PulpFiction
Posted April 15th, 2004 @ 11:11pm by Erik J. Barzeski
PulpFiction: I've mentioned this application several times. I've displayed its icons. I've joked about it. I've hinted at it. It's been listed on the Freshly Squeezed Software site since before the introduction of Rock Star. I could claim I've been trying to build a buzz, but in reality, we've just been taking our time getting it done. 🙂
Originally intended to be released October 24 (does that date ring a bell?), I can now announce that PulpFiction should be out on May 15. Beta testing will begin May 1. The price will be set sometime between those two dates. Almost all of our features are done - we're bug-squashing and internally beta testing.
Many of you have ventured a guess at what PulpFiction is and does. Some of you have come close. Nobody's nailed it completely, and, oddly enough, none of you have ever noticed this button on my blog. It's been there for at least six months:
I seldom speak of NetNewsWire on my blog even though I've got eight dozen feeds attached to this blog and about 100 subscriptions. I've got all sorts of friends, tech blogs, etc. to keep up with. I seldom mention NNW because I've been using PulpFiction for a few months! PulpFiction provides permanence, filters, and a fairly authentic built-in browser. It lacks a blog editor and will cost less than NNW. I own a copy of NNW, and prior to PulpFiction, I used it for months. I appreciate that it suits some people, but PulpFiction suits me more. Brent does amazing work. So does Freshly Squeezed Software.
I'm a big fan of "if you don't like it, do something better." I believe that PulpFiction is that "something better." It's better for me, anyway, and it may be better for you. Yes, PulpFiction is an aggregator of XML feeds. Its top ten features, in my mind, are as follows.
Top Feature 1: Mail-like Interface
The majority of Mac OS X users seem to use and like Mail, the free email application that comes with the OS. A year or so ago I wondered "why can't blogs essentially act as a one-way mailing list? What's so different about a published article and an email?" Yes, technologically there are many differences, but both are forms of communication. I sign up to mailing lists because I'm interested in what's posted. I subscribe to a news or blog feed because I am interested in what's posted.
PulpFiction relies heavily on this paradigm throughout its interface. It, like Mail, has folders in a drawer. It's got a two-paned interface. It's got an activity viewer window and its keyboard shortcut for emptying the trash is cmd-K. We've had to veer from Mail in some respects - it's not often that someone has 100+ email accounts, but quite common to have that many subscriptions - but in general, our motto was "do it like Mail." We're not copycats - we've had to write, implement, and design everything ourselves - but "doing it like Mail" affords customers who are new to XML feeds a lower barrier of entry. It also affords us some nice other things, like…
Top Feature 2: Persistent Storage
Months ago I read someone's article about Botswanian butterflies. Having recently learned something about Botswanian butterflies, I wanted to comment on the entry but I couldn't find it anymore. NetNewsWire doesn't store articles, so it's useless. Google hasn't picked it up yet. I know it was in someone's blog, but whose? I can't search them all.
Welcome to the world of "I need persistent storage!" PulpFiction, like Mail, keeps all of your articles. You quit PulpFiction, you relaunch it later, and they're all there. It's got a trash can that permanently deletes articles when they no longer appear in the feed, but otherwise they stay right where you left them. That Botswanian butterly manifesto would be a click or two away.
Top Feature 3: Flagged Articles
In fact, had the Botswanian butterfly manifesto piqued your interest, you could have flagged it within PulpFiction. Like many email clients, PulpFiction allows you to flag articles for later review. It even provides a special folder just beneath the inbox that displays all of your flagged articles. If you've ever found yourself saying "interesting article… I should write about that later…" then this feature is for you!
Top Feature 4: Search Field
Of course, had you forgotten to flag the Botswanian butterfly article (or simply not had the foreknowledge to know you'd want to write about it in the future), you can use PulpFiction's built-in search feature. Like Mail's, you can search the the entire article or some of the article "headers" in the current folder or all folders. "Butterfly" may turn up 197 results, but "Bot butter" might turn up only one: the one you seek. Like all of Apple's applications, searching is life and real-time.
