Every year around this time, my mom breaks out the holiday tablecloths and dresses the dining room table in poinsettias and holly to prepare for family gatherings. My taste, it's not, but even if you can't change the landscape of your mom's table, you can dress yours up with something a little more your style in the form of coasters. Easy to transport from coffee to dining table, these coasters give your place setting the perfect geeky touch!
Yesterday, I mourned the loss of Bloglines, a once-popular RSS reader that will shut down on Oct. 1. Company execs partially blamed the shutter on the popularity of social networking site like Facebook and other sharing sites like Digg, which, according to them, make RSS readers obsolete.
I don't agree — I couldn't get along without them! An overwhelming majority of you sided with me; here's more of what you had to say:
Do you have any comments to add? Leave them below!
Fact: The Internet is overwhelming. There are millions of articles being published, photos being uploaded, status updates being posted, and tweets being tweeted every single day. An RSS reader can help you stay afloat and consume the Internet from one hub — whether you are a casual surfer who uses the web to catch up on email, news, and celebrity gossip, or a full fledged Internet junky who spends all day on Flickr, Facebook, and reddit. Most GeekSugar readers say they're already using a reader, but I am constantly preaching to unconvinced friends. And so, I dedicated this post to you uninitiated, on-the-fencers. Find out why you should hop on the train when you read more.
If you're closely following a subject that's important to you, and don't want to get behind in the news for a second, stay on top by having your most-watched RSS feeds delivered right to your instant messenger account with this web app. Say you're closely following the health care debate. Just enter in the feed you want to follow (The White House Blog is a good one to start with), and every time a story on that site is posted, it's delivered piping hot to your Jabber or Google Talk account.
Although there's no support for AIM or MSN messenger just yet, you can vote for new features to be added in their Feedback section so the rest of us can get in on the RSS/IM mash-up action.
Sometimes simple design is better than intricate, and that's why I'm loving these geeky lampshades! Simple and handmade, these shades are crafted from wire and fabric and feature a few geeky designs.
There's the Space Invaders theme at right and also shades featuring the Gmap location pin, shades featuring the F1 and F2 brightness keys on the Apple keyboard, and one featuring the RSS reader icon. Shades can be constructed either as tabletop fixtures or hanging lamps. At $70 each, they're a bit pricey, but I haven't seen anything similar, so if you love them, I say it's worth a splurge.
Is there no end to the genius of RSS? Not only do all my fabulous blogs wait patiently for me, and matching ads for the piece of furniture I am currently hunting for on Craigslist are delivered right to me, but now I can check the weather in the same place!
Websites like the WeatherBug and The Weather Channel supply RSS Feeds; you supply your location, and then add it to your RSS Reader of choice (I like both Google Reader and Bloglines). Oh and San Francisco? It's rain, rain, and more rain. And then it might rain.
With so many blogs to read each day in my RSS reader, something like the following service may save me alot of time. Featured on mashable, RSS Brief is a new tool that will automatically attempt to summarize the high points of blog entries. Once you choose which feed you want summarized, each entry will include a caption for the posting as well as a word count and direct link to the entry. RSS Brief is still in Alpha so there may be a few glitches while the service improves. 
If you ever use Craigslist, you'll have to give this useful geek tip a try. Whether you are looking for an apartment, a job, or an item for sale, you can now add Craiglist to your RSS feed list and have all the search results sent directly to your reader. Here's how:
Once you type in what you are looking for in the Craigslist search box, try narrowing down your search by adding specific search criteria. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see a highlighted RSS link. Click on the link and you'll be able to add the search results to your RSS feed. And each time a new classified matches your search query, it will miraculously be sent directly to your reader!
