. Then the system takes care of the rest.
It is so easy to set up that I explained the whole process to him over a series of Twitter direct messages and a couple of emails. Here’s how it works:
Set up your custom domain—<yournamehere>.com
First you need to register a domain. You can get a domain rather inexpensively at GoDaddy.com ( Domain Sale! $6.89 .com at GoDaddy ), just be sure you only get the domain—don’t bother with the hosting or anything else.
Sign up for a Tumblr account
Next you’ll want to sign up for a Tumblr account and start a blog there.
While you’re logged into Tumblr.com and click “Customize”. In the Customize window, you can change the theme of your blog really simply and there are a ton of themes to choose from.
When you’re done customizing everything else, click the “Info” tab and tell Tumblr you want your blog at the domain you just registered.
You’ll also want to look under the “Services” tab and add your Facebook and Twitter accounts. This will announce every post your make to your Tumblr blog to your Twitter followers and your Facebook friends.
Point your domain at Tumblr
Now, you’re going to have to tell GoDaddy.com that you want traffic to your domain to go to your Tumblr blog. So, log into GoDaddy.com, go to Domain Management, click on your domain in the list of domains.
Once you arrive at the Domain Manager page for your domain, click “Total DNS Control”
(Almost there!) Click the little paper & pencil icon under A (Host) in the @ row…
Then plug 72.32.231.8 into the “Point To Ip Address:” field and click OK.
Now, give it a minute or two and then go to your domain name …it should now be 
your Tumblr blog. Free website with your own custom domain.
The app that makes is simple by making it Quickr
There is a free Tumblr app which is pretty great, but there is also a 99¢ app called Quickr from Basil Apps that makes posting pictures to your page a much simpler procedure: Launch, snap, (type a description if you like) and post—DONE!
The thing I love about services like Tumblr is they integrate so well (and evolve to continue to integrate well) with other social networking and web services. A lot of people trying to establish a “personal brand” make an over-the-top “Hollywood” website that they can’t maintain themselves and they’re often too complicated to update often enough to build an audience. A simple, free Tumblr site kicks their ass.
You should also go to Tumblr’s Goodies Page and drag the “Share on Tumblr” bookmarklette into your bookmarks bar on your browser.
Then, any time you’re on a super awesome website reading an article, click the “Share on Tumblr” button in your toolbar and a little window will pop up and help you post a link to that article any way you would like (text, photo, video, quote…whatever!)
I’m really liking Tumblr. Let me know how this process works for you.
What online services do you use to express yourself and reach your friends…your audience? Please tell me about it in the comments.
MacMerc.com is Back!
MacMerc.com is back… but why did it go?
I’m happy to announce the return of MacMerc.com and my intention to resume production on MacMerc.TV. It must have seemed strange after so much attention and effort was made to launch an ambitious podcast that was so well received (thank you all for that) to then not only stop producing that show but to take down the site that hosted it.
Believe me, it wasn’t part of the plan.
Let me take you back a year or so and I’ll try to explain.
Shortly after I launched the podcast, I started up a friendship over Twitter with Greg Grunberg ( @greggrunberg ) from NBC’s HEROES. He is an amazing guy with all kinds of projects on the go. At the time he told me about an idea he had for an iPhone app that would bring up coupons based on where the user was in proximity to the stores. He wanted to know if I knew anyone who could develop it. I did, of course. I connected him with my friend from my days on The Wizards of Technology, August Trometer ( @august ).
That was the start of the whirlwind of activity that became Yowza!! Mobile Coupons ( @yowza ). In the early months it took over a lot of my time and even distracted me from my day job a fair bit. I had no time to write blog posts, much less scripts. There was definitely no time for shooting and editing.
In the midst of all that, a hacker came a-hackin’ (it’s what they do). Somebody was repeatedly compromising MacMerc.com’s security and posting all kinds of filth and horror. With all the other stuff happening in my life, I couldn’t handle this as well. The only person that knew the site well enough to defend it was also the guy I recommended when Greg asked if I knew any coders, and he was busier than me.
I was sunk.
My only defense was retreat.
Through my friendship (and internship) with Cali Lewis at GeekBrief ( @calilewis ), I had met some amazingly wonderful people and made some great friends. One of them, Daynah ( @daynah ) came to my rescue and put up a “be back soon page” and went to work converting the data from my antiquated pre-Typepad content management system over to WordPress. She did a great job and I am so thankful for her help.
