7 ms·

Not just them. After last week's discussion, I noticed this week that, while Rick Steves does podcasts, I had to hunt for the RSS feeds page hosted on his own w

Not just them. After last week's discussion, I noticed this week that, while Rick Steves does podcasts, I had to hunt for the RSS feeds page hosted on his own website. WTF? My usual policy for podcasts is, RSS subscription or else. Ain't got time to visit the damn website. Science Friday tried that for a while and soon went back.

JoshMnem 9y ago
Most podcasts that I've encountered lately don't have RSS feeds listed. You have to view source to find the URLs. The Internet needs to revive that open technology culture. Instead of Facebook/Twitter/G+/etc. subscribe to RSS feeds. Instead of Medium, use WordPress/Hugo/Metalsmith/etc. on Netlify/Surge/Github etc. Instead of Mac, use GNU/Linux. Etc.
- anonymouz 9y ago
  > You have to view source to find the URLs. In Firefox, do Right Click->View Page Info. The "Feeds" tabs lists the links. There are also extensions (e.g. "Awesome RSS") that will put a symbol in your URL bar.
  - JoshMnem 9y ago
    Thanks, I didn't know that. Mozilla should make that more prominent so that users who don't know what RSS/ATOM is could "subscribe to this website" with just a click.
    - groby_b 9y ago
      That was funny. Mozilla used to make that more prominent. Most users didn't care, because they still didn't know what that weird icon meant. That was ultimately the downfall of RSS - the web tech scene never managed to communicate to the average user what RSS was good for, what it did, and how to use it. The issue isn't "not knowing about RSS/ATOM". You don't need to. The same way e.g. you don't need to know what the octane numbers for gasoline mean. What you do need to know is what it does for you, and that answer has always been "not enough to satisfy the hassle". (A good chunk of the blame here goes to all the larger, traffic-hungry web sites that only published excerpts via RSS, with a click-through link. It transformed a useful feed into a rather useless list of self-updating bookmarks)
      - JoshMnem 9y ago
        It wasn't done the right way in the past. Sometimes an implementation is 80% right and you just need to do a few things to get to 100%. It needs a better name than RSS/Atom. It should sound like English: "Subscribe to this website with <better name>." (same icon) "Really Simple Syndication" and acronyms cause non-technical people to shut down. It's a foreign language. (Edit: "Atom" would be a good name, because it's plain English, and probably a better format too.) RSS/Atom didn't decline because of Mozilla -- it declined when Google killed Google reader. The information overload could be solved with machine learning algorithms (run locally in the client) that sort posts into a "featured" folder. There are solutions to all of the current issues with RSS/Atom.
        Vinnl 9y ago
        "Feed" is pretty common. But you still will only know what it means if you know what it is :)
        JoshMnem 9y ago
        > you still will only know what it means if you know what it is That's the problem with RSS/Atom. "Feed reader" doesn't mean anything to most people. "Subscribe to this website" does.
        workingwriter 9y ago
        Interesting. In the original post, I clicked on the RSS "link" towards the bottom. Firefox invited me to subscribe via "Live Bookmarks," a Firefox browser feature that may pre-date Google Reader. It's a good name for non-technical people, but I don't know how many people have used it. I'm not even sure how it works.
      - zczc 9y ago
        You can add the RSS toolbar button manually, see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/795692 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/795692
