November 8th, 1998
As i wander around the site I realize that this is one of the pages that I have neglected in a while. What have I been up to besides doing weekly IRH shows, spinning vrs and working myself into exhaustion ;)? There's a new Moloka`i South Shore picture section here.
I've put up two new online stores in conjunction with Amazon.com in an effort to make a positive impact on sales of Hawaiian books and records and glean a small percentage of commissions from them to further the cause...See both linked off of here.
I also made a short excursion to the East Coast a few weeks back to see old friends from my college radio days...I share that trip with you here
Sheesh I am out of breath....will check back with you again soon.
mahalo for stopping by - Rabb
July 1st, 1998 - Wow..a lot has happened since I last sat down at this page. We had an awful crash last week Tuesday the 23rd of June...and a backup failed too (Grrr jaz cartridges). Seems a new hard drive just decided it had had enough - the server rebooted and couldn't find itself and a cd rom backup from January saved the day.
IRH, aka Internet Radio Hawai`i celebrated its third birthday on June 7 - I begin my fourth year as an Internet DJ ;)
Wrinkle 2, the second global synchronized shoot project went up at www.wrinkle2.lava.net - over 230 QTVR's from around the globe are up there.
On June 26th we remembered Bruddah Iz, who passed one year ago and today the world remembers Diana, Princess of Wales.
Happy Fourth of July to all of you - may you enjoy peace, freedom and happiness!
January 8th, 1998
Wow, I have been so busy the past couple of weeks with A Wrinkle In Time the world's first synchronized Global Quicktime VR Panorama Shoot, that our birthday just slid by. We first went online outta this bedroom on January 6th, 1995 so that means we have gently slipped into our fourth year of existence as if it was a completely natural thing.
Wow
Wrinkle made the front page of the Star Bulletin on Dec 26th (see their web - starbulletin.com for the 97/12/26 archive), was a Netscape Pick of the Day, A Yahoo Pick of the Week and created a bunch of bandwidth challenges which we met by creating bigger bandwidth mirrors of the Wrinkle on other sites.
1998 promises to be a good year I hope. Plans include increasing our site bandwidth and boosting our processor power. I'm very excited about Newer Technologies' G3 processor upgrade cards for these servers, a PPC 7100/66 and an 8100/80 and of course the production machine - a 7100/66/av. The upgrades should speed each machine by 7-8 times current speed which should mean peppier results for you on the other end.
Anyone who would like to donate cash or cards should write me please. Upgrades for both machines, a new DSU and router software and ram should top four grand. The more help offered, the faster the changes can occur.
To all of you who come back time and time again to see what I have added or to check out our Internet Radio Hawai`i shows or our VRs - mahalo plenny for comin.
Mel AhChing is still here with us, his sites about the Big Island, Onela Surf Club, Hawai`i Radio and TV and the Small Business Hawai`i webs weren't enough for Mel. He now does a site on here for State Senator Sam Slom
Dayle Turner is still doing his Sports Reports and we've got all of them archived since Jan 6th, 1995, plus they are searchable as are our growing collection of ongoing articles by K.T. Eger, Marsha DeClue and Ryan Ozawa. Not to forget the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association and cool clients and online chat visitors to our Wala`au Chat and Message System
Wow! has this little web grown or what? We now serve more than 13,000 files and almost two gigs of information.
I'm exhausted... ;)
rabbett
Wow...it has been a while since I worked on this page. Lots has happened since March...there are plenty of new Quicktime VRs online, our chat and threaded message forum system has grown mightily and I am still breathing!
All good things.
Our Internet Radio Hawai`i programs are in Stereo and served up for us at no charge to us by the International University of Japan in Tokyo!
Hope we can go for year numbah 4!
Wow...what a long strange trip the past few weeks have been. Good news! Our buddies at 3Com have donated a second server in the form of a Mac 8100/80 PowerPC which was on it's way to the recycling guy. It has been set up as our Interactive Server and now runs our Interaction Software which includes all our chat rooms and forums. Get Interactive with us Here
Yours truly's job search continues. My resume is online here. Altho still gainfully employed, the reality is that the contruction company I sell for is experiencing deep recession with no end in site. Yours truly is searching for either a new sales gig or an Intranet/Internet position here in Hawai`i. Referrals are appreciated.
