What the Heck Did He Mean by "Consume"?
We (the tech people) use too much slang around non-technical persons. On behalf of geeks everywhere, I apologize. I was in a meeting last week and someone threw out the word "consume" like it was just this everyday term...even though the meeting was attended by a mixed audience. It was obvious that not everyone in the room knew what he was talking about. Consume relates to RSS so I put together a few definitions.
RSS
Really Simple Syndication. It's basically a page of XML which is like a page of HMTL. HTML is every web page. RSS is like a web page that has text only. Each page is a "feed".
An RSS reader consumes RSS feeds. "Consume" is tech mumbo jumbo. It just means "to use". You tell a reader which channels you want to watch and when there is a new feed it stores or displays it automatically on your computer. So RSS is sort of like TV stations and a reader is like a TiVO. It records only what you want to see.
Blog
"Blog" is short for "web log". A web log is like a diary that someone put into a web page. When some is "blogging" they are writing in their diary. It's that simple. Each page of the diary is an RSS feed. That's why these terms are so popular recently. Any schmo (like me) can write a page in his diary (like this) and if you have an RSS reader (like Bandit or one of these) you will immediately have my latest writing!
An RSS reader really is a neat tool. Please do not hesitate to contact my office if you'd like assistance in getting setup with this.
AJAX
Asyncnronous JavaScript and XML. On a web site, when you click on a link or button (make a "request") you've probably noticed in the top right of the page that the browser's logo will animate momentarily. What you're waiting for is the "response" and the new page to load in your browser. Often the page is somewhat similar to the one you were just on. For example, if you're browsing sleepware at Victoria's Secret, when you click on a photo of a pajama set, the page will re-load with that new pajama style. But the left and top menus are unchanged. So time is wasted because the server re-sent you information that your computer already had.
Since Victoria's Secret sent you a brand new copy of the web page you already had...you noticed a lag while the page re-loads. If the site used AJAX, they would have left the page alone and sent you only the new pajama information. In that case, you probably would not notice your browser's icon spinning. The transition between pajama sets would be fast and fluid.
Google maps are a great example of this fluidity in action. Drag the map around and you don't notice the page reloading--because it's not. Only the specif map areas in-frame are being loaded. If you want to see this in "slow motion", browse Google maps on a dial-up modem. You'll be able to see the different pieces of the map changing as you move around.