  - haribilalic 9y ago
    Syndicate (https://redalemeden.com/syndicate/ https://redalemeden.com/syndicate/) works similarly well for Safari.
  - Vinnl 9y ago
    You don't even need an extension. Enter Customise mode (in the menu, or right click on a toolbar button), then drag the Subscribe icon to your toolbar.
- na85 9y ago
  >Instead of Mac, use GNU/Linux. Bought my first Macbook pro after being a linux/ThinkPad guy since 2008. I'm probably never going back to Linux on a laptop. I actually have working suspend and resume, plus it's Unix-like under the hood. Trackpad actually works without a bunch of ugly hacks since they deprecated synaptics drivers. no systemd, etc. I spend almost no time fiddling with my system nowadays. I want to use my lap top, not just configure it every time systemd breaks something and I have to switch distros or window managers to get away from it. I still like Linux on the server but in my opinion quality ux requires someone to get paid to do the un glamorous work like fixing compatibility issues and corner cases.
  - JoshMnem 9y ago
    When was the last time you bought a ThinkPad? This is my third one and suspend works. The Trackpad is great, with three buttons. 24 Gb of RAM, 11+ hour battery life in Linux, and a 4-year at-home next-day repair plan. It was $1,900 including tax, shipping, and support. Macs are much more expensive for worse specs. This computer "just worked" out of the box, and there is full freedom to tinker with the system. I think the industry should get away from the idea that everything needs to work out of the box anyway.
    - jeofken 9y ago
      Im actually going to make the order for a new thinkpad today, to run NixOs on. What specs and model do you have? Are there any tips, or something you wish you knew? My config reaches >€2500 quite fast.
      - JoshMnem 9y ago
        I got a T460 with i7-6600U CPU @ 2.60GHz. I always research the models online before buying: "<make> <model> <distro>". I'm running Ubuntu 16.04 on it at the moment. The next-day at-home support has been great. They have come to my home and replaced motherboards on the kitchen table with no questions asked. It has two batteries, which added a little weight, but I rarely think about power outlets any more. I can't think of anything else, but if you have any specific questions let me know.
- snthd 9y ago
  >You have to view source to find the URLs. IME you just open the page in the podcast program - it extracts the rss feeds from the appropriate tags automatically, promoting for ambiguity (this is with antennapod (Android)).
  - JoshMnem 9y ago
    It depends on the program.
bhrgunatha 9y ago
Or there was a big trend where they only links were to an itunes page which a) requires itunes to be installed because b) there is no direct link for the rss feed. I had to write a scraper to find the underlying rss feed for itunes only podcasts.
- moolcool 9y ago
  Do the iTunes only podcast feeds need auth to access? Would you be willing to open source this?
  - bhrgunatha 9y ago
    No need really, I found how to extract the rss feed just by searching: https://superuser.com/questions/78415/get-rss-feed-from-itunes-podcast-links https://superuser.com/questions/78415/get-rss-feed-from-itun... Maybe Apple will change/throttle the endpoint in the future but for now it's not authenticated.
shams93 9y ago
Yeah you're not losing by syndicating a podcast if you're selling ads on your program you just want as wide a reach as possible.
kiliankoe 9y ago
How is something that doesn't publish an RSS feed even considered a podcast? I hate how there's "Spotify only" "podcasts" now. If I can't subscribe to a feed in a client of my choice, it's not a podcast.
- m-localhost 9y ago
  Drives me crazy too.

