Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with reader

Which E-Book Reader is most natural at highlighting books and documents?

roundrock — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:37:04 -0800

I'm looking for the best E-Book Reader that will easily highlight the text. I'm in grad school and am an inveterate highlighter. I can't seem to find a review discussing which reader is best at this feature - Amazon Kindle, Sony Daily, or B&N nook?

Does an RSS feed reader exist that can save the linked HTML pages locally?

chrisamiller — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:04:19 -0800

Is there an RSS reader that can follow a feed's links and download html pages for offline reading? I'm primarily a Google Reader user, but its offline mode only downloads the content of the RSS feeds themselves. Many of my feeds hide some of their content "after the jump", so getting just the feed doesn't help me.

I'm looking for a script or program that will follow the links, then pull down the html page (including associated images) and save them locally so that I can peruse them on my laptop at 30,000 feet.

I could slap something together with an XML parser and wget, but I'd rather not reinvent the wheel. I feel like someone has probably solved this problem already.

I'll be using this on linux, but I'm willing to consider windows software as well, if it's something that might work reasonably under Wine.

I'll take a look at anything from full-blown desktop readers to cli scripts in perl/ruby/python etc.

What's the best way to buy and store ebooks on a budget?

patheral — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:28:03 -0800

I'm drastically downsizing and cannot take my beloved books with me. I think the best solution for my new living arrangement would be to find a way to buy and store ebooks. But how and with what? I love to read. Reading is the way I de-stress and unwind. I can't live without reading. I also move a lot and right now the town I live in has a dismal library with no selection. I used to have a room full of books and now it's a bookcase full of books, but even that is too many. I have to go down to a shelf full by next January - if that - and those would be the ones with sentimental value.

As I see it, I can either download books to my computer and read them from here, and risk more migraines. Or I can find the better ebook reader (for example a Kindle or a Nook). Or I can get a smartphone like an iPhone or a blackberry - which I understand have applications for ebooks.

But my budget is tight, and I'm not very savvy about these things. I've been all over Google and compared the ebook readers and I've looked at some friends' smartphones, but I just don't know what would be the better choice. I don't know if I can get the books I want here on my computer, or if I have to have an ebook reader to download them. I think a smartphone might be overkill, but maybe not since some of them have other applications that might be useful. But I don't want to be tied into a contract with a smartphone if it's not the best way.

Anyway, any suggestions would be great.

Is there an Instapaper for feed aggregation?

Orchestra — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:26:14 -0800

I'm looking for a very simple rss updater to replace Rososo. Any suggestions? It looks like my rss updater of choice, Rososo, might be permanently out of order. This bums me out as it's just about the perfect fit for my needs and aesthetic preferences. Much like Instapaper, another can't-do-without favourite, it has a zen-like vibe of doing one thing really well and looking as simple as possible while doing it.

What I need is a robust (little downtime) and easy-to-use service for keeping an eye on my twenty or so favourite blogs and other sites. I like to read my articles on-site, not through a reader interface, so I'm therefore not looking for Google Reader, I think. Firefox extensions and the like are out as I often use different computers and browsers throughout the day.

Also, I want to be able to follow any feed and not just those that are already submitted to the service (like Bloglovin or Bloglines). Some of my feeds belong to sites written in languages other than English and others I'm just not comfortable adding to a public index (personal Livejournals and the like).

Is there anything out there for me?

Are there any programs like Tofu for Windows?

timetoevolve — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:16:58 -0800

Are there any programs like Tofu for Windows? I use the wonderful reader Tofu at home, but when I'm catching up on my news reading during worktime breaks, I am sadly Tofu-less. I'm not the most savvy Windows user, but thus far my Googling for an equivalent has been fruitless. (Ideally, such a program would also be lightweight and free.)

Hope me, MeFites! My aching eyes thank you.

Kindle DX: What will I miss if I buy outside the U.S.?

danburzo — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:05:06 -0800

I live in Romania and I'm considering a Kindle DX. (Sony Reader is a crappy competitor and the iRex products are expensive). What features will I miss if I bring the Kindle to Romania? Does it still worth it? Also, can I use Kindle DX to read PDFs from my computer without going through any Amazon service?

Export starred items, then auto-delete?

polexxia — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:42:08 -0800

How can I export (and mass-delete) all of my starred items in Google Reader? I've googled this before, but all of the suggestions that I've seen seem to no longer work (since they're always tinkering with Google Reader.) What I want to do is to export all of my starred items (either as individual items--preferred--or as one large HTML file) and then delete them all, so that when I actually star something from now on, it won't be buried under a pile of "once useful" stuff. Is this even possible?

