rss.theoneliner.com
RSS is a handy format that in a nutshell lets you check multiple websites for updates from a single program, saving you a few clicks as long as your favorite sites support it. A little more detail on this later, but for those already RSS savvy all you need to do is point your weapon of choice at http://rss.theoneliner.com/rss.xml and that, hopefully, is that.
If you've no idea what all of this RSS palaver is about then congratulations, you're not a nerd. While the rest of these dateless wonders have been haggling between varying format specifications for the last few years it's only in the last few months that's it's broken out into major(-ish) coverage in some of the bigger PC mags. It's still a relatively young and immature technology, which might turn out to be a common way of browsing the infoweb supermation highway or like so many web techs might turn out to be a complete flash in the pan.
For it to take off, it needs top notch sites to support it. As such, we're happy to throw our hat in the ring. The theory behind it is sound. You'll have to get your hands on a program called a feedreader, or more commonly a news aggregator. Once this is installed, you merely have to point it at the RSS feeds from your favourite sites such as http://rss.theoneliner.com/rss.xml
Armed with a list of your favourite sites which you often check, entering them is the only hard part about this little scheme. Once they're all entered, all you have to do is hit the update button and the program will fly about the web looking at these sites, checking if they've been updated since last time it looked.
How it displays the results is up to the program, but it's probably not going to be a million miles away from your email program and for those with long memories newsgroup readers. Click on a headline that tickles your fancy and it will divulge a few more details on the story and give you a link to follow for the full story. In our case, if we've added anything new to the site you'll get a headline with the title, our score and the oneliner for it. A click will bring up the summary, and one more will bring up the usual website you know and love directly at the review you were looking at.
Of course, you'll have the same for all of the other websites, news headlines, the latest geekspeak from Slashdot and so forth. If you think that this could be of use to you, you'll need to download a news aggregator. For Windows, we'd recommend the very nifty and free Sharpreader, although you may have to also download the .NET framework either direct from Microsoft or through Windows Update.It's also on your service pack disks and original WinXP install disk, if memory serves. The FeedDemon program is better and generally more respected, but it's shareware and requires you to spend real cash money on it. No idea what the best options are on MacOs and Linux, but the wonderfully named BottomFeeder works on Windows, Linux, Mac OS 8, 9, X, HP-UX 10, 11, SGI, AIX, Solaris and Alpa Unix. Firefox users may notice the small orange icon down on the left corner of their window - it calls them live bookmarks and supports them in a slightly odd fashion. Check its help files for more info.
A more complete and detailed list of readers for all formats and other useful RSS info can be found at Wikipedia.