FAQ

Q.  What is Slashalert?

A.  Slashalert! is a little program that will let you know when slashdot.org has a new article up.  It will let you know of a new article by beeping, popping a window, or playing a sound (all of which you can customize)

Q.  I want Slashalert to look at an additional news source (or just a different one).

A.  Sorry, this tools is just for Slashdot.  There's lots of RDF readers out there, go look around and find one.  (If you have a news site you would like a custom program like Slashalert for, let me know.  While Slashalert is 100% focused on Slashdot, all the code is generic.  I'm sure we could work something out...)

Q.  Speaking of a RDF reading, why shouldn't I just use one of those, it does the same thing?

A.  Yep.  I actually started by doing that.  There's lots of stuff out there that will do what Slashalert does (Snakes, RDF readers, Web Page monitors, et al.).  The downside is they all seem to do LOTS of other stuff (which equates to complex and a pain to use).  I just want to know when Slashdot has new stuff up.  I don't want to have to muck with a bunch of options and configuration to do that.

Q.  When Slashalert pops a new window, it actually uses an existing browser window.

A.  Slashalert will use whatever defaults you have set up for your browser.  For example, for IE, if you look at your settings in  
 Internet Settings->Advanced->Reuse windows for launching shortcuts, you can adjust how this works for your browser.  To change how your browser reacts when Slashalert pops a new window, change this setting.

Q.  Slashalert is using browser X, and I want it to use browser Y.  

A.  Slashalert currently will only use the default browser.  

Q.  I want to be able to refresh less than 1 minute.

A.  One minute is the lowest I'm willing to go on the refresh rate, as I don't want to annoy Slashdot with excessive hits.

Q.  You wrote a Slashdot tool for WINDOWS! What's up with that?

A.  Yeah, I know.  I didn't want to spend a lot of time messing with this, so I used the tools I know best, that I can crank a quality app out in very little time (VC6, C++, and MFC).  I'm *not* a Linux programmer (just a user), and just don't have time right now to muck with it.

Q.  Where's the source?

A.  I might put it up.  While I the code is fairly clean, if I'm going to publish it, it has to be *VERY* clean, and I don't have the time right now to get it to that point. If you really really want it, let me know.