Offline AskMe reading with iPod/iPhone?

Napoleonic Terrier — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:45:20 -0800

Using an iPod Touch, is there a way to automatically download the latest 50 (or some preset number) Ask MetaFilter questions and answers for off-line reading on the Touch?

Offline Blog Reader?

tesseract420 — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:04:46 -0800

Offline blog reader? I've backed up my blog into an XML file. I'd like to read it offline. Open Office has XML support but this is not an efficient solution. There are online solutions--importing the xml file into a new blog, for example--but I'd just like to read while offline from the xml file. Is there a program that will permit this?

Should I disable the fingerprint scanner on my Dell?

Dasein — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:10:26 -0800

Should I fear the fingerprint scanner on a new Dell XPS M1330 as a feature that is going to lock out the computer in the future, or embrace it as a neat piece of technology that will make the computer more secure? And if I should fear it, what steps do I need to take to disable it? I seem to recall reading a comment somewhere on metafilter from a guy whose wife's computer was rendered unusable when the fingerprint scanner malfunctioned, and that sole half-remembered anecdote has me thinking I should just uninstall the software that came with the computer.

The laptop is running Vista Home Premium 64-bit, and came with Fingerprint Reader Suite. I keep ignoring its attempts to get me to swipe a fingerprint, but I've hesitated on uninstalling the software in case it's actually useful. This will be my dad's computer, and I won't be around if something goes wrong, so I need to know either that this technology is reliable or a permanent way to disable it.

I'd appreciate any personal experiences/tech advice. Thanks very much.

RSS?

Yakuman — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:16:38 -0800

When I add a feed to my reader, do I want RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 or Atom? What's the practical difference?

Choosing more suitable feed reader after Netvibes

tseo — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:00:59 -0800

Feedreader that fits my needs? Shows read feeds, has good browser view... I was using Netvibes until now but it is developing in a direction that I don't like so I want to move to more usable feed reader. I tried Google Reader, Feed Demon and Newzie but there is some stuff that they lack or I don't know how to unlock.
One of the things that I need is to see as many as possible from my list ordered by categories and feeds and not by read and unread. I basically refer too much to already read feeds so I need them to be there too.
The other thing that I need is to see the post in the feed reader as I will be able to see it on the actual page. This was something Netvibes had and it helped with blogs that don't offer their full posts, cause when you switch to this mode you still browse the blog in your reader, you just get the actual page.
From all three that I tried Google Reader looked the most promising but it still lacks the second feature.

Pimp my feeds.

jpcody — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:46:57 -0800

How do you arrange your RSS feeds? This has been addressed various times across the Internet, but nowhere I value nearly as much as with the input on AskMeFi. Here are my questions:

1. How should I be reading feeds?
2. How should I be arranging feeds?

I currently use Google Reader, and am not open to a different web-based solution. I love Google Reader, but I worry its browser-ness is putting a cramp in my productivity. It's too easy to start typing "re" in Firefox's Awesome Bar and get to it.

Here's what I would like in a reader/reading system:

1. Keyboard-ninja friendliness
2. Savability for items I want to keep until I can act on them
3. Ability to email things to others quickly
4. (Forgive my shallowness) A beautiful interface

And I currently have my feeds arranged in a category style. (Apple, Politics, Faith, Tech, etc.)

As I fight for my attention and productivity, I'd like to keep it generic and ask the wonderful world of AskMeFi what system you've found most productive and effective. I don't want to check my feeds as often as I do, and I want to just sharpen my system altogether. I realize a good dose of discipline will be helpful, but can you help me help myself?

RSS reader optimized for Craigslist and Kijiji

Chuckles — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:29:33 -0800

Wanted, an RSS reader optimized for Craigslist and Kijiji. Willing to program myself, if necessary. I'm looking to optimize my use of RSS feeds when perusing online classified adds. I've been using Thunderbird, and I've set a few message filters to save me some time, but it isn't enough. Some of the features I need:

Sophisticated kill scripts, to avoid spam, duplicate listings, and items I'm simply not interested in
Permanent storage of the listing and pictures for market research purposes. This would include monitoring changes, and recording the date of listing removal.

