Getting your news fix with RSS and a little Flash app

My RSS Newsreader project

Back when the Columbia had just crashed, and the Iraq War was looming, I really wanted a small application that would warn me of breaking news while I was working. So I made this app for my personal use. It has a little MSN-style popup for when it detects a new item in the rss-feeds I'm interested in. The sound's too loud - that's because I use headphones, but am not wearing them... And the plan was to update the app with more user preference controls. Maybe someday :-)

Flash based

This flash based *real* application was made with Flash MX and the wonderful flash tool Screenweaver. [note: they are currently "asleep"]
The app can read public rss newsfeeds for rss versions 0.91, 092, and 2.0, and some 1.0 and rdf feeds as well. RDF is usually coded such a way that special characters will not show correctly in Flash. The app shows feeds, news items and their descriptions.

A channel will reload after the fixed interval of one hour, or after pressing the shortcut reload button. When reloading, a little MSN-style popup warns of new items arriving in the feed's item list.

What is RSS?

Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication is a kind of XML that makes it easy to view the latest entries on news or blog sites. With RSS, you can keep an eye on developments without checking up on the sites themselves, you can even be notified of breaking news. Just like a browser for HTML, you need a reader to view RSS news.

My current feed list

When the war in Iraq started, I had my reader in place. Sometimes it felt like being at a newsagency like Reuters: during the day I got regular unfiltered news, everything equally important; I got different sources, all side by side. You as reader are the judge of what's the main story that day. Great experience. Am still using it daily - this is what I currently have in my reader. Right-click the rss-icon, copy the shortcut and paste it in the url-field.

• BBC World news
• LA Times World news
• de Volkskrant
• RTL 4 nieuws
• Making Light
• ReteCool
• AdaptivePath

And yes, Al Yazeera has a few (English) feeds as well. At the time, this was quite special. Their English mirror was DOS'sed a few times during the war. Currently they seem to have no problem, but their news is not very interesting to me anymore, either. Some Iraq-related feeds from (what's in a name) NewsIsFree.com:

• Al Yazeera
• Where Is Raed?

Then, for "people who make web sites", picking just two of many choices, here's the obligatory Jeff Zeldman blog and the old FlashBlog, each historical blogs in their own right :-)

• A List Apart
• FlashBlog