I've been procrastinated unpacking/preparing for my HK trip by researching two very useful web software updates.
First, MovableType and LiveJournal now both support OpenID. The MovableType plugin is here and simple to install. You then login at this LiveJournal page. So now I have a LiveJournal page, so all you LJ users can "friend" me (or whatever you call it in your universe). The benefits of this new standard are that I can easily comment on LJ posts and now have one page to view all my friends' recent LJ updates. However, I'm not sure how to syndicate this blog to my LJ page...perhaps some Google searches will reveal the answer.
Second, GMail now supports multiple accounts, which is perfect timing for my move to Princeton. Now, instead of having to use Princeton's webmail to get my "From:" address to read abstraus@princeton.edu, I can use GMail. I noticed this feature when I was setting up another GMail account for myself, and looked at the Settings page. Instead of having just an "Google Account Settings" tab, GMail display an "Accounts" tab with the option to add email addresses. I checked my main GMail account, and this tab was nowhere to be found, so I wrote Google Labs asking for this feature, and today when I checked my GMail, there it was. Coincidence? Hard to say, but if you don't have this feature on your GMail account, just wait a couple days.
The one downside is that you have one "default" account, and you have to switch mail to other accounts manually. I assume, though, that filters will soon have an "assign to _____ account" option.
not knowing much about openid and how lj is integrating, i'm not sure how different it would be to syndicate what you have here to an lj page than it would normally be... but for normal websites at least, it's pretty easy.
before google, i'd check out livejournal's faq; they're usually pretty comprehensive, though i haven't seen much on openid yet. of course, it's a relatively new development for them, so i'm sure they're working on it.
if you can't find out there, send the support staff an e-mail. they're fabulous, and i've never had a question answered in more than a few days.
I did some researching, including LJ's FAQ, and though some people have requested this feature, it does not appear to be functional yet. I'll check back every so often: one of these days it'll work how I want it.
Thanks for friending me :)