RSS is one of my favorite technologies on the internet. It allows me to quickly gain and overview of the newest articles at my favorite sites like CNN, Tech-Crunch, Digg, Slashdot and others. Today is RSS Awareness Day.

What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format used to deliver information from websites and pages that get updated regularly. An RSS document (which is called feed) contains either a summary or the full content from a website.

The main benefit of RSS is that it enables people to stay connected with their favorite websites without having to visit them. Once you subscribe to a particular RSS feed, you will automatically receive updates from the website that publishes the feed, whenever they release new content.

From this, I can access these news feeds at any time from my PC, iPod Touch, or Treo. I am able to stay informed of the days news as it happens, without all the distraction or clutter of advertisements, slow websites, snarky comments and the like.

Back in 2005 5% of the Internet users said they were using RSS aggregators or XML readers to get the news and other information delivered from blogs and content-rich Web sites as it is posted online (according to the Pew Internet Project).

Feedburner recently reported that they track around 60 million RSS subscribers. Even if we bump that number to 70 million RSS users (counting people that use RSS with other applications or platforms) this would still convert to a meager 5,4% of the Internet users around the world, as of today.

What is the takeaway message? Only a very small percentage of the Internet population is aware of the RSS format and its benefits, and that number is growing slowly over time.

By creating the RSS Awareness Day and celebrating it every year we should be able to get the general public exposed to this format, hopefully increasing the usage of RSS feeds and related applications among Internet users.

More information: http://rssday.org/spread/

Some of the best examples of using RSS feeds to enhance your productivity and general ‘awareness’ of whats going on can best be experienced on a ‘Start Page’ site like Netvibes or PageFlakes. You can add multiple RSS feeds to your page and view many at once, instead of crawl through each site individually, which would take a lot longer. This way you get a bigger overall picture and can zero in on the news stories that pique your interest rather quickly.

A while back, I posted an article dealing with internet security and protecting your identity:

http://www.delawarewebdesigner.com/rants-raves/protecting-your-computer.htm

http://www.delawarewebdesigner.com/blurbs/the-information-you-should-never-share-online.htm

Recently I have been advising clients on certain basic steps they can take to ensure they do not become a victim of identity theft. It has happened to me before, and it is a complete pain in the ass to reverse everything. Fortunately I caught on fast on the day it was happening (while my bank account was being drained, when 5 figures goes to 2 you know something’s up.) and was able to reverse and resolve the situation in 2 days, recover my money and my good name. I did however have to obtain all new bank account, credit card numbers, checks and the like. Others haven’t been so lucky.
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A highly important decision among computer owners these days is a choice of internet browser. While most people don’t think of this, due to Windows being packaged with Internet Explorer, its useful to know the options available to you. Most people have no intentions of using something else, because they just assume Internet Explorer is ‘just fine’ and has no issues whatsoever. This is not true. Microsoft knowingly facilitates this in order to maintain market share, so I’m here today to tell you a little bit about browsers you may not know about.

There are 4 major internet browsers a user has an option to pick from (in terms of reliability, speed, security, support, and rendering):

1. Mozilla Firefox
2. Apple’s Safari
3. Internet Explorer
4. Opera

There are of course others, like WebKit, Konquerer and the like, but for the typical home user, these are the only ones you want to look at.

Personally, I use Mozilla Firefox 2 (version 3, beta 5 at home) for work and play. Despite its memory usage, I consider it the best, most secure browser around. Version 3 will be released in June for public use (right now beta is available for developers and testers), and it has huge improvements in its memory use, loading speed, security, and page rendering. It also has literally thousands of add-ons and themes to customize Firefox, some of which I could not live without. Mozilla offers their browser for free as well as an email client called Thunderbird which supports POP3 and IMAP (in case you want to replace Outlook Express, too.. go for it.).

Closely behind that, I have used Opera. It doesn’t have the add on support as much as Firefox does, so I don’t tend to use it too often. It is also extremely strict on security, phishing, and spyware filtering, just like Firefox but perhaps even more so. It’s fetching and caching methods offer lightening speed browsing on broadband or higher connections, and is nearly ACID2 compliant (most websites will render correctly in Opera). Beyond that, its pretty safe to say that if you put Opera on your PC, there is less risk that a family member could find trouble on the internet (as opposed to using Internet Explorer) and is extremely reliable for transacting business online.

I have used Apple’s Safari for Windows, and despite what articles are saying, its pretty poor. Just the fact alone that it doesn’t have any malware/spyware/phishing filters and the browser doesn’t allow third-party themes or add-ons, I wouldn’t use this browser until this is addressed (’Beta’ be damned, this is important). Safari also doesn’t support extended validation (EV) certificates either; EV certificates provide better site identification than the regular certificates that encrypted sites use. This caused the CEO of Paypal to tell all of its customers to not use Safari when doing transactions and conducting business, which is a pretty big black eye for Apple in my book when an internet giant like Paypal is telling people to not use your product.

PC World goes more into depth on this subject, and while PC World tends to be a little elementary in its write-ups and articles, I think this one is pretty informative for the average joe.