I'm sure there are a million features I haven't thought of, but those two are really key, and they are not at all typical for RSS readers, as far as I can tell.

I'm a junior programmer, but I'm happy to take this on as a project. Hopefully, as a plugin for existing software, or a modification of an existing open source RSS reader. Happier still if somebody has already made it, of course!

And as an adjunct question, I'm very interested in recommendations for ebay software. Again, looking for permanent caching and tracking of auctions. I've heard of some ebay market analysis services, but paying a subscription isn't really an option, unless it is very cheap.

Portable pdf reading - what's the way to go?

sien — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:38:20 -0800

What would you recommend for a compact device that reads pdfs? I've recently started train commuting and have 30 minutes on a regular basis to read. There are quite a few large pdfs that I read. I've been using a PSP but it doesn't work well. I'm currently looking at an ipod touch, eee PC, Aspire One, Nokia n800 and would consider anything else that people recommend. ( more inside ) I've been using a PSP with bookr but have found that it crashes on sizable pdfs and often won't display the pdf at a readable resolution without needing to constantly scroll across the page.

The ipod touch is almost a good solution. It just that it appears that you have to email pdfs to yourself to view them and that you can't view them in landscape mode. Perhaps these problems can be overcome by jail breaking the device but I'm not sure.

My Nokia 6110's adobe reader will view everything and work right, but with constant scrolling due to the device's small size it doesn't work well either.

Does anyone have experience with the Nokia internet tablets? There are some cheaply available on ebay Australia so they are also potentially a viable option.

In the end, if you want to read large pdfs do you really have to have a PC? A cheap eee PC or Aspire one might be what's required.

Are any of the epaper devices capable of handling large, graphics containing pdfs? I'm in Australia so the Kindle is probably not viable.

At any rate, it'd be great to have the experiences and opinions from the Blue as to what to do.

(and just as an aside, I regularly read normal books on the train and enjoy that too, it's just that some stuff is more readily available as pdfs)

Looking for good web- or desktop-based RSS reader that can handle older posts

fsmontenegro — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:26:50 -0800

What options do I have for a good web- (preferred) or desktop(Windows)-based RSS reader that has good options for managing older posts within feeds? I've been using Google Reader as my primary reader for as long as I can remember, but I'm getting fed up with its behaviour around auto-archiving posts after 1 month and not being able to mark older posts as unread.

I subscribe to approximately 100 feeds, some that are chatty (dozens of posts a day) and some that are pretty quiet (1 post every 1-2 weeks or less).

Every now and then I find a new blog to follow and when I subscribe to it I'd like to easily read previous posts as well. Google Reader retrieves older posts, but doesn't let me mark them as unread.

Also, it has the very annoying feature of marking as read anything older than 1 month. This is fine for a chatty feed, but I don't like this behaviour for quieter feeds.

I looked into FeedDemon/NewsGator but it seems to also be limited in handling older posts.

Are there any options for a decent solution that is more flexible for older posts?

Why does my new Google Reader account show me old (read) postings when my old one didn't?

alpha_betty — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:37:45 -0800

Why does my new Google Reader account show me old (read) postings when my old one didn't? I have had a Google Reader account with around 50 feeds for several months. I recently changed my email address, so exported those feeds from the old account and imported them into the new one. In my old account, I would scroll past an item, it would be marked as read, and it wouldn't show up in the feed again.

Now, in the new account, when I scroll past an item it is marked as read, but I still see it and many other previous posts below it. I have googled, looked inside Reader Help, searched MeFi, and gone to every menu I can find on Google Reader. What gives?

(Also, in case it's pertinent: the Show: menu is set to "Updated" and "In expanded view, mark items as read when you scroll past them." is checked.)

Help me diagnose and treat Google Reader on iGoogle.

joshwebb — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:44:05 -0800

Diagnose and treat my iGoogle page. Does anyone know why Google Reader in iGoogle looks like this no matter what browser or machine I view it on? Can it be fixed? The facts: I'm on various Macs throughout the day, using Safari 3 and Firefox 3 to access iGoogle. Because of the mashed-together links, and the floating "up arrow" button, manipulating my feeds in iGoogle has become somewhat of a pain in the ass. In the grand scheme of things I realize it isn't a big deal, but I'd like to get it fixed.

To make matters stranger, the anomaly doesn't appear when I log in to my wife's iGoogle page.

I've submitted a report to Google, but I don't imagine mine is the sort of case that would get special attention.