Top Feature 5: Labels
If flagging and searching aren't your thing, or you simply crave more organization than they can provide, then you will like labels. Labels color either the row background or text of each article with, by default, the same label color applied to the subscription itself. In my copy of PF, I've assigned NSLog(); and its comments feed a bluish label to quickly distinguish it from any other articles. Cocoa-related XML feeds are brown (as is cocoa), Friends' XML feeds are green, and FSS XML feeds are orange. Of course, you can change label colors at any time, so a misfiled article on Botswanian butterflies from a blog I've marked with Cocoa-brown can instead be relabeled with Ornithology-yellow (Botswanian butterflies, as you may know, are the primary source of food for the Botswanian yellow-tailed swallow).
Top Feature 6: RSS/Atom Support
Though at this point RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom are very similar, each have different goals. As the only two major standards in blogging and content syndication, PulpFiction supports both out of the box and will do its best to stay current. Frankly, I've yet to understand what the big deal is. We support both because we can and they're there. That's the feature. As a point of historical reference and possible humor, the original placeholder text for this feature was "Aside from giving Dave Winer the finger, we're not sure what Atom's purpose may be. But hey, we support it."
Top Feature 7: WebKit/Built-in Browser
PulpFiction has a built-in browser that eases comment-making by loading Web pages - complete with Safari's cookies - directly within itself. You never have to leave your aggregator to leave a comment! Just submit a comment, close the window, and go back to reading other articles. PulpFiction's built-in browser supports many of the core functions needed to browse the web without adding the bulk of a full browser replacement. We've got back/forward buttons, a location bar, reload and stop buttons, and a status area. Of course, if you prefer to use another browser, PulpFiction allows you to open your articles in that browser.
Top Feature 8: CSS
One of the downsides to reading articles in a newspaper is that you can't customize how it looks. It's printed, after all! Computers offer us a lot more possibilities, and PulpFiction exploits those possibilities through its use of customized cascading stylesheets (CSS). With CSS, you can customize the fonts, colors, alignment, spacing, margins, and overall appearance of all of your articles! The more adventurous can even customize the HTML markup used to generate and display each article, further expanding the realms of possibilities. Want to recline in your chair and do some reading? Choose a stylesheet with big big fonts. Prefer white text on black backgrounds? Go for it! The choice is yours, and PulpFiction allows you to view the content you want to see, the way you want to seee it.
Top Feature 9: AppleScript
PulpFiction realizes that it is not an island. Mac OS X apps have an awesome potential to play nicely with others, and it's via AppleScript that this can be done. With a full dictionary, there's a lot you can do with PulpFiction. Send yourself IMs when important news is downloaded, filter scripts, post updates to your own blog, and more! PulpFiction also features a scripts menu for convenient storage of and access to your AppleScripts.
Top Feature 10: Filters
My favorite feature: filters! Where would we be without filters in our email clients? Filters file things in the proper folders, flag important articles, send timely articles to your cell phone, and more. Filters can weed out anything with "QotD" in the subject if you're not a particular fan of my Questions of the Day.
PulpFiction's filters aren't weak, either. You can filter based on title, link, author, category, source, subscription, and article content. With selectors like "contains" and "begins with" you can nail your filters to the wall. Actions include move, copy, bounce dock icon, play sound, delete, mark as read, set label, open in a browser window, and run script. Of course, you can combine both selectors and actions to create truly unique, powerful filters that suit your needs.
So there you have it…
That's PulpFiction. That's what we've been hiding all these months. PulpFiction will enter private beta testing on May 1 and should be available to the public on May 15. We invite you to come along for the ride and get to know another way of looking at your feeds. It should be fun!
Donate Life
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 9:26pm #
And take that Ranchero!
Really, very nice take on the RSS reader concept. We know how to use one program, and it works well, so if something is similar in concept use that knowledge. Novel idea, sadly.
I do look forward to testing 250 feeds on it on the first. 😀
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 9:26pm #
You should advertise! And I know the perfect place to do it, for a fairly reasonable cost.
Drop me an email at ben@macslash.spamsucks.org, and I'll show you some new stuff we've got in the works.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 9:42pm #
Oh wow. I'm stunned. I am a HUGE NWN fan, but this... this... I NEED THIS! You sir, despite all the bad things I've said about you, are a visionary. Write a blog writer that goes with this and you can have my first born child. Oh wow. I can't wait for 1 May.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 9:55pm #
Now I wish I hadn't paid the $40 for NNW (which I do like very much, but I wish it did treat each item as an email and saved it until I told it to delete it).
