August 3, 2005
Welcome to the 2005-06 school year, and the fourth year of the Weekly Warrior!
Important August Dates
Athletic Physicals
Saturday, August 6th: 7:30 - noon, by appointment only (call 303-347-6021)
Fall Student Check-In (Schedule Pick-Up)
Seniors: Monday, August 8th
A-F 8:00 - 8:30
G-L 8:30 - 9:00
M-R 9:00 - 9:30
S-Z 9:15 - 10:00
Juniors: Monday, August 8th
A-F 12:00 - 12:30
G-L 12:30 - 1:00
M-R 1:00 - 1:30
S-Z 1:15 - 2:00
Sophomores: Tuesday, August 9th
A-F 8:00 - 8:30
G-L 8:30 - 9:00
M-R 9:00 - 9:30
S-Z 9:15 - 10:00
Freshmen: Tuesday, August 9th
(Emergency Cards, Pay Fees, Have Picture Taken -
Schedule Pick-Up is during Link Crew Orientation)
A-F 12:00 - 12:30
G-L 12:30 - 1:00
M-R 1:00 - 1:30
S-Z 1:15 - 2:00
Evening Student Check-In
Tuesday, August 16th
5:30 - 7:30 pm
This time is provided for students of all grade levels not able to pick up their schedule during the daytime on August 8th and 9th.
Fall Athletic Practices Begin
Monday, August 15th
Link Crew - Orientation for all freshmen (and upperclassmen new to AHS)
Tuesday, August 16th
8:00 am - 1:00 pm
AHS Gym (drinks and snacks provided)
Freshmen will receive schedules and ID cards on this day
Athletic Night For All Athletes and Parents
Wednesday, August 17th, 7:00 pm (all sports, all seasons)
First Day of School
Thursday, August 18th
School begins at 7:25 am for all students
Back To School Night
Wednesday, August 31st
6:30 pm - 9:37 pm
Weekly Warrior Delivery Will Be Changing
When we started the Weekly Warrior three years ago, e-mail was the obvious choice for delivery method. While that has worked fairly well, we no longer think it is the best solution. Some of the issues surrounding using e-mail include:
• It takes too much time to manage the email list. Because we don't have "mailing list” software, we spend a lot of time adding and changing email addresses. Also, people's email addresses become non-functional and the emails come back and we have to delete those addresses.
• There are problems on the receiving end as well. Some people's email software tags it as junk mail. Sometime people have spam filters that require us to go to a particular page, type in some info, and get "approved" for sending emails to that address. Sometimes people's emails reach their quota - so it gets rejected. People change their email addresses fairly frequently and end up not receiving the Weekly Warrior.
• With all the problems with spam, lots of people's email inboxes are so full that they end up not reading the Weekly Warrior because they just don’t realize it’s there.
• Sometimes whole ISP's (like AOL) will temporarily block the Weekly Warrior, thinking it's spam.
• While we send an email each week, there is no "web version" for people to access or to use as an archive of previous Weekly Warriors.
So we’ve decided to publish the Weekly Warrior on the web, specifically on a blog that you can subscribe to with RSS. There will be two ways to get the Weekly Warrior, visit the web page or subscribe to it via RSS. If you’re familiar with RSS, then you know what to do next. If you’re not, read on. It depends on who you ask what RSS stands for, but we’ll use Really Simple Syndication. You can read more about RSS at Wikipedia RSS , but the basic idea is that many websites are RSS enabled - you can “subscribe” to a web page “feed” and be notified anytime that page changes. You manage and read your RSS feeds through an “RSS Aggregator”. This allows you to keep track of any updates to your favorite websites without having to actually visit those websites. RSS also has the advantage of not being “spammable” – you manage your subscriptions and decide what you want to read. Most major news sources now offer RSS feeds, as well as other websites and blogs. Anywhere you see an orange XML button or words like RSS Feed, Site Feed, or Atom Feed – it indicates a page you can subscribe to.
To get started, you need an RSS Aggregator. There are three main types of RSS Aggregators: web browsers, online aggregators, and client aggregators. (You can read more about aggregators – and see a list of available ones – at Wikipedia News Aggregators ).
Web Browsers
Both Firefox 1.x and Safari 2.x have RSS capabilities built into them (as will the next version of Internet Explorer).
