Pure Digital, the makers of the original Flip video released their next generation Flip digital video camera, the Flip Video Mino Series Camcorder on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. It looks like it has become available on Amazon.com on Friday, June 6, 2008.

After watching various reviews and reading up on the specs, this little device seems like a great step forward in the Flip video line. Although, my initial impression is that the price point is a little high, there are a lot of refined and upgraded features which may make the price justifiable to potential buyers.

The Mino is equipped with 2GB of flash memory giving it the ability to record 60 minutes of video, and Pure Digital has made the docking of the unit a little more convenient with the USB flip out connector being located on the top of the device. The video is still VGA quality, but this latest version of the Flip camera is using a later version of the original Flip’s image processing architecture - we hope this will improve the image quality in the Mino. Additional features also include touch sensitive buttons, a much smaller form factor which enables the video camera to more easily fit in users pockets and a rechargeable battery.

What I think makes this unit so powerful is the software that comes included which makes editing and uploading the videos to sites like YouTube and MySpace a breeze. If you have been waiting for a device to make Vlogging more manageable and easy, this camera and its bundled features may make a lot of sense.

Right away I will tell you that I am not a ardent watcher of Randy’s update page. I go there when I think about him and his family to see what is going on and to see if there is anything specific besides his general condition that I can pray for him and his family.

I was starting to get a little worried that I had not seen any updates to his Update page since the middle of May.  I visited the site on Monday of this week, and was very pleased to see that on May 18th he had what he called, “A Perfect Day”.  Randy comments:

Everyone should have a day this perfect in their lives. Carnegie Mellon flew Jai and me up to Pittsburgh to attend graduation. I had the honor of giving the charge to the graduates at the end of the ceremony. Even the weather cooperated to make it a perfect day with the sun breaking through the rain clouds as the ceremony started. I also got to speak briefly to the SCS and ETC commencement ceremonies. It was wonderful to see all of our old friends and colleagues and I was very touched by the invitation.

I realize that his Update page is probably not a priority in his life right now, and that is as it should be - which is probably why I do not check it daily any longer.  However, I was pleased to see the update and to find out that he had this experience and that the University still supported and invited him to participate in the 2008  Commencement ceremony.

Our prayers and thoughts continue to be with the Pausch family as well as all of those afflicted with Pancreatic Cancer - If you would like to donate or get involved with the organizations Randy has recommended, you can find information on The Lustgarten foundation and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network by clicking on their names.

I have been gaining weight and generally feeling pretty bad recently - I am tipping the scales… no… make that, I am CRUSHING the scales at a whopping 361lbs. For the past six months I have been battling chaotic work and sleep schedules, not to mention needing to improve my health because of the blockage discovered in my heart about a year and a half ago.

I was half asleep Saturday night and as semi-dreams go, I started to get inspired to fast, I thought, maybe I could cut out all food except for almonds… don’t ask me why, but that was how the dream went.

Anyway, after I got up I went to YouTube and Google to search on Fasting, and came across a few resources - The one I liked the best was from YouTube by RawBazaar. What I noticed at first was her annoying habit of calling a Juice Fast a Juice Feast… ah, but it wasn’t a mistake, she really was referring to a Juice Feast… after watching her videos she really won me over by her utterly real perspective and charming personality. So, inevitably, I thought, I should find out what this is a Juice Feasting is all about - If you are interested, you can check out what the author, David Rainoshek says Juice Feasting is at his site.

Now, at the risk of alienating myself from the entire Juice Feasting community, I am not, nor can I conceive ever being a health food junkie.

You don’t get a body like mine without working hard for it *grins*

Seriously, I do not buy into the whole philosophy, however, it seems that this would be a great way to achieve some better health and balance for my big fat body! Bottom line, I am not doing this primarily to lose weight, although, I do not see how I will not lose weight by cutting my calorie intake down to 1500 - 1800 per day. My real goal with this part of the journey is to achieve a general feeling of well being along with attaining a steady sleep cycle - other benefits that come will be bonuses.

So, I’m going to go for a 5 day fast to see if I can make it… from there if all goes well, I will shoot for another 5, etc. But for now, I just finished my 2nd meal - er, well, I finished my 2nd quart of juice.

