Molly White, in her excellent review of Chris Dixon's Read Write Own book, made me laugh. Over the years the reports of RSS' death have been greatly exaggerated. And yet people still trot that line out.

Attempts to create alternatives have all failed, he says, before going on to describe several projects that are very much still in use, such as the RSS and ActivityPub protocols, or federated social media projects like Mastodon. RSS is dead, he repeats endlessly throughout the book.

It's profoundly weird to read RSS's obituary as a person who checks her very-much-still-alive feed reader several times a day to get everything from cryptocurrency news to dinner ideas, and who rarely encounters a website that doesn't provide a functional feed.

Good heavens reader. The tech you're using to read this very post is . Bummer.

RSS then, fully alive and well in 2024, powering the podcast industry, and keeping the independent publishing flame alive.

I'm reminded of a great post from Giles Turnbull a couple years back on what using RSS feels like:

This post was prompted by a conversation with a 20-something colleague, who had never heard of RSS. I shared the link to aboutfeeds.com, but after reading it my colleague was still baffled. "I don't understand," they said. "Why would you use something like this?" This post is an attempt to answer that question.

It's a really good read. And he's right when he says it's better than the endless scroll of social media.

The only way of moving through hundreds of items on a social media feed is to scroll through everything. Maybe it feels faster, but I don't think it really is faster, because it numbs your brain to input. Your thumb keeps scrolling, but your eyes stop taking things in.

Indeed.

If you're reading this, you already know the virtues of RSS, and nothing here is news to you.

RSS is dead! Long live RSS.

Manuel Moreale with a list of blogging platforms in 2024. It's a good list. I looked into Ghost briefly last year but the comment feature not mature enough.

That whistling noise my tumble dryer just decided to start making is both fun and terrifying.

The photography of Christoph Hetzmann.

Alex Ball is the brains behind one of my favorite YouTube channels. If you're into vintage synths as much as I am, his videos are a must watch.

His most recent video is a delight as he recreates the sequencer sounds used on Der Mussolini by DAF, and Los Niños Del Parque by Liasons Dangereuses.

Of course this then took me down a DAF rabbit hole on Spotify as I went through their back catalogue. The are worse places to be.

The photography of Michaël Overberg.

Damn, Carl Weathers died.

Evenings in sandland.

I was really happy to learn about the Search Engine podcast. It's hosted by P. J. Vogt – one of the guys behind the also quite good and yet defunct Reply All. Each week he attempts to answer a question. And they're a lot of fun.

In catching up with episodes from last year the "how am I supposed to find new music now that I'm old and irrelevant?" one caught my eye.

Interesting hearing how you form an emotional attachment to music in your teens and early twenties. By the time you hit your thirties it's harder for new things to stick, and you gravitate more to the things that made up the soundtrack to your youth. And it's true, I find myself still listening to those formative years a lot.

I didn't agree 100% with the narrative that it's hard to discover new music these days. In many ways I think it's a lot easier than it ever was. That's probably worthy of a post in and of itself actually. The kids these days have no idea how easy they've got it.

In 2006 I discovered last.fm. Keeping track of everything I listen to was immediately appealing to me and something I continue to this day. But it was so much more than that. It was one of the early social sites. You had neighbors. Like minded individuals who shared the same taste in music. Being nosy about what they had listened to was all part of the fun. last.fm also had one of the first recommendation engines giving users their first introduction to a lot of new bands. It changed the game somewhat.

Fast forward to 2024 and I've been fully invested in the music streaming lifestyle for a number of years now. Spotify is actually pretty good with recommendations. The 'Discover Weekly' playlist comes out every Monday which I've found to be a goldmine. Also if you're listening to a band there will be an insta-playlist generated called, say, 'Depeche Mode Radio' made up of bands that are similar. Taking what last.fm pioneered and raising it a level.

So I'd say we've got it pretty good if you know where to look. It sure beats taping Radio One in my bedroom on a Sunday Evening as a 14 year old. Good heavens, remember when the radio actually played good music?

As a closing side note, PJ thinks he's old. He's 37. Oh you Millennials.

The photography of Artfolc. Love the most recent minimalism. So white.