Frequently asked questions
Understanding the Flywheel Portal:
1) What is an RSS feed?
2) How do I find an RSS feed?
3) What is a Content Aggregator?
4) What is a Flywheel Portal?
How do Cogs work?
5) What are Cogs and how can they be copied to another Website?
6) What do the buttons at the bottom of each Cog do?
7) Why do some images not load inside my Cogs?
8) Why do my podcasts sound like "chipmunks" when they play in a Cog?
General Questions:
9) What are the minimum browser requirements for Flywheel?
Understanding the Flywheel Portal:
Q: What is an RSS feed?
A: RSS has various meanings but is widely considered to stand for "Really Simple Syndication". The technology is actually a basic XML document that allows the author to tie together any piece of Web-based content for distribution (HTML, MP3, VIDEO, etc). Audience members who subscribe to the feed automatically receive the content using what's known as a Content Aggregator. For example, instead of requiring audiences to actively navigate to your Website to see the latest news headlines, RSS allows them to subscribe to the XML feed directly so the headlines are delivered to the desktop dynamically.
Q: How do I find an RSS Feed?
A: Finding an RSS feed is simple. Since the feeds are simple XML files you will usually see a button labeled
or 
on pages that contain RSS. Once you obtain the URL to the RSS feed you simply enter the link into your Content Aggregator and the feed will be checked at regular intervals for updates. This portal site was created by an Administrator who wanted to manage all of their RSS feeds in one place.
Q: What is a Content Aggregator?
A: Content Aggregators are software programs that allow individuals to subscribe to RSS XML feeds. By adding the http:// URL of the feed to your Aggregator the software will begin downloading associated content to your hard drive. Materials, such as html or MP3's will then automatically download to your aggregator on a regular basis so you always have the most up to date content. There are many popular Content Aggregators but some popular ones include: As an alternative, many Internet Browsers and Web Portals can be used as Content Aggregators, including:
Q: What is a Flywheel portal and what does it do?
A: Flywheel is a Web-based RSS Aggregator that allows feed authors and administrators to quickly and easily manage, distribute and syndicate their entire RSS library.
How do Cogs work?:
Q: What are Cogs and how can they be copied to another Website?
A: Cogs are javascript widgets that power the main Flywheel portal and can be copied to any Website. The Cogs themselves are html versions of underlying RSS XML feeds. If you like the content of a particular Cog and want to copy just that feed to your own site all you need to do is cut and paste the snippet of embeddable code that is produced by the "clone me" button (
) located at the bottom of the Cog.
Q: What do the buttons at the bottom of each Cog do?
A:
: This button reloads the content of the Cog.
: This is how you get the code for the portable or "remote" Cog you want to post to your site. Clicking this button will give you a wizard that will ask you how your want your remote Cog to behave: what size should it be to fit your page and how many items it should display each time it's loaded.
: This button allows audience members to copy and paste the underlying RSS link into their preferred content aggregator.
Q: Why do some images not load inside my Cogs?
A: Some RSS XML feeds do not allow images that are hosted on their servers to be displayed by sites that are on other servers.
Q: Why do RSS feeds containing podcasts sound like "chipmunks" when they play in a Cog?
A: For the greatest cross compatibility MP3's are played within the Flywheel Flash Player. Unfortunately Flash Players require the MP3 files to be sampled at 22,050 or 44,100 samples per second. In these instances the podcast author should resample their MP3's or the audience member can download the file and play within an alternative multimedia player.
General Questions:
Q: What are the minimum browser requirements for Flywheel?
A: We support the following browsers:
Understanding the Flywheel Portal:
1) What is an RSS feed?
2) How do I find an RSS feed?
3) What is a Content Aggregator?
4) What is a Flywheel Portal?
How do Cogs work?
5) What are Cogs and how can they be copied to another Website?
6) What do the buttons at the bottom of each Cog do?
7) Why do some images not load inside my Cogs?
8) Why do my podcasts sound like "chipmunks" when they play in a Cog?
General Questions:
9) What are the minimum browser requirements for Flywheel?
Understanding the Flywheel Portal:
Q: What is an RSS feed?
A: RSS has various meanings but is widely considered to stand for "Really Simple Syndication". The technology is actually a basic XML document that allows the author to tie together any piece of Web-based content for distribution (HTML, MP3, VIDEO, etc). Audience members who subscribe to the feed automatically receive the content using what's known as a Content Aggregator. For example, instead of requiring audiences to actively navigate to your Website to see the latest news headlines, RSS allows them to subscribe to the XML feed directly so the headlines are delivered to the desktop dynamically.
Q: How do I find an RSS Feed?
A: Finding an RSS feed is simple. Since the feeds are simple XML files you will usually see a button labeled
or on pages that contain RSS. Once you obtain the URL to the RSS feed you simply enter the link into your Content Aggregator and the feed will be checked at regular intervals for updates. This portal site was created by an Administrator who wanted to manage all of their RSS feeds in one place.
Q: What is a Content Aggregator?
A: Content Aggregators are software programs that allow individuals to subscribe to RSS XML feeds. By adding the http:// URL of the feed to your Aggregator the software will begin downloading associated content to your hard drive. Materials, such as html or MP3's will then automatically download to your aggregator on a regular basis so you always have the most up to date content. There are many popular Content Aggregators but some popular ones include: As an alternative, many Internet Browsers and Web Portals can be used as Content Aggregators, including:
Q: What is a Flywheel portal and what does it do?
A: Flywheel is a Web-based RSS Aggregator that allows feed authors and administrators to quickly and easily manage, distribute and syndicate their entire RSS library.
How do Cogs work?:
Q: What are Cogs and how can they be copied to another Website?
A: Cogs are javascript widgets that power the main Flywheel portal and can be copied to any Website. The Cogs themselves are html versions of underlying RSS XML feeds. If you like the content of a particular Cog and want to copy just that feed to your own site all you need to do is cut and paste the snippet of embeddable code that is produced by the "clone me" button (
) located at the bottom of the Cog.
Q: What do the buttons at the bottom of each Cog do?
A:
: This button reloads the content of the Cog.
: This is how you get the code for the portable or "remote" Cog you want to post to your site. Clicking this button will give you a wizard that will ask you how your want your remote Cog to behave: what size should it be to fit your page and how many items it should display each time it's loaded.
: This button allows audience members to copy and paste the underlying RSS link into their preferred content aggregator.
Q: Why do some images not load inside my Cogs?
A: Some RSS XML feeds do not allow images that are hosted on their servers to be displayed by sites that are on other servers.
Q: Why do RSS feeds containing podcasts sound like "chipmunks" when they play in a Cog?
A: For the greatest cross compatibility MP3's are played within the Flywheel Flash Player. Unfortunately Flash Players require the MP3 files to be sampled at 22,050 or 44,100 samples per second. In these instances the podcast author should resample their MP3's or the audience member can download the file and play within an alternative multimedia player.
General Questions:
Q: What are the minimum browser requirements for Flywheel?
A: We support the following browsers:
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