Hey, howdy, hallo,

Before we get into it, I have a request. If you’ve had a chance to listen to my podcast, I’d love to add a “testimonials” section to the website. If you’re fine with being featured on there, would you mind replying with the following?

Now, on with it. Let’s talk about RSS readers. It’s my favorite way to consume content on the internet, distraction free.

✏️ A brief history

RSS which stands for Really Simple Syndication was initially released on March 15, 1999, by Netscape (yes, that Netscape). It allowed users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized format. Users could use a news aggregator, also known as an RSS reader to track these updates. RSS gained widespread usage between 2005 and 2006, along with having many iterations over the years.

By 2009, when Facebook, Twitter, and other social media giants were becoming widely popular, the popularity of RSS was declining rapidly. There are quite a few theories as to why, but some believe that with social networks, users now had a ‘feed’ they could reference for their news. Who needed to use RSS giving you a wide range of information, when you could see what your next door neighbor ate for dinner on Facebook. It didn’t help that a few years after this, in typical Google fashion, they killed the popular Google Reader (RIP 2005–2013).

RSS is fascinating. You probably use it throughout your day, even if you don’t realize it. If you listen to any podcasts, on the backend, they’re all an RSS feed.

🤔 Ok…so why should I care?

I think everyone should use an RSS Reader. It’s likely a lot of sites you follow have feeds, but they just don’t publicize them much. Some sites purposefully don’t use them, because they want to force visitors to manually go to their website. There are some services that can create an RSS feed for any website, but that’s a topic for another time.

👋 How do I do it?!

For most people, I would suggest using a local app on your phone that can track, aggregate, and let you read the feeds.

What do I do? I self-host an app called Miniflux on a Raspberry Pi. I can then access it through any web browser, and it also has a PWA (Progressive Web App). It’s an open source project that also has an affordable paid hosting plan you can try for 15 days.

Trust me, if you’ve never used an RSS reader, try it. It will change your life. Well, maybe it’s not that impactful, but it will change your online habits for the better.

Here are a few feeds I subscribe to. You can add them to your app to help you get started:

I hope you had a great October 🎃🍁🍎, and I’ll see you in November.

-Josh


🧠 A website worth visiting

This site has some crazy online optical illusions.

🎤 My latest podcast episodes

🎧 MyDoom — From its origins in Russia to its DDoS attacks on SCO Group and Microsoft, Mydoom wreaked havoc on the internet in the early 2000s.

🎧 Fizzer — In 2003, the Fizzer worm took advantage of the growing peer-to-peer file-sharing trend, spreading across Kazaa and beyond. What seemed like a harmless music download on Limewire could turn into a backdoor for hackers.

🎬 My latest videos

🖥️ 5 New-ish Things on Android 15 (GrapheneOS) — Android 15 has just rolled out on GrapheneOS, bringing a few visual updates and some subtle new features.

🖥️ The Best VPN: Why I Use Mullvad and You Should Too — I dive into Mullvad VPN, the VPN I’ve trusted and used for over a decade. Mullvad offers a unique approach to privacy, with no usernames, no passwords, and no email addresses required to create an account—just a randomly generated account number.

🖥️ 💯 Best Way to Transfer Files Between Devices (Mobile, Laptop, Tablet) - Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS — In this video, I’ll show you how to transfer files between your phone and computer (or even between phones) without using a data cable.

🎙️ no BS podcast hosting

🟡 Yellowball is a podcast hosting service I built and run. I didn’t like the options out there when I wanted to start my podcast, so I built the service I wish existed. It’s where I host my show, In the Shell. If you’re interested in starting your own show, checkout https://yellowball.fm for more information, or reply to this email if you have any questions about it.

🔬 What did you think?

I intentionally don’t include any tracking or analytics in my emails, which makes it tough to tell if anyone actually reads them. If you enjoyed this email, feel free to reply with a 🎃 and if you didn’t, write back one sentence on what you would change.