I’m one of those guys who likes to get real-time news there and then. No-matter if I’m in the shower, up a mountain or asleep and having odd dreams about chimps eating Yorkshire pudding.

In order to fulfill my news hungry appetite I’ve taken a number of steps to ensure I find out everything that’s happen around me.

I’ve currently got my Google Calender account linked to my mobile phone to alert me of any upcoming events. My Facebook account is set to send me SMS notifications of any activity happening on my account. I’ve got a bunch of RSS feeds plugged into Google Reader & being monitored all day long. I’ve got a series of key words being tracked down on Yahoo & Google alerts too.

Google Reader inbox view
(click to zoom in)

But it doesn’t stop there! I’m also on Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, IRC, MSN Messenger, Facebook Messenger. I’ve just recently combined all these (facebook + other social websites + MSN + Yahoo + ICQ) into one by using a program called Digsby! On average I usually have 55-60 contacts online throughout the day. I get live feeds delivered to Digsby of my contacts every move on social networking websites too.


Digsby contact list and conversation in progress
(Click to zoom in)

To put the icing on the cake I’m now thinking of buying myself a wireless alarm clock which will notify me of everything (new emails, RSS updates etc etc..) as soon as I wake-up!

After consulting with a few friends it seems that I am not the only one. This comes as a surprise and is actually quite alarming. How much is enough? How dominant should we be online and to what extent should we stay updated on news before it gets silly?