New vBulletin features

[DrRalph]

There are a couple of new features that showed up in the updated version of vBulletin we installed yesterday. First, at the bottom of each thread, you'll see a box marked "tags." The author (or anyone else) can add a word or two (up to 25 characters) that describe or relate to this thread; this is called a tag. I've added one to this thread, you'll see the word "VBulletin" in the tag box. You can search for a subject that is addressed in a tagged thread just like you can use the search tool, but it looks like it's a little more specific. At the end of any thread, just click the word "tag," you'll see some of the most recent and frequent tags, you can click on them, or type a word in the search box. Again, anyone can add a tag to any thread, just type it in.

You can also access a tag-related search by clicking "Search" on the menu bar: not only does the standard search function appear, but you can also type in a key word and search for tags. Or, scroll down just a little, and you'll see 70 of the most common tags, just click on one, and a number of related threads will appear.

The second new feature is "Contacts and Friends;" go to your user control panel (far left on the black menu bar at the top of this page), and click on "Contacts and Friends" to access the feature. You can ask another member to be your "friend," and if they agree, their info will stay in that area. It makes it easy to send them a PM, and helps you keep track of the folks you frequently correspond with. You can even have a sustained "chat" with a friend via PM, and you can watch the progress of the conversation. Check out Patti Puzo's profile, has already recruited several friends.

You can also build a personal photo album(s) in your profile area. Click on the "Photo Albums" link, follow the prompts to add an album and upload pictures to it. Your friends can then visit and see your photos.

To access the Calendar, just click on "Calendar" on the menu bar at the top of any Forum page. At the bottom right is a box that says "Jump to month;" select the month you want to access, then click "Go." You can use the "ranged event" feature to post your trip dates. Name the even your username, so people can tell at a glance who's going to be where. The only quirk is that you have to input start and finish times before it will accept your post; just use noon. You can add details, such as where you'll be staying, who's coming with you, whatever. Have at it!

Again, thanks for your support, and we hope you enjoy the new features.

[DrRalph]

If you've got some photos you would like to put on a permanent display, try making a photo album. Click on your User CP, then Photos and Albums, Make a new album, and upload your photos into the album. You can add comments to each, and when people visit your space (just click on any user's name) they can see your albums. Try clicking on my name at the top of this post.

[DrRalph]

We've had a couple of folks ask how to do this, so here goes. Before we start, please be advised that working with video on a computer can be one of most frustrating things you'll ever attempt. I suggest cursing at the monitor, it may save you from striking it or another piece of hardware and causing permanent and costly damage.

First, edit your piece of video down to less than ten minutes, and we suggest saving it in an mpeg or Windows movie format. Resolution and file size greatly affect how long it takes to upload your video to YouTube. Most videos will be OK with a res of 320 x 240 and file size under 100 MB. If you get up around roughly 640 x 480 pixels and 200-400 MB, you're looking at maybe three hours or so for YouTube to upload and process the video, and the finished resolution will be only marginally improveed. If you save your video as an avi file, it will take forever to upload it. YouTube has reasonably understandable directions for uploading video. If you haven't already, sign up and work through the links they provide for processing and uploading video.

When you're ready to make your post, click New Thread or Reply as you otherwise would when you want to make a post. DO NOT CLICK ON THE SWITCH EDITOR MODE ICON [a/A at the top right] or change fonts, just use the default (Verdana/2) for now, we'll handle that later. Type whatever text you want to precede your video, then skip 2 lines and type the "movie code" of the video clip you want to embed. You'll find it after the "=" character in the URL of the page containing your video. It should look something like this: H8zL3qXvbhU. It must be exactly correct for this to work, we suggest you copy it to your clipboard, then paste it into you post.

After you have done that, highlight the movie code character string with your mouse cursor, and click the red YouTube icon at the top right of the compose window, it's right next to the little blue php icon.

We suggest you stop here and hit "submit reply;" if you've done the procedure correctly, you should see a static video image with a "play" icon in its center. Just click on the icon and the video should play.

Things get a little trickier if you want to change the font of the text above the video. We suggest you highlight it with your cursor, then select the font, size, and color of the text. After you do this, you may see the string

[youtube]xxxxxxxxx[/youtub]

after your text, where "xxxxxx" is the movie code. This string must all be on the same line, no spaces, nothing else on that line. If you really want to abuse yourself and you think you've got the hang of this, you can enter some more text and even another video in the same post, just use the same rules. If you think you are close but just can't get it, send me a PM (just click on my name anywhere) and we'll try to fix it.

Check out the swimming pigs in Exuma, speakers on! (we didn't shoot this):

[DrRalph]

I have a SonyPC1 video camcorder (no longer made) that records video/audio to miniDV tape. Most of the new camcorders record to a small DVD, you can take it out of the camcorder and instantly play it back unedited on a DVD player.

That having been said, not many of your friends and neighbors, or even you for that matter, want to watch 1-2 hours of unedited video. When we take a long vacation, I usually come back with about three hours of video, and I try to get it edited down to less than an hour.

Most modern camcorders have a "firewire" (IE1394) output that allows you to upload your video onto your computer hard drive, then you use software to edit it. I have used six different editing programs, they are all buggy and difficult to use, but in my opinion the least painful is Pinnacle's Studio 12 Plus. It's $100, and spend another $10 for the manual. You edit your video, then write it onto a DVD that you can watch on your home DVD player. (Having used Studio 12 Plus for about a month, I am beginning a major fan.)

You'll want to make separate clips to upload onto the YouTube site: each clip has to be less than 10 minutes in length, and have a filesize under 1 GB. Use a resolution of 320 x 240, and keep the file size under 100 MB; otherwise, it takes all day to upload, and the final image won't be any better because they heavily compress it. Studio 12-Plus has a great feature: it will "automatically" format your (ten minutes or less) video and directly upload it to your YouTube page, making it very simple to post your videos on the web.

You can buy excellent quality camcorders for $3-400 now, and if you'll take some time to learn the editing software, it can yield a crisp product that you and your family and friends will enjoy watching. Just make sure the camcorder outputs video in a way that your computer can "eat" it; i.e., if your camcorder outputs firewire, make sure your computer has a firewire input. Many newer camcorders record to an onboard hard disc, or a DVD, and output through a USB 2.0 port, which is available on almost any computer. Otherwise, you have to do what Willy's brother did: buy a card you install in your computer that accommodates the output of the camcorder. And let me tell you, that is big fun.