RSS Client Tool--web Bell Reader

RSS subscriptions have become a very popular online news aggregation way, to subscribe to RSS links, of course, you have to have an RSS reader. Commonly used online RSS reader has google Reader, QQ reader, fresh fruit and so on, however, in the face of so many choices, if you want to find a desktop-style real-time RSS reader, you may wish to try the network Bell reader.

The Web-Bell reader is the MSN Shell Developer Creek developed another small and practical free software, can realize real-time subscription, once any updates, you will be the first time on the desktop to receive a reminder. It is worth mentioning that such a real-time update of a large amount of information is very small software, the entire program is less than 1M, running only 2 m memory.

　　Start using

Downloaded to the latest version from the official website of the internet Bell Reader, the official offers two options, the installation and the green version, and is currently a beta version. The network Bell Reader is able to run over Windows 2000 operating systems and requires the installation of Internet Explorer 6.0 or more versions. However, the trial found that there are still some bugs in the IE6 environment, such as the scroll bar down arrow can not be clicked, some RSS links can not subscribe. Therefore, it is recommended that conditional friends be used on IE 7.0 systems as much as possible.

First of all, you have to add an RSS link to receive an update reminder. The first time it is run it will remind you that there are no subscriptions, ask if you want to add a Web pick immediately, click Yes to open the Subscription Wizard immediately. The Web-Bell reader offers three ways to subscribe, the most common way you can enter an RSS link address subscription. If you don't know what to subscribe to, you might want to choose from its built-in web-picking gallery. NET Bell reader built-in Baidu, Google, Sohu, NetEase and Sina all nets pick, a total of 463, there must be something you are interested in.

In addition, you can even subscribe to search results by using the Custom keyword subscription feature. If you are a dark fan, then use this feature to enter "Diablo 3" and you will receive the latest information about Diablo 3 in real time.

Once you have completed your subscription, you will receive your first reminder. Since then, you no longer need to worry about looking for updates, and any updates will immediately be alerted on the desktop at the first time.

If you think this window is too small, you can click the Quick View button, will immediately pop up a large window for you to browse, you can also at any time by pressing the F9 Hotkey pop-up Quick View window to browse the latest update.

If you occasionally see an interesting piece of information, you want to share it with your friends. You simply click on the Reference button, the title and link of this message is copied to the Clipboard, you can paste to MSN or QQ to share with friends.

Click the top button and the reminder window will be "pinned" until you press the Close button or cancel it before it closes. In the meantime, you can look at the updated content with confidence. However, when a reminder window is on top, all the reminders are lined up to wait for it to close. So, don't forget to close it, otherwise the message in the queue will wait for a hurry.

　　Configuration and Options

The Web-Bell reader is a very small software, the options in the Configuration dialog box are not many, but provide the most practical features. You can specify your favorite browser to open a Web page link, and switch to the language interface you like, yes, it's multilingual.

The full screen detection feature is even available in the reminder options. When this feature is turned on, the Bell reader will not pop up a reminder window when you are playing a game or watching a movie, which is a very thoughtful design.

In the voice option, you can choose the sound you like as a pop-up reminder window.

　　Memory metrics

As a permanent background running software, it is important to occupy as little memory as possible. In this regard, the network Bell Reader performance is very good. As you can see from Task Manager, the process of the network Bell Reader takes up only 2M of physical memory and 10M virtual memory, and remains unchanged for more than 24 hours in a row, and no memory leaks are found.

The above is the number of our 20 subscription network, many people will think that the amount of memory usage should be increased with the number of subscriptions, perhaps when there are many subscriptions memory usage will not be so little. To this end, we have tested more than 100 subscriptions in particular. Although at the time of the first run to detect the Baiyu net to increase the amount of memory used to 10M or so, but when the initial detection, memory is still kept at 2M or so.

According to the developer of the network Bell Reader, the Bell Reader only uses a single thread to monitor all the subscriptions, only to bring out the thread when it needs to be checked, and to release it immediately after the check is completed, and it is not creating a separate thread for each subscription. Therefore, even with a large number of subscriptions, you can still maintain a minimum amount of memory usage. Of course, the detection of memory usage is unavoidable, a large number of detection will use a little more memory is inevitable.