I spun some VRs for the Mauna Kea Realty folks! They are online over at their site here
And, my La Cie Jaz drive ate it...again. This puts me out of touch with 8 one gig cartridges and halts further IRH programming until I can get it sent in, repaired and sent back.
Today, I reprogrammed all of our online clickable maps to use the Webstar Image Map Plugin. Macpserve acgi kept crashing for no apparent reason every couple hours to half a day....got real annoying. If you come across a clickable map that does not work, please email me. I think I caught them all but this thing is so beeg...hard fo me to tell...he he he
There's the latest....that's all for now...
My Netscape 3.0.1 gold for ppc hung on me several times today, so I was forced to leave the house before updating weather, surf and such....if you are a mac user and this happens to you...quit Netscape, toss out the Netscape preferences (in the system folder) and restart the program...you will half to reset the prefs but the program won't hang until....
A hot day today....our normal weather hath returned and we hope we can have regular numbers of rainy days rather than weeks at a time....gimme them nighttime windward and mauka showers!
Sad news as noted in Bob Krauss's Our Honolulu (in the Advertiser Sunday edition)...the Tahitian Lanai is no more...
You can have a piece tho..an auction will be held on the 25th...info is in the calendar. here
We have been diddlin around with new beta versions of our Interactive system with mixed results...if ya ever post and come back and your post is gone, please don't panic...chances are it was lost in a reboot...seems to happen about once a day or every two days...it'll work itself out, not to worry...the software author, Terje Norderhaug is hard at work, whackin' out new code all the time. Interaction runs our message forums and chat rooms. here
The Hawai`i Steel Guitar Association pages have been updated...check em out! here
Malani Bilyeu is comin over Saturday 1/11 to tape an interview for this week's IRH program...
January 7th, 1997
Aloha, mahalo and thank you for visiting us as we begin our third year on line today! I hope we'll be here for you for many many years to come. Your visit means so very much to me! - Rabbett;)
The H4 and yours truly offer our condolences to the family and friends of John F. Leonard, radio exec, concert promoter, publisher, entrepeneur and ace softball player, who passed away on Sunday.
John was just getting in to Digital Satellite TV as of late and owned and operated a radio station in Hilo. His devilishly boyish smile will be missed by us all.
December 2nd, 1996
Wow...it's almost Time for Christmas...! Mele Kalikimaka!
I hope you a had a good Thanksgiving.
K.T. Cannon-Eger and a monthly piece on the state of the Big Island economy is online now...see the H4 Hawaii Times.
Lots more Quicktime VR's are online now. There are 360 degree rotating pictures that allow you to see some of our major scenery as if you were standing there and turning around. See Hawaiian Quicktime VR Gallery. Keep an eye on that page for the New Embedded Section!
Commonwealth Banners have been removed from our pages...contrary to the excited entry below, they are now three months behind in payment and have readjusted their payment plan twice since then with no prior notice to anyone. They are playin' hard to get a hold of now and I've had enough...Warning to all...they are not ethical and do not pay on time after the first check...when pressed, they start by telling you that they are net 30 and then it gets worse.....
We'll find someone more honest to work with in the future.
August 27th
Well, the Commonwealth Network does actually pay! Banner Ad money arrived in a check yesterday and due to this positive happening, you will see more banners here. It does help to defray my costs. Every nickel helps.
I have no choice but to license the site with ASCAP if we want IRH to continue. Donations will be accepted.
Virtual Kailua, a collection of Quicktime VR's let's you walk the entire length of Lanikai Beach and Kailua Bay...Enjoy. You'll need Apple's new Quicktime Plugin which comes with Netscape Navigator 3.0 or the Apple Quicktime VR Player.
July 27
Please check out our latest experiment..."H4 & IRH InterActive" It Won't Hurt a Bit
I am trying to see if H4 & IRH users might enjoy yakkin with each other or posting messages and such online for others to interact with. Please give it a look and let me know if it's something you think I should add as a permanent feature here.
June 23 Hello there! Thanks for coming. A lot has been happening lately...and as you can tell, not much has been added to this page for quite some time. I can only say that while this page may have gotten lame, we do still add to the archives around here and you are encouraged to plow through and see what you can see. The June issue of the Waimanalo News is up and features a cool article about Sea Turtles...check that out.
We lost Sharon Westfall's Maui Report as the Maui News ended their weekly summaries due to soft economics. I hope she'll find other inspiration and join us again soon with something fresh from Maui.
