http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/aboutrss
If you're new to RSS and syndication on the web, we hope this page offers a straightforward exploration of the purpose and promise these changes bring to Internet publishing and browsing as you know it now.
What is RSS?
"RSS" stands for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, and/or Rockdale, Sandow, and Southern (Railroad) (if you trust the good folks at AcronymFinder.com). Really Simple Syndication is probably the most widely agreed-upon choice. As far as we are concerned, all three acronyms do an inadequate job of describing what RSS actually is: RSS is a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content. Using this standard, Web publishers provide updates, such as the latest news headlines or weblog postings. Meanwhile, consumers use RSS reader applications (or one of a growing number of online services) to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one place (RSS content from a publisher, viewed in one of these readers, is often called a "feed").
Consumer Bottom Line: RSS makes reviewing a large number of sites in a very short time possible.
Publisher Bottom Line: RSS permits instant distribution of content updates to consumers.
Who publishes RSS feeds?
Some of the biggest names on the web now offer content using RSS feeds:
Yahoo!
BBC News Headlines
ABCNews
CNET
Amazon.com
...and many more!
In addition, thousands of weblog authors publish feeds to keep themselves better connected to their readers/admirers/critics. Blogs are a driving force behind a recent surge of interest in RSS and syndicated content.
How do I read RSS Feeds?
If you want to collect and browse feeds you have many choices, but there are two primary categories of feed reading applications: installable desktop programs and online services. There are many desktop applications for Windows and Mac OS system users, but two of our favorites are FeedDemon (Windows) and NetNewsWire (Mac OS X). Both require a small purchase price but are tops for ease of use and ship with dozens of feeds pre-loaded so you can explore the syndication "universe" right away. Free readers are available as well; a search for "RSS Reader" at popular search sites will yield many results.
If you would prefer to use an online service to track and manage your feeds, you have the advantage of being able to access your feed updates anywhere you use a web browser (and in some cases, on mobile devices). Also, any upgrades or new features are added automatically. The trade-off comes in different (some would say fewer) features and slightly slower performance versus desktop systems. NewsGator, Bloglines, and new RSS content capabilities in My Yahoo! are probably the three best-known examples of web-based feed reading services.
How can I publish my own RSS Feed?
If you have a website or weblog, you can add RSS syndication as a publishing option, in some cases automatically. How easy this is to accomplish depends entirely on how your site is served today. If you are using a hosted publishing tool like TypePad or Blogger, you probably publish a feed automatically. Investigate whether your provider's administration tools offer feed-related options or controls. Other types of websites and application platforms may require some programming skills in order to add RSS syndication capabilities.
Our service, FeedBurner, allows publishers who already have RSS Feeds to improve their understanding of and relationship with their syndication audience. Once you have a working feed, run it through FeedBurner and realize a whole new set of benefits.
Where is RSS headed? What's next after text?
RSS is almost a mainstream technology; the popular press is all over it and consumer services are rapidly moving to integrate it into existing products. And that's just for bringing you the latest headlines, personal publications, and other textual content. RSS will gain whole new levels of fun/utility/value once it moves beyond just text and links. You can get a glimpse of the future today:
Entertainment: "Podcasting" has the power to turn anyone with a web-connected PC and a microphone into a broadcasting personality, and RSS is the syndication standard publishers and their listeners use to distribute and download their latest audio recordings. (FeedBurner has services for podcasters to turn their regular blog feeds into podcasts.)
Commerce: Apple's iTunes Feed Generator informs you of updates to their growing music library across genres you specify.
Internal and Client Communication: Basecamp, a web-based project management tool, allows you to monitor the latest updates, communications, deadlines, and other activities across your internal and client projects via RSS.
Images: Flickr's photo sharing tools provide all sorts of RSS feeds — try the feed listed at the bottom right of any of the public tag listings to get updates whenever anyone posts new photos with that tag. Textamerica's photoblogging service also provides feeds containing photos you have uploaded.
And finally, some technical backstory
RSS is based on XML, a widely used standard for textual information exchange between applications on the Internet. RSS feeds can be viewed as plain text files, but they're really designed for computer-to-computer communication. We should point out that RSS is just one standard for expressing feeds as XML. Another well-known choice is Atom. Both formats have their boosters, and it does not appear that consolidation toward a single standard is imminent. However, most RSS users simply want fresh content and don't care at all about the underlying protocol. (FeedBurner helps publishers avoid this quandry, by the way. Apply our SmartFeed™ service to an Atom feed, such as those provided by Blogger, and your feed is delivered as RSS to readers that still don't support Atom.)
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Monday, June 13, 2005
Reporting Services - Introducing Reporting Services
Introducing Reporting Services
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/rsmain/htm/rsc_overview_v1_8z03.asp
Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Reporting Services is a new server-based reporting platform that you can use to create and manage tabular, matrix, graphical, and free-form reports that contain data from relational and multidimensional data sources. The reports that you create can be viewed and managed over a Web-based connection.
Reporting Services provides a complete set of services, tools, and application programming interfaces (APIs), but you do not have to be a programmer to use Reporting Services. You can use the applications and tools included in Reporting Services to author, publish, and manage reports. There is a tool or application that supports each phase of the report lifecycle. For those who do program, an API is available to extend or integrate report capabilities into custom solutions.
