Really Simple Syndication, Google Reader and Students

Despite the fact that I'm roughing it tonight, I'm just going to soldier on. We need to talk about Really Simple Syndication or RSS. As a student, this is something you need to know about. RSS allows you to know when a website, like this blog has been updated with new content. It's used all over the web from Boing Boing to ZDnet. In order to take advantage of RSS you need to subscribe, either through your browser's RSS feature or through an RSS reader. To do this in a browser you click on the feed symbol.

This is what the RSS symbol looks like in Safari on Mac OS X 10.6.2.

This is the standard broadcast symbol for RSS.

Often, syndicated content will have a link in each post asking you to subscribe as well.

This is what Lifehacker's subscription page looks like when you subscribe in Safari.

This is the RSS screen in Opera 10.

I don't use a browser to read RSS though, I prefer a reader. There are a variety of local readers available for just about any operating system, but my preference is Google Reader.

This is Google Reader. I like it because it can go anywhere you do. It works on your desktop, notebook and many internet connected mobile phones. This can be a real advantage when say, your desktop dies, as mine just did. I didn't lose any of my RSS feeds and everything stays up to date. It's also integrated with Google's new social networking product Buzz - as you can see in this picture. This allows people I follow to share their favorite articles with me, and vice versa. In Reader, you just copy the address you want to view in reader, press the add a subscription button, and paste. Then you can organize it with folders like I have, and it's immediately available for reading.

You can also have persistant Google searches show up in Reader, this is a real benefit for students - you can put in a term that you're writing a research paper on, see the initial search hits and see if new ones turn up each day. It's like having a research assistant right in your browser. It also allows you to see stats, hence why I know that I have three subscribers on this blog, though it doesn't say specifically who they are (I know two of the three subscribers I have personally.) You can see how often each blog you're subscribed to updates, how much of each blog you've read and a variety of other information. If you're into that kind of thing, and I most certainly am.

In addition to using a search engine like Google, Google blogs, or Technorati to find blogs you're interested in, Reader will also suggest blogs based on what you're currently subscribed to. Again, if you're doing research this can be invaluable. Best of all, it's free. I've experimented with a few local (as in on your computer's harddrive) readers, but none has impressed me as much as Google's.

If there is an RSS reader you're using, I'd love to hear about it or maybe you have a question, please let me know in the comments.

Burning the Midnight Oil

It's very late, and I'm outrageously tired. I just finished up the final draft of my annotated bibliography for Composition II and have been busy propagating it for the past couple of hours. I've made a number of changes, the most import of which is a change in my term for forwarded emails/statuses/tweets, and a somewhat more focused title.

I also changed how I created the document. In my last attempt, I wrote my annotated bibliography in Google Docs and downloaded it to my local word processor, NeoOffice. This time I created it natively in Open Office format, saved a PDF copy and uploaded to Google Docs. This preserved the formatting which was my goal to begin with, but there are no options for editing or publishing here directly. I don't view either of those as a serious issue, though losing the ability to share editing is a bit disappointing.

Trying to upload in .ODT still mangled my citations, so I deleted that one, I'll play around with it a bit more after I've had a bit of shuteye. In the meantime, you can find my final draft here. If you have a moment, I'd appreciate any critiques or comments you could provide.

As always, you can find information on my sources, and the link I provided above through my delicious.com account here.

Thanks for staying up with me, I'll see you next post!

Geek Issues: Star Wars, Trilogy vs. Trilogy

In my last post about Star Wars, we talked about what was great in the original trilogy. Now let's look at what I find disappointing about the new trilogy. The answer isn't as simple as "Jar Jar," no matter what arguments I might have put forth in the past. It really comes down to characterization.

I want you to think of the words "The Empire," not even the full and proper name for the bad guys of the original trilogy. It's sharp and evocative. When you think of those words you can see the Death Star, hear the Imperial March, and the clattering armor of a platoon of Stormtroopers. Darth Vader strolling through a fire fight, and his asthmatic breathing, looming over everyone else in his stark, black armor. The whine of a tie fighter as it flies off camera. An Imperial Star Destroyer dwarfing Princess Leia's transport after immobilizing it with a tractor beam. The Empire is monolithic, ubiquitous and a sharp contrast to the Rebel Alliance.

