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 21 after the jump, and all episodes by clicking on the Trimming in Public tag:
- Stavros Great Event: If Borat was an English art fag, you would have Stavros. A brilliant marketing campaign for the Nokia N82, this was an RSS feed that kept you up to date on what Stavros was doing with his “position art”. The site is still up, for those who want to see the brilliant work of the Nokia Digital Marketing team, but the feed is dead. Decision: Unsubscribe, but not counting towards today’s list of 10.
- Steve Garfield’s Video Blog: With every new medium, there is always a pioneer in the space who may or may not know that what they’re doing will set a precedent for everyone else to follow. When it comes to vlogging, or video blogging, Steve Garfield is that pioneer. He was putting videos of himself up on the internet back when there was no YouTube and you had to pay serious money for file hosting. Nokia spotted him early and gave him a top of the line “multimedia computer” to play with, letting him shot video no matter where he was. Then he started showing the world what Qik, a live broadcast TV studio in your pocket. Today he is no longer a pioneer, instead choosing to help other people make their videos better. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is sadly not attracting me to read his blog posts anymore. Good luck with whatever you’re working on Steve, you’re always going to rock because you always give it your all. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Stuff White People Like: A hilarious blog that gives a different point of view to activities and material possessions that white people enjoy. It is updated sporadically, and every time something new gets posted, it finds it way in my Twitter stream or in my inbox. I wish the author did this full time, but I know he probably has a full time job and has better shit to do than make people on the internet laugh. Decision: Unsubscribe, because any new updates will come to me via another medium.
- Symbian at 3GSM: Mobile World Congress used to be called 3GSM. This is a blog Symbian setup that told the world what the company was up to at 3GSM 2007. The next Mobile World Congress takes place in 5 months, and I don’t know if the Symbian Foundation is going since they have their own show this month. Anyway, this blog is useless now. Decision: Unsubscribe, but not counting towards today’s list of 10.
- Symbian Foundation Blog: Symbian was purchased by Nokia, made open source, and is now known as the Symbian Foundation. This is their blog. They keep readers up to date on what is going on with the platform, what being open source is all about, and try to make everyone ignore the fact that there isn’t going to be a new UI built on top of Symbian until the first half of 2011. That’s right, Symbian is going to continue looking like it does today for at least another 18 months. No worries, I can use a Symbian device with my eyes closed, but for new smartphone buyers, they’re going to pick up a Symbian device in a shop, look at it, and put it back down once they notice the iPhone stand less than a meter away. Symbian is a crazy powerful operating system, and I can’t wait to see what the world is going to do with it when it goes open source next year, but people are very shallow. If the UI looks dated, then they’re going to think the whole device is dated. Sad. Decision: Keep on reading.
- Symbian Guru: This blog belongs to Ricky Cadden, a friend of mine from way back when I used to live in Texas. Unlike other blogs that focus on spitting out as many posts per day as they possibly can, IntoMobile is guilty of this, Symbian Guru is more the kind of website you visit with a cup of coffee or tea and take in what the author has written. A healthy amount of editorials, sprinkled with a bit of news updates, makes this one of my favorite Symbian blogs on the internet. Decision: Keep on reading.
- SymbianOne: Yet another Symbian site, this one is a bit … well it isn’t fun to read. There used to be a time when SymbianOne got a lot of exclusive content in the form of interviews, but those days are long gone, never to be seen again. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- TAMK School of Art and Media: Finland is a fantastic country to live in if you’re a student. Not only is school free, but you get an allowance from the government to live off of. I applied to go to TAMK this year, but was rejected. I was never given a reason as to why I was rejected, but a friend of mine who works for another University told me that they’re seeing at least 2 to 3 times more people applying for school this year versus the last. Why? The social benefits. I’m not bitter, I wanted to go to school for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to be around people my age, versus always being the young kid in a crowd of people in their late 20s to early 30s. I wanted to be with people who think the most fun you can have in life involves a bottle of vodka and a bed with fresh sheets. I wanted to get 50% off public transportation and cheaper rent. Education was the last thing on my mind, so not getting in wasn’t really a let down. I would say “maybe next year!”, but I don’t think I’m going to be living in Finland this time next year. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Tech Digest: Think of this website like Engadget, but with people who have British accents, and with girls. They don’t really do a better job at covering the technology sector compared to Engadget or Gizmodo, not to mention they spit out a partial RSS feed. A few of the original writers left and are now working for Recombu I believe. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- TechCrunch: Love it or hate it, not reading TechCrunch today is like not reading the bible back when it was the only book coming off the few printing press machines around in Europe. For those who have never heard of the blog, it’s like Engadget, but instead of gadgets, they follow companies, mainly startups. Who got funding? Who left company A to work for company B? Which company is working in this space, that space, and which company is trying to dominate the entire space? These are the questions TechCrunch answers, and they do a bloody fantastic job. Decision: Keep on reading.
- Techdirt: The current patent and copyright systems are fucked beyond repair, everyone knows this, but Michael Masnick is the only one writing concrete examples of how old laws simply do not work in today’s world. He also writes about journalism, how artists should connect directly with their fans, and dabbles a bit here and there into the technology world. The blog is updated quite frequently, and the posts are rarely short. I always end up reading something interesting at least once a day. Decision: Keep on reading.
- TechEBlog: Yet another technology blog, this one has more video than the other technology blogs, but … hey, it’s just another technology blog. Decision: Unsubscribe.
Happy October everyone! The “T” section is going to last for quite a few more episodes since a lot of blogs like to call themselves “The something something”. Down to 136 RSS feeds, less than half of what I started with when I began this series.