However, we do not recommend that you subscribe to many Web picks. Even if you don't have to worry about memory problems, a large number of subscriptions will pop up a lot of reminders. Because there is too much information to read, it is counterproductive.

Many programmer friends may find it inconceivable that a program such as this one interface is so complex, how can it possibly use only so little memory? In fact, further careful observation will find that the network Bell Reader in the operation of the use of a multi-process approach. We see that the resident memory is just a proxy process, and it still takes up memory when a reminder window pops up, or when you open a Quick View window. However, that is only temporary, after the shutdown memory will be completely released, and the master agent process will not have any memory growth. The design of the web-Bell reader is very ingenious, and it is obvious that developers have spent a lot of time on memory issues.

　　Comparison of similar software

In fact, although there are a lot of RSS readers, but we find it difficult to find a similar function with the network Bell Reader software. The main reason is that most of the current RSS reader does not have a more ideal real-time reminder function.

Office outlook,windows Live Mail, and so on: it is most convenient to subscribe to RSS with these two mail clients, but none of them can alert you to the latest updates in real time. At the same time, more than 50 megabytes of memory usage makes it unsuitable for resident background operations.

Internet Explorer,maxthon, etc.: Browser built-in RSS subscription function, reading it is really convenient, but there is no real-time reminders of the function, memory occupancy rate is also very large.

Google reader, catch shrimp, fresh fruit, etc.: Online reader does not need to install, but must use the browser to open the Web page to use, you can not always open the Web page. Obviously can not meet the demand of real-time information arrival reminders, but also not suitable for resident background operation.

Feed Demon: This is the most comparable type of software we can find, and it has a desktop reminder function in addition to its powerful reading capabilities. However, its desktop reminders can only see how many updates there are, not the details, just like email notifications. More than 30 megabytes of memory usage, obviously can not be compared with the number of nets only 2M of usage. and its built-in news Gator server access speed is also very slow, resulting in many operations are difficult.

MSN Alert: According to the developer, the idea of a web-Bell reader originates from MSN Alert. Currently, the MSN Alert supplier Shi Network in mainland China is available. In addition to the problem that servers often fail to connect, like MSN itself, the biggest regret is that it only pops up a reminder window at a time. Because no matter how many RSS feeds you subscribe to, you end up with only one alert in the Nezha network that will be displayed in the Reminder window, and you will need to click on the appropriate tab entry to read more. There are a lot of inconveniences in using it, and you can't really implement real-time reminders for each subscription.

If we only compare real-time reminders, we can hardly find a similar software that is comparable to a web-bell reader. However, if the reader function is compared, the net-Bell reader is not as good as the vast majority of similar software at present. So, if you just pay more attention to real-time reminders, then the web Bell reader will make you fondle admiringly. But if you need a real reader, it may not be right for you.

According to the developer, the current network Bell Reader is only beta version, in the official version, will have the same powerful reader function. By then, the net Bell reader should become a similar software of the more outstanding product.

　　Internal explosive material

Debug mode? According to the Developer Creek, the network Bell Reader hides a debug mode. In this mode, you can see the running of all subscribed nets in the internal thread.

The way into debug mode is to add the/debug parameter to the startup parameter. Find the installation directory of the Web Bell Reader, usually in C:\Program files\feed alert\. Create a Alert.exe shortcut, edit the properties of the shortcut, and add the/debug parameter at the end of the target command line, such as: "C:\Program Files \feed Alert\alert.exe "/debug, note that should be added outside the quotation marks and have a space. Then double-click the shortcut to start, right click on the taskbar icon, you will find a pop-up menu with a debug window.

In this debug window, you can see the status of all subscribed threads, the next check time, the last returned information, and the error log. If you find a problem and are interested in studying why, getting this pattern can help you. Feedback your findings to the developer and perhaps fix the problem you are reflecting in the next release.

Web Bell Reader official website: http://www.feedalert.cn/