NFIB now has RSS: Small business advocacy association NFIB is now offering a wide variety of RSS feeds on NFIB.com. If you’re looking for them later, there’s now a little orange icon at the bottom righthand of all pages on NFIB.com.

(Note of transparency - and appreciation: NFIB is a client of Hammock Publishing and several folks who read the rexblog (at Hammock & NFIB) worked a long time (from championing the need for them to doing the coding and testing) to get these RSS feeds added to the site. Thanks.)

Blog lite: I’ll be traveling around some over the next few days and will be blogging lightly and, who knows, maybe not at all. I do hope to be posting some photos as my travels will take me through some beautiful spots.

Judging ugly - an open letter to Gabe Rivera:

Dear Gabe,

I don’t think Memeorandum is ugly despite what anyone says, even when, except for that “butt-ugly” comment in the last sentence, they are praising Memeorandum. (Later: Geez, Heather Green picks up the ugly meme.)

This is definitely one of those times when beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Really. Is /. beautiful? Is Del.icio.us beautiful? Is web design/usability guru Jakob Neilson’s website beautiful?

Someone with a print design point of reference may not be drawn to the aesthetics of Memeorandum, but someone who primarily accesses news via an RSS newsreader will recognize the future of the web when they look at your site.

Keep your site ugly and fast and on-task.

I’m not saying all websites should be unconcerned with aesthetics and design. Some should be works of art. Some should wow us with their beauty.

But “services” like Memorandum, that can be accessed in many ways via different types of browsers and newsreaders, both via a computer and mobile device should not be designed to look good in one specific context, but to work for those who use it in a myriad of ways, on a wide range of devices and configurations.

Bottomline: As you know, Gabe, I’ve been a Memorandum cultist since day-one. I told you that at BlogNashville. I am happy lots more people are discovering — and telling the world — how cool what you are doing is.

Regards,

Rex

PS: You can take my design advice with a grain of salt, however. Someone who would velcro a nano and Treo together won’t mind how Memeorandum looks, even it were ugly, as long as it does all the cool things it does.

Apple’s iPod pricing strategy has never made sense, except to the marketplace: Apparently, there are lots of angry and confused folks regarding the weird pricing strategy of Apple when it comes to how one iPod version can cost $50 more than another yet the features on the one $50 more can be, in the minds of the angry folks, so much more.

This reminds me of the time when Apple introduced the iPod Mini and I blogged a similar confusion and implied how strange I thought it was to think anyone would purchase a Mini. The maketplace wasn’t confused, however, as customers continued to purchase the iPod & the iPod mini despite the exact type of disparity that is seen between the nano and the video iPod.

Today, I guess I’m wiser. I can comprehend the products are for two marketplaces. Like convertables and sedans are for different types of drivers.

Or, at least I know why I’m happy to keep my nano and don’t feel ripped off by Apple this time.

However, I would feel ripped off if I purchased a new iMac G5 and six months later they come out with features they are obviously holding back (ie, TV tuner).

I can predict one thing. In about 2-3 years, I’ll be purchasing a TV-media center flat screen something-or-other that will hang on my wall and be fairly large — and it will have the Apple brand on it. I won’t be disappointed in the previous model because I’ll wait until they have exactly what I want.