Rocket Bomber - metablogging

For those who hadn’t heard, Google is killing off Reader — which apparently every blog & blogger I follow is using, in addition to being a personal favorite, though also apparently we’re the only ones since Google is going to kill it.

So two thoughts:

First, if you read this fine blog using my RSS feed, please update your link from http://feeds.feedburner.com/rocketbomber to http://www.rocketbomber.com/rss.

Feedburner is a fine service, but it’s also owned by Google, and as recently pointed out by TechCrunch, its days are likely numbered. While this RSS-business is on your mind (and since you might be migrating anyway) please update that link so you don’t lose me in this mess.

Second, Yeah SURE, Google: I can always get my data via Google Takeout and go to another service. Except it didn’t work as advertised. Imagine that.

Oh, I got the file Google provided. I was able to upload said file to a new reader. 3 whole feeds populated – out of 133. Now maybe the new service encountered an error (oh… I don’t know, maybe a thousand people all trying to do the same thing at the same time or something) but I said, “eff me and eff that,” and just did it manually.

Here’s a tip: go to your Reader settings. Click on the ‘subscriptions’ tab (2nd to left). Highlight everything and copy (ctrl-c) the whole mess and paste it into a text file.

Now you have a listing of each feed, which folder you put it in, and the URL. You could use this information to manually repopulate all your feeds into a new RSS reader – I know this works because I just spent a good chunk of my evening doing it. It takes time, but it’s time I had and I queued up some podcasts to listen to while I was cutting & pasting URLs (no, I’m not so nuts I manually typed them) and that was that.

Even if something new comes along later that I like better, I now how 3 backups: the Google-generated xml file, a text listing, and a fully operational set on a 2nd reader app.

If you are a radio DJ — or at least if you once were a radio DJ, these days I swear at least half the stations run tape instead of a live broadcast, and the other half run 50 stations all playing the same thing off of a satellite feed — anyway, if you were a radio DJ the only cardinal sin you could commit is to stop talking.

There were things that would get you fired, or fined by the FCC (Carlin’s 7 words, for example — but if that’s your schtick you have an engineer with fast reflexes to beep you). You HAD to play ads, so many each hour, and at designated times, ‘cause that kept the lights on and the broadcast tower humming, and of course, paid your paycheck. Depending on the format and on management, there are no doubt other rules — but only one sin: Dead Air.

If you stop broadcasting entirely, your listeners are going to change the channel. You can play music (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida buys you 17 whole minutes) or turn an hour over to the interns, or get the janitor to tell knock-knock jokes — doesn’t matter so long as you’re still on the air.

As bloggers, some of us shy away from filler posts, or look a bit askance at blogs with too many image posts or embedded videos, especially if that’s all that’s on a blog (there’s a tumblr for that). I like to write longer essays, myself: gives me room to think and expand (and ramble and digress) and I feel posts like those are my best work for the blog, and one of my contributions to the internet, culture, and society.

But one can’t always muster up a long essay, on demand, week after week (at least, I can’t)

Only one sin: dead air. Keep writing — but more importantly, keep posting.