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 6 after the jump, and all episodes by clicking on the Trimming in Public tag:
- dw2-0: David Wood is the “Catalyst & Futurist” for the Symbian Foundation. He has been with the company longer than I’ve been alive. This is his personal blog. He is fascinated by the singularity, the concept that man and machine will merge at some point in the future, and he links to really off the wall essays about the future of society’s relationship to technology. I like it since I always manage to learn something from him or at least learn to think about a topic I already know about in a new light. Decision: It’s a keeper.
- E-Series: Nokia’s Eseries is my favorite range. The materials are of higher quality, as in the construction, not to mention the software goes through more rigorous testing since these devices are meant for the enterprise and enterprise folks have a low tolerance for bullshit. I’ve had a Nokia E71 now for a year, which is shocking since I usually change my device twice in the same span of time. I can’t wait for the Nokia E72 to come out in Q3. E-Series used to be the best place to stay on top of firmware upgrades, enterprise applications, and new mobile services, but then Ed stopped blogging back in July of 2008. He has started writing again, but it’s June 19th today and he has written a total of 6 entries this year. I miss his posts on Friday where he would link to different themes. Oh well. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- e61: This site doesn’t even work anymore. I will not count it towards today’s 10. Deletion due to being obsolete.
- E61 Blog: My first S60 device was a Nokia E61. I purchased it for many of the reasons people purchased the first iPhone. At the time, having a QVGA resolution (320 x 240 pixels) screen was a big deal, WiFi was also rare, but the thing that sold me was the full HTML web browser. Because of the E61 I started Ring Nokia, because of Ring Nokia I got a job at Into Mobile, because I got a job at Into Mobile I moved to Finland to work for Nokia. Now I’m back where I started almost 3 years ago: blogging. I’m just as amazed as you are. The E61 blog was dedicated to this device, and to Nokia’s Eseries lineup in general. The last blog post was in May of 2007. Decision: Abandoned blog = unsubscribe.
- e61life: This site doesn’t even work anymore. I will not count it towards today’s 10. Deletion due to being obsolete.
- electric retard: NOT SAFE FOR WORK. I love online comics that are obscene. This comic is drawn in Microsoft Paint and deals with issues such as rape, murder, racism, scat fetishes and Nazis. Sadly, it hasn’t been updated since May 2008. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Engadget: Does Engadget need any explanation? Who would have thought that a simple website that showed gadgets and summed up news in 200 word snippets would take off as quickly, and remain as successful, as Engadget. Not reading Engadget today is the equivalent of not watching CNN before the internet became mainstream. Decision: One of the best blogs today.
- Engadget Mobile: I love toys, and so do the folks at Engadget, but the mobile space is just too large and too important to sit along side news of HDTVs and faster laptops, so therefore Engadget Mobile had to spin off and become a separate property. Engadget launched in March 2004 according to Wikipedia. Engadget Mobile launched almost 2 years later in February 2006. They’re doing well, remarkably well, because they feed off the Engadget brand. Personally I can think of several blogs that do a better job of covering the mobile space than Engadget Mobile, but Engadget’s notoriety gives them a rabid fan base who submit news tips that the editors can then turn around into blog posts faster than anyone else in the technology press core. Let us not forget the amount of awesome leaked information they get. Decision: Too big too ignore, plus the guys who write there are swell. I’m looking at you Chris Ziegler. Keep reading.
- Engineering Windows 7: I am a PC, not a Mac. I never had any problems with Vista, except for slower file transfers, but either than that it worked flawlessly. Windows 7 is the next version of Windows due to be released this October. I’m running the Release Candidate version on the machine I’m using to type this very blog post. Knowing what goes into the technology I depend on a daily basis is part of what makes me tick. I’ve tried to turn off this disorder, I really have. I should be outside playing football with my friends, grabbing girls’ asses, and doing shots at 4 in the morning. I do those things, don’t get me wrong, but not as often as I should be doing them for a man my age. If I get a new toy, I’ll spend all night learning everything I can about it. If I install a new piece of software, I’ll tick every checkbox on and off just to see what happens. It’s a disease. I wish I wasn’t a “technology leader” or “early adopter” or whatever jack off term the marketing department of a multi-billion-multi-national corporation assigns me, but I am. I can happily say that I know Windows 7 inside and out now, so I no longer need this blog. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Epicenter: It’s hard to sum up where this Wired property lies on the spectrum of technology news. In the beginning it used to be a Tech Crunch clone, then it slowly shifted into a mix of Tech Crunch and Tech Dirt. Now it’s still too confusing for me to accurately tell you in one sentence what it is they cover. Their range of topics is so broad, so shot gun approach-like, that it suffers from an obvious sacrifice of depth for breadth. If I wanted to read a shallow and wide publication, I’d pick up a newspaper. Description: Unsubscribe.
- Esato discussion forum: Esato used to be the premier source for Sony Ericsson leaks. They seriously managed to get scoops on devices that were due to come out in one or more quarters. I wanted to be the first to get in on these scoops, but now thanks to IntoMobile, and other bloggers more dedicated to Sony Ericsson than I am, I don’t have to sit and read all the countless “N97 vs. Satio” threads. If something happens it will probably end up in my inbox as a news tip, or be posted to Daily Mobile. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Eugenia’s rants and thoughts: I was wondering why this woman stopped blogging, but forcing myself to write this “Trimming in Public” series has lead me to discover she has moved her blog and therefore changed her RSS feed! Her website can now be found here. Eugenia used to write for OS News, but her views on software did not align very well with that of the site’s audience. OS News is mainly a site for Linux folks, and from her profile: “I don’t care if it’s open source or not, as long as it works as it’s supposed to” you can tell she didn’t make many fans when she recommend Windows or Mac or some other proprietary software vendor’s solution over the open source equivalent. It’s that kind of honesty, to say open source software has potential, but as it stands has too many bugs to go mainstream, that lead me to following her blog. Today no one would argue with Mark Shuttleworth, the man behind Ubuntu, when he insists that the community needs to try harder to make software easier versus creating a technical masterpiece that can only be operated by a handful of sysadmins around the world. More people like Mark, and Eugenia, are needed in this world if open source software has any chance of taking off. Decision: Delete the dead feed, subscribe to the new feed.
Hope you enjoyed Episode 6, see you on Monday! I’m down to 253 feeds from 293!