Updated Web Browsers: Which One Works Best?

While my profession will require me to use Internet Explorer, I can’t express my distaste for it enough. Beyond simple surfing, thats about all its good for. Even with version 8 looming at the end of the year, its nothing more than what Firefox was 4 years ago, or Opera 6 years ago. It just simply does not cut it. It still has major CSS rendering issues, javascript incompatibilities, pseudo PNG support and other screw your day up type problems. While I consider myself an IE6/7 web developer expert at this point, we shouldn’t be at the mercy of Microsoft to jump through hoops for their half assed browser, even though we’ve been doing it for years with Windows. Too late now I suppose.

Note: Delaware Web Design Inclind Inc fully supports cross browser compatibility on both frontend and backend applications. This article is to inform you that using Internet Explorer is basically like leaving the doors to your home wide open in a bad part of town. Try Mozilla Firefox or Opera, you’ll be glad you did

Now that’s a laugh…here at Inclind, I rely heavily on others to get the job done. When I was approached by president Shaun Tyndall about becoming one of Inclind’s client associates, I had to wonder why in the world he thought that I would be a good candidate. Wasn’t Inclind a web development company? Did he think that I knew anything about web design? Then it hit me. “No” was the answer to the previous questions; Shaun had other motives.

It really has nothing to do with me; you see, it’s all about you! Clients are the number one priority here at Inclind, and Shaun intends to keep it that way. By bringing me on board, Inclind strives to continue to be on top in Delaware web design and empower our clients to rise to the top as well!

From the words of Walt Disney, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” That’s the Inclind way.

Headquartered in Dover, Delaware, George & Lynch currently employs over 360 construction professionals specializing in a wide variety of heavy, infrastructure related construction services. Celebrating 85 years in business, George & Lynch is more than a familiar company name. The firm has become a major infrastructure contractor in the Mid-Atlantic region and on the East Coast. With a nationally recognized commitment to safety and recently named as the “Best in the Business” for the Delaware construction industry, owners can rest assured that their site construction needs, underground utilities and paving projects are in good hands.

When they needed to completely overhaul their website design and corporate image, they needed the right tool for the job. They came right to Inclind. We provided them with our robust Content Management System with a fresh new design to meet their expectations.

In addition to a transformation of the website design, the redeveloped website includes several additional new sections of content including information on specific projects. It will be much easier to make changes and updates any page of this new website with the included backend intranet branded as Inclind CMS. This content management system will also include a tool to post news releases and a tool to manage employee events. This Inclind product is really a valuable advancement that allows companies like George & Lynch to make adjustments to their website themselves instantly and effortlessly. This is an enormous breakthrough from their previous website, and only Inclind Delaware web design can offer such tools.

Full search engine optimization capabilities were implemented as well so anyone looking for the services George & Lynch offers can find them easily in any major search engine. Inclind’s web applications allow for very organic search engine methods to be executed by the user, and our web applications are intelligent enough to manage this without any interaction at all. Our adherance to strict web standards allows us to deliver websites that are accessible in any major browser equally, reaching a wider audience than their old website could.

“We have enjoyed working with Inclind, and look forward to working on other projects in the future.” says Dave McGuigan, George & Lynch’s Vice President of Business Development.

This morning Inclind launched StoneTech Crushing, a Salisbury, MD based company who offers the most efficient and economic crushing and screening services to the construction industry. Using cutting edge design techniques and the latest in web standards, Inclind was able to meet and exceed StoneTech’s internet presence that the owners were looking for. The website is fully controllable from its custom designed content management system web application that we offer. StoneTech are also able to collect leads generated by the website into their intranet automatically, helping the staff keep track of who is contacting them.

Initially, the most-noticeable element of this website is the striking background of crushed stone from an actual StoneTech jobsite. This website features sections about StoneTech news, equipment, and even a map with directions. Inclind developed a great, new, photo gallery feature just for this site.

The StoneTech project gallery features photos from past asphalt recycling, concrete crushing, and even demolition projects. Visit the new website to browse the photos from the demolition of the old Salisbury Mall.

As with all of our website applications, full search engine optimization capabilities were implemented as well so anyone looking for their services can find them easily in any major search engine. Inclind’s applications allow for very organic search engine methods to be executed by the user, and our web applications are intelligent enough to manage this without any interaction at all. Our adherance to strict web standards allows us to deliver websites that are accessible in any major browser without hindrance, reaching a wider audience than older methods from a few years ago.

“Inclind’s CMS (content management system) allows us to react quickly to changing market conditions.” says Brian Tregoe, President of Stonetech LLC.

About StoneTech Crushing:

Stonetech opened it’s doors for business on June 26th of 2006. The father son team of Tom and Brian Tregoe bring over 30 years of combined experience in the construction and aggregate business. Our first goal is to supply contractors with an approved RCR-6 material for use on private and municipal jobs. Stonetech has the most efficient and technologically advanced equipment available to the industry today. Stonetech prides itself on having the best equipment available to provide a quality, efficient and professional crushing job.

View the StoneTech Crushing Website »

For more information about Inclind or Delaware Web Design, feel free to contact us.