I knew this would happen: I was trying my best today not to blog anything actually worth blogging, and then someone goes and e-mails me a link to the “Folio: 40”
List of magazine innovators and influencers. And as best as I can
determine, there is no hidden message in the fact they released it on
April Fools Day.

And to end the holiday: The ransom note generator. (via: ResearchBuzz)

New blogging focus: After
renegotiating my contract to ghost-write this blog for Rex (see
preceding post), I now get to include posts about the important issues
I’m
interested in, rather than boring items about blogging and magazines
and stuff.

For instance, here is some breaking news
about Scott Savol, that, well, rather large fellow, who is a finalist on American
Idol. Not only is he the worst singer on the show and, well, rather
large, he also has a record — and not the kind that Billboard tracks.

People, just vote him off the show already.

I’ve set up this page to send folks to who I tell, “Hey, you should set up a newsreader.”

Seth Godin provides some RSS how-to help.

For those who are “visual” people, perhaps seeing a video of how this all works will help: Here’s a simple video about how to set up some blog subscriptions on MyYahoo or Bloglines It was created by Michael Pollack.

Walter Mossberg, personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, wrote this column on May 5, 2005: “A Guide to Using RSS, Which Helps You Scan Vast Array of Web Sites

“This roundup is from Robert Scoble, famed “Microsoft blogger” and great guy:

There are three basic types of RSS News Aggregators:

1) Server-based aggregators. Some, like Newsgator cross the lines
since Newsgator has a server-side service too. Other server-side
aggregators are Feeds.scripting.com, MyYahoo, Bloglines, and MyMSN.

2) Standalone client-side aggregators. RSS Bandit. FeedDemon. SharpReader. Radio UserLand. Among these, my favorites are RSS Bandit and FeedDemon (REX NOTE: FeedDemon has Nashville connections - use it).
You’ll need to download and install these. They don’t depend on any
other application being loaded, and are browser-independent too (for
the most part). On the Mac, NetNewsWire is the one most of my friends like. (REX NOTE: I use NetNewsWire.)

3) Built in the browser. OnFolio 2.0 adds onto IE or Firefox. Optimal Access adds onto IE. The Mozilla team offers Sage for Firefox users. Pluck adds onto any browser. My favorite here is OnFolio. Pluck is pretty good too.

4) Dependent on Outlook. NewsGator is my favorite here (it’s still the aggregator I use most), but there’s also IntraVnews.

Article from WSJ.com (May 15, 2006): “Me, Me, Me:The personalized newspaper was dreamed up two decades ago. We’re getting closer and closer.”

I confess: This is a fake blog ghost-written by me, Rex’s ‘doppelblogger’: I
apologize to the seven readers of rexblog. I have been blogging a lie
for the past four years. I have been pretending to be Rex Hammock, a
so-called magazine publishing guy who lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Rex exists, but he can’t even type, much less write. I am actually a
ghost-writer who Rex hired to run a four-year experiment to show how
easy it would be to outsource your personal blog.

Rex mockingly calls me his doppelblogger. I hate it when he says that and then does that irritating cackle of his.

I’ve wanted to blog this truth before, but Rex has never given me an
actual password to his Userland account, rather he makes me send these
posts to him via e-mail which he then has his secretary print out so
that he can dictate them to her while she takes shorthand to later
transcribe them into these posts.

However, today I finally figured out his password (”RafatAli” spelled backwards).

As this will likely be my last post here on the rexblog (You can’t fire
me, Rex, I quit), I’ll just point you to the blog I maintain using my
real identity.

I’m outta here.