The waters in the prequel trilogy are considerably muddier. We have the Trade Federation, and seriously, who are they? They sound like a rotary group. Not exactly the stuff of nightmare. There's the Sith, who at least after we've seen Darth Maul seem a little more threatening, but you get very little back story. Sidious (Palpatine), Maul, Tyranus (Dooku) are the only Sith who are clearly identified, and none of them are very intimidating save Maul who doesn't last very long.

When we compare these villains to Darth Vader, they come up decidedly short. Vader was the stuff of our worst fears long before Lucas created him. Large and physically menacing, Vader was played by a Swedish wrestler. Sweden seems to have a history in producing science fiction and horror villains, Tor Johnson who was also a Swedish wrestler, was a staple villain in many older films. Vader was clad in black body armor, which provided both a mythic hook to hang the villain on from the countless legends of men in black and dehumanized him, as the armor obscured his features. His asthmatic breathing reminded us that he was a living being, not a mere machine. His evil is clear and unambiguous. He commits both murder and genocide by the time the credits roll in A New Hope. Despite the fact that his origins are purposefully obscured, Vader moves into his role as the principle villain of the original trilogy with little effort.

I understand that the evil presented by the future Emperor Palpatine is purposefully different. He's from the "evil mage" school of villainy. But I feel both trilogies and especially the prequel trilogy fail to present this well compared to more conventional fantasy. His evil in the prequel trilogy is subtle, but as in comic books, subtlety is not a device that works well in fantasy. In fantasy there is typically a very stark contrast between absolute good and evil. In this genre, evil even when it is not strong in the physical sense, must have the appearance of overwhelming strength of some kind - typically it should appear a great deal stronger than the heroes. Palpatine as a character fails in this, both in the final movie of the original trilogy (in which he is killed by Vader, Luke resists temptation and Anakin is redeemed), and in the prequel trilogy. We never see him as powerful, in fact, we usually see him as weak. This is communicated in both trilogies through his frail frame. Granted, he does best two Jedi and feigns weakness as part of his plan to bring Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, but overall he seems to be a one trick pony. Force lightning, Force lightning and failing that, yet more Force lightning.

We could compare heroes and see many of the same weaknesses. In fantasy however, villains tend to be more emblematic than the heroes. For instance, in Lord of the Rings, Sauron or even the One Ring itself is more representative of the story than any of the heroes. But I believe that the heroes in the original trilogy are stronger than the prequel in any case.

I believe almost anything Lucas had followed the original trilogy with would have disappointed. Similar to Joseph Heller spending his whole writing career living in the shadow of his most famous work, Lucas was too successful with the original trilogy and there was too much time between it and the prequel trilogy. By the time The Phantom Menace was released, the original trilogy was part of my generation's childhood, and changing anything in regards to those memories is to wander into dangerous territory.

No Problem.

So my schedule this term is an experiment on how tightly I can pack my school/life schedule and remain sane. How's it going?

I'm almost tested out. Last one for tonight. Three more scripts and tests before 23:59 Wednesday. Phew. Then I just have to have a final draft for my annotated bibliography done on Tuesday, study for my LAN final the same day, hand write (Seriously?!?) two pages of notes for my government test on Wednesday and leap a few tall buildings before spring break starts. 

No problem.

The Dizzying Heights of Celebrity?

I want to apologize, my posting has been a little irregular recently. I'm currently trapped between the Scylla and Charybdis of my two express classes which are ending. I wanted to celebrate a gala moment for this blog though. As of last night, my subscription numbers have tripled! That's right! I have three subscribers. Of course, that really isn't important on a student blog - this is the place I practice writing for my Composition Two (Electric Boogaloo?) class. But subscriber number three, you are welcome here!

