I recently discovered feedparser.py, a library written by Mark Pilgrim that is amazing if you want to use python to consume rss feeds. It ‘normalizes’ the different versions of rss/atom out there into one request that you can use consistently. Doesn’t matter if it’s atom 0.1 or 0.3

A few links that are interesting together with feedparser.py as they show it’s usage:

• feedparser.org main page, which gives some examples
• Using feedparser.py to query twitter and putting those tweets on your website
• how to store rss content in a database using feedparser.py

I’m constantly amazed about the quality python code that is out there and you can just find via a simple google query. It certainly makes me think that choosing Python over, say Perl, was a good decision.

As for using feedparser.py to put relevant tweets on your website, note that you can also use javascript to achieve the same thing; go here for some twitter.com goodies and an explanation on how to set this up.

I just deleted Twitter from my iPhone – I was no longer using it to check up on my friends let alone post any new tweets.
Funny how I found it so cool in the beginning. It has certain advantages over blogging (speed, location awareness, quickly catch up with other people) but I just found it too ephemeral for my tastes.
You type a message somebody else responds but an hour later the text has already been replaced by other messages.
I need to know that what I write will stay, not evaporate – and anyway, I have facebook for posting quick status updates onto.
So goodbye twitter it was nice while it lasted.