Gryphon replied:
>I'll assume you're talking about "Really Simple Syndication" (although
>"RDF Site Summary" also looks promising), not that I know what that
>does apart from the obvious. What does it do?

Yes to both. It makes maximum sense in the context of news headlines (*lightbulb* you're in the newspaper business right?). Suppose you have a big news web site, like *coughBBC*cough*. You'd create a specially formatted -- aren't they all -- XML file that says "here's a bunch of headlines: headline1 (with brief text?), headline2 (brief text?), ...".

Or ... I think your Livejournal is available as an RSS feed. I know my blosxom blog is. "Here are the last N entries: Subject1 link1 summary1, subject2..." etc.

But all XML so it can be read and rendered by an RSS feed reader or aggregator. Most RSS feeds also have a "last modified" or some such feature, and most aggregators can present "new" articles much like email. So although my feed in particular only provides the top 5 items from the EPU new.html page, an aggregator would tell you only when a new one becomes available. As an example, I have a perl script that sends a Jabber (think instant message) message with new items, so they pop up as an instant message.

Naturally, all this assumes you weren't being sarcastic.

--
Satya.

So lemme get this straight. You want to set up a web page that you can check...

... to see if another web page has been updated.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

The biggest advantage of RSS feeds is that most aggregators (which is, apparently, the buzzword for 'RSS feed readers') can take n RSS feeds, and display them all on one page. This, hopefully, reduces the number of different places you have to check...at least, assuming the feeds are constructed intelligently (some I've encountered are most distinctly not). I actually use and RSS aggregator for this purpose, snagging headlines from NYTimes, Wired, and a fwe other places, and putting them all on one page for me...sue me, I'm lazy ;)

Yes, with the addition of what goldenfire said:

>The biggest advantage of RSS feeds is that most aggregators (which is,
>apparently, the buzzword for 'RSS feed readers') can take n RSS
>feeds, and display them all on one page. This, hopefully, reduces the

And the fact that it's already in a format from which it's easy to produce push data, like the jabber thing I babbled about earlier, or any other form.

--
Satya.

Why, jou lazy crap-for-crap! This is just stale freakin' Easter candy! This thing's rock-hard, man!

... I mean, uh, sure, go ahead, if that kind of thing turns you on. It's not like I have to do anything on the server side for it, anyway, if it just reads the document.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Uh...

>... I mean, uh, sure, go ahead, if that kind of thing turns you on.
>It's not like I have to do anything on the server side for it, anyway,
>if it just reads the document.

Yay! I mean, ok, cool. It's out there for anyone who wants it.

Edit: Note to everyone: If the RSS feed ever breaks, don't bug Gryphon, because it's not his headache.

--
Satya.

I don't know if it's useful for the RSS feed, but I've compiled (courtesy of the wayback machine) a complete history of EPU's "What's New" page back to the page first appearing at its current URL. The wayback machine has now filled in the pages I've been missing, so I believe the list is now complete. I've got it up at <http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~lennox/epu-old-news.html>.

As with the RSS feed, report any problems with it to me, not to Gryphon.

I don't think it's any good for the RSS, but it *is* extremly interesting to browse back through it and watch the truly unbelievable creative output of SotS days.

I'm wondering if there's any way to reproduce the effect...