My participation with Yowza!! is much less than it was and I, once again, have time for blogging, script writing and podcasting.
Let’s dig in!
Teaching SlashDock 2.0 to pick up MacMerc.com headlines
By: Rick Yaeger
The release of Mac OS X brought many changes not the least of which was the Dock. The Dock was designed to help users navigate and organize their system, and give instant access to your most frequently used applications, folders, and minimized windows but it was also given the option for a new type of expandability ó the dockling.
This is where SlashDock comes in… err… well… it used to. You see, back in version 1.0, SlashDock was a dockling but in version 2.0 the developer saw fit to make it a stand alone application. Many devoted SlashDock users are already grieving this decision and I doubt that it will be long before we see SlashDock waddling its butt back into dockling status.
For those of you who haven’t used SlashDock before, it is a free Mac-OS-X-only application that grabs headlines from slashdot-compatible and RSS-compatible sites like MacMerc.com. In version 2.0 you are able to specify how often automatic updates are made and how SlashDock behaves when new headlines are found. To check on the headlines and read articles, simply click on SlashDock in you dock and choose your favorite site from the menu and then pick a headline. Selecting that headline will take you directly to that article in your preferred web browser. Very cool but MacMerc.com is not one of the default sites SlashDock checks. Don’t worry, we’re gonna fix that.
Setting SlashDock to read MacMerc.com
Assuming you have installed and launched SlashDock as described on the developer’s site, select Preferences… under the SlashDock menu. With the Sites tab selected, enter http://www.macmerc.com/backend.php in the field marked URL and click the + button. SlashDock will now automatically grab all of MacMerc.com’s information and add it to your “subscription list.” You will probably want to click on MacMerc.com in the list and drag it to the top where it belongs ó I’ll leave that up to you.
Making SlashDock Launch at Startup
One of the problems with SlashDock no longer being a dockling is that you have to go track it down and launch it if you haven’t got your System Preferences set to do it automatically. That is easy enough to fix.
Select your Apple Menu and choose System Preferences…. From your System Preferences window, click on Login and click the Login Items tab. If you click the Add… button and navigate your way to the SlashDock application and click Open, you will have SlashDock launching and grabbing the latest MacMerc.com headlines at every startup. Life is good.
Apple Store security negated!
By xmachackerx@hotmail.com
3/5/02 © MacMerc.com
Here’s the
warning: MacMerc.com and
all of its writers and publishers DO NOT condone STEALING from Apple Computer,
this article is just for the curious minds in our audience. We suggest that
you NOT try anything discussed here.
It came to my mind after visiting the local Apple Store that a devious person
could easily suck software (or any sort of file) off of the rows and rows of
fabulous computers, each decked out with super high-speed internet access. At
least at my local store the upstream is at least 50K/s which is pretty zippy.
The downstream is blistering but we don’t need to download anything to pull
off this hack. Internet access on ALL of the computers seems really cool, you
can check your email or send an iCard off from the mall. Ohhhh…. Ahhhh….
But to me I saw one thing and one thing only, FREE SOFTWARE.
MacOS X is pretty
much the only MacOS that could pull this off so easily. If you have a classic
machine that you want stuff off, read Method 2. Included in
X is: an FTP server, an HTTP server, compression utilities and an FTP client.
These are all of the tools to pull off both of the following methods. Yes, I
have tried these at the Apple Store. They could work anywhere with Mac’s and
broadband but the Apple Store is the most high profile location with both (and
lots of goodies to take).
As of press time
the methods detailed in this article do work. They may become
obsolete once Apple reads this (I’m assuming they will fix this quickly, maybe
a mater of hours). So if you are reading this on the day of publication run
out to the store and try it out, just don’t tell them who sent you 
. There
is a story circulating that the Apple Store will have Photoshop 7 on their computers….
That might be a nice thing to snatch but again we do not condone stealing. Please
do not try this if you aren’t prepared to face the consequences.
METHOD 1:
Step 1:
• On your home computer (I am assuming you are running X or another variant
of *nix) go to (/Applications/Utilities/Network Utility.app) and write down
your IP address. For this method you must have an always on connection. If you
don’t have it go check out Method 2. Some of you may have a
router to share access across a LAN. If so, go ahead and set Port Forwarding
(or something similar sounding) to forward port 21 to your node. This should
be in your router’s manual, it’s not a hard thing to do. If you do have a router
write down the IP of the ROUTER not of your node (this is a local-only IP thus
won’t be accessible at the store). To find that just lot into your router (most
home routers allow a web browser to log-in and change settings). With the combination
of forwarding and the IP of your router you can access your computer from any
internet access point.
