Webium

Audio embedding on Blogger and WordPress

2010-01-30T15:17:00.000-08:00

Webium/AUDIO

January 30, 2010 – My friend Andrea Shea King, the journalist, radio broadcaster, columnist and mega-patriot, expressed interest recently in embedding audio clips to her Web site. I promised her and her listeners an easy guide.

Here it is, in five very easy (and free) steps, followed by the code. (Yes, it’s this easy!)

Create a free account (“Personal Account”) at FileDen.com and upload your MP3 files there.
Copy the full URL* of the desired file and paste it somewhere, for use in just a moment.
Copy the Google Reader embed code below and paste it into the HTML editor of your blog post.
Replace MP3_FILE_URL in the code with your actual file URL. Adjust the player width, if necessary.
Publish your post and test the embedded player. Adjust formatting and line breaks as needed.

The code you will use is:

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=MP3_FILE_URL" width="400" height="27" allowscriptaccess="never" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" wmode="window" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" />

That’s it! You’re done! Your player will look like this, with play/pause, volume control, and forward/rewind buttons:

About the code:

You can easily shorten the width of the player if it is too long to fit your blog
You can indent or align the embedded player on your page using regular HTML.
I do not know whether this code plays non-MP3 files. However, if you find that it doesn’t, you can always convert your audio files to MP3 format using the AVS Audio Converter. Also, there are other audio embedding codes available for other file formats if you search for them. One such place is here.

* How to obtain the URL of your file at FileDen.com:

Click on File at the main menu, then Main Folder to view its contents.
Right-click the file’s icon and select Properties…
Click on the URL link next to Linking codes.
Copy the URL to your clipboard.

Your file’s full URL will look something like this:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2010/1/26/2739143/file_name.mp3

Why you should switch to Gmail

2009-11-06T22:50:00.000-08:00

Webium/EMAIL

November 7, 2009 – A friend recently was attacked by an email virus that replicated itself by sending a message to everyone in her address book – twice. Quite a pesky virus, too; based in China, very rare, and no known workaround.

Once her problem was solved, she wrote to me mentioning that she was seriously considering switching from Earthlink to Road Runner with Time Warner.

My suggestion to her is that she also consider getting a Gmail account at the same time – whether or not she switches providers. After compiling the reasons, I thought it would be best to share with everyone:

Here are some things to consider:

Gmail offers virtually unlimited storage (I've had it for 5 years and only am using 10% of my storage). You really never have to delete mail, just archive it. I keep almost everything now, including items with extremely large attachments. And Gmail keeps increasing your storage.
It is free.
It is not tied to a service or a provider that you pay for; if your provider changes, your email does not.
It allows you to accept incoming mail from old email accounts, and even send and receive mail under those old aliases, as if the accounts are still open -- without leaving Gmail.
It is extremely hostile to spam and has set a benchmark in that respect. It is quite a rarity that spam slips by their filter and reaches my inbox; and even when it does, when I mark it as spam, Gmail immediately takes note and filters it from others' inboxes.
Further along those lines, it is not tied to a software program on your computer (like Windows Mail) into which your mail is downloaded to your computer. Such programs are highly susceptible to viruses and bots that use your address book to replicate the virus to your friends. Rather, it is web-based (but you can still use it offline to read and compose mail).
It is very searchable – lots of filters and advanced search capability for finding mail from years and years ago.
It has been around long enough now that everyone trusts it.
You can import all of your old Earthlink mail and contacts into your new Gmail account. Nothing will be lost and you won't have to access both accounts. I checked, and Earthlink is one of the providers supported by this feature. So if she switches, she's in luck.
Gmail is constantly being innovated and upgraded on a scale I've seen in no other email – paid or free. Some of the optional features are so smart you wonder why no one else has thought of them. For example, it can search your message before sending it for words like "attach," "attached," or "attachment," etc., then prompt you if it doesn't actually find an attachment in what you're sending. In other words, it prevents you from accidentally forgetting to attach something. Lots of cool stuff like that.
It integrates with Google's other products. For instance, I use Google Voice (which is free long distance from any phone I own). Google Voice integrates with my Gmail address book, acting as a caller ID for people in my list. And I can save all my voicemails, listen to them online, and send them as email attachments. (Google Voice is a whole other story – amazing.)