How do you choose beta testers? I'd be happy to volunteer my time.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 10:03pm #
Amazing... I had an inkling of an idea when you put the badge up, but didn't want to be another wrong guess. I'm trying to hold off on the congratulations until I use it, but I don't think I can. Congratulations on what looks to be an awesome product. Can't wait 'till May!
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 10:39pm #
Congratulations - it sounds great.
I had a similar idea -- use the interface I know (and more importantly, my FINGERS know) to read my newsfeeds.
Rather than [try to] write a new app, I found rss2email (http://www.aaronsw.com), I run it on my mail server, and I actually _USE_ my email app to do the filtering, sorting, retention, etc.
Your app has the huge win of actually retrieving the whole article - rss2email only grabs the excerpt, for excerpted feeds - but I can click a link in the msg to bring it up in my browser.
And best of all, I can do it on any platform I happen to be sitting at - OSX, WinXP, Linux terminal window, etc.
That said, your app sounds great and I'm looking forward to trying it out asap. Does it import from shrook, NNW, etc.? Will you provide an "import from a plain ascii text file of feeds" ?
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 10:40pm #
Hate to say it but the development versions of NNW has persistance, per feed, per group or globally. Filtering is in for 1.1 but not released for testing yet. It has a built-in mini-browser with full tabbed browsing support. It has article flagging. It has user customizable CSS. It can subscribe you to RSS search results from within the program. It has rendezvous subscription sharing. So the only + you have will be releasing it first and labels.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 10:53pm #
I like some of the stuff you've got here (filters in particular), but here's a little bit of not-so-positive feedback.
NetNewsWire 1.1 will do most of this stuff and maybe some things that you've forgotten. Brent has shown a commitment to thoughtful design and NetNewsWire will continue to improve. Clearly you can build great apps -- why not innovate with something new rather than competing with another small independent developer?
Hopefully the market can continue to support multiple news readers.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 10:57pm #
Sounds absolutely excellent. Competition in the Mac RSS world will be a very good thing.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 11:08pm #
I would gladly buy Pulp Fiction if I could choose my own set of icons (dare I even mention a "theme" feature).
I'm not much for "everything is orange," even though I know it's your branding - but orange is just such a horrible and stark contrast from the lovely and luscious aqua / brushed metal interfaces.
Ditch the orange, and you've got a customer out of me. Nice take on the whole rss/blog/news readers thing though 😉
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 11:09pm #
Manton, the answer is simple: because I don't like how NNW works. That's pretty clearly stated above.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 11:11pm #
I've used PulpFiction. It's slick.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 11:18pm #
Syncing. This is the killer feature for me. I generally use two machines at different locations and want feeds and read status to travel with me. I no longer carry my firewire drive around. Right now I'm using a kludgy script and rsync - an app that did it automatically and smoothly would be a win.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 11:21pm #
Erik, I can't wait to get a chance to try out this news reader. As much as I enjoy NetNewsWire I have a feeling that PulpFiction may take its place.
A job well done. Keep it up.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 11:24pm #
Bear in mind this will be a 1.0 feature. NNW is a great application. We're taking very much the same approach we have with other FSS applications: release early, release often, and listen to our customers. FTPeel started out without SFTP because we weren't sure how many people used SFTP. Many do and it was added in a free upgrade shortly thereafter.
We appreciate the congratulations and the kudos, but at the same time, let's wait until we've got more than screenshots, ok? 🙂
I've got a list of beta testers lying around somewhere, but if you'd like to add yourself to that list, you're more than welcome to send me an email.
Posted 15 Apr 2004 at 11:40pm #
Wow, it looks great. It will be tough for me to give up NetNewsWire, especially after paying for it. However, this looks like it has some excellent features. Persistant Storage looks especially cool and incredibly useful.
Has any thought been given to extending the mail like interface to include the ability to post to various weblog systems as one would send an email, or will this app remain purely a reader?
P.S. I noticed the button.
P.P.S. I spy my name in a screenshot. 😛
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 1:23am #
Take my money....
