I see the following kind of thing a lot, talking about authentication with RSS feeds:

[…]  Right now, RSS is all anonymous and doesn’t care who you are.  Does ATOM/ECHO/PIE have it in its specs for any sort of authentication, so a person could get customized content?  Maybe an employee vs. a customer could get different content instead of having two different places a person would have to blog from.  What about security?  Sensative data…SSL? [Erik Porter]

What many folks seem to overlook is you can do all of this today. You can use HTTP authentication mechanisms, and many aggregators (including, of course, NewsGator) will support it. It’s being done every day, both on the internet and on corporate intranets. And SSL is also supported, if you need an encrypted connection.

This wasn’t obvious at all, so I thought I’d post this in the hopes of saving someone some pain:

If you have a non-managed application which creates a COM object implemented in managed code, by default the latest installed version of the framework will be loaded. Even if the COM object is specifically targeted to the 1.0 Framework. Took a while to finally find the docs for this:

The following factors determine the runtime version:

• A COM application can specify the runtime version in an application configuration file. For additional information, see Configuring a COM Application for Side-By-Side Execution.
• The runtime can already be loaded into memory by an extensible host, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Microsoft Office. The plug-in COM application uses the runtime that is loaded for the host to run managed components.
• When strict control is needed, a COM application can preload a specific version of the runtime programmatically by invoking the CorBindToRuntimeHost method (exported from mscoree.dll). Alternatively, the application can target a different version of the runtime, based on an activated COM class, by invoking the GetRequestedRuntimeVersionForCLSID method (also exported from mscoree.dll) and passing the return value to CorBindToRuntimeHost.

In the absence of these factors, the startup code loads the latest compatible runtime version installed on the computer.

Interesting. Makes sense now, I suppose, but not what I initially expected.

Which leads to an interesting problem. If an application needs to use two inproc COM objects, one which only works with the 1.0 Framework, and one that only works with 1.1, you’re screwed. And these objects don’t even have a way to tell anyone that they only work with a certain version. Seems the only safe thing to do, if you’re such a COM object, is support every version of the framework that you might be loaded into. Hmm.

Harry Pierson has a GDN workspace built for Sharepoint syndication. RSS right out of Sharepoint.  Very cool!

Thanks to Olivier and Robert for the link.

Mark Pilgrim announced the Atom 0.2 snapshot yesterday…and, coincidentally, NewsGator 1.3 (also announced yesterday) supports Atom 0.2 feeds. A couple of notes about NewsGator’s current level of support:

• Multipart/alternative content is supported, although multiple independent content items will not both be shown. To clarify:
   
  If you have multiple renderings of a single content item, using multipart/alternative, you will see one of them.
   
  If you have multiple independent content items, you will only see one of them. When the spec solidifies, NewsGator will add support for multiple independent content items.
   
• The xml:base support that didn’t make it into the 0.2 snapshot is implemented anyway in NewsGator – because it’s the right thing to do. See Simon Fell’s feed for a good example of how this should look.
   
  Note that the way relative links are handled in NewsGator is slightly different between RSS and Atom feeds, in the absense of a xml:base element.
   
• MIME types and encoding specifications for titles is supported in NewsGator 1.3, although this too didn’t make it into the 0.2 snapshot.

Phil Wolff interviews Steve Rose, creator of RSSJobs. One part I took note of:

Q: What’s on your wishlist for news reader features?

A: I would like to see an RSS Reader that could manage the items from an RSS feed as individual items. A user could archive specific items for viewing later after it is no longer included in the feed.

NewsGator works this way today. Very important, as we’re often reminded from some of our business customers.

The original code I had posted to generate RSS feeds from a VSS database has expired; I just put up a new version that will work through the end of October, and fixed a couple of bugs at the same time.

This is an awesome tool (IMHO) – check it out! :-)

Refer to the original post for instructions.

Download here: msi | zip

On Sunday, Tom and I (and his Dad and Uncle) went out 4-wheeling near Argentine Pass, which is about an hour west of Denver. His uncle (a geologist) was quite excited about the whole thing and was glued to the topo map we had with us. He pointed out that the place we stopped for lunch, which was right about 13,000 feet elevation, was right on the continental divide.

Now, I’ve probably been to places on the divide a hundred times, but I never consciously realized it at the time.

I thought it was pretty cool. I dumped out some water where I was eating a sandwich, which might eventually (if you’re very optimistic) make it into the Pacific ocean. Then I walked about 20 feet, and dumped out some more water that might someday see the Atlantic ocean. (I know, I know, it will never make it, but that’s not the point!)

The upcoming 1.3 version of NewsGator fully supports relative links. I’m writing this here to make sure I haven’t missed anything…input is appreciated. 1.3 beta testers – what is written here does not reflect your latest code.

When resolving all links, including <link> and similar elements, and content links (description, content:encoded, atom:content), xml:base behavior is used. The xml:base attribute may appear anywhere in the input document, and the rules will be followed according to the spec. Which means, of course, that multiple xml:base attributes can be used, applying to different parts of the document.

For content elements, in the case where no applicable xml:base is found, links will be resolved relative to the <link> URI (or <guid> if @isPermaLink=”true”).

Well, I was hoping not to have to do this, but it appears it’s inevitable. Here’s the comment policy for my weblog:

I reserve the exclusive right to delete any comment left here. Reasons a comment might get deleted (this is not an exhaustive list):

• The comment contains flames or attacks on me or others, as determined solely by me.
• The comment is obviously off-topic.
• The comment contains offensive language.
• The comment promotes illegal activities such as copyright infringement, software piracy, cracking, etc. Note that discussion of these activities is fine; promotion is not.

Chris and Tomas talk about their digital music experiences:

Chris replays his poor experience buying music online with www.buymusic.com. All I can say is: I’m a happy EMusic customer now.

Granted, I only joined a couple of weeks ago, but it couldn’t be easier, it has no stupid DRM to deal with, and the music collection is great. Then again, I just happen to like much of the bands they were offering, and I think their rock/metal selection has quite a few wonderful bands. Heck, two of my last discoverings there include Tristania and Vintersong, both of which I found great! [Commonality]

I’ve been using PressPlay for a couple of months now, for $9.95/mo. It actually works really well for me, so far. I get unlimited streaming, which I use whenever I’m sitting at my desk (which is unfortunately something like 12 hours/day!). The streams are full-length, 96kbps encoded. I can also download as many songs as I like, with the catch that they will no longer be playable after I cancel my subscription.

I can also purchase “portable” downloads, which I can use on other devices and which will continue to work after my subscription lapses, for about $1 per song.

All in all, it seems like a great deal, and it works for me. It lets me listen to some music I’ve never heard of, looking for new stuff I might like. And I don’t worry about not “owning” my music, as some folks have complained about; if I really like something, I tend to just buy the CD.