Scott Reilly

Perhaps re-obtain the latest code from CVS? A recent bugfix ( http://mosquito.wordpress.org/view.php?id=606 ) probably solves this problem.

Another alternative:
In index.php, look for start_wp(); and change it to:
start_wp(); $ext_count = 0; $extended_after = 5;
The value of 5 indicates how many posts you want as full; change it to whatever you prefer. Then look for this:
<div class="storycontent">
<?php the_content(); ?>
</div>
And make changes such that it looks like this:
<div class="storycontent">
<?php
($ext_count < $extended_after) ? the_content() : the_excerpt();
$ext_count++;
?>
</div>
Though I haven’t tested it, this should make the first 5 posts of your blog appear in full, then any subsequent posts will appear excerpted (i.e. shorter). Triggering the excerpt by the age of the post is also just as easily possible.

You might want to try the Customizable Post Listings plugin. You can have it list only posts from a certain category, and you can customize the output (i.e. show the date before the name of the post, like you want).

You could try the Customizable Post Listings plugin. With it you can identify author(s) and/or categor(ies). Doesn’t help you with permalinks though.

Darn auto-logout. That was me.

I just released v2.0 of Get Custom Field Values. Among other things, it now includes the function c2c_get_recent_custom() which will retrieve recent custom field values from outside the loop. I haven’t formally announced it yet, but have made it available and would like to know if it works well for others. Please let me know if you give it a try.
(Note for those using older versions of this plugin: I’ve changed the function name get_custom() to c2c_get_custom(), so you’ll have to update your calls to function in index.php if you upgrade.)

Assuming what you’ve said so far about image type (gif) and location (/wp/images/), (where /wp/ is the absolute location to the root of your blog) then the HTML you posted should be:
<div class="meta"><?php _e("Filed under:"); ?> <?php the_category() ?> <?php the_category_image(" ", "", "gif", "/wp/images/"); ?> � <?php the_author() ?> @ <?php the_time() ?> <?php edit_post_link(); ?></div>
Since you still have <?php the_category() ?> in there, you’ll see both the name of the category and the image. Take it out if you only want the image.