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Filed under: Blogging, Productivity

Strategies to clean up your rss feed subscriptions - Readers Sound Off

OverwhelmUgh. I'm buried under unread RSS feeds. Right now if I look down at Google Reader Notifier (a Firefox Add-In), I see that I've got 1927 unread items in my subscriptions.

I thought I was being responsible; I've got my feeds split up into logical categories, including one called "Now", which is the stuff I told myself I would always stay current on. Google Reader won't tell me exactly how many unread items are in that folder, but it's more than 100... that's for sure.

While there's nothing you can do about it if life simply gets too busy to stay current, there should be a way to pare down what you're reading to a manageable level. In fact, Google Reader's Trends page will show you what you are (and aren't) paying attention to, who hasn't posted in forever, and which feeds simply bury you under too much content. One click on the garbage can for any of the feeds in here will unsubscribe you.

That helps.

But it's not enough.

I still need help determining what is and isn't important to be following. I'm currently subscribed to almost 300 feeds, and that's after some heavy pruning. I need to be down around 100, but it depends on the feeds themselves; if they're relatively low traffic, I can carry many more.

So - Download Squad readers, Sound Off! Tell us how you mercilessly keep your feed subscriptions lean and mean. Hit up the comments!

Filed under: Design, Photo, Features, Windows, Macintosh

Imaging Tip of the Day: get that wicked worn look

wicked worn lookThis is one of the most in-depth tutorials I've ever seen on how to create that wicked worn look for your images that just never seems to go out of style. Hailing from the most excellent Authentic Boredom, a site that deals with all things CSS, marketing and design run by Cameron Moll, this is a 4-part extravaganza detailing the necessary Photoshop tools and pre-installed filters, as well as software that can do it all for you if you've just given up or are too lazy. (Slacker!) Fortunately, the tutorials are straightforward and neither too long or short, so get crackin'.

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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