A few months ago, Google announced that they would be retiring Google Reader on 1 July 2013. Google Reader is a very popular web-based RSS reader, and despite a large outcry by loyal Google Reader users, Google haven't changed their mind, so you only have until the end of June 2013 to move your feeds elsewhere.

If you are still using Google Reader, you don't have a lot of time. Google provide functionality to allow you to download your Google Reader data in a format that some other RSS readers support, and some alternative RSS readers are providing functionality to directly migrate your feeds from your Google Reader account.

For many of the people who subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog using Google Reader, you will need to use something else in the very near future!



If you want a web-based RSS reader to replace Google Reader, Feedly appears to be a very popular choice, and they have developed a one-click migration tool to allow users to migrate feeds, categories and tags from Google Reader into the Feedly cloud. Millions of Google Reader users have already migrated to Feedly.

After using Google Reader for about six years, I migrated my feeds to Feedly, and have been using it for several weeks. I am finding it to be a worthy replacement for Google Reader, although it is not as fully featured as Google Reader. Mobile Feedly applications are also available if you prefer not to use the web interface on mobile devices.

Another alternative is The Old Reader - designed to look and feel like the old Google Reader. It also supports direct migration of your feeds from Google Reader, or via OPML import.

There are many other alternatives available, but many of them are rich-client applications that need to be installed, and I prefer to have access to my feeds via a web browser from any computer or any mobile device.



Another way to stay up-to-date with posts on this blog is to subscribe by email. Whenever a new post is published, you will receive an email containing the full post.
You can subscribe by email here:

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After submitting your email address, you'll receive an email requesting confirmation of your subscription, and will need to click the link in the email before your email subscription becomes active.

Your email address will not be shared, and will not be used for any purpose other than to send you notification of updated content. You can unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link in the bottom of each email.

This post provides a brief overview of RSS, and how you can use RSS to be notified whenever new content is published on this blog.



RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is a technology for delivering updates about changes to web content.

It allows users such as yourself to be notified whenever new content is published on a website, without having to regularly visit the website to check for updates.

Many websites (including this one) use an RSS feed to publish information about updated content as it is published on the website.



The most common way to use an RSS feed is to use an RSS Reader.

RSS readers come in several flavours - either a stand-alone application that periodically checks subscribed RSS feeds for updates, or a web-based service such as Feedly or The Old Reader.

When you come across a website where you want to keep track of updates, and it has an RSS feed, you can subscribe to the RSS feed using your RSS reader, and you'll then be notified whenever updated content has been published.

Websites that provide an RSS feed typically show this using the recognisable RSS symbol (see above) on the page somewhere (this blog has the RSS icon at the top left of each page). Many browsers will recognise the presence of an RSS feed and will show an RSS icon in the address bar.

To subscribe to this blog using an RSS reader, you'll need to add the RSS feed URL to your RSS reader.



As an alternative to using an RSS reader, many RSS feeds also allow you to subscribe to the feed via email. Whenever updated content is published to the website, you'll then receive an email notifying you of that content.

To subscribe to this blog via email, you can either use the subscribe via email link shown at the top left of each page, or you can enter your email address in the form below.

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After submitting your email address, you'll receive an email requesting confirmation of your subscription, and will need to click the link in the email before your email subscription becomes active.

Your email address will not be shared, and will not be used for any purpose other than to send you notification of updated content. You can unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link in the bottom of each email.

Advertising on MartyBugs.net can provide an effective way to promote your business, service, or product. MartyBugs.net has a large international readership, covering a diverse range of topics, and can provide you with the opportunity to put your products or services in front of this readership.



A number of advertising options are available, including:

• text link ads
• banner ads (various sizes)

Alternatively, I can review a product or service that you offer, and publish the review on MartyBugs.net. Note that I'll only accept products/services for review if I believe they are related to the subject material on my website.
Photography-related equipment reviews already published can be viewed here.


To discuss your advertising options for MartyBugs.net, please email martin at

Except where explicitly specified, all content, including graphics, images and photos on this site are copyright Martin Pot. All rights reserved.

Use of any graphics on this site is not allowed without prior permission.
Display of any image, either by hot-linking directly to an image on this server, or copying the image to another site is considered to be use of the image.
Use of a variation of an image (ie, change of format, thumbnails, resizing, etc) is also considered to be use of the original image.

Contact Martin if you wish to use any of the images on this website.



Selected images are available for purchase as high-quality cards, matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints or framed prints from Martin's redbubble.com portfolio. Check the bottom of each photo blog entry to see if there's a link to the corresponding image on redbubble.com.

For any other enquiries regarding purchasing and/or licensing of digital images or prints, please contact Martin with your requirements. Digital images can be provided in a variety of formats, including web-ready size, as well as high-resolution JPEGs or TIFFs.



All comments are moderated, and any rude, spam or other comments deemed inappropriate will be rejected. Comments are typically moderated within 24 hours, but may be longer if Martin is travelling.
Repeated submission of inappropriate comments is likely to result in the associated IP address being banned.



We do not collect any personal information about you (ie, name, email address, etc), unless you specifically and knowingly provide such information (ie, in a blog comment or email).

MartyBugs.net logs your IP address, browser type, and timestamp for all pages visisted. We may use your IP address and browser version information, to assist in diagnosing problems with the webserver, and to ensure continuing compatibility with browser software our visitors are using.

We do not share or sell any personal information that you provide to us to any third parties without your permission.

Martin is not responsible for the content or privacy policies of any websites that are linked from content on the MartyBugs.net website and blog.

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit this website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.
Google, as one of the third-party advertising vendors, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to you based on your visit to this website and other sites on the Internet. You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.



For information on advertising on this blog, please refer to the Advertise on MartyBugs.net page.



Martin reserves the right to make changes to these policies at any time, for any reason.



If you require any further information, or have questions about any of the policies above, please refer to the contact details page for information on contacting Martin.

My name is Martin (aka martybugs or mpot), and I've started this blog as a means to share some of my photos. I also intend to post some articles, reviews and tutorials on various topics relating to photography.

I am located in Western Australia, use Canon DSLR cameras and Canon lenses, and have been actively pursuing digital photography as a hobby for a number of years. In recent years, I have been enjoying teaching my children more about photography.

While I've been publishing photos in my gallery for some time already, this blog provides me with a mechanism to share some of my photos, provide some commentary on those photos, as well as publish some photography gear reviews and tutorials.

Feel free to respond to blog posts via the comments area displayed under each post.
Due to the high likelihood of receiving spam comments, I've enabled moderation on the comments, so they will not appear immediately, but must first be approved.

An RSS feed is available, allowing you to subscribe to updates posted to this blog using an RSS reader (such as Feedly or The Old Reader), or you can subscribe to updates by email:

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For more details on my copyright policy, as well as info on purchasing prints, please refer to the Copyright and Other Policies page.

If you are interested in advertising on this blog, there are a number of different opportunities are available.

Martin

Coming soon - a new blog!

Black-winged Stilts flying over water

Bibra Lake, Western Australia, 2007-12-22