Tap, Tap, Tap. Is this thing on?

A variety of factors conspired to burn me out on blogging for some months.

To make matters worse, my blog feeds were broken by the Google buyout of Blogger.com and a change in LiveJournal syndication.

It's amazing how feeling not very creative combined with the knowledge that no one is listening can conspire to sap all desire to write.

But I'm back, baby!
The tech issues are fixed. (I hope.)
And I've got lots on my mind.

First, I just wanna check, "Can you hear me now?"

If you're seeing my recent posts, such as this one, won't you please post a comment and let me know? If you include how you view my blog (LiveJournal, RSS, directly) that would be helpful.

P.S. Apologies to anyone who's blog feed is now full of my old posts. This is because LiveJournal fixed my syndication and now sees all these posts as new. Going forward you should only see my new posts.

My Blog ... Now on LiveJournal

Yay! At last, you LiveJournal types can subscribe to my blog. Just click this magic button....

That's it! My blog will now apppear as one of your friends and you won't have to remember to come here to check for updates.

Alternately, if you're using Safari or Firefox you may subscribe directly to my blog as an RSS feed.

You, too, can syndicate your RSS blog on LiveJournal using the form at the bottom of this page. (I'm looking at you, Murray.) This is useful because it automatically brings your posts into the LJ community without you having to repost every entry manually. (I wish other sites had this.) It's surprisingly quick and easy, but can only be set up by a paying LJ user. So if you don't pay for LJ, get a friend to do it for you. Thanks for the help, Kelli!

Get Your Blog On! (RSS)

I've mentioned RSS Feeds before. Put simply they allow you to read a bunch of news or other items from many different web sites all on the same page. This is fabulous for blogs. By subscribing to the RSS Feeds from all my friends blogs, I can read them all on a single page. It's quick, easy and free. You can do it too, and it's much easier than you think.

The first thing you need is a browser that supports RSS Feeds. There are two popular ones. For Mac there's Safari and Firefox. For PCs there's just Firefox.

Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer doesn't support RSS Feeds. But it does support your computer being hijacked by various pornographers and hackers. Please oh please won't you switch to something safe? Do it for me.

Once you're using the right browser, here's what you can do!

This next link demonstrates RSS Feeds. If you're using Safari, click on it and you'll see how cool it is!

RSS Feeds for Dale and All His Buddies

This is really easy to set up.

Safari RSS Setup

The first thing you should do is create a folder on your bookmarks toolbar. Call it something like "RSS Feeds" or "Mondo News".

Watch for sites that offer RSS Feeds.

In Safari, you'll see this logo at the top.

When you see this icon click it. You can be sure you're looking at a feed page because the address starts with "feed://" instead of the usual "http://". Then drag the site address into the folder you created on your bookmarks bar.

Here's some more help.

Safari RSS Feeds


Firefox RSS Setup

RSS seems to work best in Firefox as a Sidebar. Turn your Bookmark Sidebar on.

View -> Sidebar -> Bookmarks

Create a folder for your RSS Feeds and watch for sites that offer them.

In Firefox, you'll see this logo at the bottom.

Click the logo and choose "Subscribe to this feed."

Here's some more help.

Firefox RSS Feeds

Advice for Bloggers
If you are a blogger yourself, you may already be publishing an RSS Feed and not know it. Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com and a lot of other blog engines support RSS and you don't have to do anything extra. Just check your blog settings and make sure RSS Feed publishing is turned on.