Where are the plug-in settings in 2.7?

The administration menu is located down the left side of your screen in the dashboard. Exact location of a plugins settings may vary with the particular plugin. Generally speaking, you will find plugin settings in the drop down menus at the left. Sometimes under “settings”, sometimes under appearance, depending on the plugin. In some cases (as with “StatPress”), an entirely new section is created in the menu. In some instances, you may even find an additional “settings” option located in the activated plugin description area itself.

NONE of my plug-ins (and I use about 15) have their settings appear in any of those places. Now what?

my only choice was to use 2.7

You can download any version you want.

Link to your blog? (if your directories are browseable), if not, can you list the contents of /wp-content/plugins/ ?

I don’t know if it is browseable or not, but here it is:
https://youtubesecretweapon.com/blog

And though Sociable for instance has links that imply they lead to an area where you could accomplish something, they in fact, go nowhere. These are all plug-ins I use successfully on older blogs.
(WP 2.6.3)

Here are the plug-ins:

Akismet 2.2.3
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put <?php akismet_counter(); ?> in your template. See also: WP Stats plugin. By Matt Mullenweg.
Activate | Edit

All in One SEO Pack 1.4.6.15
Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog. By Michael Torbert.
Activate | Edit

Audio player 1.2.3
Highly configurable single track mp3 player. By Martin Laine.
Activate | Edit

Enhanced Recent Posts 1.1.0
A plugin for wordpress which enhances the built-in “Recent Posts” widget. Please make a donation if you are satisfied. By Vincent Prat.
Activate | Edit

Exclude Pages from Navigation 1.4
Provides a checkbox on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation. IMPORTANT NOTE: This will remove the pages from any “consumer” side page listings, which may not be limited to your page navigation listings. By Simon Wheatley.
Activate | Edit

FeedBurner FeedSmith 2.3.1
Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. By FeedBurner.
Activate | Edit

Google Analyticator 2.3
Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics. After enabling this plugin visit the options page and enter your Google Analytics’ UID and enable logging. By Ronald Heft, Jr..
Activate | Edit

Google XML Sitemaps 3.1.2
This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. Configuration Page By Arne Brachhold.
Activate | Edit

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer 2.2.5
Saves your wordpress blog from getting tagged as ping spammer by installing this plugin. Adjust your settings here. By MaxBlogPress.
Activate | Edit

My Category Order 2.7
My Category Order allows you to set the order in which categories will appear in the sidebar. Uses a drag and drop interface for ordering. Adds a widget with additional options for easy installation on widgetized themes. Visit the My Category Order page after updating WordPress to apply essential file patches. By froman118.
Activate | Edit

Podcasting 2.0b12
Adds full podcasting support. By Ronald Heft, Jr..
Activate | Edit

Post Template 3.2.0
A plugin that allows you to create post templates in order to save time writing posts having the same structure. This plugin makes use of the excellent other plugin “Manage Pages Custom Columns” by Edward Dale. By Vincent Prat.
Activate | Edit

Sociable 3.0.2
Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites. Go to Settings -> Sociable for setup. By Joost de Valk.
Activate | Edit

TinyMCE Advanced 3.2
Enables advanced features and plugins in TinyMCE. By Andrew Ozz.
Activate | Edit

What Would Seth Godin Do 1.6
Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and another to return visitors. By Richard K Miller.
Activate | Edit

WordPress Database Backup 2.2.2
On-demand backup of your WordPress database. Navigate to Tools → Backup to get started. By Austin Matzko.

Thanks!

I was just viewing your source code, and I did not see any references to your plugin path at all. I do have a plugin in common with you. I am using the audio player plugin, and the settings are indeed there for me. They can be found in the “settings” area on the sidebar of the dashboard. I can reach this on your site;

[audio src="https://youtubesecretweapon.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/audio-player/test.mp3" /]

so I know the plugin is there, but there was no reference to the activated player in your source.

I would check the simple things first. (you probably already have)

a) are they properly extracted, and not nested.
b) are they all activated.
c) file and folder ownership and permissions are correct