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News Readers And Other Handy Utilities

MY DAILY ritual at the office starts with reading the morning news using Internet Explorer (IE) with a customized homepage at Netscape.com. I used to use Netscape's browser, but, after installing Mac OS X, I didn't like the way it worked - or, rather, didn't work. If you haven't gone to the trouble of customizing a homepage, 1 encourage you to do so. My homepage has three columns, with panes or sections for news such as CNN Main Top Stories, CNN Tech, Market News from CBS Market Watch, Top News from Netscape, Tech News from ZDNet, and, of course, current weather in three cities from the Weather Channel. See what you are missing if you don't customize your home page?

I am not especially happy with IE and prefer Apple's Safari browser, but I have been putting off upgrading it since it requires me to upgrade my entire operating system to OS 10.3. As I mentioned in a previous column, Safari is three to four times faster than either IE or Netscape. I tried to download FireFox 0.9.3, the new browser from mozilla.org, but I could not get it to install. By all reports, FireFox is the browser to have. But again, I will probably need to upgrade my operating system - I must stop procrastinating. If you are using FireFox, I would like to hear from you.

I doubt that I will change my routine, but lately I have been trying out an Internet News Reader. An Internet News Reader is a small program that reads various RSS news feeds from all over the Internet. Depending on whom you ask, RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary" - probably the latter. But Web browsers don't read RSS feeds; instead, Internet News Readers do. A number of these readers are available as free or inexpensive downloads. I use NetNewsWire on my Mac (http://ranchero.com/netnewswire). Those who use PCs might try such readers as FeedReader, NewzCrawler, or AmphetaDesk. (The last works for PCs, Macs, and Linux systems.)

After you download and install a news reader, you simply select the feeds you want. Most readers come with a fairly comprehensive list of feeds to choose from. If yours doesn't have the RSS feed from your favorite news source, simply use your browser to go to your favorite news site and use the site's search button to find "RSS." For example, if you do this at National Public Radio (www.npr.org), you will find the RSS feed address for NPR Top Stories is www. npr.org/rss/rss.php?catId=2. Highlight and copy this address; then paste it into the "Add Feed" or "Add Channels" menu of your news reader.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using an Internet News Reader instead of a Web browser. The major advantage is that you can read the headlines and short summaries of news articles from dozens of sources quickly. I find it fascinating to compare what various news organizations consider to be their top stories. For example, on August 10, the BBC News had substantially more international "top stories" than any other source. Having students compare various news sources from around the world would certainly be an excellent social studies or media literacy activity. Another advantage to news readers is that you get a short textonly summary of the news, with less advertising. If you want to read the entire news article, you simply click on the provided link and your Web browser takes you to the originating site, such as the site for the New York Times or the Christian Science Monitor. I should also mention that there are news feeds in several languages other than English.

About the only real drawback to news readers is that the software opens your browser whenever you want to read the entire text of a news article. And if you are a news junkie, there is another disadvantage: you can while away hour after hour with a news reader. I read news stories so long that 1 almost didn't meet the deadline for this column!

A good source of useful information on RSS news feeds is located at Harvard (http: //blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/directory/5/ feeds). Another useful source is Lockergnome. com. The U.S. Department of Education has even started publishing daily RSS feeds. Paste the following address into your news reader to get the department's daily news (www.ed.gov/rss/edgov.xml). I scoured the Phi Delta Kappa International, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and Education Week sites to see if they had RSS feeds. Alas, they did not. I found the following RSS address for eSchool.com, which offers daily education news (www. eschoolnews.com/exchange/newsfeed.xml); eSchool will even let local schools use its news feeds on their websites. Yahoo has several daily RSS feeds for kids, but I was not impressed by them.

By now, you may have noticed that ".xml" ends some of the RSS feed addresses mentioned above. The websites of organizations that offer RSS feeds usually have a small orange button with these letters on it. At such sites, you click on the .xml button to find their news feed address. So, as you surf the Web, you might want to start collecting these addresses.

If short text-only RSS news is just not your thing, you might want to try out the digital video news clips at www.feedroom. com. There are 14 different categories of video clips with three recent clips in each and a list of archived clips. The clips are in RealPlayer format, so if you don't have this browser plug-in, you might have to download it. You will also need a broadband connection to view the videos.

On to other utilities and handy software. Another interesting utility is DesktopWeather from the Weather Channel (www.weather. com). Click on the "Weather Tools" button on the website. Unfortunately, there's no Mac version, so I cannot give you much of a report. But I believe it provides a small desktop panel that displays various kinds of weather information that you select. It is always a good idea to know how to uninstall a program before you install it. And this is especially true if you install something that always appears on your desktop, since it can easily get annoying. Reputable software makers always give uninstall instructions.

Recently I purchased a copy of Kiplinger's WillPower - software that helps you write your "last will and testament." (www. blocksoft.com). I would have thought that it was a simple matter to prepare a will, but such is definitely not the case. The glitch is that you have to enter all kinds of financial information, life insurance policy numbers, bank account balances, and so on. This is done in the software's "estate planner." It seems that you have to know the size of an estate before you can decide how to dispose of it without giving the government a lot of extra money in estate taxes. The slickest feature of WillPower, though, is its helpful hints and informative text. It's worth the $30 it costs just to read all the detailed information it provides on things like blind trusts and so on. It certainly made me better informed and so better able to communicate my wishes to a lawyer. I heartily recommend WillPower, but I also recommend seeing an attorney to finalize your will.

Since I really do need to upgrade my operating system, I have been reading the reviews of disk utility software. It's always a good idea to optimize your main disk drive before you perform a major upgrade. TechTool Pro 4 has received rave reviews, including MacUser's highest rating. TechTool has the unique ability to work on your disk drive without booting from a different disk. It's a little expensive at $98, but it's only $60 if you have a legitimate serial number from Norton Utilities or a similar competing program. Whatever disk utility software you choose, do choose one and use it. Of course, you can always use the old standby, Norton Utilities, which also sells for $98 (www.symantecstore.com).

If you like talking books, you might like the small Macintosh shareware utility called AudioBookMaker2 (www.alexanderwilson. com). This simple utility lets you write or paste text into a window, and it then creates an audio file that you can listen to. The program is capable of handling book-length manuscripts. And all 22 of Apple's OS X native voices are available. The author of the program would like a donation of $2.50 if you find the program useful.

Software that lets you do things that were previously impossible intrigues me. One such program is Apple's iPhoto. A unique feature of iPhoto is its ability to assemble a 30-plus-page photo album and send it off to a book binder for professional printing and binding. Your album comes back to you as a clothbound volume. For $30, it's an excellent way to make presents, prepare an attractive r??sum??, or assemble a portfolio.

By the way, happy birthday to Technology. This column is now 10 years old. Time sure flies when you're having fun. But, seriously, 10 years is a lot of columns, and I'm always on the lookout for topics. I would welcome any comments or suggestions for future columns that readers might want to offer.