I have to admit that it went to my head a bit when I found out. First, I enjoyed an exotic alcoholic beverage . . . from Milwaukee. Then I attended a movie premier . . . at my neighbors house. I made him roll out the red carpet and shoot pictures of me entering his living room with his digital camera. We watched the camcorder footage from his vacation last year. There was pop-corn. It was fun. When it was time to go home, I was driven by a chauffer . . . my neighbor's son, in the cargo area of his little red wagon. I tipped him a fiver and returned to my customary seat in front of the iMac.

I may have gotten a little out of control, but I promise to use my newfound power wisely. You won't see me dancing without pants in a Hollywood discotheque. I promise not to run around with strange women. That's going to be an easy promise to keep, because women strange or otherwise seem to have enough sense to avoid running around with me. I won't cheat on my taxes, lie to Congress, or ship arms to the developing world. I won't publicly discuss my blog's subscription numbers or talk about Fight Club.

Oops. Cut me some slack, I'm new at this.

Sometime after Wednesday, I hope to finish up my series on Star Wars, talk a little about RSS readers, and maybe we'll have some cake. See you then, Buckaroos.

Chris Demmons, New Media Mongrel? Maybe I ought to be a "New Media Mongol?" That sounds exciting.

Let me know what you think.

Research Survey

I have to be careful how I discuss this, because I don't want to influence the results of the survey I take, but I need to set my thoughts in order regarding my survey. I'm going to be doing a survey to examine viral messaging habits on various platforms and to produce a picture of the average user who sends these messages. Obviously, I can't discuss the actual structure of the survey here.

Which is frustrating, because that is one of the areas I am having a lot of difficulty with. I'm also not sure how I want to distribute my survey. I have considered using Survey Monkey, but I'm not sure I will be able to convince my subjects to go use it. Which is a pity, I've heard it's great software for just this sort of thing. I've also considered using Facebook to distribute, but frankly it doesn't seem that people spend much time communicating on Facebook. It seems like it is mostly dedicated to broadcasting messages of your own, or more commonly playing poorly designed, scammy games. I don't have enough reach on Twitter or Buzz, so that's out as well. I suspect I'll be distributing via sneakernet.

I'm really slammed at the moment with the two express classes that are wrapping up next week, but I'd really like to have a good draft of my survey done by the end of the weekend. I then hope to beg, wheedle and plead for help from a few classmates in my American National Government class who are taking statistics. This sort of thing really falls far outside my purview, though I don't regret stating that I would do this when I sold my topic. Working outside of your comfort zone is something I think you really ought to be doing as a college student.

Geek Issues: Star Wars, The Holy Trinity

I want to talk about the fundamental issues for geeks, at least for geeks who include# science fiction and fantasy. Most of us have some intense feelings about Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Star Trek. In my neck of the woods, discussions about Star Wars have a tendency to turn ugly. I saw this article on CNET recently about a documentary about Lucas work on the Star Wars series, The People vs. George Lucas. You can see the film's website here and the first teaser trailer here on Youtube.

I saw Star Wars the year it was released with my parents. I was two or three years old. It changed my life forever. It was one of the last things I remember that we did as a family. My parents separated the next year and eventually divorced. This film was a part of my story well before I was rolling d20s or reading Asimov. I saw it many times that year, and it was my constant companion throughout my childhood.

I saw The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi as they were released in the theater. Like Star Wars IV A New Hope, I saw these films over and over. They just never got old. I had the actions figures, the X-Wing, a Tie Fighter, the Milenium Falcon and the Death Star play set. I even had the action figure case shaped like Darth Vader's head, which was probably a bad idea. Darth Vader gave me nightmares. Later I ran campaigns in the Star Wars role playing game that West End Games published. I still have the oversized Star Wars comic book that I got not long after seeing the movie.

I don't think George Lucas "raped" my childhood. Far from it. I owe Mr. Lucas a great debt and thank him for the things he created that changed my life. In my next post I want to compare the original trilogy and the prequels. I hope you'll join me.