– Paul Klenk, Webium

Download and play YouTube videos on your PC

2009-06-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

July 19 – Are you ever disappointed when your favorite videos get deleted by YouTube or their original owners without warning? Well, now you never have to worry about losing them again.

The other day, I Googled “download YouTube videos” and found several sites that claimed they could save videos as playable files on your computer. After a few tests and additional research, I’ve documented for you a quick and easy way to do just that.

Here’s one easy step: Visit SaveTube.com and paste your YouTube video URL into the box labeled “Video to Save,” then hit “GO.” You will be prompted to scroll down the page; look for the DOWNLOAD link and click it.

Your video will then download in .flv format. You’re done!

You will need a program to play your video in .flv format, so go to CNET.com and download their FLV Player. It works like a charm, and can be viewed in regular, double, or full screen. It will even play your video over and over in a continuous loop.

– Paul Klenk, Webium

YouTube Playlists: Tips for a Reader

2007-07-19T22:44:00.001-07:00

Webium/ENTERTAINMENT

July 20 – A reader from my home page writes:

"I just watched a few of your favorite YouTube videos! My favorite is Groucho Marx. I used to watch those reruns on Nick at Nite years ago. I wish they would show them again."

Well, they do show them again, on YouTube. Several Marx Brothers movies, and many others, are posted in their entirety, split into ten-minute videos.

You can watch them in sequence using Playlists, a YouTube feature which lets anyone make a group of favorite videos, in the order they desire. This makes it easier to find all the videos for one movie, and makes it easier to play them, too. Just one click does it.

For a demonstration, click here:

Animal Crackers

You'll see all the videos posted in sequence on the left. On the right, look for the link that reads "Play All Videos," and click it.

You're now watching the entire Marx Brothers movie Animal Crackers on the Internet!

– Paul Klenk, Webium

Integrity on the Internet: My emerging publishing philosophy

2007-07-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

Webium/PHILOSOPHY

July 19 – I am doing something I've wanted to do for ten years: Establish a Web presence that integrates all my ideas and interests into one place. Almost from the beginning of my first attempts at building Web pages, I've wanted to be "whole" on the Internet. Even since my days at Angelfire (and yes, those pages still exist, but I can no longer log in!), I've wanted everything to cascade down from one central site.

In 2007, it's happening.

It took some words from my pastor to help this come together. He spoke about integrity, and what that means (don't worry; I won't start preaching at you!):

Integrity comes from the same word as integer, which means a whole number. Dr. Keller pointed out that a person works best as a whole person, rather than splitting himself up, showing one side to one person, but hiding parts of himself. This sort of person behaves differently around different groups of friends. And his friends from one part of his life don't know his friends from the rest of his life. The person is broken, or fractured (like the word fraction). This is a person without integrity.

Sort of like Relationship George and Independent George.

So what does this have to do with my "emerging publishing philosophy"?

If you visit my main page, www.paulklenk.us, you will see that while I segregate my blogging into specialty sites (humor, faith, career, politics), I link them all back to paulklenk.us, my umbrella site.

Here's an example: Until recently, I haven't had a site truly dedicated to my interest in the Internet and Web publishing. But my interest is very strong; lately I've been blogging on the main site on this subject. And I expect to do more.

So today I created this new segregated site, Webium, where I will focus purely on the Web. When I publish something here that may interest my entire audience, I can reference it briefly on The Front Page of my home site, the page with highlights of my work that week, with links to items of interest.

When I am working with online communities with the same interest, like Blogcrowds, I can go by the handle Webium and link my profile here. This can be my Internet sandbox. If someone from that community wants to know me better, more fully, they can click on up to paulklenk.us and get an integrated picture of my life.