Online Aggregators
There are a variety of web-based aggregators. The advantage of web-based aggregators is that you can manage and read your feeds from multiple computers without having to worry about them being out of synch. There are many web-based choices, but Bloglines is a highly recommended online aggregator.
Client Aggregators
You can also install an aggregator on your computer. The advantage of these aggregators is they sometimes have more features than online aggregators. The disadvantage is that you are tied to managing your RSS feeds from one computer (or risk having them be out of synch). There are many client aggregators, but Thunderbird - from the makers of Firefox - is a highly recommended one.
If you are just getting started with RSS, we would recommend trying Bloglines. Once you get more experience with RSS, then you can better evaluate your choices. (All of the above choices are free – although Safari only comes with Mac OS X).
Once you have your aggregator, start subscribing to feeds – each aggregator has its own method you need to figure out, but it’s usually pretty simple. Find the site feed URL by clicking on that orange XML button, or the words RSS Feed, Site Feed, or Atom Feed. That will take you to a page that may or may not look like something to you, but all you care about is grabbing the URL and adding it to your feed list in your aggregator. For example, the AHS Weekly Warrior blog is located at http://ahsweeklywarrior.blogspot.com . If you go there, you can view it like a normal web page. But if you then click on the button that says Subscribe - RSS Site Feed, it takes you to this URL - http://ahsweeklywarrior.blogspot.com/atom.xml . This page is not as readable, but that’s okay – because you’ll never actually see it. You just use the http://ahsweeklywarrior.blogspot.com/atom.xml URL to subscribe to the feed in your aggregator – and your aggregator delivers a readable version to you.
RSS is an extremely useful and exciting new technology – we encourage you to explore it further (and, of course, to subscribe to the AHS Weekly Warrior and the AHS Daily Announcements . This will be the next to last issue of the Weekly Warrior that will be delivered via email (it is also posted on the new blog). We will send the next issue via email as well as post it on the web, then go exclusively to web delivery. If you subscribe to the website via RSS, the Weekly Warrior will automatically get delivered to your aggregator. If not, you can always visit the website – but you’ll have to remember to check it for updates.
Important August Dates
Athletic Physicals
Saturday, August 6th: 7:30 - noon, by appointment only (call 303-347-6021)
Fall Student Check-In (Schedule Pick-Up)
Seniors: Monday, August 8th
A-F 8:00 - 8:30
G-L 8:30 - 9:00
M-R 9:00 - 9:30
S-Z 9:15 - 10:00
Juniors: Monday, August 8th
A-F 12:00 - 12:30
G-L 12:30 - 1:00
M-R 1:00 - 1:30
S-Z 1:15 - 2:00
Sophomores: Tuesday, August 9th
A-F 8:00 - 8:30
G-L 8:30 - 9:00
M-R 9:00 - 9:30
S-Z 9:15 - 10:00
Freshmen: Tuesday, August 9th
(Emergency Cards, Pay Fees, Have Picture Taken -
Schedule Pick-Up is during Link Crew Orientation)
A-F 12:00 - 12:30
G-L 12:30 - 1:00
M-R 1:00 - 1:30
S-Z 1:15 - 2:00
Evening Student Check-In
Tuesday, August 16th
5:30 - 7:30 pm
This time is provided for students of all grade levels not able to pick up their schedule during the daytime on August 8th and 9th.
Fall Athletic Practices Begin
Monday, August 15th
Link Crew - Orientation for all freshmen (and upperclassmen new to AHS)
Tuesday, August 16th
8:00 am - 1:00 pm
AHS Gym (drinks and snacks provided)
Freshmen will receive schedules and ID cards on this day
Athletic Night For All Athletes and Parents
Wednesday, August 17th, 7:00 pm (all sports, all seasons)
First Day of School
Thursday, August 18th
School begins at 7:25 am for all students
Back To School Night
Wednesday, August 31st
6:30 pm - 9:37 pm
Weekly Warrior Delivery Will Be Changing
When we started the Weekly Warrior three years ago, e-mail was the obvious choice for delivery method. While that has worked fairly well, we no longer think it is the best solution. Some of the issues surrounding using e-mail include:
• It takes too much time to manage the email list. Because we don't have "mailing list” software, we spend a lot of time adding and changing email addresses. Also, people's email addresses become non-functional and the emails come back and we have to delete those addresses.
