Thursday, August 31, 2006

VoIP Vonage Forum - Find answers for your questions!

Are you a Vonage VoIP user or do you want to be? Are you concerned over all the things you might be hearing from other people about VoIP? Are you an existing Vonage customer and having some issues but not sure where to go? Check out the Vonage VoIP forum. After perusing the forum, you will quickly find that almost any question you might have will likely be found in a discussion area of this great forum. There are numerous topic choices and multiple threads listed for each one so you are sure to find what you are looking for? If not, just start a new thread! Get together with other users and discuss the things that matter to you, and find the answers to your questions, or just join into the discussions which can be used to improve the existing service. Stop by the Vonage forum and find your answers today!


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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Archery Arrows and Broadheads – What type do you prefer and why?

I was watching a show on our local PBS station a couple of weeks ago called Michigan-Out-Of-Doors, and one of their features that week was as broad head test with results. They were using a mechanical bow firing machine that is capable of putting multiple arrows with field tips on them into the same hole over and over again.

They then went on once the machine was dialed in to test various broadheads, both mechanical and stationary and the results I found quite fascinating. I have been an avid user of Muzzy 4 blade 100 grain heads for years. I have over the years of hunting also used Wasp’s & Thunderheads, all of the 4 blade, 100 grain variety. I had stayed with the Muzzy’s over the last five years because I found them to be very durable, fairly repeatable in flight, and I like the high impact head they have.

The test that was done, didn’t test the 4 blade Muzzy’s but did test the 3 blade version and it was under 3 inches off center, but held up well in the tests. I wasn’t surprised by the 3” of center with a 3 blade version of this head, because I have found that to be true with my own testing at 25 yards which is my favorite comfortable shooting range. I was less than 2” off center with my 4 blade broadheads, and found that they flew with less wobble from my setup, which has been a 60 lb. draw weight Darton compound bow with a 65% let off, 100 grain 4 blade muzzy broadheads, and Bemen carbon arrows.

I have been wanting to try the newer mechanical broadheads and this year along with purchasing new Easton carbon arrows, I decided to try the new Rocky Mountain Snyper’s 100 grain, cam action broadheads. The broadheads were ordered online and I will be testing them our soon. I am aware of the failure possibility with mechanical heads so this will be a new test for me. The reports I have read show them to be reliable and the accuracy better than with fixed broadheads.

I’d love to hear some opinions on broadhead and arrow choices for the average archery bow hunter. If you are interested in the test results for the heads in the show you can see them here at this URL -
http://www.mucc.org/BroadheadTest.htm

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Talk to the hand!

I've been blogging for about 4 months now. The thing I find most intriguing is that as much as I love to just blog for the fun of it I can Get Paid For Blogging! Now I've been paid for a lot of different things including what I do for a day job but this is even better. If I had the money to do it, I would pay people to do something that is one of my kids favorite phrases and would paying some someone to "talk to the hand"! That way, when my kids get that attitude thing going and tell me to "talk to the hand, I could literally have someone available to do it! Wouldn't that be fun? My kids wouldn't know whaty to think about that one. I guess as much fun as that would be, I'd still rather Get Paid For Blogging. Till next time, just "talk to the hand" and earn some cash...

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Archery Deer Season 2006 – Tree Stand Time!

Well now that we have our arrow situation all settled and under control as noted in my earlier post on this blog, there were a few other things that needed to be attended to. Last year, about half way through the season, I lost my steel ladder stand to the resident thieves. I prefer a ladder stand for safety reasons, but being late in the season I bought a very inexpensive lock-on type stand with a 15 foot climbing stick for the remainder of the 2005 archery deer season.

With the new season upon us, I decided to purchase a new ladder stand for this season and hopefully some respect will be shown for a fellow hunters property this season and it will be left alone. I had hunted with the previous ladder stand for more than 5 years before it was stolen this past season, so I hope I can get at least another 5 years out of this one. I bought the Big Dog 15 foot ladder stand on sale at Dunham’s Sporting Goods on sale for $49.95. I couldn’t pass up that deal.

I don’t spend the long dollar on tree stands because of the fact of being restricted to hunting state lands and having lost two stands over the years now, I can’t see lining someone else’s pocket with a $200 plus tree stand as much as I would love to purchase one. In fact, because I spend so little on these, it amazes me that people still steal them. It’s not like they are gaining much from it, but that’s just human nature I guess. Their fathers forgot to teach them to respect there fellow hunters I guess. Anyway, can’t wait till the weekend to get the stands out into the woods and into the trees. We have to wait till one month before the season opens to put them up on state lands here in Michigan and that is September 1st for us. Let’s go hunting!


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Sunday, August 27, 2006

PayPerPost - rumors are rampant!

