What Is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Articles and updates from this are site fed to an ongoing file and updated whenever this site is updated. RSS feeds are subscription services that you can subscribe to to get up to the minute information about Joe and his current projects. These feeds can be subscribed to and read via a special reader without the problems of email spam and without having to divulge any information about yourself. Many other devices besides computers are now becoming RSS enabled and you may be able to read these feeds on your PDA or Cell Phone.

Available RSS Readers

We have compiled the following list of readers available at the time of this writing. MOST of them are free to use and do NOT include any other potentially dangerous add-on software such as spyware. We do however encourage you to read the information from each of these companies BEFORE you install any of these programs. We have also marked the programs that we have tested and feel they meet the needs of our users with an *. We have also added the supported operating systems for each reader.

• Thunderbird Email Client * (Win / MAC / Linux)- by Mozilla.org, this email client handles email and has full RSS support
• Mozilla Firefox Browser * (ALL) - Allows you to subscribe to any feed via clicking on the small orange icon at the bottom of the browser window. Whenever a website is RSS enabled this icon will show in the browser's lower frame Feeds are stored in your bookmarks.
• Sharp Reader (Win)- requires the Microsoft™ .NET Framework to be installed
• Straw (Linux)
• AmphetaDesk - (ALL) Free reader available for all computer platforms
• FeedReader * (Win) - Free Reader looks and acts like Outlook Express, VERY easy to use and setup!
• BlogLines (ALL) - allows you to check Feeds via any browser (requires sign up with email address)
• FeedDemon (Win) - $29.95 US runs on Windows™ without .NET platform
• News Gator (Win) - $29.00 US allows you to read RSS Feeds within Outlook™

There are many more readers coming out daily so you may find a reader you like better - the above readers are ONLY suggested readers we have been able to locate. Yahoo users may also subscribe to an RSS Feed through their My Yahoo page.

Subscribing to a Feed

Each program has its own way of allowing you to subscribe to a feed but the most common method is to right click (WIN) or cmd click (MAC) on the orange and white XML button at the top right section of each page of this website (above the CD Spotlight) and choose "copy Link Location" (WIN) or "Copy Link to Clipboard" (MAC) from the menu. You then open your feed reader and start a new subscription. When your reader program asks for the feed location you then paste the link location (from the last step) into the box provided. Once you've completed the feed setup your program should automatically download the feed. As new articles, press releases or updated information is added to the feed your reader will automatically download them and inform you that there are updates.