Mess of Meta

HawaiiStories is not even a month old, but with 21 members and over 100 posts and comments so far, I'd say we're off to a healthy start. And it's all because of you! So thanks. (Er, I mean, mahalo.) Now, here's a random assortment of HawaiiStories news, conveniently compiled in one place rather than posted willy-nilly.

Extra, extra, read all about it!

Take Us With You: You've probably noticed the odd geek comment or two in various threads, but in case you haven't, you can now sync your PDA to browse and reply to HawaiiStories threads on the road. We've created a bare-bones text version of the HawaiiStories site to navigate wirelessly or via popular web-caching applications like AvantGo. Just plug in the PDA URL and go! Coming soon, the ability to log in and post from your PDA as well!

We're Legal: Not that we weren't before, but HawaiiStories is now an official Movable Type donor. It's the least we could do for the incredible brainpower that went into the enginge that runs the HawaiiStories site. Now, whenever there's a new HawaiiStories post, we'll get listed in their "Recently Updated" list. (Of course, HawaiiStories already pings Weblogs.Com with each update, propogating our link to any other site that syndicates the same list. We're also listed at Blogdex. (Are you?)

Mark Your Calendars (and share your ideas): A long imagined but perhaps finally realized confab of local journalers and bloggers is in the works. "In the works," at this point, meaning only that a date has been floated: Saturday, May 18. What, exactly, we'll do, and where we'll do it is still up in the air. I'm thinking talkstory simple, a potluck picnic at Magic Island perhaps. Got suggestions? Hoping to show up? Let's keep tossing around ideas here or in the original thread. When we've got our Five Ws nailed down, we'll get the word out more directly.

Latest Comments: To make finding the nooks and crannies where HawaiiStories visitors are chatting, we've added a "Latest Comments" log to the right-hand sidebar. A small change, but it probably beats clicking through every thread every hour to see if there's something new. (What? You don't check in every hour?) I've noticed the list doesn't update as often on archive pages (only when those pages are also rebuilt), so use the main page as your guide.

Bookmark Us: That is, if you want to. Why? Because I designed a cheesy custom pineapple icon for HawaiiStories, that's why. You have to be using a newer version of Internet Explorer to see it, as it uses MSIE's favicon.ico gizmo, but I think it's pretty cute. (PC users can grab it or its "green H" predecessor for use on their systems, too.)

Comments

I'm jealous! As a Hawaii expatriate and currently mainland resident, I will miss the May 18th gathering of local journalers and bloggers. Perhaps next year we could meet in Las Vegas? Just a thought...

When I was configuring my MT blog somebody asked me if I'd set it up to ping Weblogs; I said no and asked why I should, and I never got an answer (entirely due to the press of other issues on her part, not for lack of a sensible response, I'm sure). So I'll ask here--why do it? What's the benefit and what's the process?

Oh, and I looked at the MSN favicon pages; what sort of icon editor did you use to create the "cheesy pineapple" thing? I have MSIE 5.5, but I don't remember an icon editor.

By pinging Weblogs.com — either through applications that have it built in (like Movable Type) or hacking a custom script to do it — you basically get your site listed on the "Recently Changed Weblogs" page. (The same link list can be syndicated via XML, like HawaiiStories content can.) It gives your site additional exposure, at least for the minute or two it remains listed before getting pushed off by more recently updated blogs. The turnover might seem fast, but HawaiiStories as an example reliably gets a handful of visits a day from the list anyway.

As to the favorite's icon (favicon.ico): There are several websites with how-tos. I just made a little 32x32 graphic, saved it as an indexed-color bitmap (.BMP), then used bmp2ico.exe to convert it. Save it to your site's root directory, or specify it's location with a META tag.

Ah, stupid geek tricks.

Not "stupid" geek tricks, "amusing" geek tricks! I shall slip into carnival barker mode, with straw boater perched atop my bean:

"Git yer icon-maker here! Step right up! Gents, make the little lady proud! Git that funky little thing right here! Amaze yer friends! One dollah, tha's all, jes' one measly dollah! Right here, right now!"

About May 18: As long as we keep it pretty simple and nothing too formal - a beach picnic, perhaps (I know that Kapiolani Park was mentioned in the original thread, but Magic Island may be a little more convenient for us here in town) - we'll be fine. And having the whole thing as potluck sounds feasible.

Speaking of potluck: Whoever asked for a Papa John's Pizza through a previous thread on HawaiiStories - if you plan to show up for 5/18, maybe we can work out a deal! ;)

Hah, I've been trying to figure out that icon thing for the longest time, but I could never figure out the proper name for it in order to do a search on it. Big mahalo to you, ryan!

Sure am sad I'm going to miss the May 18 thing =(

I'm coming home May 15, so May 18 is cool. oh wow. that'll be so....

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