As you can see, I have lots of blog time when working on computers, even when working on 4 at a time. The 3-5 minute gaps as I copy data, install software, etc, work out great for putting together blog posts.
One of the questions that I am frequently asked, is “how do you keep up with technology?” There are 2 main things that help me keep up, so let me summarize both.
RSS Feeds
This is the main way that I keep up with technology and really any news. Think of RSS (really simple syndication) like the AP news-wire in printed news. Rather than send reporters out to all the locations across the globe, mainstream news utilizes the various wire services and pulls the content to the newsroom.
In much the same way, RSS allows me to pull in news content from multiple places into a news reader. Rather than visiting dozens of websites each day, I can read the article summaries and then click over to the full article if I want. This makes for a much more efficient way to gather news.
There are a ton of news readers out there. My favorite is iGoogle. If you don’t use iGoogle, then you should. It allows you to pull in RSS content plus has a ton of widgets that you can embed (weather, stocks, etc).
Subscribing to an RSS feed is not difficult. Simply find the RSS icon on a news site or blog that you like (most have an RSS feed) and copy/paste the RSS link into your reader. If you use iGoogle and Firefox then it is even easier. You can click on the RSS feed icon for a site and you will be asked how to subscribe – with the built-in Firefox reader, iGoogle, or several others.
Podcasts
What are Podcasts? They are audio content rather than text. A podcast can also be video now – sometimes called a vidcast or videocast. Either way, it provides content and information in a multimedia format.
How do you get a podcast? Actually, you get them by subscribing to a feed in much the same way as RSS. The original podcast was audio content embedded in the RSS syntax. I like to subscribe to podcasts through iTunes though since I always have my iPhone (or an iPod) around. It just makes it easier.
To subscribe or search for podcasts in iTunes, just go to the store even though they are FREE. Apple has all content in the iTunes store. You can click on Podcasts and find content about nearly anything.