First, there where newspapers. No-one reads everything in a newspaper because it’s too long and you probably aren’t interested in everything in them. But newspaper publishers want you to buy and read their product, so they make headlines. Those headlines tell you in just a few words what the article is about, and then you can judge for yourself whether to read that article or another.

If you apply this idea to the internet, you get RSS (really simple syndication). Basically, it’s headlines for websites. You subscribe to an RSS feed, and every time you load your RSS feed reader, it checks a tiny XML file on each site, looking for new information since the last time it checked. If there are updates, the feed reader shows a title (the headline), a short description, a date/time, and a link to the main article. Through RSS, you can check for updates for 50 sites in only a few seconds, and then pick and choose which you want to read more about. Websites that typically have RSS feeds are news sites, blogs, and any site that gets fairly frequent updates.

However, RSS technology isn’t limited to simply text. Links to things other than websites are possible. If there is a link to audio, it’s a podcast. The same goes with video and videocasts. iTunes is a wonderful free program by Apple which allows one to subscribe to podcasts easily and manages the downloaded files for you. The iTunes Music Store also lists podcasts free of charge, so that is a great place to search for them as well.

You can subscribe to the Krystal Archive Podcast in iTunes with this link, or you can add the normal feed to the feed reader of your choice. If you want the feed for the Krystal Archive itself, not just the podcast, the link is right here.