For some reason this morning, NetNewsWire Lite (my desktop OS X RSS reader) was slow in updating the feeds, so I started poking around the interface. In the bottom left I noticed a small double arrow control labeled “default”, and I thought… “what does this do?”:
Why it’s a menu! What does it do?:
It’s styles! So my displayed stories in the lower right pane need not be plain text, but pretty formatted news:
strong>OrangeSquish News Style
15 Petals News Style
So while this has no educational or information value, it’s fun to find little things to occupy the brain and feed the curiosity. Does it matter that you can format the display of news feed? Does it make you more “productive” or crank up your “ROI”? Maybe not, but without little trinkets like these, and a desire to be visually stimulated, we’d all be using lynx on green phosphorous screens (and there is a style for that, if it suits you).
I favor the Spartan Style:
http://www.twisty.com/bandwagon/archives/2004/10/28/130842
I’ve toyed with the idea of making my own, but never got around to it.