I've been hearing rumors all week about PayPerPost and their methods of putting ads on blogs not being totally on the up and up. Rumor has it that the money they are using to pay their bloggers is coming from hidden and secret local gambling activities run by the the upper management at PayPerPost, and that they are using this new advertising method of coercing people to put ads on blogs for money to launder the cash before dispersing it back into the till. I have also heard that they are using their advertisers funds to hold illegal boxing matches in their basement, all the while bloggers continue to faithfully blog their hearts out thinking that they will be paid about a month later for their hard earned efforts.

The latest of the rumors is that Tom Cruise is providing the money for backing PayPerPost in the hopes that now that he is no longer able to make movies because his contract wasn't renewed, that he can be in a commercial for PayPerPost to help support his new wife and child. I can't wait to see that commercial! What do you think? I am getting paid to place ads on blogs, or am I?


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Preparation for Archery deer Season 2006

Well we are fast approaching the beginning of the Michigan archery deer season for 2006. That means it's time to start thinking about all of the preparation that is necessary for any hunting season like a good and thorough equipment check and definately some serious target practice.

I have been shooting carbon arrows for about the last ten years now and I have seen a tremendous change in the manufacturing methods of these arrows. I prefer carbon arrows because of their strength, durablity, and straigtness as compared to aluminum arrows although they have also come a long way in design in the last number of years, especially with the newer hybrid carbon coated aluminum arrows.

I took a trip to my sons house yesterday to fling some arrows at the 3D target and after about 3 rounds, we were both questioning whether or not our sights were off or had other issues with the bows. In my case that might have been true but since my son had just purchased a new PSE bow this year it wasn't real likely. We had been shooting these arrows for about 5 years and decided to go purchase a dozen new ones. We went with Easton Carbon extremes 400's for our 60 lb. bows.

We got back and decided to shoot a few to see how they looked and shot. Boy what a difference that made! We were grouping arrows in a 4 inch area, in fact we had to shoot at different areas of the deer to make sure we weren't going to hit each others arrows. Moral of this story? Buy new arrows at least every other year, no matter what condition they may appear to be in.

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Saturday, August 26, 2006

Can You "DIGG" it? Check out this Digg post on PayPerPost

PayPerPost is revolutionizing the advertising world this year and taking the competition by storm. Check out this blog posting at http://digg.com/tech_news/PayPerPost_The_Consumer_Generated_Advertising_Revolution_Has_Begun
and add your comments to this Digg post. There is a great discussion going on about the service, how it works, the pro's and con's, the skeptics, and the ones who know first hand. I am part of PayPerPost which is a revolutionary program to make money blogging and I love it! I know the potential first hand and when I read what some of the users have been paid, it still even amazes me! There's one blogger with over $800 to their credit listed on that post. Stop by and give it a read, and decide for youself whether you would like to make money blogging!

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More on Plastic Injection Molding...

As stated in one of my earlier blog posts, I have begun a new series on injection molding processing. I want to share a bit of this with you in order to get you to stop by and see what's new in this section of my website. Here's an excerpt on the latest addition to my site.

Some basic injection molding surface defect identification cause and troubleshooting - Let's begin by listing some of the common defects, their possible causes, and some things we might be able to do about them. One thing to remember is that as with all injection molding processes and machines, this can vary greatly from part to part, and machine to machine. Now that we have the proverbial disclaimer out of the way, let's begin, starting with the visual types of defects.

Defect - Blush - a dull spot or blemish, most commonly found near a gate or other extreme stress or high sheer areas of the part. It also will often have a grainy appearance on a smooth surface part..
Potential causes - melt temperature, barrel temperatures, hot runner temperature, back pressure, mold temperature, fill speeds, valve gate firing position, decompression settings, polish of mold surface, resin build up on mold surface, and a plugged vent.
Potential corrections - Fill speed faster or slower in proper segment, barrel temperatures up or down, hot runner temperatures up or down, back pressure increase or decrease, decompression increase of decrease, if applicable, valve gate firing positions advance or delay, correct mold polish if dull, clean the mold surface if resin or volatiles are present, and open or close the vents as needed.

Simple isn't it? For the answer visit my site at http://www.wm8c.com/plastic_injection_molding_xi.htm


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Apogee Paid Search - They can help you manage your PPC campaign

If you are a webmaster and use PPC as a part of your income source then you know how tough it can be to get "your money's worth" out of your campaigns, not becasue because it's a bad method but siimply because you might not understand all the "ins and outs" of using PPC Advertising. Apogee paid search has a PPC management program that might just be what you are looking for. Let someone help you get the search engine placement that you need to run a successful campaign. Apogee ppc management agency can help you do that! Apogee's site is very well laid out and offers many services for Webmasters, Marketing or Internet Advertisers, and also Business Managers. Apogee offeres SEO services as well but definately give their PPC management services a look before going else where.

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Adsense - Natural Search & Hittail

Do you use Adsense? If you do, you know how tough it can be to make a decent honest earning with it but you also probably have earned that it is possible with some hard work. Because of my currently meager earning with Adsense, I rely heavily on natural search and an online source called Hittail. What I've been learning to make use of is how to use the long tail method of search to improve my own rankings.

