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Category: Software

Why I don’t like Bloglines

Why I don’t like Bloglines

There is much to like about Bloglines.  Those that use it know what they are.
But I keep running into the limitations of a web based aggregator:

1. Selecting a story to save by clicking the checkbox causes a refresh of the left "tree-control" pane.  When I want to check several in a row there is a noticeable delay that slows me down.

2. I like the ability to save stories; and marking all stories as read automatically CAN be nice but most of the time it is inconvenient.  I often don’t stay on top of my feeds so folders often accumulate with 100+ stories.  Once I select a folder, the pressure is on for me to read those stories lest I click away from that folder and lose the concept of "unread".  I can’t do other things like edit my feed list until I finish reading the posts in the open folder.

3. It doesn’t support feeds requiring authentication

4. To edit your list feeds you have to select "Edit" to go into edit mode.  This view looks very similar to the "browsing" view so when I’m done I try to click a feed to display it’s items.  It just seems to ignore me.  I often forget I have to go back into "browser" mode by selecting the "My Feeds" tab again.

Creating online demos

Creating online demos

Joel recommends Camtasia Studio for online demos:

One product I just can’t stop singing the praises of is Camtasia Studio,
by the folks at TechSmith in Okemos, Michigan. It lets you "film" your
computer screen, all in software of course, then edit the film, add
narration, then squeeze it down to a very compact flash movie you can
put on the web. This is a beautiful piece of software. It does exactly
what you need, works the first time, and comes with great documentation
you’ll never need.

Here are some free alternatives:
AutoScreenRecorder
CamStudio
VirtualDub
Wink
Windows Media Encoder  Overview

Mac
QPICT