Step 2:
•If you don’t already have FTP access turned on, go ahead and do it.
- Go to the System
Preferences and select sharing.
-
Select
the check box that says allow FTP access.
Step 3:
• Go to the Apple Store and find a computer that has no one around it.
You may want to play around a little first and have a sales person ask you if
you need help. Just say you are just looking and thank him. After that they
will leave you alone, as long as you seem rather savvy. I used a TiBook but
all of their computer have Internet Access.
Step 4:
• Find the
item that you want. It doesn’t have to be software it can be any sort of file
that you have permissions for. I first tried this with pictures (they are nice
and small). If what you want is a single file and kind of small skip the following
step, otherwise continue. It can be hard to choose.
Step 5:
• Go to Aladdin drop stuff (in the /Applications/Utilities/ dir) and stuff
your file. If it is not there (it may have been deleted) open up the Terminal
(/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app on a default install) and type:
tar -cf /YOURFILENAME.tar
/path/to/file/free/warez
Where YOURFILENAME is what you want the file to be called and /path/to/file/free/warez
is the path to your file (you can drag it to the terminal and it fills this
in for you).
Now to save a little space we are going to gzip that file.
gzip
/YOURFILENAME.tar
Step 6:
• Now we are going to FTP… back at the terminal type the following:
ftp
your.ip.address
*Note
– I took this screen shot at home as to not get busted. The IP is my local
IP so don’t try anything.
- Obviosly replace
your.ip.address with that number you wrote down. - After a second
or two depending on the traffic between your two computers a prompt for a
username will appear. Type in your log-in for X. It will ask for a password,
which you must provide. - It is a very
good idea to make a dummy user on your system before you go to the store.
Who knows what monitoring stuff they are running? Better safe than sorry!
Step 7:
• We are now logged in to your computer from the Apple Store. Now just
type:
put /YOURFILENAME.tar.gz
- All you do now
is hit enter and wait. - The best thing
to do in this situation is to hide the window (option-click on the desktop)
and get interested in iMovie or something. Depending on file size you can
play around for a few seconds or minutes. - After it says
you are done you have the file residing on your computer…
Step 8:
• Good kids always trash the evidence…
rm /YOURFILENAME.tar.gz
Exit out of all the applications you may have opened, step back and be proud
you have compromised Apple Computer
(not that anyone would want to, or anyone would follow these directions).
Â
METHOD
2:
This is the method that I tried originally… Basically because I had all of
the code written for a website of mine before the Apple Store was even around.
It is harder to pull off unless you like to tweak code (if you do it is FUN!).
The major advantage is that it will work with a slow connection as long as you
have access to a web host with a fast one. It can be shared among friends without
having to dish out passwords to your computer which is also a major plus.
The basic concept is that you set up a website with an HTTP upload form and
it just sends the file to your server. I will give some links to some CGI’s
with potential but no directions for setting it up on X, if you need directions
the CGI’s come with them. If you are more of a novice on X, just use method
1 or find a friend.
- http://www.ftls.org/en/examples/cgi/eUpload.shtml
- http://www.hotscripts.com/Perl/Scripts_and_Programs/File_Manipulation/Upload_Systems/
I wrote some PHP code that
lists all files that you uploaded to a certain directory. PHP can be installed
on X, directions can be found here.
The can be used in tandem with an upload CGI to make a nice file transfer site
that you can pass around to friends. I even built in a delete function on mine
so that you can delete files from the web. Pretty sweet! I used this code in
my first attack. The code follows below sans the deleting option:
function do_files
($dir) {
//written by xmachackerx@hotmail.com use at will
$handle=@opendir(“/path/to/$dir”);
while (false
!== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
if ($file == “.DS_Store”) {
echo ” “;} elseif
($file == “..”) {
echo ” “;} elseif ($file == “.”) {
echo ” “;} elseif ($file == “index.html”) {
echo ” “;} else {
echo “ $file
“;
} }
closedir($handle);
} //close
function
?>
If you really need
the delete feature just email me.
I didn’t include it because unless you are adding session management to the
page it is really pointless, anyone can delete files (like the Apple Store employee
that walks to the computer and hits [delete] and your upload goes bye bye).
