Tag: Recently Read

Blade steel is the heart of any good knife, and yet for a lot of folks, wading in to metallurgy is not a fun or profitable venture.  For steel junkies, blade steel is the very reason to buy a knife, but for the rest of us, it’s all just an alphabet soup of terms.  What[…..]
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via All Outdoor Blade steel: ten things you need to know

WASHINGTON—After months of deliberation, the U.S. Supreme Court opted today to leave the ultimate decision on whether homosexuals should be allowed to marry in the more than capable hands of states such as Texas, Alabama, and Georgia.
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via The Onion Supreme Court Leaves Final Decision On Gay Marriage In Capable Hands Of Texas, Alabama, Georgia

MySQL fulltext search (FTS) is old and well known. It has a simple setup and requires only small changes for querying. For many people it’s more than enough to provide fulltext search. So, here’s the question: why add a new variable – Sphinx – into the system when the database already has the basic functionality? […]
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via Planet MySQL From MySQL Fulltext Search to Sphinx

Web developers can count on WordPress for increasingly snappier plugins. Each year, each week and each day there are new plugins to make your WordPress site smarter, better and faster. Plugins cover just about every function and customization you need. A plethora of these software components can vastly improve workflow. There are plugins for promotion, […]
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via DreamScape Top WordPress Plugins for Improving Your Workflow

Thanks to unsupportive seats you have to sit in for hours, flying is often literally a pain. You can reduce your chances of getting a sore, achy back on your next flight by bringing along an inflatable beach ball.

Physical therapist Doug Kelsey writes on the My Itchy Travel Feet blog that the adjustable beach ball is perfect for lumbar support:

Because the beach ball is filled with air, it allows you to move in your chair which in turn, moves your spine just enough to keep it from getting stiff.

• Put a very small amount of air in the ball (once you’re in flight, the pressure change will increase the pressure in the ball so you don’t need much air).
• Place the ball in the small of your back.
• Increase or decrease the amount of air to your comfort level.
• About every thirty minutes, move the ball either up or down an inch or two.
• While in flight, periodically move side to side, forward and back for about a minute—kind of a small rocking motion of your trunk on the ball.
• When you’re done with the flight, deflate the ball and store for later use.

Bonus: You’ll have something to toss around if you head to a beach or park on your vacation.

Travelers, relieve lower back pain with this simple tip | My Itchy Travel Feet

Photo by Klim Levene.
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via Lifehacker Make Air Travel More Comfortable with a Beach Ball

Google is closing Google Reader’s doors on July 1st, meaning you’ll need to find a new way to get your news fix. Here’s how to export all your feeds and put them into a new reader (and which ones you should check out).

Step One: Export Your Google Reader Data

Before you do anything else, you should save all your Google Reader subscriptions now. According to Google, you won’t be able to to this after Reader shuts down, so do it now while you still can!

1. Head to Google Takeout’s Reader page and click the Create Archive button. It’ll start building a file with all your feeds, the people you follow, starred items, and more (though most of these won’t be importable to other sites).
2. Once it’s finished building, click the Download button that appears to get your subscriptions.
3. Open up the ZIP file you just downloaded and go through the folders inside. Inside the “Reader” folder, you should see a file called subscriptions.xml. Extract that to your desktop. This is the file that contains all your subscribed feeds.

Save this file in a safe place while you hunt for a new RSS reader, since you may need it more than once!

Step Two: Find a New RSS Reader

Google Reader uses a tool called RSS to subscribe to web sites, and there are actually a ton of other RSS readers on the internet. After the shutdown announcement, a ton of awesome readers have come out of the woodwork and improved their offerings, so there’s something for just about everyone. Here are some of our favorites.

For the App Lovers: Feedly

Feedly (iOS/Android/Web) is by far the most popular Google Reader alternative, and with good reason. It has a clean, beautiful interface that you can tweak to work almost exactly like Google Reader—just prettier. It offers a ton of other views, though, so if you prefer a newspaper-like interface or an image-centric view. They’ve been adding new features like crazy since Google Reader’s death announcement, including a new syncing service (that syncs with popular apps like Reeder and gReader), an extension-free webapp, recommendations and keyboard shortcuts, and more. If you want to use the service that everyone else will be using—and that will sync with the most apps—Feedly is the service you want.

For the Desktop Reader Enthusiast: NewsBlur

NewsBlur (iOS/Android/Web) is a web-based feed reader that looks and feels a bit more like a desktop reader. You can see stories on the original site, create categories and tags that help highlight the stories you want most, and even create a “Blurblog” of all your favorite stories for others to read. NewsBlur is Free for up to 64 sites, but you can pay $24 a year for a premium account that gets you unlimited sites, more frequent updates, and more. If you’re worried about another free service shutting down like Reader did, ponying up a bit of cash could get you a bit of extra security in NewsBlur.

