Slashdot Mirror
What RSS Feeds Do You Use?
oncehour writes "I'm looking to broaden my horizons in terms of news, industry information, and generally good-to-know stuff. I've found a lot of great blogs and websites over the years, but I'm wondering what Slashdotters read regularly? What's in your RSS feeds?"
We discussed this back in 2004, but the list of quality feeds has grown quite a bit in the past four years. Try to include at least a minimal description, so we know if we'll be looking at NASA news or up-to-the-minute cowboy boot fashion trends.
Unfortunately, it isn't updated daily, but when it is, it's usually very good. It gives reviews of free software you might not be aware of. http://debaday.debian.net/feed/atom/
My list of feeds:
Slashdot main : http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot
Obvious Reasons
Linux.com : http://www.linux.com/feature/?theme=rss
Useful tips for using Linux on a daily basis and for my sysadmin job
Lifehacker : http://lifehacker.com/excerpts.xml
Tips for life in general
Hack a Day : http://www.hackaday.com/rss.xml
Stuff I wish I had the motivation to do
Google Open Source Blog : http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Keeping current with The Goog's OSS efforts
Google Summer of Code Blog : http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleSummerOfCodePodcasts
Seeing the State of the Program
The Art of Manliness : http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheArtOfManliness
Do you really have to ask?
My UID is prime... is yours?
If you're browsing as a pastime activity, why would you want to speed that up by using efficient RSS feeds?
Bookmarks ftw!
*Ctrl-Alt-Delete
http://www.cad-comic.com/rss/rss.xml
Stupid webcomic
*Looking for Group
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LookingForGroup?format=xml
Webcomic.
*Least I Could Do
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LICD?format=xml
Webcomic.
*Linux Kernel
http://www.kernel.org/kdist/rss.xml
(no explanation)
*NationStates
http://69.60.14.82/cgi-bin/rss.cgi?nation=windhelm
A sort of game where you have to govern a nation. I develops based on the laws you vote.
*Questionable Content
http://www.questionablecontent.net/QCRSS.xml
Webcomic
*The Book of Biff
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheBookOfBiff
Webcomic
*The Perry Bible Fellowship
http://pbfcomics.com/feed/feed.xml
Webcomic (not updated i a looong time)
*VG Cats
http://www.vgcats.com/vgcats.rdf.xml
Stupid and bad webcomic
*xkcd
http://www.xkcd.com/rss.xml
FANTASTIC webcomic
*Linux Journal
http://feeds.feedburner.com/linuxjournalcom
I dunno why it's in there. I like the articles
*Slashdot
http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot
I guess that's about it. I'm going to delete a couple of webcomics though. Some are just too awful.
As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.
Let's say your favorite sites are Slashdot, Site1, Site2, and Site3. You check these sites a couple of times daily for new content, which consists of you manually visiting slashdot.org, site1.com, site2.com, and site3.com every time the mood strikes you and then scanning said sites for updates.
With an RSS reader, you simply go to your feed reader of choice (or open your preferred program, or however you get your content - there's hundreds of options) and scan down the list - "Oh, Slashdot updated with three new stories, that one looks interesting, [click]."
Now, say that you want to stay up to date with dozens or even hundreds of sites, and you'll see the benefit of feeds.
I'll leave out really common feeds and a few that won't interest many people, but here are the top 25% or so of my feeds:
A Gentleman's C http://gentlemansc.blogspot.com/rss.xml
An Angry Professor gripes about stuff
Armchair Generalist http://armchairgeneralist.typepad.com/my_weblog/index.rdf
Blog by a moderate-left military analyst
Arts & Letters Daily http://aldaily.com/rss/rss.xml
Three interesting links every day (actually usually one or two INTERESTING ones)
Breaking News (History News Network) http://hnn.us/roundup/rss_full/41.xml
Stories about History with a slight conservative bias
Consumerist http://consumerist.com/excerpts.xml
Shoppers bite back.
indexed http://indexed.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Note card humor, usually featuring Venn diagrams
Inside Higher Ed http://feeds.feedburner.com/insidehighered/OxmP
Stories from academe, with fairly grumpy comments
Junk Charts http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/rss.xml
Redraws charts to make data analysis easier
Obscure Store and Reading Room http://obscurestore.typepad.com/obscure_store_and_reading/index.rdf
Well-known wierd news site with comments
PostSecret http://postsecret.blogspot.com/rss.xml
Secrets on postcards, every Sunday. Fascinating.
ReelViews New Reviews http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReelviewsNewReviews
My favorite currently-active film reviewer
SCOTUSblog http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/index.xml
Get the skinny on the latest Supreme Court actions
Slashfood http://www.slashfood.com/rss.xml
Because I love food
Slate Magazine http://www.slate.com/rss/
The best of the online political mags; lefty bias
Spluch http://spluch.blogspot.com/rss.xml
Always something interesting. Similar material to the extremely popular Boing Boing, but with fewer posts per day.
The Monkey Cage http://www.themonkeycage.org/atom.xml
Analysis from political scientists. Much better than the usual partisan approach.
The Onion http://feeds.theonion.com/theonion/daily
Most of the humor is usually contained in the headlines, so I seldom read more
Make cheese not war 8:)
Ahh crap, and I spelled xkcd wrong.
Finance & Economy
Space
Tech
Misc
I agree with the OP, and am in the "I don't get it" category. I have 3 sites that I visit and check frequently (read: addiction), so it's easier/quicker to hit the bookmark and view the page then use ABC to load feeds, wait for it to update, then I still need to goto the site if it's interesting.
I enjoy this topic because I am hoping that it will expose some new sites to me that I might like.
Your post is valid if you have 20+ sites that you want to keep upto-date on, but I would like to hear your insight on the usefullness of using RSS to view a smaller number.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
You are in error. The word "which" is used when there is a limited selection. The word "what" is used when there is an unlimited selection.
Thus one would say:
* Which feed is your favorite - slashdot or reddit?
* What feeds are your favorite?
Note that an "unlimited selection" does not refer to infinite choices, rather that the choices are not limited (selected) by the asker.
I was hoping to hear about some interesting feeds that I've been missing out on. Most of the suggestions seem to be in the categories of Comics, Tech/Gadgets, Coding, Politics, Photos.
Meh. Comics can be fun for five seconds, but won't really solve the problem of being online and bored. Tech/Gadgets is interesting a few times a year but not every day. I don't code enough to warrant reading about that unless I'm trying to solve a specific problem. Politics is moderately interesting in an election year, but it's a lot like talking about baseball scores (and I don't think much about sports). Photos are like comics, interesting for about five seconds.
Here's my list of Web sites that I visit daily. Because I'm older (or just less compulsive) I check them manually rather than as a feed:
Slashdot
Ars Technica
Digg
New York Times
Rotten Tomatoes (weekly)
On a good day there's an hour of interesting material on those sites combined. Maybe I need to go back to reading more magazines, books, and newspapers. But in this age of bite-size, instantaneous news at least two of those three seem to be dying.