Outlined RSS Comes to the Browser. [img] I have finally released activeRenderer vs 1.4. The new version packs 3 new features:

• activeRenderer now renders RSS format files (news feeds) in active outlined form,
• with activeRenderer installed in Radio, you can now visualize both OPML and RSS local files in the new outline browser,
• activeRenderer's rendering engine is now accessible as a web service, via both a local URL and a public one at services.activeRenderer.com/activerenderer/render.

Here are some more screenshots of the outline browser: win/mozilla - win/msie - mac/msie - mac/safari).  [read more] [s l a m]

This is really cool.  Marc's pretty close to realising his vision.

Declaration of Content. Dan Gillmor writes:

"U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has a strikingly simple idea to bolster customers' rights to freely use software, movies and music that they've paid for: Force the sellers of such products to tell the truth about the restrictions they're imposing on users.When customers know, for example, that the compact disc they're buying is technologically rigged so they can't rip MP3 files from it for use on a portable player, they won't buy it. Eventually, these informed customers will demand change in the copyright laws..."

Yep, simple and elegant. Force the manufacturers to clearly, in proper English, explain what you're buying, including the features they have painstakingly built in to make the product LESS useful to you. And the market will decide what people really want.If the truth were always clearly visible, market economics alone would transform the world. The only reason that large numbers of people are choosing that which they don't really want is that they're being deceived. [Ming the Mechanic]

(With apologies to PKD for the Title)

I like this idea.  I like it a lot.

RSS Shell Integration.

RSS Shell Integration

Chris has some neat ideas on RSS integration right into the Windows shell:

Imagine this: a "News" submenu sitting at the top of your Start Menu, right above the Programs submenu. It cascades out into an organized list of feeds (each feed has its own folder). [_Go_]

Definitely interesting.  My only concern would be performance.  I have a quite large Start menu without this and its already slow.  I can just imagine would it would be like with feeds streaming in all the time.  Microsoft's whole shortcut based shell concept is cool and all but its damn slow.

[The FuzzyBlog!]

I haven't read Chris' post so maybe I've missed some nuance but, as described, I think it sounds like an awful idea for a serious reader - maybe it would work for someone with only a couple of feeds.

As Scott says I really don't want my Start menu to slow down any more.   I think having 100's (I have 103 and counting) of feeds folders, containing lots of items will do that.  It will also clutter it further.  When I'm trying to start a program I don't want the shell to halt while it processes 2000 posts because I accidentally ran the mouse over the wrong sub-menu.

Also I think it's the wrong interface.  Reading news isn't like starting a program or opening a document (at least, to me it isn't).  I would rather have it contained in an application which gives.  Also putting feeds in folders (the one advantage this route offers) is hardly a new idea.

What I am looking for is an application designed to handle at least 250 busy feeds.  I want an engaging user interface and an approach that acknowledges interests and values as being central to my reading experience.

Brown 'to pledge' more war cash. Chancellor Gordon Brown is expected to say on Tuesday that he is prepared to set aside even more money for a possible war in Iraq. [BBC News | UK | UK Edition]

I'm glad to know that, in the midst of a growing depression, our government has made provision for all the arms dealers and arms manufacturers to weather the storm.