I have begun experimenting with banner ads via the Commonwealth Broadcasting Network. This may help to bring in some badly needed income to help support the basic systems costs. Please bear with this change and please make sure to click on those pages so we get credit for the impressions! pages with ads are Weather, Surf, Forecast, Sports, News, Susan's Hawaiian Music Page, IRH Home, IRH.com home, Hawaiian Music, Sounds, Contents, The Big Map Directory and our error page.
I bet our error page is the only Sponsored error page in the world...so make sure you have a look!
Yes, your webmaster is looking for a new job...I'm still at the old one but the construction industry is so bad....I am forced to see what else might be possible...gimme a holler if you have some ideas.
Take care and thanks for stopping by! Aloha!
Man, it has been a while since I updated this page...Tonight as I type, it is around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21st.
We've just gone through an exasperating couple of weeks. We had to switch providers, had some domain name server wrangling and were basically unavailable for about ten days. Since Saturday night we have been back full bore, with similar traffic patterns as our pre-switch days.
A couple of major improvements have been made during the switch to our new providers at Lava.net.
We have a full bandwidth connection for once.
We are set-up so that the box answers to both www.hotspotshawaii.com and just hotspotshawaii.com - this has allowed me to shorten my email address to rabbett@hotspotshawaii.com...hey, that's four less characters!
To give you an idea of what it takes to run a site like this...let me relate the following so you can gain a decent perspective on the art of webbery.
At 5 p.m. after my day job, I began work on updating the Waimanalo News for May.
The paper comes in as Word documents, each article from Greg's orginal files, plus he sends me color scans now too.
I had to convert each of the 25 pages to an rtf document, then do a conversion of each rtf to an html. Then, I created a new May folder in the Waimanalo News Home folder.
Then 23 pictures which came in as tiffs had to be converted to .GIFs...they were huge!!!!
They got scaled and a smaller "B" .GIF document of each was also created.
Then, it was template time. I created a template for the May documents with proper addressing and such to the folder, go cut n paste and re-align the html codes for pictures. I then created each page and then linked and tested off of the Nalo Home page, and edited, fixed, fiddled.
Next time I looked, it was 10:10 p.m. and there's still more to do...like weather updates, Sports updates and finally this page too.
I think I'm gonna go get some dinner now and then spend a little while building templates so that George Peabody can begin helping me to update his weekly Molokai Advertiser News...
It's kinda like this every day, some days less than others and some days more...
I love it! It makes me feel like I am accomplishing something...I hope I am right...
Thanks to everyone who has written and offered encouragement etc. over our first 17 months. I'm real rosey eyed (and it's not just from being tired all the time...he he he) about '96 and am looking forward to a good year and continued growth for the H4.
Thanks especially to our growing visitor population and especially especially to those of you who keep coming back time and time again!
We're doin' Quicktime VR now!
So far, I have done 18 scenic VR's. Have a look. Right here! There will be more to come!
Several months ago I wrote:
I added a contact page to the site this week, since some folks continue to get lost when trying to say hello or make inquiries...and here it is> Talk to me!http://www.hotspotshawaii.com/contact.html
Hey! check out the Weather link Here Kudos to Christopher Kidwell and his latest update - NetWeather's proud pappa has made it Power PC Native...and has added "fins"!
It's Saturday and there's a lot goin' on here today...so I'm back to work. ...
Even before then...I think it was February:
Neil McGarry and the folks at www.netcarta.com, mapped our entire site. The little star gif on the upper left hand corner of the H4 and IRH Home pages have a link to the map file. This map file downloads to your computer and can be used with their new product to make surfing the site easier for you.
Currently their software is in beta and available only for Windows NT and Windows 95 users. A Macintosh version is coming soon and I'd imagine that other platform versions are not far behind. Visit their site for more information.
Personally, I look forward to the Macintosh version because when I have it, it may help me to organize the site more efficiently. Sometimes, I too get lost...there is a lot on here and more every day.
I have set up a mailserver on the box. Although most of the present email links send mail to my account at eWorld, I will gradually be changing the over 320 mail links to read rabbett@www.hotspotshawaii.com
Try 'um rabbett@www.hotspotshawaii.com
You'll get your fastest response to questions via this address. Why the change? eWorld, which has been my most stable and reliable address thus far may soon be changing. I don't know if it will survive as an online service or if it will morph into a web-only entity, so I am testing the mailserver and if it proves ultimately to be pohaku (rock) stable I will make the change on all our pages that have email links.
