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Frequently Asked Questions

• Why should I register?
• What is RSS?
• What is RSS good for?
• How do I subscribe to feeds then?
• Where and how are my selected feeds stored?
• Cookies? But they're evil!
• Whatever. They're still evil. I've disabled cookies, so now what?
• Why build your own feedreader?
• Oh really? How?
• ASP? CSS? XSLT?
• Where is it?
• How much will it set me back?
• Free? Nothing's really free. What's the catch?
• Free? So it's open source?
• Nice, but I have an RSS-feed of my own I want included. Now what?
• Why does your website look like it was built in 1997?
• Web 2.0? Where are the glassy buttons, or the fancy banners? Where have you used Flash?
• What's with the name?

Why should I register?

If you register on this site (which is free, by the way), you can choose an avatar and a username that represent you best. All the comments you place are instantly visible on the site. You can save RSS-articles for later reading and you can save your settings to your account. Go to top

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.
In short, it is a way of selecting which websites interest you the most and then you are shown the headlines of the selected site(s). That way you can keep track of your favourite news without having to scan a whole page of subjects which might not interest you. Go to top

What is RSS good for?

Well, you can follow the news you like in a more effective way: you are presented with the headlines only. And in my implementation, you can save the articles for later reading.

How do I subscribe to feeds then?

Go to the RSS-page. What you see there is the categories I've put the feeds in. Click on a category and it will fold open, displaying all RSS-feeds I've collected over the time. If you see one you'd like to subscribe to, just click it once. A checkmark will appear next to it, indicating you've subscribed. Want to un-register for that feed? No problem, just check it again, so the checkmark disappears.
The select dropdown box in the right will now contain your selected feeds as items. Just select one and presto! The latest headlines from your website of choice right here on this page. Ain't life peachy? Go to top

Where and how are my selected feeds stored?

They're stored in cookies on your computer. That's why your preferences are tied to that computer AND you need to have cookies enabled. If you regularly use another computer (like say, at work), you will have to select the feeds again.

If you register and log in, you can save the headlines for later reading if time is short when you see the headline. Furthermore, your preferences in feeds will also be saved in the database, making it computer-independent. Go to top

Cookies? But they're evil! I've disabled cookies, so now what?

Cookies are not evil. Cookies are harmless by nature. Yes, I could store personal information about you in a cookie that could theoretically be read from another website. If you look at the registration form on this website, you can see that I really do not care much for your personal information.

Wait, that sounds wrong. I mean I have no interest in it. The form contains little to no fields for personal information. In fact, I strongly discourage you to submit ANY personal info other than your Monkey By Nature accountname. Just remember everything you submit to the internet can come back to bite you like a rabid monkey. Just submit just as much personal info as you would in real life to any stranger waiting by a bus stop. No one has to know you have secret urges to behave like a monkey, right? Go to top

Whatever. They're still evil. I've disabled cookies, so now what?

If you go to the length of disabling your cookies, then you must also accept that many banking sites don't work either. And if you've also disabled javascript, then you're really up monkey creek (sic). Javascript can also be used for malignant purposes, but mostly it is not.

If you really have problems with enabling javascript, then you have not much business here. Here, let me make you a nice monkey-shaped tin foil hat. Obviously you know better than I do how this website works. Go to top

Why build your own feedreader?

Because I have never used others to get my feeds. Let me explain, when I found out about feeds, I got excited at the amount of information that now was available to me with little effort. But I did not want to resort to special software for that (at the time, none of the browsers, mailclients or websites offered a reader service). So... I just decided to write my own. Mainly for educational / practice purposes. And to see whether I could. Go to top

Oh really? How?

I wrote it in ASP. At first, it was mainly screen scraping: i.e. going to a website and downloading everything on there and making it presentable with the aid of CSS. It was clunky and ugly, but it worked. Then I discovered the ServerXMLHTTP-Object which was exactly what I needed. The handling of the data was still done in a very ugly fashion. Then I got around to employing XSLT. Go to top

ASP? CSS? XSLT?

Sorry, tech-geek lingo. Will do it no more, I promise. Go to top

Where is it?

It's right on this website. Actually, it's here. Select the RSS-feeds you like and see them featured on every page of this website. I have tried to make it as inobtrusive as possible and easy to select other favourite feeds. Go to top

How much will it set me back?

It's free. Free as in "Free beer", "Free Nelson Mandela" and "Freeze Frame". Actually, the last one does not make sense. Forget that one. Go to top

Free? Nothing's really free. What's the catch?

No catch. It's just my method of getting you to return to my website. Does that make me a bad person? Go to top

Free? So it's open source?

Sorry, but no. I'm actually proud of my achievement so I want to keep it to myself. It's not really rocket-science, but it's my brain child nonetheless. Go to top

Nice, but I have an RSS-feed of my own I want included. Now what?

Mail it to me. Then I will review it, see if it fits in one of the already existing categories, or make a whole new category for it. If and when it's implemented, I will get back to you. Go to top

Why does your website look like it was built in 1997?

I put content way above form. But keep in mind that on this website I use several techniques that stem right from Web 2.0. So although it might not look cutting edge, once you look past that, you will see the things that make a website an interactive one. Go to top

Web 2.0? Where are the glassy buttons, or the fancy banners? Where have you used Flash?

Web 2.0 is not about graphical design. The use of pretty buttons do not make a website Web 2.0, nor does the use of Flash. The term "Web 2.0" has been misinterpreted as being just a pretty face, while it is really about the techniques used and the possibilities the visitor has for interaction with the website.
Seen the weblog on the frontpage? As a visitor you can leave your reaction to the articles. Have you noticed that you can use this website as a RSS-feedreader?
Those are all techniques that together allow the existence of a new form of the internet, the interactive internet: Web 2.0 Go to top

What's with the name?

I like monkeys.
I'm an evolutionist

Hence 'Monkey by Nature'. Go to top