Using these methods I have been able to get numerous #1 slots in Google for search phrases I have been after including some for our Custom Embroidery Service which we started advertising online with about 3 months ago. We have slowly had orders starting to come in via the internet for our Ham Radio Call Sign Caps and Ham Radio Call Sign T-Shirts . Getting those #1 slots are vital to traffic and traffic is vital to Adsense income. Check out Hit tail, you'll surprised at the results you can achieve using this method.

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Thursday, August 24, 2006

Get moving with Getamover dot com!

Have you been relocated? Have you sold your home and now need to move to a new one? If the answer to these questions is "yes" then you will want to check out one the best sources for finding Moving Companies on the net. You need to give www.Getamover.com a look. They specialize in helping you with all the details cover everything about relocation, starting from relevant content to quality bids from residential, corporate, piano, and even pet movers. Users will have the freedom to choose from a variety of electronic quotes sent by our verified movers. Their movers are verified by trusted industry agencies (e.g. BBB) not only do their users get the most competitive rate, they are guaranteed quality service. Give them atry and make your next move an enjoyable one!


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New injection molding series - process development

I have been in process of adding a new injection molding series to my main site at http://www.wm8c.com and this one is focusing on injection molding process development and as I go along I will adding injection molding process troubleshooting as well.

If you are new to the injection molding industry or just curious how injection molding of plastic parts is performed, stop by and check it out. Written in easy to understand language for the beginner or curiosity seeker, it is a good place to start for setting up your injection molding process and related parameters.

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Monday, August 21, 2006

Have you ever given online coupons a try?

Have you ever wondered how to get some great deals on line from Best Buy? To view the Best Buy Coupons just go to http://www.couponchief.com/bestbuy_coupons/bestbuy.html They have a lot great deals on their own, but I found a great place to even sweeten the deal with coupon codes, online coupons, or coupons from Coupon Chief dot com. I'm always in the market for a new electronic gadget and since I don't like plain old retail, I like to find coupon codes, online coupons, or coupons to bolster that sale price with some additional savings which you can do with online coupons. Give Coupon Chief a look because you never know what you might find.

Some sample coupons they are offering http://www.couponchief.com/bestbuy_coupons/bestbuy.html
There is a whole page of deals to choose from.

Another great place to shop is overstock dot com and you can find Overstock Dot Com Coupons here http://www.couponchief.com/overstock.com_coupons/overstock.com.html




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Archery Deer Hunting Season 2006

Well it's almost that time again. Time to break out the 3D targets and get some serious practice time in. Time to do some extra scouting in the woods to see what the deer have been doing in the last few weeks. Time to figure out where they are traveling to and from and pick that favorite tree, if you don't already have one. Time to spend some quality time in the outdoors with nature and hopefully stock the freezer for winter before the season ends again.

I know there are many that are against hunting and think that we are all just a bunch of "Bambi killers" and that we should give the deer rifles so they can defend themselves. I of course, don't and never will understand that way of thinking because I believe most hunters are wonderful people, love the outdoors, and through license fees help maintain some semblance of equality in nature by helping pay for habitat improvement and much more.

I'm strictly a meat hunter, meaning that I eat what I kill and feel it should be that way. I'm not a trophy hunter and prefer not to "pen hunt" as some do, but I don't hold that against them either as it's just their choice for the way they choose to enjoy the outdoors and may simply not have the time to do otherwise. I also hunt state lands because I don't have private land to hunt on but that just make it more of a challenge. I have taken enough deer with a bow and arrow on state lands to know it can be done with enough patience and scouting.

To all of you that are gearing up for the hunting season, good luck! To all of you gearing up to spam my blog with your "hunter hate mail", please don't because it's a waste of both our time. May the hunting season of 2006 be successful, and by that I mean may you enjoy the outdoors the way God intended us too, and if you are lucky enough to fill the freezer this year, I'd love to hear from you! To those who are not, I'd love to hear from you too! Can't ever get enough good hunting stories, both about success and the near misses or learning expeditions! If you'd like to read my previous year hunting stories, stop by my site at www.wm8c.com and look under hobbies.

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Saturday, August 19, 2006

Biz Chair - Lowest Prices on School Furniture

It's time to go back to school for the coming year. Is your current School Furniture from the 60's & 70's and in need of replacement? Where will you put all of the new students that are arriving at your school this fall? Biz Chair has the answer for all of your School Furniture needs and much more. They even have the new Principles desk and chair ready to go for you. If you are in the market for new School Furniture, get it online from BizChair.com, where you'll find the lowest prices on quality school furniture. Whether you are looking for student desks, marker boards or PA systems, BizChair.com has the widest selection of school equipment anywhere on the Internet.