Have fun and remember to NOT STEAL SOFTWARE… IT IS ILLEGAL.
Please email any suggestions directly to me, I’ll try my best to get back to all of you. Thanks!
-Anonymous Coward
*Editors note: We’ve set up a discussion thread for you in the forums.
Killer Sites
Before we get in to this week’s Freeloader, I’d like to remind you that the annual Freeloader Freeware picks episode is coming up in a few weeks. Send in your freeware picks to brian AT macmerc DOT com.
We’re going to take a break from downloads to look at a bunch of sites each with a kind of connection to free.
Those that know are aware of the slew of free blogging applications. This site lets you shop these by feature. By far, this site offers the most comprehensive examination of content management systems on the web.
The group that brought you the Wikipedia free encyclopedia are testing out a new concept in community maintained news. The experiment in wiki news is viewable and waiting for your contributions.
This new face in print-on-demand offers a no-cost way for you to bring your masterpiece to the masses. Lulu prints and ships your book, calendar or music to buyers you bring to your free Lulu hosted shop.
This site hosts an exhaustive list of Firefox and Thunderbird extensions and themes, including hundreds not listed on update.mozilla.org. In fact, the folks at Extension Mirror even have instructions of updating defunct extension to work in newer version of Firefox and Thunderbird – and host many of these ‘revived’ extensions.
That’s it. Don’t forget to send in your suggestions for 2004′s freeware picks!
Anti-Macintosh Propaganda
By: Jon
Gales [AIM: jonknee41]
UPDATED 12:18AM EST **ADDED EMAIL FORM**
Vnunet.com,
a UK Technology site has recently posted two anit-Macintosh articles. I neglected
to post the first one the day it came out, cut the author a break. I don’t give
second chances. His second installment is just as quirky as the first.
The first article
supposedly debunked the "myth" that Macs are safer than PC’s running
Windows. My analysis follows quotes from the articles. It would help to read
the articles first. The
second article is chock full of responses from "actual" Mac users
(due to the fact that Apple wouldn’t comment).
FIRST PROPAGANDA PIECE REBUTTAL:
"Mac users are no safer from the threat of viruses than Windows
users, according to experts who have just shattered a long standing myth."
With a thesis statement like this I had high hopes for the article. In fact,
I was hoping to learn a few things (and pass them along to you). Now you have
to realize that the rest of the article doesn’t do anything to support the
above quote.
"Antivirus firm Symantec said that over three quarters of Mac users are
under the illusion that they are not a target for virus writers and hackers."
Their "experts" are only interested in selling Symantec software
– their business. Objectivity is no where to be found. A more suitable
"Expert" might have been an independent security consultant that
has no vested interest in the purchasing of security software. This pretty
much makes the rest of the article fiction. Sorry but next time get an "expert"
that doesn’t profit off of scarring Mac users!
"Obviously there are more PC-only viruses out there, but there are still
over 7,000 macro viruses which can hit either Mac or PC platforms."
Mac’s don’t come with Office (needed to run the mentioned viruses). It
needs to be installed – and only after that can a user be dumb enough
to run a macro. Most PC viruses attack a default Windows install.
"Another big problem Mac users don’t think about is that they make perfect
incubators for Windows viruses," said Chapman. "
Yep… the other day I
got an email titled "Look at these file Jon Gales" and the attachment
was a .exe… The first thing I did was send it to all of my closest friends
that I knew were on Windows. I didn’t really do that (but you knew that) but
think about it – without the virus sending out itself automatically what’s
the danger? 99% of viruses are carried in email (and automatically send themselves
to people in your address book).
"At the time of going to press Apple was unavailable for comment."
Enough said.
SECOND PROPAGANDA PIECE REBUTTAL:
"Despite numerous requests for comment from Apple in both the US and
the UK, the company has not yet provided a spokesman to comment on the issue.
"
Still… I have no comment.
Enough said.
"Readers pointed out that there are plenty of Mac viruses out there,
not just the macro viruses affecting Microsoft Office installations, but AppleScript
and Macintosh file infectors. "
Sounds like some good ol’ PC users writing in. I’ve been a Mac user all
my life and have never had a bit of data lost. I don’t think I’m lucky, I
think I’m average. Try taking a survey among Windows users of at least 5 years
– you’d find someone that hasn’t had a virus to be VERY rare. Even
if there are a lot of Mac viruses they must not get passed around well…
All the ones in my inbox are .exe’s. A smart worm could scan only @mac.com
addresses but that wouldn’t do too much – Apple filters all e-mail.
