Off-Topic Bookmarks? (Feedback Please)

Dear Common Craft reader, I want to know your thoughts. Just recently, I added del.icio.us bookmarks to this blog's RSS feed. If you're an RSS subscriber, you've seen the once-daily digest of my recent bookmarks (which also appear on our zeitgeist page).

Presumably, you subscribed (or visit occasionally) expecting some consistency in the form of community-related content. While the blog posts will continue to be (mostly) on-topic, I'm considering loosening the restrains on my bookmarking and perhaps veering wildly off-topic.

Are You Bilingual? Subtitle Translators Needed

As we had hoped, the RSS in Plain English video has been a learning experience. One important lesson has been a better recognition of the needs of non-English speakers and the hearing impaired when it comes to video.

We want the video to be useful for everyone. Thankfully, (sorry I can't remember who) Darran pointed me to the Rocketboom episode where they reveal how they are using a service called DotSub to add user-generated subtitles in multiple languages to their videos. How cool.

RSS Video - FAQs, Credits and Observations

Wow. That was fun. It appears that the RSS in Plain English Video is still making it's way around the Web, but the major buzz has subsided and we're ready to move on here at Common Craft. Before we do, I wanted to address some of the things that came up recently.

First, credit where credit is due. Sachi, my lovely wife and partner, came up with the idea for the paperwork format. She also did the video editing and figured out how to make it shorter. The credits in the video don't mention this fact, and she would never ask for credit - so big-ups to Sachi!

Video: RSS in Plain English

Well, That's Encouraging

I care about you, dear RSS reader and when another one of you subscribes to Common Craft - it makes my day. Like so many other people, I keep tabs on the count of subscribers Feedburner provides because I think it's a good measure of salience. That's why I'm so encouraged lately.

Tracking GnomeDex

The GnomeDex festivities have begun. The BBQ is still on this afternoon and I’m really curious about who is going to show up.

I have a feeling GnomeDex is going to be one of the most tagged, blogged, flickred events ever. Thankfully, Kris Krug has created a SuperFeed for the event. Basically, it is a single RSS feed that brings together Gnomedex-related posts from these sources:

The GnomeDex Wiki
Gnomedex Blog
Flickr
Del.icio.us
Feedster
EVDB
Technorati Tags
Pubsub

XML Buttons Galore!

More XML icons than you can shake a stick at

Disclaimer: The page linked above may cause seizures.

Just a little fun here. Do you think that one day, we'll all sit around and say "I remember the day when the buttons we used to subscribe to RSS feeds said to 'XML' on them! Those were the early days!" ?

Link via: Scoble

New Tool: Create RSS Feeds via Email

As many of you may know- RSS is a way for you to "subscribe" to a web site so that you are notified whenever something new is posted. More and more sites are creating RSS "feeds" that allow you to subscribe to them without providing an email address. You need a newsreader to "subscribe".(More on RSS basics here)

This entry will describe how you can create an RSS feed and then post information to the feed by sending an email to a specific address.

10 reasons why RSS is not ready for prime time

Dylan Greene dot com - 10 reasons why RSS is not ready for prime time

While I'm a fan of RSS, and think it has a bright future- I agree with Dylan on most of his points- it has a way to go before being ready for prime time.

One of his points is that RSS feeds only send the first few sentences of a post. This is a setting that can easily be managed by the blogger and I wish more people would change it so that readers see whole posts in RSS- not excerpts. Here's how, using Movable Type.

Apple iTunes RSS Generator

iTunes Music Store RSS Generator

Recently I became a huge fan of the iPod and Apple's iTunes Music Store. I really don't mind giving them money for digital music.

However, I have a hard time being informed as new music hits the Store.

Well, Apple recently created RSS feeds for each genre, so you can be notified via RSS as new music hits the Store. Check it out:

iTunes Music Store RSS Generator