Read all your comics strips via rss… it can be done!

[From S Rough] Every day I need to read my dose of chuckles to help lighten the mood or just to relax. Normally I sit in front on my pc and read 'em there, but not now. Just yesterday I finally figured out how to get them to appear on my palm. Let me walk you through the steps:

1. Collecting the comics.

Go to http://isnoop.net/comics/. "isnoop.net is a hobby site run by Ian "isnoop" Anthony. All of the tools that you see here are more or less my solution to little problems or shortcomings I've found on the internet. Of course, access and linking is available to the general public free of charge." (quote from isnoop.net/blog/about). The "comics" section that Ian has created allows you to view up to (currently) 283 strips on one web page. You select the strips you want and then click "Fetch Comics." Depending on your connection speed and how many comics you chose, you will have a page with all your comics neatly laid out for you in a matter of seconds.

2. Creating a personal rss feed.

Head over to http://feed43.com/. Here you will be able to create your rss feed for free. You can even password protect it so that no-one can change it on you. Click on "Create your own feed" and then paste the web address that isnoop created for you into the address box for your new feed. Don't worry about the encoding – it figures it out itself. Click "Reload."

Under Step 2 "Item (repeatable) Search Pattern" on the section that now loaded, you need to enter something like this {%}{*} which will pull out the title and image source for your comics. Click "Extract."

Skip down to section 3 and under "RSS item properties" you can create each comic's title under "Item Title Template" by entering {%1}. To grab the image for each comic enter under "Item Content Template."

Click on "Preview" and a new section should load will your new rss feed. You can preview the final product by scrolling down to section 4 and clicking on your "Feed URL."

3. Getting it onto the palm.

I just started using Resco Neeews for my comics. I was using Quick News but I could never see the images clearly. If the image was too big for the screen (at 100%), Quick News would center it but half the comic would be cut off. Annoying. Resco Neeews on the other hand will allow you to click on the image and, if you've specified an external graphics program in the options (I use Resco Photo Viewer), you will see the image full screen with the ability to scroll. Using Resco Neeews you can create a "newspaper" using a known feed and just enter the address that you were given by Feed43.

That's it. Enjoy the laughs. And by the way, if you do end up using isnoop, you may want to drop Ian am email thanking him for all his hard work with the comics.