MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

Pride Of Lions · 03-13-2005, 02:44 AM

I used to use NewsMac to convert my feeds to iSilo (via iSiloXC) before the recent releases of iSiloX allowed RSS feeds, and I missed being able to read the full story or be able to customize the links. Now with iSiloX, I have a little more control over the RSS feed and how it appears on my Zodiac2.

I agree with you that the limited feed is too little info, but the full link is too much "other" info, and the "other" info is what is taking too much space on the handheld. I wish to learn more about how to train iSiloX to cut out that "other" content, but until then it's a delicate balance between what I want and what I get.

One example of a RSS feed that lets me glance at the headlines and decide whether I want to read the article is the BBC News channel. I created a custom channel with all of the RSS feeds set to a link depth of 1 off-site link. Then, as I glance through all of the poossible headlines and synopses, I can choose which ones I want to read further. The one drawback is that I have to convert everything to get the ones I want, including all of the ones I don't want. I figure that there are probably plenty of tools within iSiloX that I can use to further tailor my BBC News reading experience, but I haven't learned them yet, and they might not work on such a dynamic site like the BBC News site.

So, yes, I wish that I could make iSiloX only give me the interesting to me headlines, but until then I make allowances for the size of the channel. The BBC News channel is about 14MB everyday. It's huge, but it also contains a lot of news from all over the world. I contain it all in my Zodiac2's garguantuan RAM, or on either one of the 2 SD cards that it holds (1GB each.) If memory were more of an issue to me, I'd be more concerned with channel size, but I'm spoiled.

I usually find my feeds by checking to see if a site I like offers a RSS option. If it does it gets sent to iSiloX for conversion, and if it doesn't, it gets sent to iSiloX for conversion. The main difference being that I can more easily glance through what the site has to offer via the feed's synopses than through the converted channels method.

I hope that answers some of your questions. It sounds like you're looking to build a better mousetrap. Hopefully you'll finnd a way to make RSS meaningful and worthwhile for PDA's and desktops alike.
POL9A

03-13-2005, 02:44 AM	#2
Pride Of Lions just kinda geeky Posts: 381 Karma: 30 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Oakland, California Device: iPhone	I used to use NewsMac to convert my feeds to iSilo (via iSiloXC) before the recent releases of iSiloX allowed RSS feeds, and I missed being able to read the full story or be able to customize the links. Now with iSiloX, I have a little more control over the RSS feed and how it appears on my Zodiac2. I agree with you that the limited feed is too little info, but the full link is too much "other" info, and the "other" info is what is taking too much space on the handheld. I wish to learn more about how to train iSiloX to cut out that "other" content, but until then it's a delicate balance between what I want and what I get. One example of a RSS feed that lets me glance at the headlines and decide whether I want to read the article is the BBC News channel. I created a custom channel with all of the RSS feeds set to a link depth of 1 off-site link. Then, as I glance through all of the poossible headlines and synopses, I can choose which ones I want to read further. The one drawback is that I have to convert everything to get the ones I want, including all of the ones I don't want. I figure that there are probably plenty of tools within iSiloX that I can use to further tailor my BBC News reading experience, but I haven't learned them yet, and they might not work on such a dynamic site like the BBC News site. So, yes, I wish that I could make iSiloX only give me the interesting to me headlines, but until then I make allowances for the size of the channel. The BBC News channel is about 14MB everyday. It's huge, but it also contains a lot of news from all over the world. I contain it all in my Zodiac2's garguantuan RAM, or on either one of the 2 SD cards that it holds (1GB each.) If memory were more of an issue to me, I'd be more concerned with channel size, but I'm spoiled. I usually find my feeds by checking to see if a site I like offers a RSS option. If it does it gets sent to iSiloX for conversion, and if it doesn't, it gets sent to iSiloX for conversion. The main difference being that I can more easily glance through what the site has to offer via the feed's synopses than through the converted channels method. I hope that answers some of your questions. It sounds like you're looking to build a better mousetrap. Hopefully you'll finnd a way to make RSS meaningful and worthwhile for PDA's and desktops alike. POL9A