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 3:09am #
Am I the only PC user that's jealous right now? Actually, I haven't really gotten much into syndication... Partially because it would mean that I'd feel obligated to syndicate my own site, which would take a bit of research and effort (I don't use a pre-built blogging tool like MovableType, so it's more complicated than clicking the RSS-on button).
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 4:22am #
From the screenshots it looks pretty polished already! The Mail metaphor is pretty cool, although I notice that one of my least favourite "features" of Mail has made it across too - the Activity Viewer window. Will there be any way to "dock" the Activity Viewer to the main screen? Having to Opt-~ every time I want to see what's going on is my Number 1 pet peeve of Mail.
Ollie
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 5:08am #
Like nearly everyone else here, I am also looking forward to Pulp Fiction, although in fairness I should note that, while I don’t really like NNW, I have found Shrook to be infinitely more useful and usable. I think everyone should give it a try, at least until PF comes out!
Oh, and I noticed the badge as well.
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 6:03am #
I noticed the FSS Pulpfiction button long ago. I even clicked it. If you analysed your web server logs correctly, you'd know that 😀
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 6:44am #
Oooh. Do I have to give my firstborn to get in on the beta testing? 😀
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 8:20am #
Just an email, Erica. Even if you do spell your name incorrectly. 🙂
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 10:13am #
Wow, this looks amazing... I can't wait to try it out.
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 10:37am #
This looks fantastic, Erik! I'm a user (paid-in-full) of NNW, but it looks like I'm going to be making a switch in the near future.
Excellent idea!
caleb
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 10:50am #
New OS/X News Aggregator
Well, Erik has finally let go of the secrecy and has announced what PulpFiction is. A very nifty looking news...
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 11:05am #
At last, real competition for Shrook! I've already got most of these features covered, but it's nice to see someone coming close (The NNW 1.1 beta I saw wasn't much to worry about), and with prettier icons. I still have the monopoly on synchronization though.
One thing: Shrook deliberately doesn't try to emulate email, mostly because you don't need to file away news because it's still available online. I do have persistence, but I haven't heard of much demand for the clearing-out-your-news-inbox chore to be ported to RSS. It's not exactly clear how you've implemented it though, so I'll have to wait and see.
Good work though. I'd love to see the finished thing.
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 12:08pm #
So how does one get on the private beta? 🙂
Posted 16 Apr 2004 at 12:34pm #
"The NNW 1.1 beta I saw wasn't much to worry about"
Then you obviously haven't seen it lately.
Posted 17 Apr 2004 at 6:44am #
This is really what I've been waiting for!
Shrook 1 has a great UI (I hate Shrook 2), but it's so slooow.
And this really looks awesome - can't wait to try it!
Posted 17 Apr 2004 at 5:15pm #
Warning shots have been fired
NSLog(); - PulpFictionrnI’m a big fan of “if you don’t like it, do something better.” I believe that PulpFiction is that “something better.” It’s better for me, anyway, and it may be better for you. Yes, Pulp...
Posted 17 Apr 2004 at 11:49pm #
For example, I have about 14 friends who, when they post on their blogs, have the same expectation that their friends will have read the post as if they had sent the post in email to the friends. While skimming...
Posted 18 Apr 2004 at 12:31am #
Now if only there was a program that updated news feeds and comics. A full featured online newspaper reader would be cool. I am tried of trying to figure out when penny-arcade and joy of tech among others update. iComic is nice but crashes way too much on me.
Anyone else want to have comics? Maybe we can talk erik in to adding it soon.
Posted 18 Apr 2004 at 4:11am #
PulpFriction
If you're in the Mac blogger scene, you probably already know all about PulpFriction. I am seriously impressed by this. My main beef with NNW is the lack of persistent storage. But the other features this offers are very impressive....
Posted 18 Apr 2004 at 4:56am #
How about a feed importer, so NNW customers can get started with Pulp Fiction right away instead of having to re-enter 8 dozen feeds?
Posted 18 Apr 2004 at 5:41am #
Kevin, if it can import an OPML file, it can import stuff from NetNewsWire.
Anyway, I think I'm in love with these screenshots.