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New injection molding series

In a previous series of articles I wrote, I covered the basics of an injection molding machine. Now I've started writing a new series for my website called "Basic injection Molding Process Setup and Troubleshooting". In this series I will walk you through setting up your basic injection molding process from the start, and then we will walk through the process of troubleshooting the more commom problems that we will encounter on a regular basis. You can find this series at http://www.wm8c.com/plastic_injection_molding_i.htm . I have 5 pages in the series written with many to go. Ever wondered how to do this? Stop on by and I'll tell you how...

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Friday, August 18, 2006

Automatic Ebay Bidding While you Sleep

If you spend any time on eBay as I do, then you know how intense the bidding can become for that one hot item that you really need. You run the searches, and find what you are looking for. Once you've found that special item, you put a watch on it to see how the bidding is going. I often have added watches to items with 7 days to go on them only to forget I was watching them and lost out on the bidding because I never went back in time to get in on the "real bidding" that happens often at the last moments. Other times, I have put in my max bid amount only to get out bid at the last second because I wasn't fast enough to get the last bid in before it expired. Then you find out the only other one left is going for twice as much as you wanted to pay and lost the first one for! Sound familiar?

Well this is where automatic eBay bidder comes in. This program is a great little tool that you can download and basically put all your bidding on auto pilot. You can import the items you are watching right into the program, set your bidding up right down to the last second and have it automatically put in those last second bids for you so you get the item you wanted during the auction you wanted. You can also set up auction reminders so you don't forget that all important item is coming up. You don't even have to log into eBay most of the time as you can do most everything right through the program. Give it a try, you might like what you see. Below is a screen shot...





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High Cholesterol and Me. A Lifelong Fight.

Had my quarterly blood work done to check my cholesterol levels, liver function, and blood sugars checked. The news was generally good except for this time around my blood sugar levels were slightly elevated which they have never been before that anyone has said anything about.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to find a way to get regular exercise that I can keep up with and enjoy if I ever want to beat the rest of this disease that wants to destroy my arteries. My doctor had switched me from Lipitor 80mg. to Crestor 40mg. about six months ago to try and get my numbers even lower. Well, I guess it was successful because for the first time in the last 8 years since I was diagnosed with high cholesterol, the doctor actually said to that it was almost too low!

He had been shooting for me to get to an HDL and LDL of 60, and I made half of that goal. My total cholesterol was 125, my LDL was 62, and my HDL was too low again at 37 (was at 43 the previous check) but I think that is due to my laziness with regular exercise again. That may also have something to do with my higher blood sugar levels, so I need to continue to watch my diet (I prefer low carb) and get more exercise, much more exercise. My Triglycerides were still respectable at 140.

Onward and upward (or downward in the case of LDL) we go for the next 3 months and we’ll see where we end up then. New goal…walk at least a mile every other day and 3 would be much better!

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Thursday, August 17, 2006

PayPerPost is for real!

I was a skeptic about PayPerPost blog advertising program in the beginning and so far the only regret I have was that I waited a whole month to see if I would get paid to get started for real! I don't even remember where I found the program but I'm glad I did. I have been paid direct to my PayPal account $15 so far and I have $110 pending. It only takes a little of your time and the pay out is great! I'm making great cash for writing my thoughts in my blog! Give blog advertising a try, you'll be pleasantly surprised!


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Astrid's Embroidery & Quilts

Well we've been officially in business for about 4 weeks now. We are still trying get some stock built up and we have signed up for a local ham radio swap where we hope to sell some custom embroidered hats and t-shirts. It has been a bit stressful getting everything set up and ready to go and we are still more in the promotion phase than we are the production phase but that will come.

We sold an order of 5 shirts and a hat today and we also have had two orders recently from the website. That's not too bad considering the order pages haven't been up all that long and only the last few weeks were all indexed in Google.

If you know of anyone looking for custom embroidery work, we are very competative and we look forward to serving our local community as well the web community. Check us out at
http://www.wm8c.com/astrids_embroidery.htm.

Choose Astrid’s Embroidery & Quilts for your embroidery needs because we believe in excellence and quality through attention to detail. We provide personal service coupled with quick delivery ensures you have the product you want at the time you need it. We also have no minimums. We can handle your order whether it is for 1 piece or 100 pieces.Contact us by phone or email so that we may find the perfect apparel, cap or gift for your custom embroidery needs. Because each customer is unique we like to communicate directly with you to ensure we are providing you with exactly what you want. You can contact us by email at
astridsembroidery@wm8c.com or phone us directly at 269-795-7297. Costs for a project will vary from project to project and an estimate will be provided to you before we begin work on your personalized custom embroidery project.Astrid’s Embroidery & Quilts offers:Cap EmbroideryLogo WearPersonalized Gifts and ApparelMonogramsTeam WearSpirit WearSpecialty and Personalized Gifts. Give us a try!

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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Michigan Real Estate - Has The Bubble Burst?

