The Five Feed Groups
"Feed Groups?" I hear you ask! "Don't you mean food groups?"
Well, no. I'm talking about the Five major Feed Groups! A way to categorize the RSS feeds you subscribe to, in order of how they impact on the health of your skills.
Fruits and Vegetables
The group we need the most of, and in my case it's all about technical blogs. Blogs that really cut to the chase and give me solutions to problems, code samples, walkthroughs ... all the good stuff. Some examples:
Sahil Malik's blah!bLaH!BLOG!!
Sahil blogs about just about every .NET-related technology you can name, and his posts consist of great technical information. He digs deep.
Eric Lippert's Fabulous Adventures in Coding
Eric posts some real gems around C# debugging and gotchas, as well as some interesting stuff like his recent series on the A* path finding algorithm.
Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen
For posting a well-rounded blog that has all the intellectual nutrients you need in one place, Scott's blog is the avocado of the blogging world.
Meat, Eggs and Nuts
Complimentary to the fruits and veges group is the meat group, and here we find the feeds that aren't so much about code, as coding. They're philosophical blogs that post about ideas in the industry and opinions on technology.
Joel Spolsky's Joel on Software
Joel is a staple of the blogging community, and posts insightful articles about the design of software and the development process.
Fellow Aussie blogger Leon Bambrick has a very entertaining blog, and more often than not it really stimulates the thought process. He had (has?) a great series on starting a "Micro-ISV" which is a must-read if you're an aspiring software developer/salesman.
If you're not reading Coding Horror already, go and subscribe now. I'll wait. Heck, go back and read the entire archive. I'll wait for that too. It might take you a few days, but it'll be worth your time. Jeff is the scotch fillet steak of the meat blogging group.
Bread, Cereal, Rice and Pasta
The bread group for me represents all the blogs run by product development teams. You can't get any more insight into a product than by reading technical posts from the people behind the curtain.
Jensen made a long series of posts about the new user interface for Office 2007, and it was an incredible read. His blog has been quiet for a while, but I suspect it'll pick back up as Office 14 kicks into gear.
The Windows Presentation Foundation SDK
The WPF team has a great blog with technical posts around their technology. Definitely worth reading if you're developing in WPF at all.
Paint.NET is one of the most awesome pieces of freeware available, and Rick's blog is chock full of fascinating technical posts as well as insights into the world of freeware development. Rick's blog is the crusty dinner roll of the cereal group.
Milk, Yoghurt and Cheese
The dairy group consists of the news feeds that you keep an eye on to keep up to date in your field. You may not need to pay close attention, but it's nice to see what's new every once in a while. Feeds like:
Microsoft's Channel9 is not so much news-oriented, but it posts some great video interviews and audio shows that give you a peek inside the MS machine.
Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows
Paul has run his site for quite some time, and it seems to get bigger all the time, with new categories of posts and reviews. It's not just Microsoft-oriented, either.
LiveSide is a site run by enthusiastic watchers of Microsoft's online services, and they post some really great stuff about upcoming MS products or developments therein. They get some real scoops over there. See also Long Zheng's istartedsomething. LiveSide is the baked cheesecake yoghurt of the dairy group!
Fats, Oils and Sweets
Our last group, the sugary sweet group, is the group of feeds you subscribe to to keep yourself entertained. Perhaps even to keep yourself sane. It's the blogs of your friends, or the Xbox news blogs, or the humour blogs. I won't bother listing mine here, since this group is all about your own personal preferences.
So there you have it! The Five Feed Groups! Make sure you get a bit of each in moderation to keep your brain healthy!
Comments
# Sahil Malik
10/10/2007 6:39 AM
I think I get it.
Scott is an avocado, so that makes him a vegetable.
That means, Eric Lippert and I are fruits?
DANG!
SM
# mabster
10/10/2007 6:53 AM
Hey! Avocado is a fruit, Sahil! :)
You're more of a fruit-salad! So much variety! :)
# Computer Consulting Kit FC's Blog
3/12/2007 1:57 AM
This is an interesting way to look at keeping up with the many aspects of technology as an IT professional, especially in an age when blogs are becoming such an easy and reliable way to stay on top of best practices, advances, fixes, etc. Blogs have also helped put a more “personal” face on the delivery of important technological news and information, which prior to their existence was hard to find.