The Curse of RSS, and Other Thoughts.

Today's blog post contains much crap. So I will separate the sections with a line of asterisks!

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RSS, or Real Simple Syndication, is a great concept. You have a program on your computer (I use FeedReader, for example), and every hour or so it nabs content from RSS feeds. RSS feeds come from blogs like Boing-Boing or news sites like CNN.

So news and stories of interest straight to your desktop without even having to think about it. It is the definition of Groovetastic.

However, there is a dark side to RSS. It is a very simple one.

I do not get any freaking work done anymore! I sit and I read Boing-Boing, CNN, and other technical and political blogs all day when I should be testing out the next version of my company's applications or writing programs to mimic responses from credit check servers or learning the webservice test program or doing something functional to convince them I should keep my job.

It would help if I actually understood the webservice program, or if I had programmed anything in two years, or if the developers would actually fix the bugs instead of going "It's on your end." (Note: Even after testing it against three separate databases on five different machines... It was "still me.") But still, my work is slowing down a bit, and because of it I am less interested in working and more interested in reading about the latest copyright law outrages, or Dilbert, or an awesome story about upside down rooms and vampire bats.

In short: If you like to read about current events and whatnot, keep RSS off your workstation if you like your job.

Addendum to Post:Although it's fairly unneccessary as I only post about once a day, this Blog does have an RSS Feed. Alas, it looks better in the actual blog than through a feed reader. BUT! If you want it for some reason, the RSS link is as follows: http://modernknighterrant.blogspot.com/atom.xml . Enjoy!

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Off on a computer tangent, I was looking at Alienware the other day, and came up with the Holy Grail of current computing, as far as I'm concerned. It cost $6,000. It had an AMD FX-55 for the processor, 2 Gig of DDR RAM, dual 150 gig 10,000 RPM harddisks RAIDed together, a DVD±R/W, high quality soundcard, and watercooling as icing on the cake. The pièce de résistance, though, was the dual GeForce videocards. They were linked together: one controlled the top half of the 21 inch monitor, and the second controlled the bottom. As loads increased or decreased on the separate cards, they would modify their loads for maximum optimization.

My cousin, a computer engineer who loves speed, called it "Unnecessary." Which means I really, really want it.

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Continuing on about my earlier post: I was thinking about time and money. I have come to a decision. Time is by far the most important resource you have. You can replace lost money and lost equipment, but a moment squandered can never be replaced. So be more careful how you spend your time, eh?

Sorry for the out-of-nowhere philosophy session. I think too hard sometimes.

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Take a brief pause in your day and boogie-out to this: http://www.ded.kiev.ua/mus.swf .
It is a Flash animation featuring a tune created entirely in old Win9x Sound Recorder using the system sounds on Windows. It is 73h r0xX0r, f00. ph34r 73h 1337\355. Most importantly, it is fun. So therefore, it is a good way to spend a minute of your time. :)

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Damn that was long. But you're safe now. That's all I got for today.

So 'til next time, rock on.