Staying Up-To-Date

I spend spent a lot of time watching various blogs, web pages, and other online sources for updates to the many platforms I’m responsible for supporting.  Windows has a new security patch. Mac OSX needs heart-bleed remediation.  SharePoint has a new Cumulative Update.  There’s a new Linux Kernel out, and 52 commits have occurred for the ROM on my phone.

That’s a lot of moving targets, with many different pages to remember to check on a semi-regular basis.  With probability against me, the time spent loading a page (and possibly googling it if I forgot to bookmark it) and deciphering what’s changed since I last visited generally resulted in a lot of lost time.

My Solution

Recently, a co-worker turned me on to RSS feeds.  They’ve been around forever, and yet, I’ve never really used them.  That is, until I realized how valuable they can be.   Just think: superbookmarks! One “Single Pane of Glass” to view all of the content updates. Feedly is a web based RSS reader.  You can use various authentication methods ( I prefer logging in with my Google Account) to access your list of “Subscribed” RSS feeds.

Whenever new content is posted, it shows up in your “unread” subscriptions.  Just make it your homepage, and enjoy the easy reading!

Subscribing to Content

After you’ve found a content source you’d like to stay current on, You’ll need to:

1. Identify the RSS Feed URL
   1. Most sites will have an RSS button.  It should look like this: However, some sites do not publish the RSS feed, but still make it available.
   2. The RSS Feed for WordPress sites can be accessed via http://<sitename>/feed or http://<sitename>/?feed=rss2.
   3. Reddit publishes RSS Feeds for subreddits in the form of http://reddit.com/r/<subreddit>/.rss
2. Point Feedly at the URL
   Click the “Add Content” button in Feedly, and provide the URL you discovered in step 1.

   

3. Add the Feed to one of your collections
   Click the green “+”

   

4. Choose a Collection

   

5. Enjoy!
   New posts from this content source will now automagically show up when you open Feedly!

My Feeds

If you’re curious what I’m following, here’s a list of the RSS feeds I choose to follow.  You could also download, and import my feeds directly into your Feedly!

• Ars Technica
  • http://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index/
• Michael Niehaus’ Windows and Office deployment ramblings
  • http://blogs.technet.com/mniehaus/rss.xml
• Reddit /r/sysadmin
  • http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/.rss
• codeinsecurity
  • http://codeinsecurity.wordpress.com/feed/
• Krebs on Security
  • http://krebsonsecurity.com/feed/
• In the Cloud
  • http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud/rss.aspx
• Ask Premier Field Engineering (PFE) Platforms
  • http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/rss.aspx
• Errata Security
  • http://blog.erratasec.com/feeds/posts/default
• NPR News
  • http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?id=1001
• XKCD
  • http://xkcd.com/rss.xml
• LifeHacker
  • http://feeds.gawker.com/lifehacker/vip
• Todd Klindt’s Blog Posts (SharePoint Patches)
  • http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/_layouts/listfeed.aspx?List={56F96349-3BB6-4087-94F4-7F95FF4CA81F}
• Reddit /r/sharepoint
  • http://www.reddit.com/r/sharepoint/.rss
• Stefan Goßner (SharePoint)
  • http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_gossner/rss.aspx