Trimming in Public is a series where I go through my list of 293 RSS feeds, 10 feeds at a time, give some detail as to why I subscribed to a particular feed, and then decide whether or not to keep on consuming that feed. In Episode 1, I explained what RSS is and how to use it. Please read that if you need a refresher on why RSS is awesome and why you should be using it if you take reading news on the internet seriously. The prefix to Trimming in Public is “Becoming a better blogger, reader and helping me take out the trash.” For the bloggers out there who read IntoMobile, I hope you get a better idea of what I do to keep on top of the news. For the readers who read IntoMobile, I know that this site isn’t the only mobile focused technology publication on the internet, and by sharing which sites I read I’m hoping that you’ll keep on coming back here. Taking out the trash has an obvious explanation, I can’t keep up with my RSS feeds and need to trim my list. For those who want to download my complete list of 293 RSS feeds, feel free to grab my OPML file.
Check out Episode 19 after the jump, and all episodes by clicking on the Trimming in Public tag:
- Roger Ebert’s Journal: This guy doesn’t need an introduction. Everyone has heard of Roger Ebert. This is his blog, and his passion and in depth knowledge of film pours out of every sentence he writes. Sadly, and I really hate saying this, he writes about movies that either come out a few months later in Finland, movies that are specially screened, or movies that are so old that it is difficult to find them on bit torrent. I don’t like being teased about a film I can’t watch. I like movies, don’t get me wrong, but I can do without reading his blog. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Roland Tanglao’s Weblog: I met Roland at a Nokia sponsored event some time ago, but I’ve been reading his blog since before our first encounter in meat space. He writes his opinions about Nokia devices, and has for a long time, long before the large number of Nokia focused blogs started popping up once news broke out on the internet that if you contacted Nokia and asked them for a device to review, they would grant your wish. He still writes about their devices, nothing I don’t already know, but coming from him it just seems a little bit more genuine since he has been at it for so long. He doesn’t blog often, so it isn’t going to hurt if I keep him in my RSS reader. Decision: Keep on reading.
- RunningWithBulls.com – The curse of Sanfermin: My buddy Bernard Tyers is a Nokia Siemens Networks employee, and he is obsessed with the running of the bulls. He keeps a photo blog of the event, which I think he goes to every year. He is Irish, but deep down inside I think he wishes he was Spanish. Anyway, I follow him on Twitter, and I don’t really care about the running of the bulls, so this feed is going to go bye bye. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Russell Beattie’s Weblog: Beattie is one smart motherfucker. He once said something along the lines of “if you’re going to show me the next big thing, and it isn’t mobile, then it isn’t the next big thing” long before anyone was taking mobile seriously. He now works at Nokia, but take a look at his CV, the man has been everywhere. He has criticized me for unsubscribing to feeds that don’t regularly update, saying that he himself blogs sporadically. Smart people don’t get deleted from my list of RSS feeds, so Russell is safe. Decision: Keep on reading.
- S60 Blog: Dead RSS feed, dead site. Decision: Unsubscribe, but not counting towards today’s list of 10.
- S60 Blogs: When Nokia purchased Symbian, one of the questions that Nokia faced internally was: what would happen to the S60 folks? For a while they were the most depressing people in the building since they had no idea if they were going to have jobs. The S60 brand is dead, but the S60 site is still up. I wonder why. The blogs haven’t been updated since June, and they’re not going to be updated ever again. Somewhere inside Nokia there is a cost center paying for this site to keep on functioning, when it should have been taken behind the barn and shot in the back of the head. Decision: This site should not exist, and it will die eventually; unsubscribe.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: An internet comic not for the faint of heart. The drawings are fine, but the text … well, it makes fun of just about every single politically incorrect subject out there. Ranging from religion, to AIDS, to rape, to child molestation, to feminism, sexism, racism, this comic is hilarious for those who have a deep dark sense of humour. Recommended for the sick fucks out there, but not something a lot of people will stomach. Decision: One of my favorite blogs.
- Scoble Link Blog: Blog posts Robert Scoble shares with Google Reader. More often than not he shares something I’ve read already, but lately he just hangs out on Twitter and FriendFeed. I don’t follow him on either of those two services. It’s funny, there was once a point in my life when I wanted to be just like Robert. I wanted to be that cool guy who works at Microsoft that gets to run around the building with a camcorder and share videos of the cool projects that cool people were working on. When I came to Finland I even pitched Nokia my services, wanting to create a Channel 9 like website for them. Lawyers and conservative old people would not have any of it. Corporate Communications at Nokia is controlled with such an iron grip that even Eichmann would be impressed. Anyway, back to Scoble. He committed the sin of vanity and starting believing that his personal brand, when associated with other brands, would some how equal success. He went from being a part of a brand (Microsoft) to being an annoying public relations person who says they’re a part of a brand, when in reality they will push anything as long as they’re paid. I don’t want to say I’ve fully lost respect for Scoble yet. The lessons he taught a lot of people in the early part of this decade are still highly useful. I’m just saying he isn’t the apple of my eye anymore. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Scobleizer – Tech Geek Blogger: Robert Scoble’s personal blog. He doesn’t write in it very often, but when he does, he often brings to my attention something that is either A) a total fucking waste of my time or B) something that can potentially change everything in a few years. The bullshit to gold ratio is low enough that I’ll keep on reading his blog. Decision: Keep on reading.
- Scott Kveton: Scott has done a lot of work in the digital identity space. He can paint you a fantastic picture of what the world is going to look like post Facebook, the problem is that even he himself recognizes that the world he has conjured up in his head is not going to become reality for a long, long, long time. He has become irrelevant to me for one, and only one reason: I no longer care about the open digital identity space since I know is not technology standards that impact the future, it is companies, and as long as companies like Facebook exist, so will walled gardens. Users have no reason to complain, but when they do find something that pisses them off, that is when things like OpenID will start to matter. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Scott Robinson: Dead feed, dead site, Google Reader shows that the last time this blog was updated was July 2007. Decision: Unsubscibre, will not count towards today’s list of 10.
- Scripting News: The man who makes the whole concept of “Trimming in Public” exist, Dave Winer, inventor of RSS. I read this blog more out of a form of respect than anything else. Dave is always working on something in his free time, even though I’m not really sure how he makes money. He just seems to have a lot of it saved up. Dave always has an opinion in any technology debate, and is good man from the core. Decision: Dude, come on, this guy invented RSS. Of course I’m going to read his blog!
And that’s that. Down to 149 RSS feeds. I wonder if I can get this to under 100. In two more episodes I will reach the letter “T”.