More ram is on the way. Yup, I ordered some more from The Chip Merchant in San Diego. Chip Merchant has the best prices on the best grades of ram and I always order ram from them. More ram will allow me to add a listserver to the site, which will generate email updates to our informally registered users.
Have you registered with us yet? Why not? See Here for more info.
Our RealAudio partner CyberCom has some cool news for local Internet lovers.
Peter Kay, their President makes appearances on KITV's Good Morning Hawai`i all this week between 5:00 and 5:30 a.m. to talk story with host Paul Udell. Peter will shed some light on what local folks are doing on the 'Net to help promote Hawai`i, etc. etc. etc..
Set your VCR to record Peter's appearances in case you're not up that early!
Way to go Pete!
Internet Radio Hawai`i featured our first Interview with a local Hawaiian Musician. Check out the new show recorded February 25th and listen in as I talk story with Henry Kaleialoha Allen, Steel Guitarist from his study in Lahaina.
We've gotten a couple of calls from folks that saw an interview about the site in Mahalo Air's Islander Magazine...although, I have yet to see it, they tell me it was pretty cool. I'll share more about that when I get a copy (hopefully soon).
Also previously:
I have trimmed more long pages...and archived what got trimmed. Our growing archive section is up to 760 pages as of this morning. You'll find past News, Sports, and email from our friends around the world here. Archiving fulfills part of the H4's Mission Statement as I envisioned it, and provides you with zippier current pages of information.
We added George Peabody 's Molokai Advertiser News to the offerings from the H4 Hawai`i Times. Welcome aboard George!
I was interviewed by phone last week by the Australian Broadcasting Company for a weekly (BBC/NPR type) radio program called "Click On" which airs today down there and next Friday. They are fascinated by Internet Radio Hawai`i.
The "Presenter's" name is Stephen Rapley . Mahalo nui loa for your interest Stephen!
I've had requests for technical assistance from CBS Boston ...and others wondering why/how IRH sounds so good ...and I have had inquiries on rates from several mainland ad agencies...
The I.R.H. "studio" now sports a radio station style hybrid phone system in place to do phone interviews with. KUMU's Chief Engineer - my best pal and Mac mentor, Ernie Nearman has assembled that for me. This strange looking device allows me to talk down my mike and listen to the phone with my headphones. It gives much better quality than my yakkin' on a phone and jumping the signal to the computer.
This will also make it unnecessary for musicians and folks with busy schedules to travel all the way over the hill to Kailua to do interviews with us. I hope to begin having some guests later this week. Should make for some interesting programming. Please stay tuned.
Mahalo Nui Loa Big Time Ernie!!!
Rick Schneider and Wa Nui records put us on their promo list...Our Feb 4th show featured new Blues from Mojo Hand, Eric Peterson and others.
Aaron Kaizawa & Michrophone Music distributors was kind enough to put IRH on their radio station promo list (for free record service!!!). Consequently this week we break The Nuuanu Brothers, Palolo, the new Ohta San, Lyle Ritz, and a few more...thanks to Aaron for his kokua.
Kealii Reichel and Fred Krause of Punahele records stopped by the site and said howzit by email (very complimentary) and a fellow named Mark Wilczenski , a graphic artist from the Chicago area donated (free) 4 screen banners and new logo designs for IRH. Mark's paying clients include: Abbott Labs, American Airlines, Bally, Fedex, GM, GTE, Kraft Foods, McDonalds, Mobil Oil, Southland (7-11) and now little Internet Radio Hawai`i...
I'd call all of that making progress...
again, local musicians who wanna talk story to the world should call me at 808-263-6420 or email rabbett@lava.net...Let's say halloo to our 6000+ weekly IRH Listeners!
We host a minimum of 1100 unique domain addresses (persons) each and every day here. Some days we see twice that number. Happily, several of our advertisers have renewed but, we still need many many more. If anyone out there has a business that is on the web and would like more traffic, or greater promotional reach and frequency, or would like to begin their entry onto the WWW, please consider purchasing ad space here. Rates are on board here and I have printed rates and info that I will gladly mail you.
I have been told that our rates are very reasonable, so why aren't more people beating down my door? (what brah...you no like moah beezniss?)
Don't hesitate to call me (808-263-6420) or email me here or try faxing 808-263-8289. Mahalo nui loa.
