George Tsiokos’ blog

I have released a new version of my Windows SharePoint Services RSS/ATOM reader. It now supports the two most requested features: items optionally displayed in a new window & optionally displaying item descriptions. As with previous versions, you may generate DWP files for use in SharePoint directly from my website or, for companies with tight security, download the source and perform the transformation locally.

For proxy servers & faster performance, I recommend downloading Wget to automatically retrieve RSS feeds from outside the company to a locally run web server. Wget can retrieve remote RSS feeds through proxies that require authentication. You can create a batch file that runs Wget against all external RSS feeds, and configure it to run as a scheduled task. Then, point msxsl to the local web server’s cached copy to generate the DWP file. In this configuration, WSS-RSS will retrieve the RSS feed from your local web server for display in SharePoint. You should also lower SharePoint’s cache time of WSS-RSS because it is retrieving the feed locally. Because the latency and bandwidth favor your local network, performance will be greatly improved. I will provide a downloadable sample shortly.

SharePoint RSS/ATOM reader

XSL converts RSS to a native Windows SharePoint Services DataViewWebPart DWP file.

• No binaries, installation or server configuration necessary.
• Supports RSS versions 0.90, 0.91, 0.92, 1.0, and 2.0.
• Supports the Atom Syndication Format 0.3.
• Supports Microsoft’s Channel Definition Format.
• Html output is similar to the links list summary view.
• Title, Description, and DetailLink come from the RSS channel element.
• RSS 2.0’s time to live attribute or RSS 1.0’s syndication module are used to determine cache time for the webpart.
• Please email me any suggestions/bugs/fixes.
• Absolutely free: MIT License.

Known issues:

• Does not support feeds requiring authentication.
• Sometimes doesn’t support feeds containing accents.

The service has moved to SharePointRSS.com.

Countrywide wants me to believe that making more payments on my loan will benefit me. For example, with PayPlan/52, I could pay off my mortgage every week.

You may be able to save thousands of dollars in interest payments and reduce the term of your loan by several years, or just enjoy the ability to have your payment drafts occur when you receive your paycheck.

In reality, they take my money every week but hold it until they’ve accumulated enough to pay the monthly bill. So the fact I made weekly payments had no effect on the loan. In the event I paid more than what was due for the month, it went against the principal, consequently reducing the interest and term of the loan.

While other lenders may offer similar plans, they also charge significant up-front fees, which can add up to hundreds of dollars. With PayPlan/52, you pay nothing to enroll, and a nominal fee of $1.00 for each weekly transaction.

I can pay additional principal when I make my monthly payment, consequently reducing the interest and term of the loan. So where’s the benefit of spending an additional $52/year for this PayPlan service?