Some Comments about Blogs and RSS Feeds

If you are not familiar with blogs and RSS, the following notes may be of some help (or save yourself some reading and just sign up by submitting your email address in the box on the left of this page).

A blog (short for ‘web-log’) is a web page on which there are regular updates (‘posts’). RSS (also known as a ‘web feed’ or ‘news feed’) is a technology which notifies you of new posts, and is commonly available on web sites such as blogs and news sites.

• The simplest way to read our blog is to bookmark the page < http://www.harrison.gen.nz/blogs/craigedelweiss > and check back every now and then to read any new posts.
   
• So that you don’t need to remember to check our website, you can use an online service called Blogtrottr < http://blogtrottr.com > which will email you whenever we post a new update. There is a sign-up box on the left of this page (just enter your email address in the box and click the "Follow this feed via email" button), or you can go to the Blogtrottr website and enter your email address and the URL of our RSS feed, which is < http://www.harrison.gen.nz/blogs/craigedelweiss/feed >. Note that you won’t be emailed the full post, just the first paragraph; you will need to click on a link in the email which will take you to our website where you can read the rest of the post.
   
• There are many other ways to access RSS feeds, and if you’re ready to tackle this then you’re probably comfortable with searching online to find out how. But just to start you off in the right direction:
  
  
  •  You can use an online RSS reader such as Google Reader < http://www.google.com/reader >
     
  • If you have one if the latest web browsers, you can use its built-in RSS reader
     
  • If you have a newer email client such as Outlook 2007 or Thunderbird, it will also have a built-in RSS reader; otherwise you may be able to find an add-in or separate program which will add an RSS reader to your email client
     
  • You can install a free desktop application such as Feedreader < http://www.feedreader.com > or Bloglines < http://www.bloglines.com >

Remember that we aren’t going to be posting very often. This isn’t going to be a daily journal or anything! But it does make it easier for us to keep in touch, so we might be posting news a bit more frequently than our (sometimes annual) newsletter.