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the web•Directory |
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the web•Directory |
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Gather the newsHere's an exercise that's safe for you to work through at home. Imagine you've got lots of favourite sites which you visit nearly every day to pick up any new bits of information. It could be to read the latest sports news, watch what's happening in the world of digital cameras, or just be up to date with the latest gadgetry. The problem is that it takes time to load all these sites (even when you have tabbed browsing set up) and skim their pages to check if there are any updates. Let's organise things so we only have to start our day to one place and let this site do the work of gathering any updates for us. So we start at Start.com. Let's say our favourite sites include ABC News, ABC Sport, BBC World News, Digital Cameras Blog, Engadget, Mailcall (info on the new Hotmail), Paper Forest, Professional Developers Conference 2005, Scobleizer (Microsoft Geek Blogger), Via Virtual Earth Developer Sites Gallery, Waranga Hospital Relay for Life and webDotWiz's Space (because he's got links to lots of local spaces). You can check each of these and you'll find each has a red button labelled RSS or XML to indicate they each provide a feed service. When you click on that red button, you'll either get a page that looks like it belongs to another planet (e.g. ABC News) or, in some cases, your browser will display the content in readable form (e.g. webDotWiz Space). No matter - we're only interested in RSS page's address in your browser's address bar so we can copy it to add it to our content at Start.com. webDotWiz has done all the hard work for you and you only need to copy and paste. The first job to do at Start.com is make some room for your feeds. Hover your mouse over the MSNBC.COM:TOP header and you'll be able to click on the X to remove this feed from the page. In similar fashion you can remove others you don't want but leave the Add Content one because we'll use it now. Click on Advanced and you'll see Add feed by URL. Choose the web address (URL) of our first feed (ABC News), copy and paste it into the input box and click the Subscribe button. After verification, you'll need to open the Start menu by click on Start at the top left of the page. Click the Pin me button so the panel remains displayed and then click on My Web. You'll see ABC News: Top Stories is there. Click it and a windows opens over the top of the page with the latest ABC news headlines. To add the headlines list permanently to your page, click add to my page and it'll be placed at the top of the left column. Repeat the copy and paste/add to my page step for the other feeds to build up your page. You can move each feed around on your page to where you want by holding down the left mouse button (the pointer changes to a four-headed arrow). Now you can see when there's new content at each of your favourite sites, read a summary and follow up at the main site if you need to - all done from one place. You're probably wondering why there's so much development being put into Start.com. The time has arrived when it's now possible to feed content to all types of devices, not just computers. For example, you're traveeling with your laptop safely packed in its bag and, oops, you've forgotten a phone number or the time of your next appointment. Why not just look at the display on the lid of your laptop to get the information? Have a look at Windows Sideshow to see what's coming very soon. Update: Start.com was internationalised yesterday (21-Sep-05) so when you open it, you'll see feeds from Australian sites. Here are some sites to get you started:
• All this week's Wiziest sites are listed on the web•Sites page. 
Daily updates to web•TrainSim line news are readily available. Check out the latest news, tips and the best downloads for Microsoft Train Simulator at www.webDotTrainSim.com. Help | About• Need help finding your way around? It's just a click away...» • web•Wiz Online is published fortnightly, on the same day as The Waranga News, and updated regularly as sites are added to the web•Directory. • Comments? Questions? Contact the webmaster • web•Wiz Online is best viewed at 800x600 screen resolution in 16-bit colour. • © Bernie Halpin, web•Wiz Online 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. |
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