Posted 18 Apr 2004 at 6:47am #
2004/04/18 11:40
PulpFiction
Posted 18 Apr 2004 at 11:12am #
Varia [je sais plus combien IV]
Je n'ai aucune mémoire pour ce genre de chose. Boîtier Firewire / USB / USB 2, un deuxième, pour moi,
Posted 18 Apr 2004 at 1:42pm #
Jonathan Underwood: I like iComic as well, but I prefer Comictastic because it's way easier to add comics.
Posted 18 Apr 2004 at 6:05pm #
PulpFiction
Erik J. Barzeski describes PulpFiction, his upcoming newsreader for Mac OS X. A promising application, very similar to NetNewsWire despite...
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 5:41am #
Rock on! Can't wait to see it!
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 6:02am #
I hope you will consider support for enclosure downloads and perhaps even a hook into python's bittorrent code.
AC
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 6:33am #
Shrook 1 is nice, PF sounds better.
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 7:19am #
Far too complex for the average user (myself).
Ranchero made RSS life accessible to anyone. I do like the face of this new RSS client, but it looks just as bloated with tech crap and useless (?) features as those programs created by a big firm in Redmond.
Compare it to Mail.app versus Outlook Express. The first one misses many many features of the latter. Is it still a good client ? I think it is, I like handling a simple ergonomic tool instead of a djuggernaut (at least at home, work is another question).
Good point : this looks like RSS clients and mail clients will be able to merge in a few years' (months' ?) time.
Bad point : this looks terribly more complex to the neophyte and/or non-geek user.
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 9:06am #
François - you use Mail as an example of the "beginner" app yet tell us that PF is too complex? PF is modeled on Mail. Ranchero deserves all the credit in the world, but I don't think relying on existing paradigms (i.e. Mail, which almost every Mac OS X owner uses) does much but make our app easier to use.
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 9:11am #
PulpFiction a NetNewsWire Killer?
NSLog(); - PulpFiction
I'm a big fan of "if you don't like it, do something better." I believe that PulpFiction is that "something better." It's better for me, anyway, and it may be better for you. Yes, PulpFiction is an aggrega...
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 9:20am #
PulpFiction New Reader.
It hasn't yet been released, and it still doesn't have a price, but I'm already planning on purchasing PulpFiction. A news reader for OS X with Mail like interface, persistant storage, ...
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 9:57am #
Just because PF has hundreds of features, doesn't mean that you have to use them all.
And I'm still trying to get the relation to bittorrent...
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 9:57am #
PulpFiction, Shrook
PulpFiction looks like it's gonna be a real winner. (Via dive into mark b-links.) "Aside from giving Dave Winer the finger, we're not sure what Atom's purpose may be. But hey, we support it." Seriously, it looks like it has...
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 10:32am #
Price is going to be important. Shrook and NNW Pro are nice, but ultimately to expensive.
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 11:14am #
Wow, thanks for the review. Ooh, Applescript. Ooh, CSS. Ooh, filters. It's such a tease though – closed betas are so frustrating hurr hurr.
As for the orange, I like it. It probably wasn't intentional since that color seems to be your trademark, but I like that it matches the orange [XML] link images. That will make for nice quick visual associations with RSS.
Waiting in anticipation...
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 11:41am #
This looks fantastic; I'm a NNW fan, but I'd like to get my hands on this. We at MacUser did a roundup of RSS clients recently and it reminded me that there's such a wide range of capabilities. I'd be interested in beta testing it.
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 1:03pm #
PulpFiction
PulpFiction - New XML feed aggregator for Mac OSX with a Mail-like Interface, built-in browser and filters....
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 1:31pm #
Hi,
Sounds like a great product. Add me to the list of people who would love to beta test.
Darren Addy
Web Specialist
IT Services
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Kearney, Nebraska
(and Mac fiend since 1984)
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 2:36pm #
After attempting news reader software 2 years ago (I forget which one) and giving up completely, I'm looking forward to trying out PF. And trust me, if it turns out that I'm able to use it, then anyone can.
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 3:06pm #
PulpFiction
The Mac RSS reader market is about to get more interesting... The Beta is not open yet, but you can be sure I'll be there early to give it a whirl.
I'm a big fan of "if you don't like it, do something better." I believe that PulpFicti...
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 3:16pm #
Jo-Pete: try Newsgator (http://www.newsgator.com) for PC. Excellent, and as far as I see, it does all PulpFiction does.
