On one site, we found we could not make the player work if we chose to use the optional MP3 download link as well as the player. On another, the player would appear in the preview, then disappear some time between then and publishing. Some conflict with the most recent WordPress versions, perhaps.

Unfortunately, I left it about an hour too late to call BYOAudio - timezone differences can be a challenge. I’ve sent a support email, but of course am not holding my breath on that.

In my search today for other options, I’ve come across a few references to the One Pixel Out player and have installed the plugin for that.

I’ve taken the code from an MP3 file stored on BYOAudio and will now see how that goes.

This is an interview with Peter Evans-Greenwood of Capgemini: I published it previously on my Social Media Show site.

According to the information provided with the plugin, my setting of the options should mean that a player appears at the bottom of the post. That does not appear in the preview, so I’m going to publish the post now and see what happens with the player. Or doesn’t!

Update: I can’t see any player here

Update 2: I’ve now followed the instructions and enclosed the link with [audio:http://www…(absolute path, ie. full url] with the result that in the preview at least I see and can use a player button, but the url shows up - progress, but more figuring out to do.

Update 3: as soon as I re-posted, I saw that I’d not completely changed the link to the new [audio:http://…] format.

Update 4: looking at some of the other posts here as part of today’s experimentation, I see that each now has a player button - so I’m changing the coding of the link above, back from the [audio: etc] format to a “regular” URL link

Update 5: I’ve decided that to provide a link for people to download the audio file to their own mp3 player, the easiest course of action at the moment is to do it manually, i.e. just type in Download MP3 and give that a hyperlink to the file - have just done that at it works in preview mode.

Download MP3

I have just installed Taragana’s Del.icio.us MP3 Player WordPress Plugin.

Here is the link I want to test:

Interview with Suzie Cheel about her Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).

I would have been able to capture the bold announcement in the sand:

LANNA WAS HEAR

Washed away now, no doubt.

Of course we know from the OECD that Australian students have one of the highest literacy rates in the world. We also know that the test does not include speling - or even gramer.

I feel for the generation or two of kids and young adults who have been so seriously short-changed in the cause of educational “reform”. How seriously can a prospective employer in, say, a law firm or a consultancy business be expected to take a young graduate who can’t spell and has no understanding of grammar?

Of course, every good teacher wants to prepare his or her students as well as possible for life, but it doesn’t have to be an either/or thing. As a high school history teacher I found the curriculum very old-fashioned and restrictive, but I knew my students were going to be examined on that. I did not feel I had any right to limit their potential because I had a supposedly more elevated view of the field of history. My solution was to develop ways to fast-track them through the “official” material, put the onus on them do to more at home and then devote as much class time as possible to really getting into history as an exciting intellectual discipline, teaching them how to fish in those waters, so to speak.

But no worries, the OECD says we’re fine on the old literacy front, mate. And we can just download stuff now and learn from our iPods, can’t we?

Now, what was that cricket score? 

 

So until I can decide what to do next, I’ve gone for one of the pre-loaded ones, WordPress Classic by David Shea. Quite nice - probably not what I want longer term.

Not very beachy

The beach is important for me.

I grew up in a beachside suburb of Sydney and spent a lot of time on the beach, in spite of and to the detriment of my Celtic complexion - a Scottish doctor once said to me that he and I were really meant to live in the mist, not under a bright Australian sky.

Nowadays I take better care of my skin and I still love the beach. Walking on the beach most mornings and having a swim in the surf during the warmer months (i.e. most of the year here on Australia’s Gold Coast) are my favoured way of getting set for a happily productive day.

A whale-sighting, as we were blessed with this morning, is a bonus!

This “Blog From The Beach” site is an expression of that enjoyment of the beach and also a place of aspiration.

Aspiration about perfecting the way I want to work and live.

I often think my ideal way to work would be (will be?) propped under a bit of shade on the beach with a laptop and wireless connectivity, blogging away.

The bigger picture is that blogging, like other “Web 2.0″ tools, helps small business owners and solopreneurs have more flexibility than ever before in modes of operating and in lifestyle choices.

So the metaphor for life and business is that technology, and especially the kind of socially connected, easily accessible technology which blogging represents, provides greater choice, more options, for those who want to do business in a different way and to achieve a more consistent and sustained work-life balance.

“Blog From The Beach” is also the name of my ezine, which takes off where a couple of other ezines left off (a bit too long ago, I admit) - my “Thinking Home Business Insider” (or THB Insider) and “Perfect Days” ezines.

The ezine will be posted here and either delivered direct or notified by email. Or people can choose to pick it up via an RSS feed.

Now I need to get working on the first issue of the ezine.