We have refinanced our home three times in the last 10 years with new home loans. When we originally built this home now more than 12 years ago, interest rates were running about 9%, which we thought were fantastic for the time. As a few years passed, the interest rates continued to drop, and we refinanced. The rates dropped again, and we refinanced again. Finally as the rates dropped below the 6% mark we decided to do it one last time and also took out a home equity line of credit which has an adjustable rate along with it.

Now the rates seem to be going back up. The interest rates have begun to increase here in Michigan and the feds just skipped the first interest rate hike in almost two years. The housing market in this state has now gone flat. It's turned from a sellers market to a buyers market, so if you are in the market for a new or existing home, now would be a good time to buy in Michigan.

Having been a home owner for over 25 years now, I have been able to watch the market turn in 3 very distinct directions over that period. In the 80's, the interest rates were over 11% and no one thought much about it because that was down from the 13% rates a few years earlier. We sold our first home in the late 80's and bought another home for a 10% interest rate which also seemed like a great deal and when we built this home at 9% we thought it was great. It appears we've hit the bottom of the barrel on interest rates and I hope everyone has made their moves when they had the chance, as it's appears it's going to be uphill from here.

I like the options of a home equity loan, as it allowed us to free up some income when we needed it. However, you need to use caution when doing this as you can easily get into a situation where the market flattens or turns and you could end up being "upside down" in home, owing more than the market value. Caution first and always do a little research before you change the type of loan you have or consider a home equity loan.



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Basic Injection Control settings

Injection Phase
High pressure 1st Stage Boost - Depending on the area in which you live, you will hear a number of different terms used for this phase of the custom injection molding cycle. No matter what it is referred to as in your plant, it remains the same thing and serves the same purpose, and that is to inject melted plastic into your injection mold. This in many ways is the most important part of the basic injection molding cycle, as it has a great bearing on the initial cosmetics and size of your finished plastic injection molded product.


You can control the hydraulic pressure and speed with which you perform this phase, and on most newer machines the “fill” or “injection phase” can be broken down into 10 segments or more to aide in precise control of this part of your injection molding process. We will get deeper into the profile settings, what they are, and what you can do with them in the troubleshooting segment of this series. Under normal plastic processing conditions we want to fill the part as close to the 95 -99% full cavity range as we safely can, allowing for the natural resistance of the plastic to absorb the remaining inertia of the screw. When we reach the injection transfer or “cut-off” point setting, we are doing exactly what it sounds like and that is transferring from fi1stor 1st stage pressure, to pack/ho2ndor 2nd stage pressure.

To view the rest of this article please go to http://www.wm8c.com

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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Safe Gun Storage

Do you have children? Do you also have guns? These are two things that just don't mix. Every year you hear stories of accidental deaths from children playing with "unloaded" guns that weren't locked up properly. Responsible gun safety starts with you! You could save a life and it could even be one of your own children.

Trigger locks are a great step and even better are gun safes...they are practical and less expensive than you might think. Gun safety has to be a priority in your home if you own guns, be they pistols, shotguns, or rifles. A gun safe is unbeatable when if comes to providing for safe storage of all your firearms.

I am a hunter and have been for years and the first thing I was taught and I have also since taught my children is proper firearm saftey and that includes proper saftey devices. Don't wait till it happens to you and it's too late to do something to protect your family and friends.




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Internet Marketing - Stop and smell the roses...

All of us involved in the world internet marketing at one time or another has experienced the frustration that comes from spending hours and hours of hard work trying to make a go of some earnings program, only to have it start climbing the hill and heading for auto pilot, when all of a sudden something changes and it all falls back down the hill near where you began. Now you have two choices at that point in time. You can throw in the towel which many do, or you can persevere and begin again and learn form what happened the last time.

There are times that you may not even know or understand why the bottom fell out of your venture. Other times, it will be all too obvious and you can learn from that to make sure you don’t make the same mistake again. You can keep a journal of these mistakes and changes, or you can blog them which is what I’m doing now.

This does two things for me. It gives me a chance to vent my frustrations, and it provides me with a written chronological record of the timing when it happened so I can use that as data in the future. In the case of this one, I haven’t a clue as of yet what caused the down turn in sales and to be honest it almost appears that the current searchers are looking for something totally different than they were two weeks ago. I guess that’s what they call a trend. The amount of visits hasn’t dropped, but the revenues definitely have. Time to stop and smell the roses, remind myself that it will get better again, and get back at the process of moving forward. To your success!

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Sunday, August 13, 2006

Get The Hair Off Your Pet Before It Gets You!

Do you have a pet that sheds? Is your best friend leaving you covered in hair? Well there a new product out on the market and it's called the "Shed Ender" and it does a great job relieving the shedding problem on your pet. This new brush gets the hair in the under coat of your pet which is where all the shedding hair is located and removes it painlessly, leaving you and your favorite hairy friend happy. Your best friend will thank you for using this brush and so will your floors, clothes, and vacuum cleaning. So if you have a best "shedding" friend, give Shed Ender a try.



