What is RSS?

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It’s a format that web sites and blogs can use to send updated information to you without you needing to regularly visit each web site to check what's new. 

RSS is on the cutting edge of information distribution on the web today.  You can use it to get newsfeeds from CNN, BBC and other news sites, and just about anything else, including notifications of software updates from this site. Whenever I release a new version of the Options Strategy Evaluation Tool, the Finance Add-in for Excel, the Portfolio Optimizer or any of the other software I provide a notification through RSS as well.

So, no need to go out and check for updates all the time. If there are any updates, you are automatically notified if you subscribe to the RSS feeds from this site.

How do you subscribe?  Easy. There are three options:

Option 1 - use a RSS-aware browser:  If you are using a browser which lets you subscribe to RSS feeds (eg IE 7, Firerfox and Opera are RSS-aware) you can simply click the RSS subscribe symbol which will appear on your browser task bar or URL box.  This will add a "live bookmark" (as it's called in Firefox) to your bookmarks and you will be automatically advised of any changes.  The exact location of the RSS subscribe symbol depends on the browser. eg with Firefox it appears in the URL address box on the right hand side.

Option 2 - use an aggregator site:  MY Yahoo!, My MSN, BlogLines, Newsgator  and other on-online services offer a simple way of adding RSS feeds to your pages on their sites.

These are one-step solutions. Just click one of the "subscribe"  icons on my latest version pages and you will be automatically subscribed. When you next visit My Yahoo, My MSN, or the other sites, you will be notified if there have been any updates.

Option 3 - download a free RSS Reader:  This is special software that runs on your PC, reads the "RSS feeds" and summarizes the information for you.  A good free reader is RssReader.  There are dozens of others.

Once the software is installed you simply right-click on any orange XML or RSS button on a site, blog or news source that interests you. You will find one of these XML buttons on each of my Latest Version pages.

Then select "Copy Shortcut" and paste that URL into your RSS Reader.