Advantages of Web-enabled Reporting
You can build a reporting environment on top of your existing database server and Web server infrastructure. Reporting Services provides a middle-tier server that runs under Internet Information Services. You can build reports that draw data from the data servers you have in place for any data source type that has a .NET managed data provider, OLE DB provider, or ODBC data source.
Report deployment can also leverage existing infrastructure and skills. Users can access reports and management tools using a browser and navigation skills they already have. Reports are accessed from a central store that is represented as a folder hierarchy. You can create a reporting environment that organizes reports and collateral content in a folder hierarchy that you design. Navigation, search, and subscription features help users locate and run the reports they need.
Reports can be rendered in both desktop and Web-oriented formats. You can build a wide range of reports that combine the strengths of Web-based features and traditional reporting. You can create interactive, tabular, or free-form reports that retrieve data at scheduled intervals or on-demand when the user opens a report. Matrix reports can summarize data for high-level reviews, while providing supporting detail in drilldown reports. Parameterized reports can be used to filter data based on values that are provided at run time. Users can choose from a variety of viewing formats to render reports on the fly in preferred formats for data manipulation or printing.
Why Server-based Reporting?
Server-based reporting provides a way to centralize report storage and management, set policies and secure access to reports and folders, control how reports are processed and distributed, and standardize how reports are used in your business.
Reporting Services is scaleable. You can install report servers on single-server, distributed, and Web farm configurations.
About the Platform
Reporting Services has a modular architecture. The platform is based on a report server engine that consists of processors and services that obtain and process data. Processing is distributed across multiple components that can be extended or integrated into custom solutions. Presentation processing occurs after the data is retrieved and is decoupled from data processing. This feature allows multiple users to review the same report simultaneously in formats designed for different devices or quickly change the viewing format of the report. With a single click, HTML becomes PDF or Microsoft Excel or XML.
The architecture is designed to support new kinds of data sources or output formats. The rendering extensions included with Reporting Services are used to render reports in HTML and other formats for desktop applications such as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and Microsoft Excel, but developers can create other rendering extensions to take advantage of printer or device capabilities.
Developers can include reporting functionality in custom applications or extend reporting functionality to support custom features. An API exposed as a Web service provides Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and URL endpoints for easy integration with new or existing applications and portals.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/rsmain/htm/rsc_overview_v1_8z03.asp
Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Reporting Services is a new server-based reporting platform that you can use to create and manage tabular, matrix, graphical, and free-form reports that contain data from relational and multidimensional data sources. The reports that you create can be viewed and managed over a Web-based connection.
Reporting Services provides a complete set of services, tools, and application programming interfaces (APIs), but you do not have to be a programmer to use Reporting Services. You can use the applications and tools included in Reporting Services to author, publish, and manage reports. There is a tool or application that supports each phase of the report lifecycle. For those who do program, an API is available to extend or integrate report capabilities into custom solutions.
Advantages of Web-enabled Reporting
You can build a reporting environment on top of your existing database server and Web server infrastructure. Reporting Services provides a middle-tier server that runs under Internet Information Services. You can build reports that draw data from the data servers you have in place for any data source type that has a .NET managed data provider, OLE DB provider, or ODBC data source.
Report deployment can also leverage existing infrastructure and skills. Users can access reports and management tools using a browser and navigation skills they already have. Reports are accessed from a central store that is represented as a folder hierarchy. You can create a reporting environment that organizes reports and collateral content in a folder hierarchy that you design. Navigation, search, and subscription features help users locate and run the reports they need.
Reports can be rendered in both desktop and Web-oriented formats. You can build a wide range of reports that combine the strengths of Web-based features and traditional reporting. You can create interactive, tabular, or free-form reports that retrieve data at scheduled intervals or on-demand when the user opens a report. Matrix reports can summarize data for high-level reviews, while providing supporting detail in drilldown reports. Parameterized reports can be used to filter data based on values that are provided at run time. Users can choose from a variety of viewing formats to render reports on the fly in preferred formats for data manipulation or printing.
Why Server-based Reporting?
Server-based reporting provides a way to centralize report storage and management, set policies and secure access to reports and folders, control how reports are processed and distributed, and standardize how reports are used in your business.
Reporting Services is scaleable. You can install report servers on single-server, distributed, and Web farm configurations.
About the Platform
Reporting Services has a modular architecture. The platform is based on a report server engine that consists of processors and services that obtain and process data. Processing is distributed across multiple components that can be extended or integrated into custom solutions. Presentation processing occurs after the data is retrieved and is decoupled from data processing. This feature allows multiple users to review the same report simultaneously in formats designed for different devices or quickly change the viewing format of the report. With a single click, HTML becomes PDF or Microsoft Excel or XML.
The architecture is designed to support new kinds of data sources or output formats. The rendering extensions included with Reporting Services are used to render reports in HTML and other formats for desktop applications such as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and Microsoft Excel, but developers can create other rendering extensions to take advantage of printer or device capabilities.
Developers can include reporting functionality in custom applications or extend reporting functionality to support custom features. An API exposed as a Web service provides Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and URL endpoints for easy integration with new or existing applications and portals.
Sci fi podcast
http://www.podcast.net/show/29569
HOST Michael A. Stackpole
DESCRIPTION This is the channel for Michael A. Stackpole's The Secrets podcast, Series One - check in weekly for new content
LOCATIONPhoenix, Arizona
HOST Michael A. Stackpole
DESCRIPTION This is the channel for Michael A. Stackpole's The Secrets podcast, Series One - check in weekly for new content
LOCATIONPhoenix, Arizona
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