• There are problems on the receiving end as well. Some people's email software tags it as junk mail. Sometime people have spam filters that require us to go to a particular page, type in some info, and get "approved" for sending emails to that address. Sometimes people's emails reach their quota - so it gets rejected. People change their email addresses fairly frequently and end up not receiving the Weekly Warrior.
• With all the problems with spam, lots of people's email inboxes are so full that they end up not reading the Weekly Warrior because they just don’t realize it’s there.
• Sometimes whole ISP's (like AOL) will temporarily block the Weekly Warrior, thinking it's spam.
• While we send an email each week, there is no "web version" for people to access or to use as an archive of previous Weekly Warriors.
So we’ve decided to publish the Weekly Warrior on the web, specifically on a blog that you can subscribe to with RSS. There will be two ways to get the Weekly Warrior, visit the web page or subscribe to it via RSS. If you’re familiar with RSS, then you know what to do next. If you’re not, read on. It depends on who you ask what RSS stands for, but we’ll use Really Simple Syndication. You can read more about RSS at Wikipedia RSS , but the basic idea is that many websites are RSS enabled - you can “subscribe” to a web page “feed” and be notified anytime that page changes. You manage and read your RSS feeds through an “RSS Aggregator”. This allows you to keep track of any updates to your favorite websites without having to actually visit those websites. RSS also has the advantage of not being “spammable” – you manage your subscriptions and decide what you want to read. Most major news sources now offer RSS feeds, as well as other websites and blogs. Anywhere you see an orange XML button or words like RSS Feed, Site Feed, or Atom Feed – it indicates a page you can subscribe to.
To get started, you need an RSS Aggregator. There are three main types of RSS Aggregators: web browsers, online aggregators, and client aggregators. (You can read more about aggregators – and see a list of available ones – at Wikipedia News Aggregators ).
Web Browsers
Both Firefox 1.x and Safari 2.x have RSS capabilities built into them (as will the next version of Internet Explorer).
Online Aggregators
There are a variety of web-based aggregators. The advantage of web-based aggregators is that you can manage and read your feeds from multiple computers without having to worry about them being out of synch. There are many web-based choices, but Bloglines is a highly recommended online aggregator.
Client Aggregators
You can also install an aggregator on your computer. The advantage of these aggregators is they sometimes have more features than online aggregators. The disadvantage is that you are tied to managing your RSS feeds from one computer (or risk having them be out of synch). There are many client aggregators, but Thunderbird - from the makers of Firefox - is a highly recommended one.
If you are just getting started with RSS, we would recommend trying Bloglines. Once you get more experience with RSS, then you can better evaluate your choices. (All of the above choices are free – although Safari only comes with Mac OS X).
Once you have your aggregator, start subscribing to feeds – each aggregator has its own method you need to figure out, but it’s usually pretty simple. Find the site feed URL by clicking on that orange XML button, or the words RSS Feed, Site Feed, or Atom Feed. That will take you to a page that may or may not look like something to you, but all you care about is grabbing the URL and adding it to your feed list in your aggregator. For example, the AHS Weekly Warrior blog is located at http://ahsweeklywarrior.blogspot.com . If you go there, you can view it like a normal web page. But if you then click on the button that says Subscribe - RSS Site Feed, it takes you to this URL - http://ahsweeklywarrior.blogspot.com/atom.xml . This page is not as readable, but that’s okay – because you’ll never actually see it. You just use the http://ahsweeklywarrior.blogspot.com/atom.xml URL to subscribe to the feed in your aggregator – and your aggregator delivers a readable version to you.
RSS is an extremely useful and exciting new technology – we encourage you to explore it further (and, of course, to subscribe to the AHS Weekly Warrior and the AHS Daily Announcements . This will be the next to last issue of the Weekly Warrior that will be delivered via email (it is also posted on the new blog). We will send the next issue via email as well as post it on the web, then go exclusively to web delivery. If you subscribe to the website via RSS, the Weekly Warrior will automatically get delivered to your aggregator. If not, you can always visit the website – but you’ll have to remember to check it for updates.
posted by Karl Fisch at 12:21 PM
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