Archive: July 2005

ReFilter, an RSS filter

July 10, 2005

I wanted an RSS filter because BlogLines doesn’t have one, but I couldn’t find anything suitable. So: ReFilter.

It uses simple filters modelled on Google syntax, e.g.:

  • exploded
  • -"sars art"
  • dccreator:bob
  • -start:title:"re:"
  • has:enclosure
  • enclosure:type:audio/mpeg
  • -enclosure:url:aol
  • -category:politics -category:ranting
  • -(category:politics OR category:ranting)

Or even something a little more complicated: -"BoingBoing friend" -"former guestblogger" -"reading from my" -ukulele -Disney -((RIAA OR MPAA OR DRM OR copyright) AND (fascist OR Nazi)) -dccreator:Xeni

Real world example: I’m using -title:"best of win" to filter out those “Best of Weblogs, Inc.” features, which are ridiculously frequent on low-volume blogs — there’s some amusing irony in cluttering the Spam Weblog with three in a row.

Anyway, give it a spin.

The number of the beast

July 18, 2005

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was a pleasant surprise after the awful disappointment that was books four and five; it’s nice to see the series redeemed somewhat. I take issue with parts of it, but the relief at not needing to fight off waves of drowsiness was sufficient compensation. A year ago, that’s where my interest would have ended; now, the Harry Potter fandom is a not-insignificant part of my life, and I’m burning with curiosity over the effects it’s going to have, on the fandom in general and on the fanfiction in particular. And worry, for that matter, since there’s a fair chance the book is going to throttle it.

At this point, a note: this entry contains spoilers. “Spoilers” as in major “will give away the entire novel” spoilers. If this concerns you, stop reading now.

This page contains the archive of articles posted to rephrase.net during July 2005.

Wrong month?

Links posted in July