BrassReader: a serverless RSS reader | Hacker News Reader

BrassReader: a serverless RSS reader

brassreader.com

29 pointsnissimk30 comments

BUT... the server (at least in Google Reader case) actually plays a crucial role - it "caches" the RSS feeds, so if you subscribe to some, you can see the history of the feed, i.e. the older articles, which are already not listed in the actual RSS file. This is an important part of the RSS reader functionality - without the server, you will not have that history (unless I am missing something).

Well, you do have to leave the extension running, but it does the same thing. As mentioned on the site, this has the benefit of offline reading capability because the rss content is saved locally. If the feed in question only contains links or a synopsis this is not much help, but for feeds which contain the full article it can be very nice. I'd also like to integrate readability.js to cache a readable version of the link for feeds which do not contain the full article.

But the comment was talking about the previous entries of the RSS feed. For example, if I subscribe to some feed today, do I see entries published in the past? Like for example one year ago. If yes, how it is achieved?

Because in the Google Reader, when you subscribed to some blog feed, you could usually see the list of all articles published since the creation of that blog.

But with Reader, I could subscribe to a RSS feed and see the posts from 5 years ago, before I even knew the site existed. THAT's what I miss about Google Reader - not the reader itself, but the archive of data it provided. (I've since switched to NewsBlur)

That doesn't work for the use case where I go on holiday for a week and want to catch up when I get back.

I'm sure it's great software but the color scheme for that site is so bad I don't even want to read about it.

Came here to say this.

Next time, just say it to your desk plant.

Don't underestimate the importance of aesthetics...

Until it has syncing there isn't really any differentiation from the desktop readers listed here:

http://alternativeto.net/software/google-reader/

The more the merrier, though. It's nice to see all of the competition.

But the desktop readers do have syncing. Unfortunately, with google reader and tiny tiny rss usually, but it is far better than an ad-hoc solution using dropbox...

So, it's a desktop client, that runs in a browser. This feels like the worst of both worlds; you have to leave it on if you don't want to miss anything, you can't access it from elsewhere, and you're constrained to a webapp UI.

It should be noted that some feeds only have content in them for a very short time (eg a matter of hours). This means your browser would need to be running almost all the time or you could miss content, and you wouldn't realise it.

I switched from Google Reader to tt-rss which I run on my home server. That "server" is actually a 6 year old laptop (built in UPS) that consumes a trivial amount of power compared to my machines running Chrome.

The cons are exactly what makes Google Reader the go-to RSS reader. Synchronization is the key selling point.

Tons of other options if you do not want to synchronize.

The Brief add-on for Firefox does the same. It synchronizes across the machines because your feeds are your bookmarks.

I love the breakout of the pros and cons. Refreshing.

Though certainly a step up from server-based spyware, this app is still browser-based, which is incredibly annoying.

I'm trying to avoid using browser-based apps, especially ones that require bloated browsers such as Firefox, Opera, or Chrome.

I much prefer open-source apps that are serverless and don't require browsers, like Newsbeuter[1] and rss2email[2].

[1] - http://www.newsbeuter.org/index.html

[2] - http://www.allthingsrss.com/rss2email

You just listed 3 browsers that are pretty common and bloated. I was wondering what you are using for a browser?

w3m in emacs, mostly -- except for a few sites I care about (like HN) that absolutely insist on using Javascript.

It might be a bit extreme for most people, but browsing the web in text-only mode (w3m is capable of displaying images, but I mostly don't use it that way) is great!

I quickly and efficiently get what matters to me most: the content. And I don't have to worry Javascript, Flash, HTML 5, or other rich media vulnerabilities.

Not to mention the great integration of w3m in emacs, which is far beyond anything you'd get with a standalone browser (even if you're using addons like Pentadactyl or It's All Text).

Second this; having your browser as just another emacs buffer is just too handy; now if I could just get w3m to support the minimum necessary JS to get my regular sites to work . . .

An experimental Javascript extention to w3m, called w3m-js, used to exist.. 10 years ago.[1][2] But unfortunately the project looks pretty dead now.

[1] - http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~hsaka/w3m/

[2] - http://en.sourceforge.jp/projects/w3m-js/

RSS articles usually have links to other articles. So, reading on a browser saves a context/app switch if I want to follow a link. Also why I feel youtube/twitter etc is better on the browser.

I am also in favor of having applications closely integrated, but just not inside the browser (which is a completely awful, broken, weak, and insecure evironment) but inside emacs.

I'm still using Newsbeuter right now, which is a separate app, and it does take me a context switch to go from it to w3m running in emacs when I want to view an article.

However, I'm in the process of transitioning to having an email client integrated in to emacs. That, along with rss2email should give me complete integration as far as web browsing and rss reading go, since w3m (my web browser) is already integrated in to emacs.

As for youtube, I am more than happy to sacrifice integration to avoid using its crappy web interface. Also, I prefer downloading youtube videos so I can archive them for future viewing (which is important, as way too many videos disappear from youtube after a while).

I don't use Twitter, and hope I never have to. So that's not an issue for me. I do use IRC, for which there are emacs clients, and I may transition to using those in the future.

We get it, you really like emacs. It's ok that products exist that are not for your needs/wants.

My comments here are 100% from my own perspective. I don't pretend to speak for anyone else. I hope that is ok with you.

Sure, it's just kind of weird to comment on an article about a web app when you don't use web apps. I don't own an iPhone but I wouldn't comment on an iPhone app and say how much I dislike it for being an iPhone app...

I do use RSS clients, however. Serverless RSS clients, even.

I think it's perfectly legitimate to for me to comment on why this particular serverless RSS client does not fit my needs and what I believe better alternatives are and why.

Anyone with similar needs or who may not have considered or been aware of the alternatives might benefit from my comments, and someone who has experience with other software that might better suit my needs might mention in return, which would be of benefit to me and others with similar needs or concerns.

Serverless ==> native, anything else is not worthwhile.

You might want to consider PouchDB for synchronization. It is a layer on top of IndexedDB that adds sync.

the idea has merit, even though this implementation still has a long way to go.

i prefer a desktop reader (newsfire) as it is, but since that is practically unmaintained, a chrome application will probably fill this role nicely.

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