Stephen Gass, the inventor of SawStop has done something extraordinary. He created a table saw which will stop the cutting blade within 5 milliseconds of detecting contact between your finger and the table saw blade with the purpose of preventing amputation of your “digits”

I have been a “part time” woodworking hobbyist for years, and the most stressful part of the hobby for me is when I have to deal with my table saw. “Knock on wood,” I have never been injured yet, probably because I am so extremely careful. However, there are circumstances which can occur even when taking precautions that can end up pulling your hand into a spinning table saw blade - and the best thing you can hope for when that happens is finger amputation; there can be much worse injuries if anything higher up than your fingers get pulled in.

The saw looks like an excellent wood cutting tool it is apparent that the team which Stephen put together designed the table saw “on purpose” - it does not appear that they have traded any features or functions which you would expect from a machine at this price point - however, I have not personally tried this one out yet - although, I am saving my pennies to get one! I would love to get one to try out and review on one of my insurance sites. The implications of this type of machine are far reaching.

In my opinion, I believe insurance companies should be falling over themselves to provide worker’s compensation discounts to shops who use this type of machine.

Check out their site and watch their videos, most importantly, if you are a woodworker, take the leap and get this saw, or advocate its use in your local high school - This machine does good.

The power of video on the internet will never cease to amaze me. I had not heard anything about Randy Pausch until I was voting on video’s at YouTube 2007 Video Awards. I realize that I am a bit behind the curve on this one, as Randy mentions in the video to the left that there are over 6,000,000 people who have viewed his Last Lecture video which can be seen on YouTube.

The video included in this article is Randy’s testimony in front of Congress on March 13, 2008. Randy’s Last Lecture struck a cord with me because it is inline with the recent article I wrote titled How Are You Spending The Time You Have?

Isn’t it interesting that at times like these old proverbs ring especially true - that when the student is willing the master (teacher) appears. Perhaps, in a larger sense, pancreatic cancer is on its last leg.

On Randy’s site, he suggests that you support curing pancreatic cancer by supporting or getting involved with the Lustgarten foundation and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

As many of my subscribers know, I am a HUGE supporter of the March of Dimes - and after watching the work that Randy is doing in spite of the horrific disease which is killing his body but not succeeding in killing his Spirit, I find myself inspired to do my part to help - if you feel moved in your Spirit - please listen and do your part, no matter how large or small, whether you are lead to provide financial or moral support…

TOGETHER WE CAN HELP RANDY AND OTHERS AFFLICTED WITH PANCREATIC CANCER TO BEAT IT BACK SO IT WILL NO LONGER HAVE PURCHASE OVER ANY OTHER LIFE

Please post your comments here to let us and the world know what you will do.

A little video about how to use Microsoft Excel to set up tracking code URLs for Clickbank with some tips on how to stop the formulas from auto-iterating when using the auto-fill handle feature in Microsoft Excel by using the $ operator in the formula.

If you have a difficult time watching the video here, please go to YouTube and view it in a larger size there.

The main reason for the video is that I was having a lot of difficulty yesterday getting this Excel spreadsheet to work the way I wanted it to, so I did some research and found the solution. I’m certain if I had difficulty figuring this method out, there are others out there who have had similar experiences. By recording this video, hopefully, I won’t have to “figure it out again” either - I can just come back here and be reminded how to do it *grins*

A very quick summary of features covered in the video:

• Use the & to append multiple cells together - for example: =c2&A4
• Use the $ to freeze a formula on one cell in the spreadsheet - for example =$C$2 to hold the formula on that cell while using the drag autofill feature in Excel

I hope you guys find this useful, please let me know what you think!

Even though I hate that we allow ourselves to be so manipulated by marketing B.S. for things like the iPhone, the PS3 and Google - I have to admit and in the vein of not taking myself so seriously… this is a neat little routine!

I have spent some time thinking about this over the past year - How am I spending the time I have left on the planet?

I have a wonderful family who I am very proud of - my kids still ask me to be involved with them every day (which I love and at the same time know will eventually stop as they grow and have their own families). Even though I realize this, I still have to work, which pulls me away from them, but provides for them, which is necessary - so even though, the majority of my day is spent away from them, I always find myself fighting for more time so that I can etch out a few quality moments with them.

More often than not, I find that there is a conflict within myself about how to allocate each of the 24 hours that make up the measuring stick by which we choose to divide our days - At 38 years old, I find myself working earlier and sleeping less. The days, weeks, months and years have, perceptually, started to fly by faster and faster. I don’t know about you, but I still want to do it all, run my businesses, spend time with my family, spend time with friends, I really would like to spend more time with my wife… a conundrum wrapped in a riddle, a seemingly easy question with infinite answers - “How should we spend our time?”

It is an interesting phrase, isn’t it… “spending time”

Time is more than something we use to measure the day, it is a form of currency, one that we all on some deep hidden level understand as a limited resource - we don’t like to think about it as limited, because who wants to admit their own mortality… I think it is because of this denial that we can find ourselves spending this currency without regard to our true desires - Let’s face it, most of us do not use our time wisely?