Any ideas?

Should I Kindle outside the U.S., or will I get burned?

taz — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:15:00 -0800

Any Non-U.S. users of Amazon's Kindle (or other E-reader) out there? Can you tell me how it's working out for you? I'm trying to decide whether to splurge for my birthday, and really don't want to invest that much money in a mistake. Details:

I'm in Greece, where books in English are very expensive and the selection is minimal. My suboptimal option is to order books from Amazon UK, pay the extra shipping, and walk about a mile to the P.O. to stand in line and pick them up when they arrive. So, books are really "treats" for me, which is unfortunate since I'm an avid reader.

Kindle sounds like a pretty good solution, though paying a high price for technology/software that I won't be able to use (wireless connectivity, etc.) bugs me a lot, and I'm wondering if there is anything else about it that would make me rue the decision? Should I wait and hope they make some version that isn't U.S. only? Is there a more intelligent choice than Kindle in my circumstances?

If you live (or have travelled extensively with it, downloaded books, etc.) outside the U.S. and have experience, can you help guide me?

How to stop Firefox from blocking Google Reader "popups"?

bdk3clash — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:28:24 -0800

How can I get Firefox to stop blocking Google Reader "popups"? I'm running Firefox 3 and Firefox is blocking new tabs I open from Google Reader by pressing "v." I've disabled the popup blocking in Firefox, added Google.com (and www.google.com and reader.google.com) to the whitelist, and have done this (changing the maximum number of popups allowed by a domain in about:config), which seems to solve the problem for most people. Any ideas? Thanks.

Crafting RSS for Google Reader

thebreaks — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:36:58 -0800

How can I make aesthetically pleasing RSS feeds for the readers of my Web site, specifically so that my feed will keep the formatting like a lot of sites do in Google Reader? I use Mambo 4.6.2 as my CMS and I've edited the Syndicate component to keep the HTML code in the RSS. When the RSS 2.0 link is clicked, the resulting feed shows the perfectly formatted RSS. Yet when I import it into Google Reader, all the text returns to its run-together state that made me edit the Syndicate component in the first place.

What I would like would be to have rich RSS displays for my reader similar to what I see in my Google Reader feeds from sites like Wired and Io9. I've looked into other modules for Mambo, but most RSS modules are for readers while my focus is on RSS feed creation.

Thanks in advance.

Need a book reader plugin for my website?

jacobean — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:31:45 -0800

Need a book reader plugin for my website?
I have a 30 page booklet that I would like to include on my website.

Can anyone recommend an application or plugin for my website to do this?

( I am not talking about Adobe Reader or Foxit reader type application here)

This is a type of application that has a back and foward button to turn the pages that kinda integrates into your site.

Hoping someone can help?

Automatically creating a long list of Google Reader searches?

jbickers — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:41:10 -0800

Is there a way to automatically create Google Reader news searches from a long list of topics? I've got a text file that contains the names of about 50-100 companies. I want to monitor Google News for each of these companies - that is, I want one search per company in Google Reader.

The way I've done this in the past is (1) Search Google News for the company, (2) click "RSS" on the left hand side of the results page to add to Google Reader.

But there must be some way to automatically pull RSS news searches for each one ... isn't there? Others within the company need to do the same thing, and their lists are even longer than mine.

I want to read, but I can't!

InsanePenguin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:11:41 -0800

Is there any way to convert .lrf's to anything readable on OS X? I sold my Sony Reader because I much prefer a real book and I never really used it. This did leave me with a problem, and I'm an idiot.

I really should have finished my small library of books that I had for it, but I didn't and now I regret selling the Reader. I don't really want to buy another just to read 14 books. Can I convert the .lrf's that I have to .pdf, or is there any way to read them on my computer?

OS X 10.4, but I do have access to Windows (Vista, blech)

How can I remember to read followups to my comments?

jacquilynne — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:18:48 -0800

Is there a website or firefox extension that will help me keep track of my blog comments? By blog comments, I mean comments I've left on other people's blogs. Obviously the software for my own blog lets me know when there are new comments on it, but I read a fair few other blogs and often like to leave comments. I'd like to follow the discussion after that, but there often isn't a good way to do it. Some blogs offer email notification, but that's annoying and spammy if it's a very active blog. Some blogs offer per thread RSS feeds which is better, but not all of them do.

Is there some kind of tool / site that I can use to push a button and say 'track the comments on this post forever more'?