My Feeble Attempts to Replace Google Reader at Robert Pogson

I searched high and low and found many suggestions. Several would have replaced Google Reader with a similar service on the web. I don’t want to repeat this process so I found a web application I can install on my LAN.

I found SelfOSS. It is supposed to do what I need in a manner similar to Google but I had a devil of a time installing it. My Apache configuration was broken and I was dragging in some obsolete PHP stuff. I got that cleared up but now I can’t get it to import feeds… I need to configure mod_rewrite, apparently. Sigh… Someone else has the same problem but ironically I have to subscribe to an RSS feed to follow the result which is hot today. I think I could have written my own application in all this time but it was interesting. I understand the need to rewrite URLs but it would help if I knew to what the URL should be linked. There’s nothing in the documentation. I guess it’s obvious to the authour. I don’t find any hints in the code and Apache’s documentation doesn’t refer to the software. Good fun.

Just got the news,
“The ultimate fix was provided on Github, where this issue was originally opened. Turns out that Debian (and its derivatives) have a configuration which is too secure for selfoss to run by default. Specifically, overrides are not allowed at all. I adjusted my configuration to allow all overrides in that directory, and selfoss is now working.”

Not good. The code doesn’t even run when I type in the proper URL.

“Fatal error: Class ‘controllers\BaseController’ not found in /usr/share/selfoss/controllers/Opml.php on line 12″

I don’t think this package has the polish for prime time. I will keep looking or write my own.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.

2 Responses to “My Feeble Attempts to Replace Google Reader”

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1 dougman Mar 15th, 2013 at 9:00 am

I started used Feedly.
2 Robert Pogson Mar 15th, 2013 at 11:24 am

I don’t want the same thing to happen again so I am looking for a web-application I can put on my server.