xml
05 July, 2005
xml wtf
XML is a file format, like .doc is a MS Word file format, and .html is a web page format.
XML is designed to exchange information between computers, but also be at least a little human-readable. It comes in various flavours, which includes RSS (Really Simple Syndication) - an implementation of XML that Dave Winer developed to make, er, syndication really simple.
There are loads of useful things that you can do with XML. One of the things you can do with the menticulture XML files is use them in an aggregator - a newsreader can use it to bring new posts straight to your desktop, and a podcatcher can use it to bring new podcasts straight to your mp3 player. This is known as 'subscribing'.
To subscribe to the Menticulture blog:
- Click on the orange XML Blog button (you now are looking at XML), and copy the address of the file into your newsreader. Now, hit 'Back'. New menticulture posts will appear in your newsreader automatically.
- To do the same with podcasts, put the address of the XML Podcast file into a 'podcatcher'. This will bring new podcasts to your computer automatically.
Here's some resources about XML, RSS and aggregators.
What is RSS at xml.com
Wikipedia on RSS
Dave Winer on News Aggregators
podcast wtf?
