— Text by Stuart Brown
ummer has always been somewhat of a quiet time on the blogging front, with folk jetting off on holiday and enjoying the sunshine - anything other than being cooped up indoors writing.
But whilst we're soaking up the sun and are being generally non-productive, the feed reader addiction doesn't go away so easily. Thankfully, there are a number of great blogs, web comics and sites out there to read - and here are some of them I've been enjoying over the summer lull.
Robots, girls and a dash of nerdy in-jokes. Described as a 'pixelated robot romance web comic', Diesel Sweeties pretty much delivers everything you'd expect on that promise.
Although it verges on the precipice between weird and cool, once you grok the general theme - and remove any inhibitions you may have over technosexuality - you'll love it. It's almost certainly my favourite web comic.
A whole site dedicated to little notes left out of sheer frustration? You bet - in full, unadulterated glory.
Although not technically passive-aggressive, the notes in question are usually rather amusing - although the bile evident in some of the notes may indicate the subject in question might not share the joke. It's an all-too familiar brand of humour, and well worth a slot in your feed reader.
Passive-Aggressive Notes / RSS Feed
Possibly the best (if not the only) blog about typography in existence. Shame it's not updated nearly as often as it should be - but Typographica is still a favourite.
WTD appeals to the photographer in me - it's a webcomic about the travails of a ill-fated but well-intentioned duck, with aspirations of making it big as a photographer.
Updated every weekday, it's a somewhat humorous insight into the world of photography, photographers - and something familiar to all freelancers - the bad client. Well worth a subscription if you either a) are interested in photography, or b) like webcomics with ducks.
I have a weakness for all things electrical, covering the gamut from analogue to digital - and music-related electronic gear is certainly no exception. From analogue synthesisers to vocoders, Music Thing runs the gamut of cool musical gear.
Formerly 'The Daily WTF', 'Worse Than Failure' is a unashamedly geeky look into the world of programming - from dodgy code to unhelpful error messages, to the worst interview candidates ever.
Some of the code snippets might be a little obscure (particularly if you're not a programmer, or if it's in a language you're not familiar with) - but the comments are generally rather insightful as to discovering what the true 'WTF' is. Recommended, and worth subscribing to for the regular 'Error'd' posts that never fail to lighten a droll Friday afternoon.
So there you have it - six of my favourite RSS feeds from the last few months. Now, over to you - what feeds have kept you entertained recently?
Wow, this is really the best blog I discovered recently! Found it when looking for some info on what the most common design-mistakes are when making a website/blog (which I'm trying to do for the moment).
And about the feeds: this will kill me! I'm already too rss-addicted. But I added them anyway :)
Since there are so many great feeds out there, I'll limit it my top 2:
Google sightseeing
This feed is the reason why I started with rss. Excellent website on all things to discover on our planet from space.
http://googlesightseeing.com/feed/
Dinosaur Comics
Still the best webcomic out there.
http://www.rsspect.com/rss/qwantz.xml
I need some new material, awesome.
I can't believe I still haven't set up rss feeds for stuff. I still like loading pages to see if there is new content.
I was impressed by the use of the word 'gamut' in two consecutive sentences. :)
That's not a criticism of your writing by the way, it did genuinely make me chuckle. hehe <- see!
Thanks for the link!
@Pete - This is what happens when I copyedit at 3am ;-)
The problem with The Daily WTF/Worse Than Failure is that the real WTF is increasingly becoming the editors themselves.
The rest is definitely worth checking out, though.
Ho no, you forgot there were some <a href="http://www.typographe.com/";>other countries</a>.
Don't forget about the evil pigeons! www.pidjin.net