Feeds
RSS Feeds
I update this site on a whimsically irregular schedule, and if you’re interested in up-to-date information about what’s on it, it must surely get tedious loading the main page just to see whether there’s anything new. So the site has several web feeds you can subscribe to to be notified when new items have been posted.
To subscribe to the feeds, you’ll need a web aggregator program, which keeps a watchlist of sites you follow, and checks their feeds regularly to find new content. Aggregators are a great way to read websites, as they let you skim the headlines without having to load the full site, and skip to just the things you really want to see.
There are lots of web aggregators around. I like NetNewsWire for Mac OSX, which comes in a full version and a free Lite version - most people find the Lite version is plenty. For Windows, I’m told FeedDemon is pretty good, and SharpReader is a good free option. There are also online services like BlogLines that collect your watchlist on a personal web page, which is great if you move around a lot.
LiveJournal
I don’t get a lot of comments on this site. That’s not because nobody loves me, but because almost all the people who do comment read the site via LiveJournal, and leave their comments there. LiveJournal is a huge online community, where each user has their own journal and there are many handy features for meeting new people. I feed all my blog comments to LiveJournal.