"I’m a Mac user
since probably around 10 years ago and I’ve found OS/9 is crap. It lacks all
the generic features for a ‘secure’ operating system, as much as Windows, but
probably even worse."
Two things:
* OS 9 is a dead OS. Apple has even said so. We don’t comment on the security
of Windows 98 since it’s well just not being shipped.
* He’s not a Mac user – there is no chance. If you’ve read the Naked
Truth [review]
the comments about detecting PC users will come to mind. If he was really
a hardcore Mac user (you have to be to last 10 years) he wouldn’t trash his
OS. Also – it would never be compared in an inferior way to Windows.
It’s just not done by one of our own.
"On the one hand
this article should be commended. Mac users should not believe they are invulnerable
and should practise safe computing just like their Windows counterparts do.
[But] the Macintosh as a platform is safer, chiefly because it hasn’t been as
attractive a target as Windows machines."
Is the Mac OS safer because
it’s not used as much, or does it have better code? Is a Lexus safer because
their are fewer of them (and thus you are less likely, statistically, to get
into an accident with one) or because Lexus has put more effort into research
on safety? The Screensavers
ran a Capture
the Flag contest during one of their shows. They had both a Mac, and a
Windows machine on the network waiting to be hacked. The Mac needed no updates
while the Windows machine needed several security updates. At the end of the
show no one managed to "win" by placing their contact info in a
folder but someone did succeed in restarting the PC. Interesting if the Mac
is really that insecure.
Now, there were a few real
(or at least pretty good fakes) Mac users that wrote into the author after the
first article was published but overall the BS monitor was off the chart. I
hunted down the author’s email address (James_middleton@vnu.co.uk)
off of their site. Using my custom software that I wrote a while back
I have made a form that will allow you to email James right now. You will also
recieve an email when James opens your message! Tell James what’s up!
What’s Real really doing?
What’s Real really doing?
By: Jon Gales
If you are an OS X user
there is a 97% chance that you’ve asked yourself… "Where’s Real for OS
X?". I’ve been asking this since last year and have yet to find an answer.
After searching Real’s notorius hellish* site for several
minutes I found:
Big talk but no results.
I don’t buy it. A company that has ignored the fastest growing alternitive operating
system in the world for 14 months is crazy and is not to be trusted. If you
buy a Mac today you get OS X. Isn’t it fair to have a player for the default
OS? I believe so, that’s why I am asking for your help. I’ve already written
letters but my meager offereings don’t do anything.
I’ve written a form (below)
that sends what you type to Real as an email. Maybe if 3,000+ people send there
wishes for an OS X version of RealPlayer they may wake up and smell the roses.
If you would like to share you comments with me, or want them posted on MacMerc.com
please email or AIM[jonknee41] me. Thanks
for your participation!
Also, if you get a reply
send it to me – I am going to be making a page containing official Real
communications. Most Mac users want to be informed on the progress of Real so
with your help we’ll be the place!
The form also uses an amazing
bit of technology that I myself created (just a few months ago). You will recieve
an email as soon as Real opens your letter (as long as they use an HTML capable
mail reader)! I’m not kidding! Obviously if you put a fake email address you
won’t get anything 
. If you have the "Let MacMerc publish" button
checked your email will be saved in our system for review and possible addition
to the site (sans the name and email address). If you don’t want us to save
anything just uncheck the box!
We have posted some of the initial letters sent to Real! Thanks for your support and please continue to write Real!
TALK TO REAL FORM:
*By hellish I mean hard to navigate. All the pressure is to get you to buy.
I’d pay but there is no version available for my computer. Too bad.
Graphical Favorites Collection
 MacMerc |
 The Joy of Tech |
 After Y2K |
 Apple |
 MacDesign |
 MacUpdate |
 MacSurfer |
 O’Grady’s Powerpage |
 MacMinute |
 MacAddict |
 MacFans |
 Unsantity |
 IconFactory |
 (Pop-up) |
 |
 MacMusic |
 Hollywood Stock Exchange |
 IMDb |
 Audible.com |
 Amazon |
 The Screen Savers |
 TechTV |
XML on OS X
By: Jon Gales
There aren’t many more computer acronyms more popular than XML. Go to the bookstore
and check out the internet section—it’s all XML. What happened to plain
old HTML? It’s old hat! Most people are probably wondering, "What can this
XML thing do for me?". Well basically for most of us, it saves us time.
