I just spent the last three days at a WebTrends class. Since we've been using WebTrendsLive for two years, the first two days were a total wash (yep, I know the difference between a 'hit' and a 'page view'). Fortunately, on day three we got to the advanced stuff (and the things that were different between WTL and the new WebTrends Reporting Service we were being migrated to).

Since my company had moved to web-accessible Outlook, I spent the better part of those first two days on email, dealing with work stuff. I had a great PC, with all the Windows 2000 bells and trappings that the training center could muster.

Know what I really missed? My AmphetaDesk RSS reader.

Yes, I had a web browser with broadband access to the web. But without my nice little RSS subscriptions (I think I'm at 50+ weblogs now), it was just impossible to do my daily check up on all but my faves.

So, it was kind of amusing today (now that I could surf thru all my subscriptions) to see this blogged by Doc Searls: RSS newsreaders are TiVo for blogs.

I had to laugh, as I'm also a TiVo devotee now. I hadn't been that tempted by their offering, but I figured my TV-happy sister would love it, so I bought one off of eBay one November (there weren't any available in stores that close to Christmas) and then decided to make sure it was working.

I hooked it up, and three days later, I knew I wasn't giving her the one that I had bought. It was just way too cool to be able to pause live TV so you could go to the loo or answer the phone. Couple that with the way that it could easily record the programs you were interested in, and that was it...I'm a DVR lifer!

RSS has been much the same. I don't tend to read my weblogs via the RSS interface. But it helps me know when one of the weblogs I like has new content, and thus saves me all that "oh drat, hasn't been updated" effort to stay current.

RSS=TiVo? Maybe not, but I'd sure hate to give up either.

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