I've been subscribing to RSS feeds like crazy lately, and it's been giving me an incredible new resource for news and information. And - because I've been using Mozilla Thunderbird and organizing everything meticulously, I'm not actually overwhelmed, I just feel like I have everything at my fingertips. (though you have to get over the fear of having piles of "unread" stuff in your folders) Kinda like discovering Google all over again.

Then I got to thinking - most people don't know the difference between a browser and a tennis racket, so if RSS is really going to live up to it's potential as a mass information tool, someone has to slow down and explain it all.

Here's the laymans scoop -

RSS stands for "Rich Site Summary" or sometimes "Really Simple Syndication"... nice huh? But all you need to know is that it's a way for you to subscribe to a website that publishes periodic information, like weblogs or news magazines.

The reason it's great is that you don't have to trudge through a bunch of bookmarks, urls, or other shenenigins to see what's happening on your favorite websites, or about your favorite subject. You can have the site's content sent to you instead. So you just have to sit back and open a beer.

That sound's great right? OK - here's the hard part: You need something called an RSS reader to work this miracle. There are a bunch of different ones out there, but the easiest ones to use are the ones that attach to your email client (like Outlook or Thunderbird). This means that a special set of folders get's added to the same place you check your email. Each folder will be filled with fabulous news that you've specifically tailored for your needs.

If you use Windows, I highly recommend Thunderbird for both your email and RSS needs. If you are married to Outlook, there is something called rsspopper that you can download and install - it makes Outlook into an RSS reader. Mac Users probably have something similar, but I'm afraid you'll have to google around for it.

(Ed Note - there are also a bunch of 'online' RSS readers like Pluck, Bloglines, NewsGator and MyYahoo which are pretty good too. But I much prefer Thunderbird because I can download everything and go.)

Once you've got either of these installed, you have to locate the part of the program that allows you to manage your subscriptions. This should be easier than you think. Once you're there, you have to start entering urls to the RSS you're looking for. So... for this site, you would enter: http://www.thoughtsonthings.com/atom.xml and hit "add" or "subscribe". Most websites that offer RSS subscriptions have a button that says "syndicate this site" or maybe a little orange square that says "XML". You'll just have to look around and find it. Major publications like the New York Times have an entire page filled with these babies. So does Moreover.

If you click on one of them, you'll get a scary looking page full of code. The trick is not to try and read that code! The trick is to copy the url to the page that the code is on and give it to your reader. The reader loves that code and will turn it into something useful for you. Then, that's it, you're done.

If all went well, you'll be getting what you want delivered to you like a hot pizza.

Of course, if you're a recovering information addict, this is probably the worst thing you could do, so be warned.