Our efforts here continue to be well received by many.
I'm thrilled to have gotten some darn cool recognition lately - on January 21st we received a three star award from the McKinley Group in the form of their Magellan Award and then on the 31st I was notified by Point that I.R.H. had been selected as a Top Five % of all Web Sites Award winner...I later learned that we were site of the day on the 20th of January but, I missed it...
We are now serving up RealAudio 2.0 folks! FM quality HiFi...without warbling even...hope you'll enjoy the improved sounds of Internet Radio Hawai`i.
Thanks to our regular contributors, they continue to help me make the H4 Hawai`i's most updated site online. We update more pages of information every day of the week than any other site.
Daily dispatches come in from Dayle Turner , our Sports Archivist; Ryan Ozawa 's Net of Light helps to update local news, James Hudgens sends me a new SurfDive page every single day, Kenui Pope sends us Maui Surf. Susan J 's Hawaiian Music Page, altho a recent addition is already a big hit! Mel AhChing , an original H4 BBS member and desktop publisher, produces the Small Business Hawaii On Line Edition and other cool sections. Ursula Keuper-Bennett & Sharon Westfall keep our Maui News pumpin'.
Recently, I have made more progress in making the H4 more easily navigable. I have installed a bunch of major page links at the top of a lot of our key pages, If you find pages that those buttons should be placed on, please write me and let me know...I'm placing them on pages I think merit the extra steering power.
On October 8th I installed another navigation aid on board the site...please try out our NEW BIG Directory Map Press Here
Folks keep asking me where the H4 is located.....and now I can show you.
I'm really tickled that a little third bedroom production like the H4, can reach out and touch so many people in so many different parts of the world. It's wonderful to be a small part of your lives. Hope you'll bookmark us and come back again and often.
Here's what they had to say about I.R.H.:
"Internet Radio Hawaii- Making History for Hawai`i Nei!
Topic: /Entertainment/Radio/Stations/West/ Review:
There are cheaper radios than your computer, but this 24-hour-a-day station would like to put its news, sports, reggae music and more into your ear anyway. If you have RealAudio, that is. The good part: It gives a download site for it.
Thank you Kris Giannini-Kelly and Apple Computer Inc. for listing us as a "Site to See" in their new Apple Internet Solutions Brochure . If I can be of any assistance to those wishing to become World-Wide Web publishers using Apple Internet Technology, please don't hesitate to write or call.
Thanks to Lee Gomes of the San Jose Mercury News for the interview and write up in the San Jose Mercury News on Monday September 25th. Internet Radio Hawai`i was mentioned in an article called "The Internet gets a voice; next, video"...and altho video is quite a bit of a ways off, yours truly has been studying (ulp) programming and will soon be serving up Quicktime VR images in the form of 360 degree panoramas...these Quicktime VR's will take the form of small downloadable files which will manifest themselves in the form of moveable "live" scenes for all to enjoy...I have no timetable in mind but, am awaiting some new tripod equiptment which should be here in about three weeks.
Thanks also to Eddie Sherman of Midweek for the plug on Internet Radio Hawai`i in his weekly column on September 13th.
A very large Mahalo and CyberKiss &Hug to Meki Cox for the terrific article in Monday's-July 31st Advertiser! (B-4)
Big Mahalos to Wayne Harada for the plug for I.R.H. in Thursday's 7-27-95 Advertiser.
Thanks Netguide (August-page 125) for the nice review and listing. (Rab- trying hard not to use a "!"...he he he) read 'um.
I often wondered if we would make it this far but hey... Come on in - leave your shoes at our front door and envelop yourself in our ever-changing, constantly growing, expression of love for the most special place on Earth: Hawai`i; her people, cultures, amazing spaces and places!
Mahalo (thanks) for coming to visit Hawai`i's biggest and fastest growing web featuring all kinds of Hawai`i info presented to you from the local folks' perspective. Our goal is to present you with useful and educational information from all over Hawai`i...all the major islands plus some you've never heard of, where only the birds and the spirits play...
We're proud that thousands of Web Surfers just like you make us a Virtual Vacation stop each and every day. As you click through our pages, you'll find hundreds of color pictures, loads of articles PLUS: Beachfront Rental Information, a New Album from Lee Eisenstein - Classical Guitarist, Save Our Seas, over 70 pages of Local Recipes PLUS: Hawaiian Goods and Services in our On-Line Hawai`i General Store.