Lots of time.
Meet NetNewsWire
Lite; it’s a lightweight cocoa application that you will soon fall in love
with. What it does is take in XML feeds (in a flavor known as RSS
or really simple syndication) from the sites you choose and display it in beautiful
aqua. Sound lame? How about reading 30+ sites in under 10 minutes? Most of your
favorite sites are available in RSS (Yes, even MacMerc) which makes scanning
the Mac web a cinch. Want something besides Mac news? Well there are plenty
of choices from all genres that can be added in just a few clicks right from
NNW. Have a site you want to see a feed for, but can’t find one? Well there
probably is one at NewsIsFree.com
or Syndic8.com. Below is
a screen shot of my set up, viewing MacMerc’s feed
 |
If you still aren’t convinced consider the fact that Radio,
Manilla, Movable
Type, LiveJournal,
Blogger, pMachine,
Blosxom,
PHPNuke, PostNuke
and many more Content Management Systems all support RSS by default! That comes
out to millions of sites that all support a technology that is almost unknown
to anyone out of the closely knit blogosphere.
I improved the RSS support of MacMerc to
include our story summaries (what you see on the front page) in the feed. That
means right in NetNewsWire you can see if we’ve updated, read what the stories
are about and choose what to read up on further. You can set NNW to update every
30 minutes which lets you keep up to date and still get work done . It’s got
a dock icon that updates like Mail’s (a little red number showing the number
of unread items).
Any site that updates daily and doesn’t support RSS should think about it. The
easiest way to add support for your site is just to use one of the web publishing
tools that support it to make your web site. That way you don’t have to sling
code yourself. However, if you’re feeling lucky here is the format that your
file should follow and a few pointers:
<?xml version="1.0"
encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<rss version="VERSION NUMBER">
<channel>
<title>MacMerc.com – Start using RSS</title>
<link>http://www.macmerc.com/rss</link>
<description>You may already be a MacMerc!</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<item>
<title>This is the first story</title>
<link>http://firstlink.com</link>
<description>This is a description of the first item!</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
I added full RSS support to my AIM
Quotes site by following the above format. It was such a simple script it
only took a few minutes to code. I was even able to include the IM’s with their
colors. To include HTML in your feed just convert the HTML to HTML entities.
If you are writing in PHP (like I usually am) there is a function for this,
htmlentities().
This is really basic as far as RSS is concerned but it shows the
premises of what is going on. You’ll notice that it looks like HTML with different
tags. That’s basically what it is, RSS just is a collection of standard tags.
That’s how a reader like NetNewsWire can parse these files. Although this demo
is really simple, you can do more advanced things with it such as including
permanent links, copyright information, last build dates, and a ton of other
information. To get the scoop check out UserLand’s RSS
page. They are busy working on version 2.0 right now!
Tips for authoring:
- Make sure to send the headers out as text/xml or your feeds will never
work - Include new lines (
) after each line - To speed things up author the xml file when things are published, not
upon request (you’ll save a ton of CPU cycles) - Include a button on your web page that points to your feed, no one benefits
from a secret feed - If you feel the need you can include advertising in the feeds, just add
it to your code base. Most likely it won’t be effective but you never know. - If you don’t have a good statistical traffic monitor on your web server,
build a counter into the file that is used to serve the XML. That way you’ll
know if people are taking advantage of your feed. - Convert HTML to HTML Entities to make it work in your feeds.
Tips for using feeds:
- Subscribe to LOTS of sites in the beginning, find out what you like after
a few days. This is a good way to find new sites (NetNewsWire has a bunch
of sites built in). - To add LiveJournals, just add /rss to the journal’s address. (http://www.livejournal.com/users/USERNAME/rss)
- MacMerc is by default in the sites drawer of NetNewsWire but our syndication
address is: http://www.macmerc.com/backend.php - MacMinute (our favorite Mac news site) has an unlinked feed: http://www.macminute.com/headlines.xml.
This isn’t built into NetNewsWire yet so make sure to add this one ASAP! - MacUpdate (our favorite Mac Download site) has an OS X feed: http://www.macupdate.com/mommy/macsurferx.php.
This isn’t built into NetNewsWire yet so make sure to add this one ASAP!