I'm reserving judgment until PF comes out for real--I need an RSS reader for my Mac and I haven't tried any yet. Er, come to think of it, that's because I don't have my Mac yet, but it's due any week now 🙂
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 3:44pm #
quick non sequiturs
-Mock Turtle Soup comments on the movie trailer for A Series of Unfortunate Events. (Watch the trailer here.) -"One reviewer
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 4:28pm #
PulpFiction
http://nslog.com/archives/2004/04/15/pulpfiction.php
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 5:00pm #
Wow. I've been using Bloglines lately mainly becuase I haven't found a truly useful RSS aggregator. I love the persistent storage, which is most important to me (since I'm an info-packrat). I'll pony up if it's as good as you say!
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 5:10pm #
as soon as you mentioned it's like mail i was pretty much sold
🙂
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 5:31pm #
PulpFiction
PulpFiction is a new RSS reader for Mac OS X. While I'd like to try it and then write a review for you, I'd rather point you at this review because I don't think I can do much better. I'm...
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 5:34pm #
I'd love to be a beta tester, too. This looks fantastic and I'll definitely give it a try!
Do you have any plans for a Lite version in the works?
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 6:30pm #
PulpFiction - Vaporware 🙂 or the next big RSS reader for Mac OS X?
Can't wait until May 15 to try this out! Looks like a great RSS reader but not a blog writer. Would be great if that was added but if not, I'm happy to use ecto. From NSLog(); - PulpFiction: QUOTEPulpFiction:...
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 7:58pm #
Wow this looks hot. I will start covering it on my site too. Can't wait to see it.
Paul
http://www.SpeedySpider.com
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 9:02pm #
Any thoughts on paralleling the "smart lists" feature found in Shrook?
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 10:02pm #
Yeah: they're called filters for now. In a later version they'll be called "filters + smart folders." 🙂
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 10:18pm #
looks great, i'd love to Beta test when the time comes. I'm a Shrook user now & not 100% happy with it's performance so please put me on the list if it's not already full.
B
Posted 19 Apr 2004 at 11:23pm #
Shrook2 which I want to like is by far the slowest UI of the nearly 100 apps on my machine (a 500 TiBook). It's debilitatingly slow. So slow that I went back to NNW despite all its missing features.
So how responsive is the UI in PulpFiction?
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 2:46am #
Warp!
Since the announcement of [PulpFiction][pf], I don't sleep well anymore ...
[pf]: http://nslog.com/archives/2004/04/15/pulpfiction.php
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 3:34am #
1. Is there an aggregated view? (items from some or all feeds together in time order)
2. When organizing feeds, can you have one feed on more than one category?
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 6:47am #
Quick Links, April 20
Ping-o-Matic One of the most annoying things when posting a new blog entry is having to wait until MT...
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 8:25am #
John:
1. Every folder is an aggregated view.
2. There aren't any categories.
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 10:37am #
I'm glad to see the move to treating RSS in a more permanent fashion. Now I'll ask you to do what I've been pushing Ranchero to do--and I think it will fit your reader philosophy better than theirs.
Go talk to the folks at Devon Technologies. See if you can integrate DEVONthink's ability to categorize, search, group and find similar entries with your reader. One immediate result would be the elimination of duplicate entries from multiple feeds. Another would be wonderful search and grouping capabilities (find similar entries, auto-group, auto-file...). It's all about handling large quantities of information--they've got the underlying technology--you've got the information.
Now if we could just bring all of that (and Mail's interface) to Eudora as well, I'd be in information heaven.
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 12:35pm #
PulpFiction has received a largely positive response. I'm always amused by this type of thing because, well, the darn thing ain't out yet! However, not all responses are positive. Let's have a look at a skeptic's thoughts…...
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 5:19pm #
Link-o-rama
The full stop of doom: Variation on the type/creator code “Trojan” (from MacFixIt) Set iSync free, open up apps’ databases once and for all (via MyAppleMenu) RSS reader fistfight: in this corner, the new PulpFiction; in that corner, ...
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 7:02pm #
NetNewsWire Update
NetNewsWire is getting an overhaul - looking really good! Can't wait to see it... Meanwhile, PulpFiction is on it's way. I'll be sticking with NNW - especially if the editor gets the same attention as the aggregator, but PulpFiction looks...
