

Zed Shaw is angry about feed readers - henning
http://www.zedshaw.com/rants/i_want_the_mutt_of_feed_readers.html

======
river_styx
_Come on you retards. Fucking mother fuck..._

You know, I think these guys have grown up watching people like George Carlin
and come to think that throwing around petty insults and profanities randomly
is somehow funny in itself. There's an art to it, you guys. Carlin knew what
he was doing. You don't.

------
johnyzee
I can't wait for angry ranting to go out of fashion.

~~~
henning
For now, it's an easy way to get traffic. People like it when you're willing
to call it like you see it and skewer the mediocre things that surround us.

As an alternative, what's a forceful way to critique the central problem Zed
discusses in his rant, namely the practice of blindly copying a (questionable)
UI metaphor from another application category, email, without resorting to
ranting?

In general, lengthy writing on the web works best when you have a _story_ with
a conflict and resolution -- Zed is frustrated by all the products he
encounters, and he finally finds one that matches what he wants. Joel Spolsky
uses this heavily. The way to promote a product these days, I guess, is to
make the story about you, the potential customer, who has a problem the
product solves (hooray!). An angry rant fits into that well enough that it's a
tempting, easy route.

------
mikeryan
My favorite line: "That should be a 2 minute job finding something someone
else already wrote on CPAN and another 2 minutes writing a single line of Perl
nobody else will have to read again (because they can’t)."

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bprater
Zed is always angry. That's why we love Zed!

~~~
rit
I sense a new startup idea.

A form that reads:

Zed Shaw is angry about [textbox]. [textbox for link].

Posts to all the aggregation sites like reddit and HN ;)

~~~
Xichekolas
Really since the 'is angry' is implied by the 'Zed Shaw', you could get away
with just 'Zed Shaw - [topic]'

(Edit: I love Zed, just so we are clear. Of course, I loved Maddox too, and I
don't expect everyone else to like him just because I do.)

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pistoriusp
It seems a bit odd to me that he would go on about the functionality of feed
readers but he wasn't willing to try google reader based on a completely
different merit?

------
edw519
Q: What's the difference between reading an angry blogger at work and
listening to a loud mouth drunk in a bar?

A: They're both irritating, but in a bar, you can be drunk too, so it seems
less irritating.

~~~
menloparkbum
Angry rants can be hilarious but he's veering into net kook territory with
reviews of console based feed readers. I'm anxiously awaiting the next article
where he gives us his Ham radio call sign, rips the authors of various Amiga
emulators a new asshole, and then reveals his latest project - an album of
bird calls he performed on the tenor recorder.

~~~
bootload
_"... Angry rants can be hilarious but he's veering into net kook territory
with reviews of console based feed readers ..."_

The problem with limiting your repertoire is your response becomes one
dimensional and tired. Maybe _"Angry Zed"_ is following the Joel Spolsky "Rule
1" in Painless Functional Specifications Pt4, _"Be funny"_ ~
<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000033.html> The only thing is
Zed is not funny. Now if you want Angry try emulating _"Angry of Mayfield"_
(Kenny Everett)~ <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXkxJkjCk-c> or how about
Mr.Gumby (Monty Python) ~ <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlKiRPSNGA> or if
you want a quick essay read the "Argument sketch" (Python again) ~
[http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/monty-python-
arguement.ht...](http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/monty-python-
arguement.html)

Once you have made your _"Angry"_ point you should move to a different style.
Unless of course you want to be a "blub" blogger like Jed.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
The only thing is... I thought it was funny. I wasn't offended in the
slightest by the rant. I know I have a bizarre sense of humor but he's doing
_something_ right.

------
ivank
Wouldn't you want to read feeds in your browser, where you can follow the
links without switching windows?

~~~
orib
What makes you think I have a browser open all the time? At least on my
system, I'm far more likely to have a terminal open.

And no, I don't want to read feeds in a browser. (Actually, ideally they'd
show up in my inbox as emails, but that's a different topic)

------
moss
Besides being angry, Zed is posting some very useful information. "The mutt of
feed readers" isn't something I'm looking for right now, but for the handful
of people who want it, it's a great thing to find.

------
pkrumins
Perhaps he wants Hacker Top:

[http://www.catonmat.net/blog/follow-hacker-news-from-the-
con...](http://www.catonmat.net/blog/follow-hacker-news-from-the-console/)

------
dmm
Try Canto! It's a curses based reader that is fast and easy to use.

<http://codezen.org/canto/>

------
rapind
Seriously though. What's with Obie's pictures?

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quellhorst
Zed Shaw has mastered link baiting.

------
cypress-hill
use rss support in gnus for emacs. tada it can read email too. so he can get
rid of mutt. not sure how much more minimal you can get than rss-as-news-
articles

and what is with this trend of people buying core2duo boxes to run dvtm? top
won't bother reporting idle of greater precision than 99.9 %

anywho, it seems emacs can give him his console orgasm while dropping a
dynamic runtime that ties it together. news, email, irc, im (via bitlbee),
web, and of course editing text now and then

~~~
avinashv
He states he uses Vimperator and listed Vim before Emacs at the end of the
article--he uses Vim, not emacs.

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kingkongrevenge
I don't understand the bit about Mutt not having folders. I use Mutt and have
folders. Is he talking about using it with IMAP or something?

~~~
there
yeah, i'm not sure what the hell he's complaining about. i use mutt with
maildir and imap folders, even nested imap folders.

my mutt is compiled with the 3rd party sidebar patch and i have a view just
like gui mail programs with a list of all my imap folders showing me which
have new mail and how many.

------
gunderson
Just use Google Reader, Zed, but only read encrypted blogs that are available
via encrypted URLs.

~~~
gunderson
Of all the wise ass comments, mine gets modded down...

