Eddie L.

Horrible ads on thestreet.com - They underline words in the text of their articles such that it seems like the site is providing you with additional useful information. But instead, the underlined links in the article are simply advertisements. Poor form--the website is tricking me into helping them make money and not providing me any value in return.

I won't stay in a hotel in another country unless I've read about it first on Trip Advisor. The site isn't so good for other travel topics, but for hotels, it's the best.

Any site that claims it can "teach you how to making money trading stocks" is one to avoid. Everything you need to learn about investing, you can learn from books at the library and from free information online.

ALSO, generally speaking, the best place for anyone to invest their money is in index funds. The fees are cheaper than trading or other types of mutual funds, and the returns, on average over a long period of time, will be higher. The only thing you really need to learn about is diversification (owning, US stock index funds, versus US bond index funds, verus internetational index funds, versus other asset classes). But most importantly, remember, index funds! Here's a link to more information from a PBS interview with a very smart investor.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/04/27/index_funds/

I know downloading copyrighted files is wrong, but Torrentz is a good way to download music and movies for free... and if you really like it, you can go onto iTunes and buy it to support the artists.

The first place I go when I'm planning a trip is Kayak so I can see the full range of prices and options on my flights. Kayak is not quite as good at hotels, particularly in non-mainstream locations, but for flights it's the best.

Jeremy Grantham with more sage advice on markets - No one did a more articulate job predicting this financial crisis than Jeremy Gratham. He's a king among men and perhaps the world's best financial commentator.

His new interview on the financial crisis and why stocks are probably still not cheap should be read by all investors:

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB**************.html?mod=9_0001_b_this_weeks_magazine_home_left&page=sp

Reliable conference call service - Good quality and reliable service for conference calls. I'm not sure how the prices stack up with competitors, but there are no monthly fees--you just pay per minute per caller.

Research on overseas suppliers - Having previously suffered through the challenges of sourcing contract manufacturing in China, I've been looking for a tool like Panjiva to help me research overseas suppliers.

The service certifies companies based on past performance along criteria such as customer loyalty, experience, management quality, and environmental responsibility. Panjiva hasn't been around very long (2006) but they have been working with Elie Tahari, a well-run high-end fashion company, which gives me some faith in the quality of their data. Also, the company was founded by a solid team from Harvard and MIT. If you're looking for a supplier in the apparel space, it's probably worth the fee.

Good, cheap healthcare - Kaiser has gotten a lot of bad press over the years, but they offer good, cheap health insurance. They have high deductible monthly plans starting at $80 a month for an individual. Although they emphasize efficiency, they doctors are not that bad and do care about their patients. Kaiser is probably best for young, healthy people and lower income families. But net net, good value healthcare can be had by all.

Really isn't a better site out there for camera equipment. Customer service, selection and quality of products are all great. Prices are market, but it is my belief that in this world you get what you pay for.

Forget Bing and Google, I find Kosmix's search engine to be more useful than both. It pulls useful data from a number of sources including forums, wikipedia, how-to websites, and others. It also suggests related searches that I often find helpful. Admittedly, I don't use it more than Google, but I do use it whenever I am really researching topic.

I won't eat at a new restaurant without checking Zagat's guide. I also enjoy the Michelin Guide but it does not cover as many restaurants as Zagat's. I do not trust reviews on sites like Yelp's because all reviews seem to converge to 3.5 stars and the reviewers seem often not to know what they are talking about when it comes to food.

Fibromuscular dysplasia is an important and under diagnosed disease in the US. Fmdsa.com has some good information, but you can also read a recent WSJ article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB**************.html - 5% of Americans may have it and are undiagnosed. Women are particularly susceptible.

More from the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fibromuscular-dysplasia/DS*******

Ask your doctor about it today!

Good job site for 20-35 yr olds looking for finance, marketing jobs - The Doostand job board is a great place for 20 and 30 somethings looking for high-end positions in private equity, hedge funds, i-banking, consulting, or marketing.

Good Finance Blog search engine (better than normal Google) - This works much better than Google for finding posts in financial blogs and is great for doing stock research.

Great web traffic measurement mash up - This very cool site allows you to compare a website's traffic on Compete, Alexa, Quantcast, and Technorati. This is particularly useful as none of these services on their own is especially accurate.

The best economics policy blog - Greg Mankiw is a bit conservative, but he is a great economist and a brilliant thinker. His blog is a great combination of reasonably objective analysis combined with a great summary of important economic happenings and papers. This is a must read if you care about the economy.

Liza Minnelli is so scary - Did anyone see her in Arrested Development? She was frightening. And here she is frightening again--this time without pants.

I care about the weather because I play golf. Other weather sites are riddled with advertisements. Weather Spark, for now, has no ads and a nice user interface. I approve.

I don't love all the advertisements for me to upgrade, but otherwise, I love how yousendit.com makes it easy for me to send large attachments like photos, videos and music all for free. So I put up with the ads and love it anyway.