The focus of this episode was on Educating The Family: fathers educating sons about issues of life, mission and joy of schooling at home, and the experience of nontraditional students.

Guest speakers discussed:

• The Importance of Fathers Talking With Their Sons About Sex
• The Homeschooling Mission
• Life of A NonTraditional Student

Listen to Some Highlights

UPDATE: Now you can select just the segments you want to hear or listen to them all! How cool is that?! I removed the BlogTalkRadio player because I edited the audio and put all the segments into a playlist below. Can’t see all the segments? Use the vertical bar to slide up and down to select the segment you want to hear. Then, just click on it. Enjoy!

MORE

Want more details on the process? Click here to read the synopsis of the process, an outline of the topics of this first broadcast, and some highlights from the discussion.

Catch Future Shows

Wednesday Break With TaylorThyme on BlogTalkRadio
Listen to Taylorthyme on Blog Talk Radio Wednesdays at 2:00pm (1 hour long)

Listener dial-in number: (347) 850-1827

Main Page: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/taylorthyme

Topics vary. Some chosen by guests. Some chosen by me. Feel free to suggest a topic.

Thanks for listening!

Tune in over at Ustream.TV

If you want to ask questions or participate in the chat, register for a free Ustream.tv account in advance.

See you there!

Episode #2: Thursday, April 08, 2010, 7:15pm

This is my first (real) video recorded on Ustream internet TV. It has a few quite a few stumbles, mumbles, coughs, and other blemishes, but I decided to let it stand.

Although its not too bad, parts of it can still be viewed as an exercise in what not to do.

Ustream.tv is Hot Social Media Topic

While learning how to use Ustream, I’ve been monitoring any chatter on Twitter about it. Shortly after I recorded this video, I saw a tweet in which someone indicated a concern about doing a live broadcast (or recording a video) on Ustream; another person was proud to have participated in a Ustream broadcast via Skype. Ustream.tv is definitely a hot topic!

Not Perfect, But Good Enough

I can’t say I didn’t have a bit of fear about actually releasing my video to the public. Who doesn’t? Whether it’s your first blog posting, first orignal article, first web page, first radio broadcast, first Squidoo lens . . . It is difficult to say “good enough!” and let the public be further judge.

While this first one is not perfect (none of them will ever be perfect!), it is D.O.N.E. I enjoyed doing it and learned something in the process. You won’t see me in the video as I was testing how to “push” images and such while broadcasting.

Watch It’s TaylorThyme! As Seen On Ustream

Watch It’s TaylorThyme! Episode #1 below, then leave a comment below or over at the TaylorThyme Ustream.tv site.

TaylorThyme on Ustream.tv – First Video Recorded on Internet TV

More Info?

For a more in-depth (and technical) blow-by-blow of what programs I used, how I did “this or that,” read the post on my CoachNotes blog over at Local Business Coach Online. (Check back; that post will be ready in a day or two.)

Visit My Internet TV, Online Radio, and Curated Video Sites

TaylorWebVideo Channel on Magnify.net :: RSS Feed

TaylorWebStuff Channel on YouTube :: RSS Feed

TaylorThyme Internet TV Channel on Ustream.tv :: RSS Feed

TaylorThyme on BlogTalkRadio :: RSS Feed

Go see for yourself. Kinda sweet. Kinda short. Really simple (not like the claims made for Really Simple Syndication).

Clicking here will get you a random entry from Vernessa Taylor’s Tumblr blog. (Not very original title, huh?)

Why do I use it?

I had to ask myself this question again. No, really. Five months after I signed up for one, I had to do a Google search and ask the question, “What is tumblr used for?” I didn’t see the point. And I didn’t even remember what inspired me to get one, anyway. Other than the fact that I could get my name. (Don’t you just hate when somebody else gets your name? Even if it’s their name too!)

The search . . . Thankfully, I came across one tumblr blog in my search that showed someone actually using it. Nevermind the fact that the writing I happened upon was one in which the author talked about why she was abandoning tumblr. Oh, my!

At least I could see how Melanie Chang had been using it. That sold me. I know, that seems a little twisted, so let me explain.

• She wrote little posts. Little gems, really.
• She posted pictures.
• She posted links.
• She posted quotes.
• She used it for notes – to herself.

Just what I needed! Something between a full-blown blog (I have too many) and a Twitter stream (got one of those too). And (thank God!) it’s not like FaceBook or MySpace or … whatever.

Oh, why was she abandoning it? For something as mundane as it didn’t show up in Google properly, not enough S.E.O. juice. (Don’t know what that means?) Who cares?

I’m liking tumblr. Two thumbs up. And, thanks Melanie!

Go check out mine. Get your own if it suits you. Did I mention that it’s free?

Leave a comment. Let me know what you think of Tumblr, my tumblog, this post … Just say it!

I had planned to test the inclusion of video using the Kaltura (www.kaltura.org) open source project tools in this post (hence the title).

Actually, it’s not happening yet.

I’m still trying to figure out how to get the editing features of Kaltura on this site. I’ve set up the account and read through skimmed over the documentation, but I’ll have to put in more time to get it going. I’ll update you on Kaltura when I’ve got a better handle on it.

