HotSheet 1.0.36 review

HotSheet is a program that retrieves news headlines from multiple websites, displays them, and allows you to interact with them (e.

License: Freeware OS: Mac OS X File size: 1K Developer: John Munsch Price: $0.00 Updated: 13 Jan 2006

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HotSheet is a program that retrieves news headlines from multiple websites, displays them, and allows you to interact with them (e.g. to get the story that goes with a particular headline).

HotSheet works by pulling files from websites that have their news headlines stored in a XML format known as RSS. There are many hundreds of websites that syndicate their headlines in just this fashion.

By picking up the RSS file from a URL on the website and reading it HotSheet is able to present the headlines to you and allow you to get more information on each news item.

Here are some key features of "HotSheet":
Pulls headlines from hundreds of sites with syndicated content in RSS format. This includes mainstream sites like c|net, Salon, Slashdot, Moreover, Wired News, etc.
Attractive display of headlines (and optional channel logos).
Proxy support (including authentication) is included for business users who may be forced to connect to the Internet through a proxy server at work.
Free, very very free. Free to just run and free to download the code and use it to build new applications if that is the kind of thing you like to do.
Tested on Windows and Linux, user reports that it works on Mac OS X, AIX, and Solaris.
Double clicking an item automatically launches a browser to view the link associated with a given news item.
Scripting support allows users already familiar with Python, Tcl, JavaScript, etc. to write scripts which can automate the handling of news items. For example, increase the score of items that come from your favorite channels or delete all items that have a certain keyword in the title.
Easiest installation you are ever likely to see. Install Java Web Start on your favorite platform and then click a single link in the browser. HotSheet will download, install, and run. Later runs will automatically check for new versions on the server and update you to the latest version.
You can exit out of HotSheet and news items will be stored for later viewing and additional information like viewed status is automatically retained.
Internal RSS library can be separated out and used to build different applications with interfaces very different from the one HotSheet offers.
The license on the source code is an extremely liberal BSD license that allows you to build commercial applications using parts of HotSheet without significant restrictions.