More and more email programs (Thunderbird, Opera, Evolution) are including built-in RSS readers - the convenience and efficiency are quite astounding. Just make sure that if you do go with a new feed, please make sure that each item comes as it's own entry - there are some sites out there that send back a huge page and send you to an anchor point within it.

I read your blog via the RSS feed, and if I hadn't gone to your website to check a permalink, I wouldn't have noticed that you had new stuff up. Grrr. (And I use the RSS feed because it tells me whether there's anything new without me having to eyeball the web page.) I also read your livejournal via the RSS feed, for similar reasons.

Well, there was an RSS feed at http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blosxom.cgi/xml since... some point before July 04, which is when I saved a copy of my subscriptions, apparently. Wasn't that yours?

That's because I've never provided/supported an RSS feed before. As far as I'm concerned, it's of secondary interest. (Doubtless some LJ users will begin bugging me before long because the unathorized feed someone set up without my say-so is broken ...)

Greetings! Your updated page template no longer links to an RSS feed. The following URL appears to work:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blosxom.cgi?flav=rss

I hope this helps any readers who use RSS to get headlines. I'd be very sad if you released a new book and I didn't find out about it. ;-)

1. Movable Type is not free. Blosxom is. (This, in and of itself, is reason enough.)

2. Blosxom is simple, elegant, and functional; it was written by a perl hacker for perl hackers. I am a perl hacker. Movable Type, in my opinion, was designed for command-line phobic "ordinary folks" who are terrified of programming. As a result, it is bloated and overly complex to configure and use. If I wanted a pushbutton CGI interface to Blosxom doubtless I could write one ... only life's too short, and life's too short to be dependent on a browser.

3. Movable Type is so popular it's a routine target for comment spammers. If you need de-spamming add-ons, you waste time fighting spam rather than writing a blog. I haven't decided what comment system to replace QuickTopic with yet (possibly one I wrote myself a couple of years ago, that needs dusting off and updating with noindex hackery) but at least it's my choice. Whereas Moveable Type, at a software level, is a one-size-fits-all solution.

Why do you prefer Blosxom over Movable Type?

Yes, I should have realised people link to individual entries. (Maybe I ought to yank that feature out. Or stick a new instance of blosxom in the archive directory. Hmm.) What happened was, my blog directory was getting over-full -- a few hundred files in it -- so I took static page snapshots and archived the old entries. There's got to be a better way. Maybe I should hack blosxom to hold entries in a DBM file and add a scriptlet to import a new page into the database ...

Links to individual entries are now borken.

I'm getting a bit peeved with blosxom, mainly because it's impossible for me to update old entries without them coming to the top of the blog stack. That is, since blosxom works on creation date to determine which entries should be where
and I can only update via ftp, which gives transferred files the current date as creation date, blosxom thinks an updated entry is a new entry...

Much to my disgust, it turns out that 25 minutes of the 40-minute mini-disk interview I did with Al last year turns out to be toast -- "pause" enabled, at a guess. So I'm going to have to bounce a bunch of questions at him via email tomorrow, or whenever I finish reading "Redemption Ark" (which is as gripping as "Chasm City" wasn't -- unlike his earlier books, this one doesn't feel overweight).

Links and copy would be great. It's one of the things I'm doing with SandM - there's 7 years of articles and stuff I can repost...

Yes Charlie, links to other writings would be great - interviews, reviews, for sure! I'd personally be fascinated to be a fly on the wall while you converse with Al Reynolds!

Edited by author 06-23-2002 02:02 PM
Yes Charlie, do link to stuff you've written elsewhere.

Whoops, should have looked in here earlier. I think I'm going to have to do a rant about the EU before long. Synopsis: the EU is Free Trade done right. It's also essential that we have at least two superpowers, to keep each other on their toes and prove that there is an alternative. (And I'd much rather they were both democracies of some sort than totalitarian police states or bureaucracies.)

What's wrong with the EU? Lots, starting with the "democratic deficit". But there's a hell of a lot that's right, enough to suggest that fixing it is a worthwhile option.

Could you explain your views on European Federalism? Personally, as someone who lives in an United States that's sort of lurching toward corporate fascism (Did I tellya that I'm a registered member of Warblogger Watch fighting right alongside the enigmatic DR. MENLO! (I'm not sure what his super powers are..)) I'm of the opinion that a unified Europe would be a necessary counter to my nation's slide into the abyss. I also want you guys to colonize Mars. I want to have health care when I go to Mars...I know it's a little thing but that's how I feel. So how do you feel?

Philip Shropshire
http://www.threerivertechreview.com
http://www.majic12.com

PS: By the way, I enjoyed "Lobsters" but I wish you would make your stories a bit more technical. Just a suggestion. Some more science, tech jargon, that kind of thing. Work on it. Thank you. I'm reading Halo as well and I should be doing a short piece about you at my Majic12 blog anyday now which should send one, maybe two hits your way. Thank me later. Brilliant dissection of that smarmy Eric Raymond piece by the way...Is there a direct link to it? Have you ever thought of pitching some of your political stuff toward the American Prospect? Just a thought..

Right on, Charlie! Keeping the taste of blogosphere spicy. I have noticed that the more I read the more aware of the differences in our points of view, and thats part of what its all about.

OK, I am an associate, but since I never made it it to the minimum threshold for them to actually give me money, I figure I'm safe.Sort of.

I happily concur with Charlie on laziness being an underrated virtue, or at least a deserved pleasure. So's being a European federalist at that.

When I do booklog stuff on my blog, I do include Amazon links - but they're generic links. I want people to read books, and I figure giving them direct access to the source is good. However, there's no point in going through the hassle of becoming an associate for the few pence that I might make. I'd rather spend the time doing stuff that makes *real* money...