UPDATE: Managed to get a player installed.  (I think I was having a cache problem.)  We’ll see how it looks after the video conversion process is complete.

The video below was inserted using Kaltura’s All-In-One Video widget for WordPress. However, elsewhere on the blog I also insert Kaltura-managed video using other methods.

[kaltura-widget wid="7cm8zcop3c" width="575" height="480" addpermission="" editpermission="" /]

Open Source Lovers and Techies

More Kaltura Stuff: Solutions Descriptions – Downloads – Project Page – The Technology

They come in three sizes (measured in pixels): 128 x 128, 256 x 256, and 512 x 512.  The size shown below is a thumbnail which has been reduced to about 150 x150.  To see the largest size, just click on an image.  It will open in a lightbox; use the forward and back arrows to see each one.

I’ve packaged them all up in a ZIP file for your convenience.  Look below the images to download them when you’re ready (or click here to download now).  Enjoy!

Packaged in a ZIP file  . . Click below to download.

[download id="2"]

Disqus plugin for WordPress insists on remaining on Pages, even after comments have been turned off for pages. This hack removes Disqus from pages in the Hybrid News Theme.

After a fair amount of research into how it would affect comments on my WordPress blog, I settled on using the Disqus Commenting System.

The only aggravation is its insistence on remaining on Pages, even after comments have been turned off.

Code Fix

This post shows a hack for removing it from pages entirely, whether comments are ON or OFF.

Changes based on Disqus plug version 2.11.4349

UPDATE: Version at time of this writing is 2.12.7121. Disqus may have fixed this issue since the post was written.

// For comment count script.
if ( !get_option('disqus_cc_fix') ) {
	add_action('loop_end', 'dsq_comment_count');
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'dsq_comment_count');

I removed: add_action(‘loop_end’, ‘dsq_comment_count’); so now it looks like:

// For comment count script.
if ( !get_option('disqus_cc_fix') ) {
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'dsq_comment_count');

Thanks to wiselywoven for sharing his fix over in the ThemeHybrid Forums

Get them now, no strings attached.

Plugin Conflict: Organize Series and Ozh’s Admin Drop Down Menu

Upgraded and Activated Organize Series Plugin

Two plugins I really love are Ozh’s Admin Drop Down Menu and Darren Ethier’s Organize Series. Organize Series has gone through several iterations recently. Being busy, I hadn’t upgraded the last few times, so there is a little nag screen in the admin menu gently reminding you to re-set the admin options for the plugin. I was tired of looking around it to set up the features of my new Hybrid theme (News), so I decided to do the upgrade for Organize Series and set the admin options.

Did that, and whaddaya know? I started getting that deaded blank page again when clicking on Posts. Actually at this point, I didn’t know the blank page had anything to do with the Organize Series plugin. From upgrading it, I went back to the Hybrid settings and continued answering the various questions. When I got to the options for setting the featured content and categories, I needed to look at previous posts to find their category numbers. Clicked on Posts … That’s when I got the blank page, which is edit.php, by the way.

Troubleshooting

It’s usually a bad idea to race off to do something unrelated to what you were doing when you encountered trouble. I already know this, yet, off I go.

• Thinking the issue might have something to do with permalinks, I headed over and reset the permalinks. (Not a bad idea when you add a new theme, but it didn’t help.)
• Considering Hybrid has advanced category and tag management, I opened a few posts, selected/deselected categories, and saved the posts. No joy.
• Before I got carried away with trying stuff, I stopped all such activity!

Solution

I finally remembered that I’d updated the Organize Series plugin. About this same time, I recalled working on a client’s site not long ago and running into the blank page issue when trying to select Posts. The answer then, though I don’t know how I arrived at it, was to uninstall the Ozh Admin Drop Down Menu plugin. So now I knew what would (possibly) fix the problem. But I didn’t want to uninstall the menu plugin! I decided to uninstall the Organize seies plugin. Voila!

Others Having Same Issue With Plugin Conflicts

Googling For Answers

After Goggling for “ozh Admin Drop Down Menu edit post loads blank page + conflict with Organize Series,” I found two posts that mentioned the issue. One was from a fellow who commented at the Admin Menu developer’s site that he’d had the same problem and just disabled the Admin Menu plugin. The other was from the plugin’s developer, who indicated that his own blog is starting to be afflicted with the blank page issue. See comment, and this forum posting and this forum posting.

Developers’ Responses

Of course, the problem remains how to get the two plugins to play nicely. I guess that isn’t a problem. Over in the Organize Series plugin forums, one poster says Ozh (developer of Admin Drop Down Menu) sent him there because the problem originates with Organize Series. And here’s the final word on how the Organize Series plugin developer feels about it:

Unfortunately, I have neither the time nor the willpower to try and troubleshoot this issue – it is clearly a plugin conflict and whether it’s the way Organize Series is coded or Ozh’s is coded (since he is a more seasoned coder I suspect it’s me) I won’t work on trying to make our two plugins play nicely. So, that means if Ozh won’t do anything you’ll have to pick what you want loaded…sorry.

Aw, shucks! So that means, I’ll have to make a choice.