RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a way for websites to list the latest news on their website. News readers can "subscribe" to the RSS feed, which means that periodically the reader will download the list and present them to you in the reader. The headlines that are downloaded contain the headline and a short summary, and a link back to the story on the website. If you are interested in the story, you can follow the link to read the full story.

An RSS reader is a piece of software that allows you to "subscribe" to RSS feeds. You provide the software with the feeds you want to follow, and it will periodically retrieve those feeds and allow you to see all the headlines in one place.

There are dozens of free RSS readers, some that install on your machine, including NewsGator and NetNewsWire and others that are on the web, such as Google Reader.

Assuming you've chosen an RSS Reader, you just need to "Add a Subscription" and point it at one of the addresses above. How to do that differs depending on which reader you choose, but the process is basically the same.

No, the feeds are free to subscribe to.

The feeds update instantly as new stories are posted to the website.