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Photo Album Software and Photo Sharing Software

If you are like me, you have hundreds, no thousands of digital pictures that you have taken over time. It seems like every time I needed find one of these pictures, I found myself searching through piles of CD's trying to find just that right digital photo for sharing, be it via internet or email or printer. What was my solution for this? Simple, a good piece of photo album software to store and organize all my digital photos. Once I made the switch to a good digital photo album software, my headaches all went away. I use Google's Picasa for my needs but there are many others available.

Most of the big photo shop companies offer this type software like Adobe and Corel, but I prefer to be the frugal sort and since Picasa is free and you can Get photo software from Google, I couldn't see any reason to spend money on a program from one of the others.
The thing I really like about Picasa, is the ease with which you can do photo sharing with friends and family, and as photo album software goes, it as easy to use as anything I've found. they have done "numerous" software updates and and enhancements and they are free. I have it since sometime in 2003 and I have never looked back even after trying a few others.

Google's Picasa can even back up all your photo's onto CD so you won't lose them even if you have a major crash. It is one of the easiest to use pieces of software I've found for this purpose as well. It has a multitude of features, such as slideshows, gift CD's, Web albums, basic digital picture editing and adjustment with all the most popular features, and much more. I have attached a screen shot of what you will see when you open the program.

This is not a cheap piece of software either and it has all the bells and whistles of the big buys and the interface is very professional and easy to use. Enjoy your time taking pictures and not trying to find them!


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Friday, August 11, 2006

As Seen On TV - They Are Still Around

We've all seen the As Seen On TV ads around and it has virtually become a household name. Products like shed ender, BluBlockers, auto cool, table mate, and others, are all well known and trusted products by most people. I have worn bluBlockers for years and find that it's difficult to wear anything else, when you start noticing green is not really green until you've seen it through the BluBlockers from As Seen On TV. Most of the local stores have closed but they can still be found on line and for less than you can find them anywhere else. Check them out!


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Adsense is all about traffic - part deux!

I've had a very interesting August with regard to my adjacent earnings. My daily uniques has increased by about 100 visitors to around an average of 325 per day. This have made some nice increases in my earnings as I have earned about as much in the first nine days of this month as I did in all of June. Part of this is due to about 10 new pages of fresh written content I added to the site over the last two weeks and is indexing nicely in the search engines so far with some reasonable SEO work. I hope to find a few more of these niche areas in the coming months so that things continue to grow. I have about 10 pages left to write and post in my current niche and then off to the next one.

Yes, you heard me correctly, "I have to write" about 10 more pages. I'm not yet anywhere near the point that I can hire ghost writers and I prefer not to use the 1000x regurgitate articles floating around everywhere else. I don't want to deal with duplicate content penalties or copyright issues and besides, I really enjoy writing when it;s about something I like or and versed in. I hope as we go into fall, a few other pages I created for a fall activity I enjoy, will also start placing better in the searches and become searched more often very soon. I'm on the constant look out for new ideas and I'll find that pot of gold yet! To your success!

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Apogee Search Glossary - Search Engine Marketing

This site is a unique approach to search engine marketing and has a great SEO Glossary. This glossary is full of definitions you can impress your friends with who might not as SEO as you are. Apogee Search Marketing Glossary is a great service and if you are just starting out with a new website, they appear to be able to help you get off on the righ foot! Visit their site and see for yourself.


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Basic Injection Molding - Cycle & Mold Temperature Control

Now that we have covered all the basic injection molding machine components and their functions, as well as the simplest of injection molding process techniques, we can begin to take a closer look at the injection molding process itself and also common problems and troubleshooting methods to employ when trying to solve them. We had earlier discussed the main elements of the custom injection molding process in brevity, and now we can take that knowledge and review them more in depth. This will include how to best use this knowledge to design some robust injection molding processes for our custom injection molded products.

Time
The amount of time it takes to perform all of the steps in creating an injection molded part. This includes part removal and all aspects of time from “mold open to mold open”.

Mold Close
The amount of time it takes to move the clamp from it’s full open position to a it’s fully closed position.

Fill Time
The amount of time it takes to fill the cavity with plastic and reach the transfer or cut off point.

Pack/Hold Time
The amount of time to complete the pack and hold phases on the injection process

Cooling Time /Screw Rotate Time
The amount of time it takes to cool the part before removing it from the mold.

Mold Open Time
The amount of time it takes to open the mold, remove the part, and begin the new cycle.

Mold Cooling – Chillers
Go to
http://www.wm8c.com/plastic_injection_molding_i.htm for the rest of this section...