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 11:35pm #
Big NetNewsWire upgrade coming
My favorite news reader is about to get a major overhaul. Details: The next release of NetNewsWire is going to be a big upgrade, perhaps bigger than you were expecting. (And it will be a free upgrade.) The announcement comes...
Posted 20 Apr 2004 at 11:42pm #
New version of NNW vs. PulpFiction
So, new RSS reader called PulpFiction is coming soon (May 15).
Posted 21 Apr 2004 at 3:20am #
It sounds great ..... except, to be honest I want this integrated into my e-mail program. Like you said RSS is a lot like one way mailing lists. I read my mailing lists in my e-mail program and I wouldn't read them any other way. Why should my RSS feeds be different?
Fortunately, at least at work, I use Oddpost (http://oddpost.com) Sorry it's Windows only but it provides basically a 3 pane like view (Folders, List, View). If I select an email from an a email folder it shows the e-mail in the view pane. If I select an RSS item from an RSS feed folder it shows that in the view pane.
Like e-mail, items I've haven't read yet show up in bold in the list as well as the folder showing me a number of how many unread items I have. Like e-mail I can mark items as read or unread. Like e-mail I can delete items I'm no longer interested in. If I don't delete them they never disappear.
But, best of all it's in my e-mail software, the same place I read all my other stuff. Of course getting people to switch from Mail to a mail enabled PulpFiction is probably a hard sell, on the other hand, as soon as RSS/Atom is integrated into Mail PulFiction will probably no longer have a market.
Posted 21 Apr 2004 at 2:34pm #
New RSS Reader for Mac OS X
To debut sometime in mid-May, a new RSS Reader for Mac OS X called Pulp Fiction brings a simplified interface (similar to Mail, which ships with Mac OS X). It also brings support fo...
Posted 21 Apr 2004 at 5:21pm #
2004/04/21 22:14
What's coming in NetNewsWire
Posted 21 Apr 2004 at 9:01pm #
Oooh. I want to try it. 🙂
Posted 22 Apr 2004 at 2:18am #
Holy Shit, it looks really good, but can it stand up to Quentin Tarantino's classic? Awesome.
Posted 22 Apr 2004 at 5:06am #
PF is looking good. I dismissed NNW in favour of Shrook pretty much straight away, mostly because it didn't have a decent flagging implementation (although I understand it's being implemented soon).
Flagging is really important to me as I use RSS readers offline (a 90 minute rail commute), and flag the posts that I wish to revisit online (those with links a want to follow mostly). So a way to only show flagged items is vital for me.
If you've got access to a PC, you would do well with checking out FeedDemon. It's still the best RSS/Atom reader I've used thus far. Really friendly to use, but incredibly powerful too. (Has a panes layout rather than Mail-like which is fine by me).
Oh, and are you *really* sure can get away with calling it PulpFiction?
Posted 22 Apr 2004 at 11:27am #
He can, because Pulp Fiction refers to a type of printing paper, and not a very good movie.
Posted 22 Apr 2004 at 12:10pm #
PulpFiction wishlist
[My anticipation of the PulpFiction release date][wp] made me think about some things I'd like to see in [PulpFiction][pf].
[pf]: http://nslog.com/archives/2004/04/15/pulpfiction.php
[wp]: http://mycvs.org/blog/archives/2004/04/20/warp
Posted 22 Apr 2004 at 12:13pm #
Random Bits and Bytes
Cool little flash thing: Werk. via my favorite oddgirl who just had a birthday! hope you had a happy happy one buddy! Ever wonder what all those pretty actresses looked like first thing in the morning? Wonder no more.. No
Posted 22 Apr 2004 at 1:34pm #
PulpFiction wishlist
[My anticipation of the PulpFiction release][wp] made me think about some things I'd like to see in future [PulpFiction][pf] version.
[pf]: http://nslog.com/archives/2004/04/15/pulpfiction.php
[wp]: http://mycvs.org/blog/archives/2004/04/20/warp
Posted 22 Apr 2004 at 4:36pm #
Why didn't you implement the full-window embedded web browser spec?
http://www.usercreations.com/weblog/2003/09/08.html#a316
Posted 22 Apr 2004 at 4:58pm #
Because it's a draft being pushed by a guy who doesn't know how to add a link to one web page from another when adding a comment. How's that? 🙂
Posted 23 Apr 2004 at 7:34pm #
Seriously, why not?
