RSS - Really Sort of Shit

I really can't see RSS in the same light as these guys do.

I've worked out what RSS is, and how it works, thanks to RSS in Plain English and Wikipedia.

So I need a "reader". I tried to find one compatible to Mozilla, and found Newsmonster, and innocently clicked on the Install button. Big mistake. Mozilla was fucked. I sent an e-mail and tried to contact via AIM (crappiest IM platform ever) to no avail.



Here's a short list of what happened.

1. I could only start Firefox 1 time out 5. I'd have to ctrl+alt+del "End process" Firefox.exe the other times because nothing would actually open up.
2. It didn't let me register NewsMonster.
3. No features of NewsMonster worked.
4. I still couldn't actually use RSS.
5. I couldn't send a bug report.
6. What Newsmonster did was take up half my Mozilla space with a list of unusable crap.
7. I couldn't uninstall NewsMonster.
8. A lot of Firefox's features such as bookmarks, help, extensions etc. just ceased to exist.
9. Everything slowed down.
   

In the end I played some AnarchyOnline (now working smoother than ever since that BSoD incident).

Then I tried just installing NewsMonster again. Didn't do much. Again... asked to me reset computer. Did so. Nothing.

This morning I tried deleting all files NewsMonster installed. Something must have been important to Firefox, because it wouldn't load pages after that. So I just uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox. On Bob's advice didn't try reinstalling NewsMonster.

Now using Awasu to get my RSS feeds from the awesome Technorati. Awasu isn't imbedded, which I think aftr the disaster with NewsMonster I'm seeing as a plus. Additionally it does have some step-by-step help, and quite a few pre-collated feeds you can choose to subscribe to.

As for RSS, I still don't really see the big deal. Yes its useful. But surely a whole new format didn't need to be invented for this to be implemented?
It seems a whole lot of bother to suit these people who can't work out how not to get spam. I have a hotmail account, and barely have to deal with spam at all. If you are at all interested, you can find out about the History of RSS.


PS - ARIGAMI