I think over the next few weeks and months, I will explore some of my own findings about how I spend my time, and I hope to discover some things which, may help myself come to grips with and possibly even find more meaningful ways to figure out what really matters maybe I will discover a way to create more of what I have always thought of as limited - My time…

Was monitoring my RSS email broadcasts this last week, which I publish through our beloved aWeber - I totally stand behind their service, but I noticed that the byline under our Blog Title was switched out from “An Internet Project” to “junk in the trunk”

I spent about 40 minutes trying to track down the cause, maybe I had changed something in my blog which was causing the issue, or maybe even changed something in the list… eventually after scouring everything I could think of, I requested an aWeber chat session - the person who helped me indicated that aWeber had an issue, they did not specify the details, but it seems pretty fishy that one of the variables which are pulled for their list was somehow changed like that.

The issue appears to have been resolved. Was anybody else affected by this?

For a band that didn’t set out to play arena rock, the Foo Fighters have never
had trouble filling stadiums.

Be sure to check out the

Foo Fighters Concert Schedule.

“I wouldn’t want things to go huge, crazy out of control,” Dave Grohl, the
band’s versatile front man said in 2000. Since then, with the help of band
members Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, and Chris Shiflett, Grohl’s band has sought
to keep its roots firmly planted in unconventional, anti-studio rock, even while
their popularity has skyrocketed.

In June of 2006, the band played its largest show to date to a crowd of 85,000
in London’s Hyde Park. Their appeal as a live act lies in energetic,
hard-driving melodies, Grohl’s characteristic rocker growl, and a mix of old and
new songs that keep the audience on its feet.

But what exactly is a Foo Fighter? The band took their name from a term used by
US Army Air Force pilots who patrolled German airspace during WWII. The pilots
would encounter maneuverable balls of light thought to be a top-secret aerial
weapon used by the Nazis. Without a technical term for these weapons, the pilots
began referring to them as “Foo Fighters” or “Kraut Balls”.

The driving force behind the Foos, Grohl has the distinction of not only
witnessing, but playing a major role in the early 90’s rock revolution known as
grunge. The Washington D.C. native began playing guitar in his early teens and
by the late 1980’s, he was drumming for the D.C.-based hardcore band, Scream.

The turning point in Grohl’s career came when he joined Nirvana in 1991 at the
age of 22 and played drums on the now-classic album Nevermind. Grohl’s
penchant for hard-hitting backbeats helped the band achieve its often-imitated
sound as Nirvana left a permanent imprint on the face of modern rock. In
Utero followed two years later and Nirvana looked ready to lead a growing
legion of alternative rock acts that now included Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

Get

Foo Fighters Tickets and More at
TicketsNow.com.

Following lead singer Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, and the consequential breakup
of Nirvana, a devastated Grohl nearly gave up the music business for good. A
year later, it was Grohl’s love for making music that pulled him back onto the
scene as he set out to independently record songs he’d written before joining
Nirvana. Grohl played nearly every instrument on what would become the Foo
Fighter’s first, self-titled album. After a bidding war between record companies
anxious to capitalize on Grohl’s connection to Nirvana, Capitol Records signed
the album. The disc’s “This Is a Call” quickly saw heavy radio airplay and by
1996 the album had gone platinum in the U.S.

When Grohl decided to take songs from that album on tour, he assembled a band
with former Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear, Nate Mendel on bass, and William
Goldsmith on drums. Grohl stepped into the role of lead singer with raw,
powerful vocals, and an utterly electric stage presence.

A few years and a few changes in band members later, the Foo Fighters were
scaling the Billboard charts with their 1997 album, The Colour And The Shape.
Hits like “Monkey Wrench”, “Everlong”, and “My Hero” brought the band
enormous commercial success and a respectable place in the late ‘90’s post
grunge fallout. And while MTV was courting highly packaged pop acts, the Foos
remained a bastion of melodic, midtempo, punk-influenced rock.

Upon entering their second decade as the Foo Fighters, the band sought to push
their talents even further with their latest album, Echoes, Silence, Patience
and Grace. Even the Foos themselves describe it as their “most complex and
confident” album yet. The album has a something-for-everyone feel as hook-heavy
anthems like “Long Road to Ruin” are balanced with ballads such as “Statues”
that feature Grohl’s hidden talent on the piano.

With this level of versatility, it’s no surprise the band most recently took
home two Grammy awards for Best Rock Album and Best Hard Rock Performance for
Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace. “This doesn’t get old,” Grohl said as
he accepted the group’s 6th Grammy.

As anyone who’s seen the Foo Fighters live will tell you, seeing them rock out
on stage doesn’t get old either.

Was listening to the Jason Calacanis keynote the other day at Webmaster Radio - There was a lot of truth, and a lot of contradiction - heck, it was a perfect storm of linkbait without the link.