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Sunday, August 06, 2006

Solar Powered Lighting

In these times of extremely high energy prices, we all need to be looking for alternative sources. Having a pond and wanting to provide lighting for it in the evening hours, Solar Lights are a great choice or this type of lighting requirement. The are virtually maintenance free and placement is very simple as you just stick them into the ground where ever you need them. No wires or transformers to fuss with. Give them a try for you landscaping needs. They save on electricity and are perfect for your needs. Go green, go solar!


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A Basic Injection Molding Machine Process - The Mold

The Injection Mold - It’s Main Components and Function

The function of the “mold” or “mould” depending on which spelling you subscribe to in the injection molding process, is simply to be the vessel within which a plastic part is born. Think of the mold as the reverse image of your finished part. What I mean by that is this…if I took a ball and I covered the entire surface of the ball with plaster and let it harden, and I then cut it exactly down the middle into two halves and removed the ball, what I would be left with is the basis of an injection mold. It is a void or space of some shape that is split into two sections so that we can inject plastic into that space to create a plastic part when it is removed from this mold. We refer to the halves of the mold as the cavity and core, or cover and ejector. The cavity and core can be either the front or back half of a mold depending on the design. Most molds will have the cavity or cover of the mold mounted on the stationary platen and core or ejector of the mold on the movable platen. In the case of molds that are built with cavity or cover ejection this would be reversed, and then we often would use the core pull system to run the ejectors forward. We will stick with the more common configuration of the ejector half of the mold being located on the movable platen and using the standard injection molding machine ejector system.

The “ejector” or “ejection” half of the mold is what will ultimately cause the finished plastic part, to be ejected from the mold. It is comprised of a number of components, some of which will be the ejector housing, ejector plate, ejector pins, and water (cooling) lines. As design requires it, it may also have slides, cores, lifters, and other moving components that make up the the ejection system. It also is usually the core half of the mold. Besides being a critical part of the molded part, it’s only other purpose in life is part removal or “ejection”. Plastic shrinks to varying degrees, and because of this we must build molds with sufficient draft to allow the part to easily slip off of the core of the mold without damage to the parts plastic surfaces. Draft needed for a given material or resin can vary greatly and you should consult your material vendor for the specifications for the material you are using for your specific application. Draft can be as little as a couple of degrees, to something much more substantial depending the part design and material requirements. When a part is molded and then cooled, the ejector plate of the mold is moved forward causing the ejector pins and/or lifters to push the part free of the mold, allow it to be removed by an operator or robot, or to simply fall onto a chute or conveyor to be moved to it’s next operation. You can finish reading this article series on my website at
http://www.wm8c.com/basic_injection_molding_ix.htm

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Saturday, August 05, 2006

PayPerPost - Consumer Generated Advertising


Want to find a way to generate some extra income. try PayPerPost. They are a Consumer Generated Advertising program and if you join now you can earn some easy money by just following some simple instructions and posting in your blog as you normally do!
http://www.wm8c.com

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A Basic Injection Molding Machine Process - How To Mold a Plastic Part

The basic injection molding process, which is the process taking a polymer or generically a “plastic resin” from a solid state, heating it and changing it to a semi-liquid state, forming it into something, and cooling it back to a solid state. Injection molding is an extremely versatile and popular form of molding. Other processes include extrusion, thermoforming, and blow molding. This process can be used to create untold types of products including toys, everyday items we use, medical items, and car parts. It’s uses are almost limitless and are ever expanding day by day, as new technologies for both injection molding machines and engineered resins are developed and implemented.

But, that’s not why you are here visiting this page. We could spend all day discussing the different types or resins, their uses and applications, the various types of machines and their processes but we won’t at this time. I hope that you are here because you want to understand the basic injection molding process and how it works. Based on that, we are going to take a very simplistic approach to this process and keep everything very generic. You can get training through most of the injection molding machine manufacturers and it can often be done as onsite training vs. offsite, but if you choose to do onsite training, it is important that you can create an environment where the staff that is being trained, can do so uninterrupted by their normal daily tasks. I have seen many failed attempts at using onsite training because proper arrangements were not made to cover the personnel involved in the training, and interruptions rendered the training useless. If you are looking for a more advanced explanation of injection molding, you will need to take some classes, seminars, workshops, or other more advanced training in the area of injection molding. You would then learn about basic polymer chemistry all the way through advanced polymerization and processing conditions and much more. This is not intended to be an answer to all your problems, nor will it be 100% applicable to all equipment or processes, but it should give you something to start with. So with that in mind, off we go. You can finish reading this article series on my website at http://www.wm8c.com/basic_injection_molding.htm

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Thursday, August 03, 2006

OOZM - Social Search Engine on sale at eBay

I just heard about an OOZM eBay Sale that is going right now! It is a small meta search engine that also had included the people power in it like digg had. It is a very cool concept for a search engine and because I am big fan of giving users the tools to be able drive the site. A very similar meta search engine, Jux2 went for sale last year and was sold for $100,000 on eBay. A few months ago another fresh engine, digforit.com went for sale on eBay for $25, 400.