For the Social: The Old Reader

The Old Reader (Web) was built when Google Reader originally shut down its social features. It aims to be what Google Reader used to be: A simple, web-based RSS reader with lots of great sharing features. Its interface should look very familiar, so if you’re a Google Reader purist—especially when it comes to the pre-Google+ Reader—The Old Reader might be for you.

For What the Crowd Is Reading: Digg Reader

Digg Reader (Web/Android) isn’t available just yet, but social news site Digg has been working on a much-anticipated RSS reader for awhile. Like Feedly, Digg’s reader takes the familiar Google Reader interface and cleans it up a bit, with a few added features like Instapaper sharing, Digg integration (duh), and a “Popular” filter that shows you which articles in your feeds are trending right now. It’s still in the very early stages, but it looks pretty solid.

For the Minimalist: Newsvibe

Newsvibe (Web) is for those tired of RSS readers that try to do it all. If all you want is a simple, clean way to read your favorite sites—without all the social features, app integration, and other clutter—Newsvibe is a fast, free, and sparse alternative.

For the Visual Reader: Pulse

Pulse (iOS/Android/Web) takes a different approach to RSS reading. Instead of trying to imitate Google Reader or follow the traditional RSS paradigm, Pulse turns your feeds and articles into a visual, image-driven feed, and pushes the stories it thinks you’ll like to the top. If you’re a bit more visual, Pulse may be just your speed.

For the Do-It-Yourself Folks: Tiny Tiny RSS

Tiny Tiny RSS (Android, Web) is slightly different from the above options. Instead of signing up for a service and depending on them to sync your feeds, you install Tiny Tiny RSS on your own web server or hosting service. You then have your own syncing RSS reader that runs on your terms, and won’t get shut down because some company has deemed it unprofitable. It takes a bit of work to set up, but once you get it going, it works great—and has its own Android app too. If you don’t want the Google Reader heartbreak to happen to you again, Tiny Tiny RSS will make you happy.

For Everyone Else

These are far from the only readers out there, but they’re the most popular ones, and the ones we’d recommend checking out first. Of course, if you want something different, there’s surely something that’ll satisfy you. iGoogle fans will love NetVibes. Skimmers should check out Skimr, and picky readers can filter content with Curata. Aol even has a stylish new RSS reader. Desktop users can try something like FeedDemon, Reeder, or even Outlook. When we asked you about your favorite readers, a lot of you even mentioned that you’ve given up RSS and instead follow their favorite sites on Twitter and Google+, so that’s an option as well. Whatever your needs, you’re sure to find something out there that works for you.

Still haven’t found something you like? Check out this huge list of Google Reader alternatives.

Step Three: Import Your Google Reader Feeds

When you’ve found a reader you want to try out, sign up for an account and import your feeds. This will vary from service to service—a few, like Feedly, might just let you sign in with your Google account to transfer your subscriptions. For most, though, you’ll need to do something like this:

1. Open up your new feed reader of choice and head into its settings.
2. Find the Import option. This will be in a different spot for every reader, but most should have an option to import feeds using an “OPML” file—this is the file you downloaded from Google Reader earlier.
3. Select the import option, and choose the subscriptions.xml you extracted from Google Takeout. All of your feeds should appear in your new reader.

This won’t import your starred items or know which articles you’ve already read on Google Reader, but at least you’ll still have all your subscriptions. Try out that reader for a few days and if you don’t like it, sign up for a different one and re-import your feeds. As long as you keep that subscriptions.xml file saved in a safe place, you should be able to try as many readers as you want, even after Google Reader shuts down.

You’ve still got one week to figure out which RSS reader you want to move to, so by the time Google Reader shuts down, you should be ready to keep reading news without skipping a beat. In the meantime, join us in the discussions below and share your favorite non-Google RSS reader.

Title image remixed from MARSIL (Shutterstock) and sspopov (Shutterstock).
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via Lifehacker Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives

Moderate-intensity exercise reduces fat stored around the heart, in the liver and in the abdomen of people with type 2 diabetes mellitus, even in the absence of any changes in diet, according to a new study.
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via ScienceDaily: Latest Science News Exercise benefits patients with type 2 diabetes

When you close your eyes and think of California, what famous brand comes to mind? Is it Apple? Facebook? Google? Or some movie studio? What about Texas? New York? Florida? These are the most famous brands of each state. The Corporate States of America, if you will.

Read more…

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via Gizmodo What the Most Famous Brands Are from Each State

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via Dilbert Daily Strip Comic for June 23, 2013

Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda will join a small group of risk takers who were crazy enough to take on the canyon.

via National Geographic News http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130622-grand-canyon-stunts-wallenda/