I had been using NetVibes.com as my main reader for the past number of months. During that time, I found that I had been actually tracking less feeds, taking longer to do it, and spending more and more time going to blog web pages to see if there was any news on something.

I don’t exactly know how I slid into this work pattern, but upon realizing it, I knew I needed to switch back to a more standard reader and fast. I had tried a bunch of readers before and never really found one that I was thrilled with. With that in mind, I decided I’d try a few again and see if there was anything new (and free) to look at. Luckily for me, I remembered a post from Ryan Farley on a similar vein from a few months back. I looked it up and found GreatNews.

GreatNews seems to have a lot going for it. It started on a good note as I didn’t even need to run an installation program to try it out. I just downloaded a zip file, unzipped it, and ran the program. (There is an msi available, but if I don’t need to run an installation script, I won’t.) The UI is very clean and I liked the styles and view options that were available. I was quickly able to get my feeds loaded and I was reading away. In addition, unlike when Ryan wrote his mini-review, GreatNews now supports comment tracking.

GreatNews is also actively developed with new builds available frequently. The latest build offers a “Work offline” option which might be of interest to the dial up crowd.

So far, I’m fairly pleased.

For those of you who have lots of time to try all the new things, this will be old hat, but tonight I spent a bit of time installing and trying out PowerShell for the first time.

PowerShell is Microsoft's new command-line / scripting language. They recently released RC1 (Release Candidate #1) which I downloaded and installed. PowerShell has some lofty goals, but as I see it, it is looking to become the Windows equivalent to the powerful Unix/Linux command line shells. A replacement for the existing command prompt that will give us the ability to write scripts, leverage the .NET framework, and access most of the core items on your PC. I've seen samples to read RSS feed, open applications, check processes, access the registry, and much more.

Here are a few links to get you started:

PowerShell RC1 Download
PowerShell in Action: Welcome to PowerShell (Chapter 1 of new book on PowerShell)
Scott Hanselman - Loving Monad (Monad is the old codename for PowerShell)

The sample chapter is a very nice introduction. It made me wish I could just work through the book now, but I'm sure I'll find tons of documentation on the web as I find time to work with it more.

It brings me back to my Unix and DOS days. I have really missed having a command line with some power to it. You had the feeling you could do anything from the prompt and with simple scripting the sky was the limit.

I wonder if this will really take off for Microsoft though. Developers who take the time to dig into PowerShell will likely really enjoy it. Administrators who came over from the Unix/Linux world will likely be pretty excited as well. However, I believe there is a large group of Windows Admins and Techs who have never worked with anything prior to NT 4.0 and Windows 9x. This large group will have a tough learning curve ahead and might decide it just isn't worth the effort. They might never take advantage of all the goodness PowerShell has to offer.