Surprisingly, the 1st quart this morning was tasty… but the one I just finished - holy crap! It was disgusting! (I will try to publish some of the recipes later - for now this post is getting a little long in the tooth…)

So, my hope is that after fine tuning this process, I will begin to figure out what is good and what is stomach turning. In any event - we are officially off to the Juice Feasting races!

Guy’s full presentation video on the, “Art of the Start” can be found at Guy Kawasaki’s site or on Google Video.

This presentation which runs just under 40 minutes was well worth my time to watch not once, but many times. I find myself watching it when I get discouraged by the daily trappings of my business, things which prevent me from working toward the purpose I have found which drives me to keep going. Besides, the payoff at the end of the video as they are running him off the stage is priceless!

If you are an entrepreneur, business owner, affiliate marketer, or simply somebody who is always looking to be inspired, take some time and watch this presentation. What do you think, is Guy full of it? Do you agree, or disagree with his comments about mission statements, etc.? I’m looking forward to your feedback!

If you enjoyed this article, video, or post please subscribe to Bloglyne.com for more of the same!

Last month I wrote a quick article about Randy Pausch because his “Last Lecture” and testimony before Congress touched me. I find his honesty about pancreatic cancer refreshing. The truth about this brutal disease is just that… brutal - and I hope that the attention he brings to the battle will enable progress on all cancer fronts.

Randy has a page where he updates his progress every few days. I really recommend that you go there and subscribe to the updates. Some truly inspiring and amazing things going on there.

Randy, it is exciting to hear that you are feeling well enough to continue treatment. I’m looking forward to hearing that you are able to ride the bike a little
Randy’s last two updates:
April 9, 2008: Getting Ready for Next Step

Well, I’m not quite back on the bike, but I’m healthy enough to travel and move forward with treatment. Tomorrow I’m spending the day at the University of Maryland being evaluted to see if I am a candidate for the Theraspheres treatment.

Basically, it’s a process where a large number of tiny (thinner than human hair) spheres are irradiated with Yittrium-90 and then squirted into the artery that feeds the liver. They preferentially go towards tumors (counter-intuitive, but true), and both block blood flow to the tumors and irradiate them.

April 8, 2008: Book Launch, Media Craziness
	The book went on sale today. Lots of media outlets ran stories, which is very nice of them.Diane Sawyer is running a special tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 10pm on ABC. People who know what I’m really like will doubtless be throwing tomatoes at the screen

This is really funny - a year old, but still really good stuff.

62 words
This is a fun little typing application which will allow you to practice typing the most common used words in the English language and post a little badge for all to see how well you do *grins* Check it out, it is surprisingly fun and addictive! Try Speedtest out now

Recently a friend of ours pointed out that a bunch of our subscriber links were broken - Thanks Mark from 45n5!

So this started me wondering if I actually had subscribers that were not being measured by our FeedBurner widget - it would be nice to think so, but, whether we do or not, it is a huge struggle to seem to get that number to grow with any significance.

At the end of the day, I really do not think I am qualified to give these types of tips as my subscriber list tops out at a max of about 20 right now … on a good day, but, there are a few articles out there which discuss this topic, two which I really like are 10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers and 20 Ways to Grow Your Subscriber List.

What do you think? Do you have a specific formula for growing your subscriber list? I look forward to hearing from you!

A follow up to the first Excel video Excel Tips By Bloglyne - How To Set Up Clickbank Tracking Code - this video talks about the LEN function.

If you find this video helpful, make sure to subscribe to our blog for upcoming videos, we also look forward to your comments.

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

This is the second video in what I think will be a four video series on how to create subdomain tracking for use with the Google Content Network.  The next video will discuss the MID function and in the fourth video we will put it all together so you can see the mechanics of the spreadsheet which enables us to create all of the custom sub-domain links and information needed to populate Google’s content display ad network.  We will also make the spreadsheet available for download upon the release of the fourth video.

A very quick summary of features covered in the video:

• LEN returns the number of characters in a text string
• Once you LEN returns the number of characters

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

John 20 (New International Version)

New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

John 20 - Listen to passage here

The Empty Tomb

1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

10Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

17Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus Appears to Thomas

24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” 26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may^[a] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Footnotes:

1. John 20:31 Some manuscripts may continue to

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

The “NIV” and “New International Version” trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.