Hawaii Blog

Perfect timing. On the heels of my post on mapping tools for politics, a fellow podcaster wrote to let me know that he’s assembled a special “Voter and Election Information” edition of his “Searching the Internet” show. Edward Vawter, with whom I was able to meet when he visited Hawaii in December, recommends several online [...]

[Read more →]

Prominent island blogger Ian Lind, a must-read for any Hawaii media or political wonk, got a tip from Honolulu Weekly editor Chris Haire that trouble-prone Board of Education candidate Kris DeRego was blogging. The modest name of the UH undergrad’s online outpourings? “Hardball Hawaii.”
Lind gave it a once over, and criticized DeRego for flubbing [...]

[Read more →]

Earlier this year, Matthew Kane at Indiana University came up with “Following the Dollars,” a project for informatics professor Markus Jakobsson’s “Issues in Security and Privacy” class. He mixed Google Maps and public campaign finance records from The Fundrace Project to create an amazing new way to see local politics.
Type in a ZIP code, and [...]

[Read more →]

Yet another social network slash music recommendation service launched yesterday, named — almost too predictably — iLike.
Like other similar sites, it collects information on the music you like (via an iTunes-specific plug-in for both Windows and Mac) and suggests other stuff you might like. You can connect with friends, see what songs they’re listening to, and [...]

[Read more →]

A location shoot for “LOST” doesn’t usually merit an article in the local paper, but I guess when they take over a brand new, multi-million dollar University of Hawaii facility, someone’s gotta notice. Spoilers inside!

[Read more →]

My total infatuation with Google Reader continues. I’ve spread the word at Bytemarks and at HawaiiThreads.com, and have converted a few skeptics as well as total newbies to newsreaders. Having shared how I now keep up with a gazillion or so websites, though, I’ve also been inspired to share what I’m reading.
Especially when you’re new [...]

[Read more →]

The 6.6 magnitude earthquake that shook Hawaii on Sunday didn’t cause a tsunami, but the island-wide Honolulu blackout that followed has prompted a wave of questions and criticisms for Hawaiian Electric. The utility has now revealed, for example, that the system was not brought down automatically by cautious computers, but by human operators reacting to [...]

[Read more →]

I love it. If you haven’t tried it, or if you’ve never really thought about feed readers (or even know what a feed is!), you really should check it out. If you love to devour stuff all over the web, and sometimes struggle to keep track of it all, Google Reader is worth [...]

[Read more →]

Oh, blessed day! The excellent public radio program “This American Life“ — out of Chicago’s WBEZ and carried nationwide through Public Radio International (not National Public Radio, thank you!) — will now be available as a free podcast.
Previously, “This American Life” was sold commercially through Audible.com, first for almost $4 an episode, then for 95 cents an [...]

[Read more →]

Kris and Betsy of Croncast are great examples of the simple, personal, wonderful side of podcasting. A husband and wife with a kid, a house on a cul-de-sac, and a microphone. While many podcasters aspire to the slick production standards of commercial radio, and while certainly a good many “personal podcasts” are unlistenable, uninspired indulgences, [...]

[Read more →]