Use RSS to Do More with Internet Data
Part 2 of a Three Part Series on RSS Technology
During Part 1 of the VitaminCM.com series on RSS “Master Online Information Through the Magic of RSS Technology” I covered what RSS is and how it works for sites that provide an RSS feed. RSS can do a lot more than just bring your favorite blog posts to your feed reader. During Part 2, I’m going to show you how to get data out of a web site that does not provide an RSS feed. I’m also going to show you how to use combine multiple sources of data from different web sites and combine it into a single RSS feed.
Using RSS to Get Data from Pages that Don’t Provide an RSS Feed
There is a mountain of valuable data out there on the web that would be great to get sent to your RSS reader. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the sites with the data don’t always provide RSS feeds. Well, fortunately for you, there is a way to get this data sent to you in an RSS feed.
There is a free service called Dapper, which allows you to grab data from web sites and turn it into a dynamic RSS feed. Let’s say you’re looking for a new house. Realtor.com has millions of listings all over the place. It would be great to open up your feed reader every morning and see a listing of the newly listed homes that met your requirements. Too bad this is not available.
With Dapper, you can create just such a feed in a few minutes using the following steps:
Master Online Information Through the Magic of RSS Technology
Use RSS Technology as Your Border Collie on the Web
Goal: Explain how RSS is used to Organize and Deliver Content over the Internet. Then, show some interesting ways to find, create, and use information with RSS.
This is Part 1 of a Three Part Series on RSS and the things that it can do. This article will cover what RSS is and how you can use it to read news and updates from your favorite web sites.
Create PowerPoint Presentations Like a Pro
Basic Workflow for Quickly Creating PowerPoint Slide Presentations
Creating an effective PowerPoint presentation tends to be difficult and take a long time for many people. However, if you follow a basic workflow, you can make the entire process much quicker and easier that you may think.
The Best Souvenir Ever
Lego Man + Promotional Marketing = Awesome!
My daughter recently went on a road trip with her mother to Minnesota to visit some of their family. What’s a teenage girl in Minnesota to do (especially during winter)?
Yep, you guessed it, Mall of America.
My daughter and I have had a hobby of picking up little trinkets wherever we each travel.
At the mall, she was looking for a good souvenir for me. When she stumbled into the Lego Store and found the ultimate souvenir. Or so she thought. She picked me up a Lego scuba diver man on a key chain. It reminder her of one of the Lego sets that we played with when she was little. Then, she saw that you can buy bricks with custom text printed on them.
She picked on up for me with the VitaminCM.com engraved into it. I love that kid.
The site now has a new mascot.
Get Your Own
Getting the Most Out of Your Software with Third Party Add Ons
Six Part Series on Extending Your Favorite Software with Add Ons
GOAL: Provide a list of add ons to help you turbo charge some of your most commonly used applications.
Even though many of the applications on my computer are great, I always feel like there are just a few things missing. Fortunately, a lot of frequently used applications allow third party Add Ons, Plugins, and Extensions to fill some of the voids left by the manufacturers.
Put your applications on some serious performance enhancing drugs that won’t get detected on any test.
We’ll wring every last drop of juice out of the following applications:
- Microsoft Outlook
- Mozilla ThunderBird
- Skype VOIP Software
- Apple iTunes
- Mozilla Firefox
- The Best of the Rest