It reminded me about a fantastic web resource which many affiliate marketers could use - The Dilbert Mission Statement Generator - You too could have a meaningless statement for your company without paying $2,000,000 - something unique like:

We have committed to enthusiastically utilize parallel materials so that we may endeavor to continually disseminate ethical services to stay competitive in tomorrow’s world

Again, let’s strive for something which adds real value to the internet and our subscribers. I do not always hit this mark - but it is something to aim for…

Onward & Upward!

Ever find yourself asking, begging, pleading - “How do I Convert a pdf file into something useful like a Word document?” Probably, if you were to take a poll of HUGE annoyances for internet affiliates, publishers and business owners, this would rank right up at the top!

I absolutely HATE dealing with different file formats, then trying to find a reliable way to convert the files to make them useful to me, not only for my websites, but also, for my business.

I have been checking out some recent solution providers to this problem and have found one called Zamzar. It is currently still in beta release, but it still provides a great new service that allows you to convert files from one format to another online for free. Check it out - you may find it useful in your daily struggle to deal with the seemingly hundreds of different file formats for documents, images, videos and music files, etc.

Avril Lavigne’s latest tour will kick off March 5th 2008. Best Damn Tour will mark her third world tour, which will complement Avril’s album and single titled “The Best Damn Thing.” The new tour promises to be bigger than ever, and Avril Lavigne is slated not only to sing, but to play guitar, piano and drums as well. The album, The Best Damn Thing, released in April of 2007, debuted at number one in the United States. The first single from the album; “Girlfriend,” became the first single for Lavigne to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Other singles from The Best Damn Thing include “Hot,” and “When You’re Gone.” Production contributions to the album were made by Avril Lavigne, Dr. Luke, Butch Walker, Rob Cavallo and Deryck Whibley, who is Lavigne’s husband. If you are interested in checking the schedule or attending a concert, you may want to inquire about Avril Lavigne Tickets.

This talented punk-pop artist seemed to take the pop music scene by storm with the release of her 2002 debut album Let Go. At just 17 years old, she received 8 Grammy nominations, and 4 Juno awards. Lavigne’s first album sold over 16 million copies world-wide. Let Go included the hit singles, “Sk8ter Boi,” “Complicated”and“I’m With You.” The success of this album led to Avril Lavigne being named the “Best New Artist” in 2002 at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Avril Lavigne’s second album offering entitled Under My Skin debuted at number one in 2004, not only in the U.S., but in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, Spain, Hong Kong, Argentina, and Korea as well. Over 380,000 copies of Under My Skin were sold in the U.S. in its first week alone. Much of Lavigne’s second album was written in collaboration with fellow Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, who would later be involved in some allegations of plagiarism against Avril Lavigne. Other contributions to the album were made by Evan Taubenfeld, Butch Walker, Ben Moody, Matt Brann, Raine Maida (husband of Kreviazuk), and co-producers Don Gilmore and Butch Walker.

The album includes songs “My Happy Ending,” Nobody’s Home,” “Don’t Tell Me,” “He Wasn’t,” and “Fall to Pieces.” Awards for Ms. Lavigne’s second venture included “World’s Best Pop/Rock Artist” and “World’s Best-Selling Canadian Artist” at the 2004 World Music Awards. In addition to her album endeavors, Avril Lavigne collaborated with Matthew Gerard to co-write the song “Breakaway” which appeared on the soundtrack for the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, recorded by Kelly Clarkson. Clarkson later included the single on her second album, and released the song as the first single from the album.

The year 2004 was a busy one for Avril Lavigne; she also embarked on a twenty one city tour of malls in Canada and the United States to promote Under My Skin. The tour was unique in that the venue was not announced for each city until 48 hours prior to show time. Lavigne performed acoustic sets with Evan Taubenfeld; her guitarist. Cleverly, selections from the tour were released in Target stores in the U.S., on the Avril Lavigne Live Acoustic EP.

In 2005, Avril Lavigne garnered five Juno Award nominations, where she won three of the categories. She also won the “Favorite Female Singer” award from the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in the same year.

Avril Lavigne was born in Ontario, Canada on September 27, 1984. She was recognized early on by her mother as a singing talent, and she has continued to cultivate that talent up through the present time. In 1998 Lavigne won a competition which awarded her the opportunity to sing with Shania Twain, a fellow Canadian, on Twain’s first major concert tour. After singing in local venues in Canada, she was noticed by a folk singer, Steve Medd, with whom she sung on some of his albums. She met and was discovered by her first professional manager Cliff Fabri while singing in a bookstore in Ontario. She was signed to the A&R division of Arista Records at sixteen years old, when she begun production on Let Go; her first album.

Lavigne has performed with other bands and artists, and has appeared in videos with artists such as Treble Charger, Butch Walker and Lil’ Mama. She’s also done covers of songs by artists such as The Goo Goo Dolls, Bob Dylan, Green Day, Coldplay, and Shania Twain. Avril Lavigne has also appeared in films, her debut being as a voice actor in the animated film Over the Hedge. She acted in the movie Fast Food Nation, and she recorded a song with Dr. Luke for the Eragon film soundtrack entitled “Keep Holding On.”