Carrie's Anthropology 196m Blog

I've seen a request or two for a little computer help, which I'm happy to do. I'll install the RSS feedreader that I use on my laptop and show anyone who needs how to set it up. I can also help with any lingering blogger questions.

Where are we meeting today? Depending on that, I'll be either in the museum or upstairs in 4005 (I think that's the right room). I'll be there by about 1:00 and can stay after as well.

UPDATE: I'll be in Mendo 1005 at about 1:00ish (providing there isn't another class in there at that time). It also sounds like Dr. C will provide some time to go over any questions at the beginning of class.

So, I set up my blog last week to alert me whenever someone comments on one of my posts, which I thought would be really helpful in keeping me up-to-date with comments. By the way, you can do this by going into settings, then go to the comments tab and at the very bottom, you'll see "Comment Notification Email" enter your email and voila you're good to go.

Well...almost good to go. If you've already done this and have, like me, became frustrated by comments on your blog with the lack of email alerts in your inbox, check your spam folder. It seems the alerts were getting filtered out (by yahoo). If this is an issue for you, put noreply-comment@blogger.com to your safe list.

This should also work to alert you when someone comments after you on a post (I think, i haven't be able to try it yet). Caveat: I've noticed that some of our blogs allow you to "email follow-up comments" and some don't. I'm not sure why this is, but I have a suspicion it's dependent on having comments set to be Pop-ups (which you can set in the comments section of Settings). I will do more sleuthing around blogger and let y'all know what I find!

I meant to do a little intro into RSS feeds last week when Dr. C mentioned it her her blog, but that blasted cold kept me from it. Well, better late than never.

I am new into the wonderful world of the RSS feed, but after using it for a couple of weeks I'm in love. I didn't realize how many blogs I read on a regular basis! I know you can set up a feed that works with your phone, but I have a cheapo phone that does nothing but make calls (i know, how archaic!). So this post will focus on how you can set up a reader for your computer.

If you use iGoogle as your homepage, you can create an RSS feed through that which will then show up right on your homepage. I don't use iGoogle anymore, but I believe you can add a gadget that will give you an RSS feed. I think Dr. C uses this so maybe she can provide more insight about how this one works. I think Yahoo has a similar RSS feed "gadget" that can be put on that homepage, but I've yet to find it. If you use outlook I believe there is also a way to set up a reader there as well.

I opted instead to download a program called Feedreader 3.14 (http://www.feedreader.com/). Through the program, you create a blog list which will update automatically and display an icon in your system tray whenever a new post comes in. You can access your blogs through a window on your desktop and you have a choice to read them though that window, or open up the full blog online.

Thus far I'm very happy with feedreader, but there are a few drawbacks. Unlike iGoogle or Yahoo readers which are accessed via the internet, this is a program installed on your computer. If you use two computers, like a laptop and a desktop, you will have to download the program to each system. I haven't done this yet, but I have a suspicion that the two readers won't communicate with each other. It might be a pain to manage both readers. I've also noticed a delay in updates. Sometimes I won't be notified of a new post till 5 or 6 hours after it's been posted. This may be fixed by changing a setting with the program, but I haven't had time to check that yet.

That's what I've learned so far, but I pretty new to all this. I'll post updates if I find a better way to do a feed. If anyone out there has discovered a better way, let me know!