Some features of this blawg explained

I’ve been at work on buffing up the right-hand sidebar to make it more useful to my readers.

First you’ll see the heading “Syndication.” This refers to several ways you can use RSS technology to keep up to date with this blawg without always having to open it up and scroll down, looking for something that catches your interest.

If you have a newsreader, you can use the orange “xml” button to subcribe, and my headlines will join those of your other blogs and news sources. If you don’t use one yet, this article might convince you (though dated 2002; thus ancient in web-years):

Working the web: Newsreaders — If you’re in the know then chances are you already have one; if not, then get a newsreader, writes Ben Hammersley

I don’t mean to brag but it’s 8.30am and I’ve already got up to date with 75 different websites. I’ve read all their headlines, perused the articles of interest, and I’m only half way through my coffee. I’m also cheating. I’m using an RSS newsreader . . . . Here’s the deal: thousands of website publishers, from big-content companies to teenage bloggers, are making their systems automatically produce a summary of their site in a special format called RSS. By using special RSS-reading software on my laptop, I can grab the RSS files from all my favourite sites while the kettle is boiling, and see instantly who has updated, and with what. . . Your morning is no longer spent trawling your bookmarks for interesting stuff, your phone bill is lower, and you can feel smug in the cutting-edginess of it. Is there anything better for an Online reader such as yourself?

Here’s a list of newsreaders from the Weblogs Compendium, a great source of all kinds of stuff on blogs and blogging.

OK, not ready to choose and set up a newsreader yet, but want to get a quick glance at my headlines? You can just scroll down to “Previous Posts” on the sidebar.

Or you can go to and bookmark the Live Journal headline feed under “Syndication.”

Alternatively, if your focus is law, you can click on the “Daily Whirl” logo and choose this blawg and other legal blogs. This cool site will keep your preferences in a cookie and present your custom headlines whenever you return.

Now to the next option on the sidebar: Bloglines. This is a web-based newsreader that, like Daily Whirl, but unlike some desktop-based newsreaders, can be accessed via any Internet connection. This is my current choice. If you’re set up with it, you can just click this button to subscribe. If not, go here and check it out. It’s free. (So is this blawg; though donations are now possible — see sidebar)

Speaking of Bloglines, I am using it to maintain my “Blogroll” in the sidebar. These are many of the sources I use to prepare this blawg. Click on anything interesting and check it out.

One more thing about Bloglines: if you go here, you can see my Bloglines display (almost) as I see it.

Finally, there’s a button to add this blawg’s RSS headline feed to My Yahoo if you’re using that as a newsreader (I use it as my home page at home, just to read top general news stories; it’s where I first stared at Saddam’s bearded mug last December)

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