JoshMnem 9y ago

Most podcasts that I've encountered lately don't have RSS feeds listed. You have to view source to find the URLs. The Internet needs to revive that open technology culture. Instead of Facebook/Twitter/G+/etc. subscribe to RSS feeds. Instead of Medium, use WordPress/Hugo/Metalsmith/etc. on Netlify/Surge/Github etc. Instead of Mac, use GNU/Linux. Etc.

anonymouz 9y ago
> You have to view source to find the URLs. In Firefox, do Right Click->View Page Info. The "Feeds" tabs lists the links. There are also extensions (e.g. "Awesome RSS") that will put a symbol in your URL bar.
- JoshMnem 9y ago
  Thanks, I didn't know that. Mozilla should make that more prominent so that users who don't know what RSS/ATOM is could "subscribe to this website" with just a click.
  - groby_b 9y ago
    That was funny. Mozilla used to make that more prominent. Most users didn't care, because they still didn't know what that weird icon meant. That was ultimately the downfall of RSS - the web tech scene never managed to communicate to the average user what RSS was good for, what it did, and how to use it. The issue isn't "not knowing about RSS/ATOM". You don't need to. The same way e.g. you don't need to know what the octane numbers for gasoline mean. What you do need to know is what it does for you, and that answer has always been "not enough to satisfy the hassle". (A good chunk of the blame here goes to all the larger, traffic-hungry web sites that only published excerpts via RSS, with a click-through link. It transformed a useful feed into a rather useless list of self-updating bookmarks)
    - JoshMnem 9y ago
      It wasn't done the right way in the past. Sometimes an implementation is 80% right and you just need to do a few things to get to 100%. It needs a better name than RSS/Atom. It should sound like English: "Subscribe to this website with <better name>." (same icon) "Really Simple Syndication" and acronyms cause non-technical people to shut down. It's a foreign language. (Edit: "Atom" would be a good name, because it's plain English, and probably a better format too.) RSS/Atom didn't decline because of Mozilla -- it declined when Google killed Google reader. The information overload could be solved with machine learning algorithms (run locally in the client) that sort posts into a "featured" folder. There are solutions to all of the current issues with RSS/Atom.
      - Vinnl 9y ago
        "Feed" is pretty common. But you still will only know what it means if you know what it is :)
        JoshMnem 9y ago
        > you still will only know what it means if you know what it is That's the problem with RSS/Atom. "Feed reader" doesn't mean anything to most people. "Subscribe to this website" does.
        workingwriter 9y ago
        Interesting. In the original post, I clicked on the RSS "link" towards the bottom. Firefox invited me to subscribe via "Live Bookmarks," a Firefox browser feature that may pre-date Google Reader. It's a good name for non-technical people, but I don't know how many people have used it. I'm not even sure how it works.
    - zczc 9y ago
      You can add the RSS toolbar button manually, see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/795692 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/795692
- haribilalic 9y ago
  Syndicate (https://redalemeden.com/syndicate/ https://redalemeden.com/syndicate/) works similarly well for Safari.
- Vinnl 9y ago
  You don't even need an extension. Enter Customise mode (in the menu, or right click on a toolbar button), then drag the Subscribe icon to your toolbar.
na85 9y ago
>Instead of Mac, use GNU/Linux. Bought my first Macbook pro after being a linux/ThinkPad guy since 2008. I'm probably never going back to Linux on a laptop. I actually have working suspend and resume, plus it's Unix-like under the hood. Trackpad actually works without a bunch of ugly hacks since they deprecated synaptics drivers. no systemd, etc. I spend almost no time fiddling with my system nowadays. I want to use my lap top, not just configure it every time systemd breaks something and I have to switch distros or window managers to get away from it. I still like Linux on the server but in my opinion quality ux requires someone to get paid to do the un glamorous work like fixing compatibility issues and corner cases.
- JoshMnem 9y ago
  When was the last time you bought a ThinkPad? This is my third one and suspend works. The Trackpad is great, with three buttons. 24 Gb of RAM, 11+ hour battery life in Linux, and a 4-year at-home next-day repair plan. It was $1,900 including tax, shipping, and support. Macs are much more expensive for worse specs. This computer "just worked" out of the box, and there is full freedom to tinker with the system. I think the industry should get away from the idea that everything needs to work out of the box anyway.
  - jeofken 9y ago
    Im actually going to make the order for a new thinkpad today, to run NixOs on. What specs and model do you have? Are there any tips, or something you wish you knew? My config reaches >€2500 quite fast.
    - JoshMnem 9y ago
      I got a T460 with i7-6600U CPU @ 2.60GHz. I always research the models online before buying: "<make> <model> <distro>". I'm running Ubuntu 16.04 on it at the moment. The next-day at-home support has been great. They have come to my home and replaced motherboards on the kitchen table with no questions asked. It has two batteries, which added a little weight, but I rarely think about power outlets any more. I can't think of anything else, but if you have any specific questions let me know.
snthd 9y ago
>You have to view source to find the URLs. IME you just open the page in the podcast program - it extracts the rss feeds from the appropriate tags automatically, promoting for ambiguity (this is with antennapod (Android)).
- JoshMnem 9y ago
  It depends on the program.

bhrgunatha 9y ago

Or there was a big trend where they only links were to an itunes page which a) requires itunes to be installed because b) there is no direct link for the rss feed. I had to write a scraper to find the underlying rss feed for itunes only podcasts.

moolcool 9y ago
Do the iTunes only podcast feeds need auth to access? Would you be willing to open source this?
- bhrgunatha 9y ago
  No need really, I found how to extract the rss feed just by searching: https://superuser.com/questions/78415/get-rss-feed-from-itunes-podcast-links https://superuser.com/questions/78415/get-rss-feed-from-itun... Maybe Apple will change/throttle the endpoint in the future but for now it's not authenticated.

shams93 9y ago

Yeah you're not losing by syndicating a podcast if you're selling ads on your program you just want as wide a reach as possible.

kiliankoe 9y ago

How is something that doesn't publish an RSS feed even considered a podcast? I hate how there's "Spotify only" "podcasts" now. If I can't subscribe to a feed in a client of my choice, it's not a podcast.

m-localhost 9y ago
Drives me crazy too.