I’ve been using SharpReader all day – like everyone else. I love it, but I do have a couple of feature requests. I love the folder view – click on “subscribed feeds” and it shows every entry in every blog you’re subscribed to. However, since not everyone uses the same format for dates, the “sort by date” feature doesn’t always bring the unread entries to the top. Can we get a “only show unread” filter? And I’d like a simple method to skip to the next unread entry (Syndirella uses the space bar for this).

I see Luke has resurfaced after going dark for 24 hours straight. I wonder if he was handling feature requests?

Harvester is fun. RssBandit is better. SharpReader Owns.
[Chris Hollander: Objective]

Everyone seems to agree with Chris. Me too. Wow, the threaded view is awesome. And it has filtering too, but not quite what I was looking for. Like Brad, I’d throw money at SharpReader. Looks like I’ll need to add support for the image RSS tag, since SharpReader will show it.

I posted yesterday about wanting a filtered version of aggregate RSS feeds. I take it back! I want my RSS news aggregator client to be filter enabled, not the service providing the aggregate feed. What was I thinking? Since I’ve signed up as a member of RSS Bandit (and just got accepted as a member of Harvester) I’ll look into adding the feature myself. Also, Sam Ruby pointed out Luke Hutteman’s SharpReader which looks like it allows you to view a post in context with other posts like a threaded conversation. Cool, I’ll have to check that out.

On an RSS related note, thanks Dare and Don for pointing out SgmlReader to me. I just built a simple utility to download my weblog DB into an XML file, including converting the HTML -> XHTML (though I still need to do some namespace conversion work). As such, I don’t see the need for my HtmlReader. However, I will be keeping the code around and will even be updating it soon with a bug fix from Chad Osgood.

I really like Jesse Ezell’s.net Weblog Archives (even though he didn’t spell my name right at first! 😄 Here’s my feature request: Filtering. I already subscribe to many of the currently archived feeds. I’d love to be able to filter those out of the RSS feed. Since RSS retrieval is a simple GET, the list of filtered feeds would need to be stored on the server side. Or you POST up the list of filtered feeds and get back the filtered aggregate RSS. Aggregating and archiving RSS seems to be hot right now, so a standard mechanism for filtering would be appreciated. My vote: lets expose a web service to retrieve aggregate RSS information.

Interesting to see that Chris Sells was testifying against the “Open Source Software for Oregon Act (HB 2892)” in Salem on Thursday. Not surprisingly, the response on the blogs I read has been are pro-Chris Sells and anti HB 2892. I have my own take on this, but it the interest of full disclosure:

• I am an Architecture Evangelist for Microsoft, which officially makes me an extremely technical salesman.
• I work for Microsoft’s Industry Solutions Group, which focuses on vertical markets including Government.
• I cover the Pacific Northwest, so the Oregon State Government is one of my customers.
• I was in Salem on Thursday, speaking to a state agency that would be required to “provide justification whenever a proprietary software product is acquired rather than open source software” if HB 2892 passes.
• Employees of said Oregon State agency asked me my opinion of HB 2892.

I’ll post here what I told them: I am completely willing take the Microsoft Platform (Windows + Office + Enterprise Servers + Visual Studio) and do an apples-to-apples head-to-head comparison with any other technology in the industry. The Microsoft platform is easier, faster and cheaper than anything else out there. I say “cheaper” knowing full well that there OSS alternatives that have no cost to acquire. Note that I didn’t say “free”. “Free” software costs money to run. Hardware isn’t free. IT Operations staff aren’t free. Developers aren’t free. Information workers aren’t free. Vendor support isn’t free. Consulting services aren’t free. Migrating isn’t free. Add up all those non-free pieces, and the cost of the initial software purchase is lost in the noise.

The problem with HB 2892 is not that in encourages agencies to look at Open Source Software. There’s no need for a law to do that – every state agency I speak to has budget problems. As millions are slashed from budgets, government IT departments need no additional encouragement to investigate alternatives that might save them money. The problem with HB 2892 is the “justify” statement. That’s not about fair head-to-head comparison. It’s about trying to force agencies to pick OSS products that they don’t want by subjecting them to a painful and costly “justification” process. (Note, I am not implying that agencies never want to pick OSS products. I’m just pointing out what happens if they want something other than OSS.) If agencies are choosing commercial software instead of OSS, even though it must cost more, they must see more value in the commercial software. Where’s the value in legislating that agencies must settle on a lesser product?

Don points out “we’re all lucky there’s a Chris Sells”. I agree completely (and I’ll add on how lucky we are there’s a Mike Sax who asked Chris to go in the first place).