From the "technology new to Mary that you probably figured out 10 months ago" desk comes this news on RSS aggregators. I just discovered Feed Demon and I am sold (for a one-time cost of $29.95). You set it up to go and look for new information on your favorite blogs and other web sites. Then, when you open the aggregator, voilà: there appears a list of new postings since the last time you read the site/blog. The techology works with the very blog you are now reading. It also works with favorites such as AKMA's random thoughts, Mary Hess's Tensegrities and Jenee Woodard's textweek blog. All sorts of news sites are in on the act (see the list of National Public Radio RSS feeds, for example). Dictionary.com will give you a word for the day. The list goes on and on. The value of this is that you don't have to click around to all the sites and look for updates. The aggregator does the looking for you.
I avoided this technology for several months because it looked hard to figure out. When you click on "syndicate this site" links in blog sidebars, you get a page of curious code. Did I need to be able to do something with that code to use an RSS aggregator? The answer is no. Once you have the reader (a.k.a. aggregator), all you need is the URL of the site you want aggregated. Feed Demon (and others also, presumably) will go looking for that code on its own.
Two more notes:
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