Totally Incorrect » google reader

Google Reader Widget

David — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:45:09 +0000

You might have noticed that I’ve been making some changes to the Totally Incorrect homepage layout. I’m trying to make everything easier to use and more – well more me.

One of my passions is reading and learning (OK, that’s two passions but the two are strongly connected). As part of this, I’m a huge fan of Google Reader where I subscribe to lots of great blogs and other sources.

For a while I’ve been wondering how I can share great articles and stories I find with the reader of Totally Incorrect. I think I’ve found it.

Recommended Reading is a Wordpress plug-in designed to display my shared items in Google Reader. It is just so simple, once I had it installed and configured, every time I share an item in Google Reader, it shows up at the top of the reading list in my sidebar – Brilliant!!

So in future, every time you visit Totally Incorrect, you’ll be able to see what I’m excited about. Clicking on the article name in the sidebar will take you right to the blog post. Social Media is all about exploring and sharing so I hope you’ll check back often to see what new gems I’m reading that day.

Do you use Google Reader (or another RSS feed reader) to keep up with your reading? Which reader do you like best?

Are you a Reader or a Skimmer?

David — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:29:02 +0000

This thought came about after a brief conversation on Twitter with Michael Schechter. Twitter conversations generally don’t have a title, but if they did I’d call this one “How do you cope with the fact your wife likes to relax by watching crappy TV shows in bed that you, can’t stand.”

There are obviously a number of possible strategies for dealing with this including: getting divorced, “forgetting” to pay the Comcast bill (not recommended because if Comcast disconnects the TV, your Internet access is toast too), sleeping in the spare room, etc.

My personal method of choice is to use my iPhone to listen to music and read – this is great because I can totally block out even the worst garbage on E! channel with ease.

Anyway to get to my point, Michael mentioned that he has an overloaded Google Reader and as a result had become an expert “Skimmer.”

Now this got me thinking. I would usually describe myself as a reader, not a skimmer. Although the majority of my reading in the last few years has been on various mobile devices, I used them to read some pretty big works: The six volumes of Churchill’s History of the Second World War, most of Dicken’s works, George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire (George where the heck is the next book by the way – you’re killing me here!!) – the list goes on.

But know what, even though I have a bunch of books in both Kindle and Stanza on my phone that are started, I’m not making much progress right now. Why is this? It’s because I’ve subscribed to far more blogs in Google Reader than I can ever keep up with up! So I breeze through them, looking for interesting tidbits. Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! I’ve become a Skimmer!!

What about you? How do you deal with the bedtime TV/reading issue? Are you a Reader of a Skimmer?

How I Get the News

David — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:10:07 +0000

One of the great things about being a 21st Century Man is that I get to choose how I keep in touch with the world and the things I’m interested in. I mainly do this by subscribing to RSS feeds from the websites that have the content I’m looking for, written by people and organizations I like and trust.

Since I have not yet found an off-line RSS reader for the iPhone, my current reader of choice is Google Reader. Since I have Internet access pretty much 24 hours a day, this isn’t a huge handicap.

This morning, just out of interest, I took a look at my list of subscriptions – I was a bit surprised by how many there are. I suppose this is a sign of an inquisitive mind and pretty broad interests.

So here they are, along with links to the feeds so you can check them out. Let me know if there is anything good I’m missing.

Apple Thoughts.com
http://www.applethoughts.com/xml/

BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition
http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml

BBC Sport | Sport Homepage | World Edition
http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/sportonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml

Boston Globe — Front Page
http://syndication.boston.com/news/globe/pageone?mode=rss_10

Boston Globe — Sports News
http://syndication.boston.com/news/globe/sports?mode=rss_10

Boston.com — Red Sox News
http://syndication.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox?mode=rss_10

BusinessWeek Online — Top News
http://www.businessweek.com/rss/bwdaily.rss

chrisbrogan.com
http://feedproxy.google.com/chrisbrogandotcom

Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories
http://www.csmonitor.com/rss/top.rss

EETimes
http://www.eetimes.com/rss/rss-all.jhtml

Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/rss.xml

Engadget Mobile
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/rss.xml

Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles
http://www.entrepreneur.com/feeds/latest.html

ESPN.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/rss/news

Gizmodo
http://feeds.gawker.com/gizmodo/full

GTDtimes
http://feeds.feedburner.com/GTDTimes

HarvardBusiness.org
http://feeds.harvardbusiness.org/harvardbusiness

HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/HubSpot

InformationWeek – All Stories And Blogs
http://www.informationweek.com/rss/all_story_blog.xml

Labeling News
http://www.labelingnews.com/?feed=rss2

Life as a Healthcare CIO
http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Mashable!
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Mashable

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
http://www.dpreview.com/news/dpr.rdf

Pocket PC Thoughts.com
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/xml/

Politico Top Stories
http://www.politico.com/rss/politicopicks.xml

rfid – Twitter Search
http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=rfid

Rfidjournal.com RSS FEED
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/rssheadlines/

Social Media Today
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/pages/rssgen.aspx?gid=SMC&type=14

StudioPress
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/studiopress

Telegraph UK News
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/newsfeed/rss/news_uk.xml

Totally Incorrect – David Holliday
http://totallyincorrect.com/?feed=rss

Uncommon Descent
http://www.uncommondescent.com/feed/

UnionLeader.com – RSS Feeds
http://www.unionleader.com/rss-homepage.aspx

Unique Bride
http://uniquebride.net/?feed=rss2

unique wedding photography blog
http://www.uniqueday.net/?feed=rss2

winco id – Twitter Search
http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=winco+id

ZDNet News – Front Door
http://news.zdnet.com/2509-1_22-0-20.xml

To help manage all these feed, I have them sorted in folders – News, Technology, Marketing, etc. It would be information overload otherwise

For me, using RSS feeds and a good reader application is the perfect way to keep up to date with my interests. If you are not using RSS, I’d really suggest you give it a try. Huge advantage? No annoying ads (yet)