One positive result to this practice is that I'm behaving myself on the Internet. I'm more civil, more polite, use my time more wisely and productively, and waste it less and less on trival issues, negativity, or people who bring me down. I have to, because anywhere I register an identity, that identity can eventually be traced back to my whole person, my complete identity. I think twice before posting. And when I do decide to post at length, or in depth, I do it at one of my own pages first, then link to it instead of dumping it all on someone else's site.

I've always wanted to do this, but I lacked the tools and skills, and was always overwhelmed. Simply, I had far too much to say to get everything organized in a short period.

Now that I've learned to set up a blog that looks good and functions well, I have been able to set up my specialty blogs, one by one, covering my strong interests. The vessel is constructed.

Now all I have to do is start filling it. And that's easy to do, because there's a lot of me.

– Paul Klenk, Webium

Blogcrowds: Your blog, above the crowd

2007-07-19T15:13:00.001-07:00

Webium/DESIGN

July 19 – Blogs compete for eyes, but only if they're truly competitive. Most blogs don't even come close.

A blogger is a one-man shop: Writer, reporter, editor, designer, advertiser, artist, promoter, and sometimes even an audience of one. The best bloggers are either good at everything, or learn from the best when they need it.

Today I'm recommending Blogcrowds, a site where designers share the best of their open-source blog templates, compatible with Blogger, Wordpress, and Gecko and Fly. Some of them are original, like this one, and others are modified templates from the sites mentioned.

Blogcrowds takes the best templates and makes them better. They also have an online forum where you can post questions and get help from the community.

Yesterday I redesigned my home site, www.paulklenk.us, using a beautiful template by Ian Main called Green Marinée. Ian created it in blue and orange variations as well, so I chose blue for my site, as my colors were already established and I liked them too well to change them.

With a bit of tweaking (see related article), I was able to make it look exactly the way I wanted. Now I'm on to redesigning my political site, LoudCitizen.org, using the classic Green Marinée in the three column format.

– Paul Klenk, Webium

Finding Lost Colleagues, Easily

2007-07-15T15:04:00.000-07:00

Webium/CAREER

July 15 – This week I finally located someone I’ve been trying to find for years. She worked with me for a few months at my first job on Wall Street, and I needed to reconnect for both personal and business reasons. But the company came and went pretty quickly, making that difficult.

I found her using LinkedIn.com, a career networking site. I also tracked down a college friend from choir, a former teacher and his son (see above story), and about ten other former coworkers.

After you register there and enter the companies you’ve worked for, it gives you a list of others who worked at that company. Or, in the case of my friend, you can just type in their name and see if they come up. This is handy when they’ve decided not to list a company on their resume (which was the case with her).

Then you send a private message to the ones you know, and it’s up to them to respond. When they do (and I say when, because that's what the site is all about), your list of contacts grows and grows.

You can also use the site to formally register professional references. This is valuable, because you can accumulate and store as many references as you like, and every time someone needs them, you can refer them to LinkedIn instead of asking your references to make themselves available for multiple calls. And you can decide what level of public or private access you set for your online profile.

Thanks go out to my friend Joe for letting me know about this. If you check it out, look me up there and send me a message through the site. And don’t be surprised if you find a few long-lost friends or colleagues.

– Paul Klenk, Webium

Best Free Website Publisher I’ve Seen

2007-07-11T15:36:00.000-07:00

Webium/PUBLISH

July 11 – The discovery of Google Page Creator was a highlight of my week. Google keeps offering more and more to Web users for free. Even in its beta form, this page builder is the best of its kind I’ve seen. Imagine how great it will be in its final version!

I was so impressed that I migrated my recently launched career website there, and gave it a glorious new design. Hope you like it. And I created a new business site for a consultant friend.

There’s an art to getting the most out of free webpages. Template sites offer less flexibility than those built “from scratch,” so creative work-arounds are needed to make them elegant and functional. What you’re reading is example of a free site made to function to its fullest potential.

If you like my career site, and know someone on a budget who could use a professional website, let me know. I’d love more clients, and I’m very affordable. And now that I’m a Google Checkout merchant, I can invoice them by email and they can pay online.

– Paul Klenk, Webium