The Death of Google Reader

March 14, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
12 Comments

google-reader
Sad news today for those of us still using Google Reader to stay up to date with a range of blogs and news websites. Google’s killing it off on the 1st of July.

We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too.

There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.

There’s already a website dedicated to saving Google Reader.

I don’t think it’s the death of RSS but it will change how it’s used.

Lifehacker has already posted The Best Google Reader Alternatives but I guess that with fewer people using RSS aggregators of any kind to read content we need to look at other ways of staying up to date.

If you’re looking for other ways to stay in touch with what’s happening here at RodneyOlsen.net, maybe you’d like to use my Facebook Page. If you ‘like’ the page you’ll see whenever I post something in your own Facebook timeline.

You could also follow me on Twitter. Along with other tweets you’ll be able to see links to new posts as they are published.

Are you, like me, one of the dying breed of Google Reader users? What do you intend to do from here? Find another service or start relying on social media to stay in touch?



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Nice place to visit … glad I don’t live there

March 14, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
2 Comments

cassette

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

I did a lot of living back in the eighties but these days my greatest connection to the decade fashion forgot is some of the music from that era. I hear a lot of eighties music but now and then I hear a song from that period that I haven’t heard for so many years that it just transports me back there. It wasn’t all good, in fact there was some appalling music released in the eighties, but there were some classics.

A lot happened in that 10 years. In 1980 I turned 17, got my ’72 TC Cortina and the license to drive it. I even drove it, with a couple of friends, all the way across Australia to see Sydney and Newcastle.

The eighties took me from my teen years into my mid-twenties.

I completed my apprenticeship and became a qualified chef. I then left cooking behind and went looking for a real job.

On special occasions I would wear a three piece suit. It was brown.

I learnt what George Harrison meant in his song Teardrops, when he said, “In the heart of the lonely man, in and out of love more often where most others can.” Unrequited love is never easy.

My hair was various lengths throughout the decade. I still have photos of my incredible mullet.

I hung out with some great friends and shared houses with some good mates. I discovered some excellent music and went to dozens of concerts.

Later in the eighties my mother died. I cycled across Australia for the first and second times. The girl who’d held my heart for many years finally decided she wanted to be more than friends. Eleven months later we went back to being friends.

The eighties was also the decade that I finally organised myself to get into the radio industry, which is where my heart was all along.

A lot happened in the eighties. It was a decade of discovering a little bit more about who I was and who I was becoming.

So would I want to go back there? No thanks.

I wouldn’t want to go back there because I didn’t meet Pauline until January 1992. We married in December the same year.

It would have been so wonderful to have shared those times with Pauline. They were amazing years with some incredible highs and lows but all that time the real love of my life was living just 20 or so kilometres away. I wish our paths could have merged so much sooner. Maybe the connection wouldn’t have worked if we’d met earlier – I don’t know – but I really do wish that we could have had those years together.

What were the eighties for you? A time of happiness or regrets? Highs, lows or both?



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