What is RSS?
RSS is a family of web feed formats specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats) and used for Web syndication. RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed", "webfeed", "RSS stream", or "RSS channel". There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but the most common definition is 'Really Simple Syndication'. The feeds themselves are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people. These RSS feeds provide a way for users to passively receive newly released content.
News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content, without having to visit the website you have taken the feed from. The RSS feed from the Null site can be added by users to a news reader and periodically the news reader queries Null to see if it has new content; if so, the news reader either makes a note of the new content or downloads it.
This is often better than browsing the website since users can be notified of new content without having to actively check for it and the information is presented in a simple way.
Our RSS feed is at the following URL:
How do I use feeds?
The first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications.
Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer. Some common readers are given below.
Windows Readers
Newz Crawler
FeedDemon
Awasu
Web based Readers
Bloglines
My Yahoo!
NewsGator
Mac OS X Readers
Newsfire
NetNewsWire
Browser Readers
Mozilla Firefox
Internet Explorer 7
To subscribe to the news feed simply drag the orange button at the bottom of the Null site or paste the news feed URL (http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/rss) into your news reader.
Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer 7 and Safari, automatically check for feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon which you can click when they find one. This can make subscribing to feeds much easier.
Using the Null Hypothesis feed on your site
If you run your own website, you can display the latest headlines from Null Hypothesis on your own site using RSS.
We encourage the use of Null feeds as part of a website, however, we do require that you adhere to a number of rules when you are doing this. Please see our Terms and Conditions for more information.
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