Posted 23 Apr 2004 at 8:05pm #
Because PulpFiction is not Spring.
Posted 23 Apr 2004 at 8:10pm #
Hey Robb, instead of immediately attacking Erik and asking why he *didn't* implement a unilaterally developed draft spec, you could have politely pointed to the spec and explained why it would be a good thing for PulpFiction users. Instead you acted like a dick, which makes it even less likely that Erik will consider your spec. Good job.
Posted 25 Apr 2004 at 3:16pm #
RSS Readers for Mac
Brent Simmons at Ranchero is getting ready to make a major upgrade to NetNewsWire while Erik Barzeski will be soon launching his new news reader called PulpFiction. It's very nice to see such a race to develop better tools for reading syndication files...
Posted 26 Apr 2004 at 11:53pm #
Wow Jeff! You really read a lot into two simple questions. Why don't you grow up and email me privately if, as it appears, you have an issue with me.
Posted 26 Apr 2004 at 11:57pm #
Robb, lay off the name-calling on my blog. Jeff, from where I'm sitting, makes a valid point, and makes it far more maturely than my initial response (draft).
Posted 27 Apr 2004 at 3:32pm #
NSLog(); - PulpFiction
NSLog(); - PulpFiction...
Posted 03 May 2004 at 2:12am #
pulpfiction beta
Still no word on the beta of the new rss reader for OS X, pulpfiction .
Posted 09 May 2004 at 11:11am #
PulpFiction: ADVance (i.e. 1.0b5) has been seeded to beta testers. We're also sending advance copies to a few of your favorite or most prominent Mac bloggers, so look for some PulpFiction coverage around the Web this week. If you're interested...
Posted 10 May 2004 at 8:14pm #
Hi, How's the May 15th date looking?
Posted 15 May 2004 at 4:36am #
PulpFiction
PulpFiction not the movie, the feedreader. It has a ton of features, the main one I like is the custom stylesheets. It makes me really wish I had a mac.
Posted 21 May 2004 at 10:03am #
MacSsoftware: News-Aggregator: "PulpFiction"
There is a new RSS-Reader available for MacOSX: PulpFiction. And before I say more: I have been a regular user of NetNewswire, not completely satisfied, but still using and enjoying
Posted 21 May 2004 at 9:37pm #
I really love PF! It's so convenient! Will other languages be available in the future?
Posted 05 Aug 2004 at 9:48pm #
Mac RSS Readers
Okay, I now spend more time reading RSS feeds than I do reading mail. I think it is time to...
Posted 13 Aug 2004 at 5:34am #
How can I find it?
Posted 06 Nov 2006 at 9:34am #
[...] Now, I've been accused in the past of doing a little marketing (prior to PulpFiction's release), but nobody could compare PulpFiction to Disco. The first goal was functionality. Appearance came later. And smoke, particle effects, and useless animation never appeared at all. As much as I'd like to say "better software always wins," that's not been proven true. After all, the Mac still has significantly less market share than Windows. Disco App has sold at least $25,000 and isn't out of beta. [...]
Posted 07 Aug 2009 at 2:05pm #
Damn, I seem to be late on the party...
it seems like the program is discontinued, the website
http://freshlysqueezedsoftware.com/
doesn't resolve...
What's up with pulpfiction after 5 years? I'd like a copy of this program, so if you still have one around, please drop it in a mail...
Posted 07 Aug 2009 at 2:24pm #
[quote comment="54980"]What's up with pulpfiction after 5 years? I'd like a copy of this program, so if you still have one around, please drop it in a mail...[/quote]
We sold the company several years ago, then came out with a replacement called Cyndicate, which just dropped to $19.95. It's much better than PulpFiction.
Posted 07 Aug 2009 at 3:03pm #
Well, thanks for a swift reply!
Just thought you might wanna know how I got here:
http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?answer=79408
then continued looking as I clicked in vain. Seems like Google (apparently owning Feedburner is a bit behind in giving info on how to read rss feeds...
But that's your concern if at all, ot update them 😉