Thanks to Andy for flagging this online video by Lee Lefever outlining the basics of using an RSS reader:
There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don’t. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don’t know where to start.
Three and a half minutes of online video goodness. Also worth a look if only to ponder the stripped-down inventive way it presents itself. I’ll be watching for more from the Common Craft Show.
That is a fantastic video with a great non-techie introduction and overview. I shall disseminate it post-haste, because the recent restructuring of our department has merged the IT-savy with the very not IT-savy (who are very wary of techno-speak).
Thanks Brian!
Yeah Mike, I think this will be useful for those of us trying to work with the uninitiated.
Do you think this RSS thing will really take off? It sounds like vaporware to me 😉
Lee deserves a Blog Pulitzer for his well written explanations, still the Wiki for a Camping Trip is a constant recommnedation I make
Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to play the video (sound only) using any of the free tools on my system. So I haven’t actually seen the video yet but it sounds interesting. I left a comment on the author’s blog. Hopefully a freely formatted version of the file will get distributed.
I noticed Stephen Downes said he had to install Flash 9 to watch this on Ubuntu. I’m sorry this isn’t working for you, whatever it is you’re running.
I’ve got one machine running Ubuntu with all proprietary packages stripped from it and another running gNewSense.
Somehow I’ll find a way to watch it (in freedom) eventually. That’s part of the fun. Yeah, I know…kinda geeky. But fun.
Peter, I published my Blip.TV vid in .mov format — and their service allows me to publish direct links to those files. What’s the best format for people with your, um, determined sense of fun to watch online video without proprietary packages — what tends to work most reliably?
I’d email you this (and will if I don’t hear from you) — but if you happen to reply the answer will be here for someone who happens to stumble by. I could also do ten seconds of Googling, but prefer to hear from a seasoned user.
Oh wait! The author has responded to my plea and noted that the video is also available on Youtube. As of April, 2007, Youtube videos can be extracted (by various means) and played using VLC version 0.8.5 or greater.
Here’s the link…
I don’t know about Mac, sorry. I have used “Istanbul” for Gnome on GNU/Linux to record desktop sessions but I don’t think it’s yet a cross-platform tool as it’s relatively new. And yes, we need a YouTube-like site to embed .ogg files. At the very least, I believe there are tools to convert videos to OGG which can then be hosted on a file server somewhere.
*sigh*
We have a long way to go. And in the world of proprietary formats/software the news just gets worse. Can’t force ads unless you control the user. Can’t control the user if they don’t use proprietary software.
Great, quick intro. My only constructive suggestion is that subscriptions to del.icio.us tag searches be included to cover that other web-category: static web pages that offer no RSS subscriptions.