sugarenia.com

So I guess that after Hotmail, RSS readers stand-alone applications will be my next nemesis.

I just spent many hours of my precious afternoon to find, download and deploy an acceptable RSS reader. Why not some FF extension, you’ll ask? Because my faithful Sage, after months of flawless execution, just ..died. I don’t know why, but it keeps crashing my Firefox after the first two or three clicks. And since I greatly despise the Wizz RSS reader, other popular option, I decided to take the leap and move to stand-alone applications.

I have downloaded and installed GreatNews recently, but alas, my little brain could not get a clue on how to operate it. I didn’t know how to bulk add feeds, how to import stuff… Maybe I ask for too much, but this application didn’t satisfy me at all.

Next stop : Download.com, let’s browse the RSS readers. Aha! Active Web Reader? Sounds cool. So I’ve downloaded and installed the application. How can I import my FF bookmarks to the new reader? Nifty OPML.

But wait, Firefox does not natively support bookmarks export to OPML. So let’s search the Net, once more. After some light search, I discover an extension that sounds great: OPML support for Firefox. Let’s you import and export your bookmarks using OPML and not the standard .html files that Firefox uses. Download…install…restart Firefox…run extension…voila! .opml file ready.

I open the Import… dialog of Active Web Reader and try to import the brand new .opml file. Alas! There seems to be a problem with the syntax of the file.

(this is the point when I start sighing)

I search for an OPML validator, and I find one almost immediately: validator.opml.org. As the author states clearly, it’s in beta, so it may not work. But I give it a try anyway. Tada! The validator informs me that there is a problem in character #382, ending tag expected.

I fire up jEdit to check it. The file is pretty messy, since there are no newline (\n) characters embedded and all the XML is one huge sentence. I fix the indentation and try to find the source of all evil. I find character #382, but all seems to be OK. I delete the whole line, thinking one less bookmark, I can cope. Re-run the validator and..tada. Exact same problem, exact same character. (the foaming mouth point starts here)

I ignore the validator results and try to feed it in the reader. TADA! “No feeds found in the file”.

*sound of head dropping on desk*

Don’t you hate it when computer things just don’t work out for you at a particular moment? That’s one of those afternoons.

I’m back to my Druid.

RSS reader, Active Web Reader, Sage, Firefox, RSS, feed, GreatNews

…when a witty-named-but-oh-so-passe application launches, offering almost free ($3.95) MySpace stalking.

For this small fee, they undertake the painstaking task of watching the MySpace profile you provide them, notifying you when it changes relationship status. That is, when your victim breaks up with the hated other.

Lose a partner no more! Be the first to stalk the person of your dreams! Never stand in emotional queues again!

O tempora, o mores.

singlestat.us, myspace, dating

Nah…not really. I avoid all kinds of blues as the devil avoids incense (I don’t even know if such a phrase exists in any other language except for Greek).

The truth is that summer starting has forced me to shut down the engines a little. I’m not in the mood for doing anything creative, except lying in bed watching Lost and Naruto episodes. Or going to the beach, Oh, and on top of that, I made myself a favour and finally bought WoW. The WoWers out there know what that means…

I don’t know if you experience it at all, but although I’m connected to the Internet 24/7, sometimes I just want to hide from it. I don’t check my blogroll, I don’t check my e-mails, I don’t anything. I just let my PC downloading stuff.

I guess that’s one of those cases. And summer heat works hard on getting my creativity / writing skills down. So don’t worry on the bigger gaps on my blog writing, the heat sun beach is to blame!

I hope you have a lovely summer start, all you northern hemisphere guys!

P.S. Concerning WoW: Since I will be a newbie to the official servers, I’d appreciate some advice from the veterans out there. Any server proposals? Any party offers? I hate PvP, I must say, and I plan to roll a female Night Elf Druid, my favourite character.