The single greatest technological innovation of the 21st century (so far) is the RSS feed.
No kidding. Here are some:
What’s that? You don’ know from RSS feeds? You poor poor surfer. Here, let me help you. You have a problem. You probably didn’t even know you had a problem, but you did.
Your problem is this: you don’t know when your favorite websites (like, oh, say, this one!) update. Oh no!!! What will you do?!? You spend all your time reloading the same old boring old pages. Gosh, that’s awful.
RSS feeds are small files that websites can publish, and your computer can read, so that the websites can announce when they’ve changed their content and you can joyfully go check the fresh new content on your own time. This particular website publishes the RSS feeds listed above (among others).
To read RSS feeds, you need an RSS feed reader (makes sense, don’ it?), also called an “aggregator”. I use the web-based aggregator Bloglines, but there are many other options for you to consider. Let me know if you need advice. Here’s the basic chain of events: you log onto (or download and install) an aggregator; you point it to one or more RSS feeds you’d like to keep track of; ??? Profit; you know where the new content is, and when! You win!