OOZM seems to be slightly different and packed with a lot of nice tools like the live thumbnail generator and so on. The starting bid was at $0.01 and it is currently at $1025. If you are in this business then you should be able to snatch this for a good price.
Bid for OOZM here.
Good luck.


Quick Mold Chane or SMED

There has been a lot of discussion heard lately on reducing mold set-up times throughout the injection molding industry by using quick mold change methods. Even though many companies are not at full utilization of their equipment, management would love and often pushes for the the achievement of one minute changeovers on all molds so they do not loose any machine time. What management does not always do is to support the idea with money saving devices or studies to help the process technician and set-up people to achieve quicker mold change over's. This often produces frustration in with the technicians and die setters who are trying to do a faster change over with out some of the fancy tools to do it with. Quick mold change is simple in it's basic form. To learn more about this process please visit my main website at http://www.wm8c.com/quick_mold_change.htm read the rest of this article and learn more about injection molding processes.

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Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Photography With Digital Cameras


One of my favorite past times as you can see from many of my earlier blog posts is Digital Cameras and digital photograpy. I have been taking pictures with my Sony F-707 for some time and I just love the versatility I have with digital cameras. It is a 5 mega pixel camera with a Carl Gleiss lens and it takes really beautiful photo's. the camera is no longer made by Sony, but you can find them at reasonable prices on Ebay and at other used camera dealers. Get out there and take some pictures with your Digital Cameras! What are you waiting for?

http://www.wm8c.com/walk_in_the_woods.htm

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Custom Embroidery and Digitizing For All Your Personal and Business Needs.


We've launched!

We feature custom embroidery for your business, sports team or club. We are located in Michigan and provide embroidery to customers nation wide. Choose Astrid’s Embroidery & Quilts for your embroidery needs because we believe in excellence and quality through attention to detail. We provide personal service coupled with quick delivery ensures you have the product you want at the time you need it. We also have no minimums. We can handle your order whether it is for 1 piece or 100 pieces.

Contact us by phone or email so that we may find the perfect apparel, cap or gift for your custom embroidery needs. Because each customer is unique we like to communicate directly with you to ensure we are providing you with exactly what you want. You can contact us by email at
astridsembroidery@wm8c.com or phone us directly at 269-795-7297. Costs for a project will vary from project to project and an estimate will be provided to you before we begin work on your personalized custom embroidery project.

Astrid’s Embroidery & Quilts offers:

Cap Embroidery
Logo Wear
Personalized Gifts and Apparel
Monograms
Team Wear
Spirit Wear
Specialty and Personalized Gifts.

Give us a try!

Send us your artwork to digitize. Digitization is the process of turning artwork into a format that the embroidery machine can read. By using state of the art software your logo is digitized into stitches. We digitize unique designs for home and commercial machine embroiderers. We use Generations software to create our machine embroidery designs with excellent stitch quality and perfect registration.

We have access to Hats, both normal and low profile, T-Shirts, Polo style shirts, button up shirts, and coats in various styles and colors. Just provide us with type of garment, color, & size you are looking for. If you have questions, our phone number is 269-795-7297 (in Michigan) between the hours of 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM EST. If you are looking for us to digitize your design, we will need a picture or description of what your needs are, and further conversation will be had upon your inquiry as to what your and our requirements are in order to provide you with your quote.

We use two machines for our business: A Viking Designer I and a Brother PR-600 II so we can be very versatile in our offerings.


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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Auto Cool Solar Powered Car Fan

If you live in area like where I do and the summers are very warm and sunny, then you know what it's like to get into your car after it's been sitting in the sun all afternoon. It's hotter than you know what in there and even with air conditioning, getting your car down from as high as 140 degrees inside takes a while, especially if you have a dark interior as I do. Even cracking the windows doesn't seem to help much. Enter the Auto Cool Solar Car Fan. This little solar powered fan can exhaust the hot air inside you car out through a cracked window, lowering your cars interior temperature by as much as 30 degrees. Auto Cool Solar Car Fan is definately worth a look.


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PayPerPost - Get paid to blog...

I joined this program 31 days ago and made two posts to test the system. Well today I received the first payment for that post. I would say this opportunity at the moment appears to be a legit operation and I am recommending that you give them a try if you want to earn some extra cash for what you like to do anyway, and that's make entries in your blog.

You will need to review the offers and follow some directions that apply to each of these offers, but if you follow directions well, you should get paid directly to your PayPal account after 30 days. Give it a try, because what do you have to lose? There are currently about 50 offers to choose from and they range from opinions to blatant advertising.
To you success!
http://www.wm8c.com

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PayPerPost...cash the fun way!



Want a great way to blog and earn some spare cash while your doing it? Go to http://www.payperpost.com and sign up today! You won't regret it and it's fun! I get paid to play with my food!

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