Allakhazam - everything you wanted to know about MMORPGs

This site is for the MMORPG geeks. If you know what that means, you'll be impressed to know that Allakhazam has - as far as I can tell - the most comprehensive collection of maps, hints and useful data about several of the most popular online games, including Everquest I and II, Starwars Galaxies, and (of course) World of Warcraft. If you are stuck on a quest, the discussion boards are an indispensible resource...and the item library contains useful data on thousands of different items, including links to quests and tradeskill uses. A great site for game geeks!

ePinions - get paid to write reviews!

I love this site...it's fun to post reviews on this site, and it's also a good place to look for reviews. ePinions is a large site that allows you to both post and read reviews about all sorts of things - travel spots, electronics, books, movies...you name it! One of the great things about ePinions is that, if you post a popular review, you will actually get paid for posting - how cool is that? Granted, no one is going to get rich doing this - I think I've made a little over $2 per review. But it's nice to know people are reading your reviews, and well, why not?

Even if you don't write, this is a great site for checking things out. I often check a restaurant, hotel or electronic gadget here before I buy, just because there are so many different opinions represented here. Unlike other sites, you will sometimes see some pretty negative opinions about things...but if you find a good reviewer, it's definitely worth reading what he or she says.

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Ping-o-matic

http://pingomatic.com/

This is a really simple, but quite useful site for anyone with a blog that wants more traffic. Simply enter your blog URL in the form whenever you write a new post, and the ping-o-matic will "ping" several blog information sites with your post data. Pinging is a way of automatically informing the site databases that you have fresh content that should be cataloged, so that people can find it when searching the web. If you use an RSS feed, the ping-o-matic will also ping the feed services so that your data will update all over the place.

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Ubuntu - Linux made easy for everyone

If you are a geek like me - well, you fool around with technology far too much. I remember spending hours setting up a Linux server in my basement a few years back. What did I learn from that? Linux is an operating system, like Windows, but it's much cheaper (often free), and, in some ways, superior. What I learned setting up my Linux box several years ago was that it's difficult, time-consuming, and there isn't that much good software available for Linux.

I'm going to tell you that all that (except maybe the software part) has changed. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution (think of it as a version) that is distributed freely online and comes with fabulous set up tools. The CD image you can download from www.ubuntu.com is also cool because it contains a whole suite of office applications AND you can boot it on just about any PC and run Linux to your heart's content without changing a bit of your precious Windows operating system. In other words, you can boot the Ubuntu CD with almost no hassle and fool around with Linux and then go right back to your expensive, virus-plagued Windows setup whenever you want.

Steep-and-cheap - Super deals on outdoor equpment and outdoor clothing

Steep and Cheap is a deal site, kind of like Woot, with two major differences. First, instead of gadgets, this site is about backpacking, climbing, snowboarding and skiing. So, you can find ski and snowboard bindings, packs, and high tech upscale outdoor clothing here, but no laptops, cameras or leakfrogs. Second, the deals just keep coming as soon as the old one sells out. The prices are excellent - generally 50% plus off of some pretty nice stuff. The inventory is pretty thin, so you have to jump on the good stuff right away. I notice that men's clothing on this site sells very quickly in the larger sizes (L and XL, especially), and I've really wanted an item on this site that was only left in Small by the time I got to it. Great site, excellent, quick shipping, and you can subscribe to an RSS feed if you are really into what they are selling.

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PCGS - a treasure for coin collectors and investors!

This gem is for coin collectors - but it might also be for investors!

PCGS is the Professional Coin Grading Service, one of a few specialized coin grading services that have been around since the 1980's. PCGS puts the coins it grades into "slabs", which are tamper-proof sealed plastic slabs that contain the coin and a slip stating the grade and identity of the coin. This is hugely valuable for collectors and investors who are buying top-grade material, where a 1 point difference in grade can mean thousands of dollars. And lest you think this is only about rare or really old coins, I should point out that a 1963 Lincoln penny (not a rare coin at all) goes for $5,000 in an MS-67 grade slab (and yes, the MS-67 grade IS rare). The top services include NGC, PCI, and ANACS as well, but the gold standard of coin grading these days is PCGS, partly because they have historically had very tough grading standards. Because of those tough standards, coin dealers all over the world will buy a PCGS slab sight unseen, knowing they can trust the grade that is on the slab. Investment advisors generally tell their clients to ALWAYS buy slabbed coins, and they do, in fact, make superior investments.

One of the other reasons PCGS is so popular is the PCGS registry, which is a listing of the best registered collections of slabbed coins. The set registry is also a useful way of keeping track of the value of your US coins, because PCGS kindly updates the pricing on these daily, and actually gives you reports on the total value of your registered inventory. To do this, PCGS also has a full-blown price guide on their site, which is a very handy reference, indeed, if you are buying or selling coins online through, say, eBay. I tumbled to this site when I was trying to find a good guide to coin prices so I could make a smart eBay bid a few months ago, but the registry part of the site really got me hooked.

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Statcounter.com - If you blog, you'll want this!

I like to know what's going on with my blogs. In fact, whenever I do something new on a blog, I get all obsessive about whether anyone is reading it. That's one of the reasons I like today's site, www.statcounter.com. It's incredibly easy to put the code for the statcounter into my blog, and the site creates a log file that lets me look at all kinds of stats about my traffic.

If you are just interested in quantity, there is a summary page that shows how many unique visitors and return visitors your blog has had. There is also a fabulously useful analysis of search engine keywords, to show what words people were searching on when they clicked through to your blog. A little more obscure - but fascinating - is the ability to "drill down" into individual site visits, to see where each visitor came from. Not only can you get a general idea of the visitor geography (although be aware that this is inexact - AOL users all show up as living in Virginia, for example), but you can also find out what browser they used, the search engine they used, and even the IP address of the computer used to read your blog. Cool stuff.

The basic (free) Statcounter.com account only handles a log of 100 visits, but for a lower traffic blog, this is fine. By the time your blog exceeds this, you should be plenty willing to fork over the monthly fee for a larger log file. At any rate, if you have a blog and care about who is reading it and why, this site is a gem.

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Woot! - A great deal every day...

For my first useful website, I'd like to introduce everyone to a lovely site called Woot.com. The premise of the site is simple: every day, the site puts up a REALLY good deal on a product. There is a fixed quantity of that product available, and when it's gone, it's gone. Generally, you can order multiples of the "Woot" of the day - up to 3 in most cases. Shipping is almost always five bucks, which is nice, and my experience has been that the shipping is about as prompt as you would expect from any online retailer. If you are unsure of the deal being offered, there is a great discussion board on the "community" section of the site where generous Wooters share their knowledge and experience of the product being offered (such as "I have one and I love it!" or "The buttons are cheesy and break off easily!").

The deals are truly worth checking on. I've seen flat screen TV's for a bit over a hundred bucks, nice cameras for under a hundred, and good MP3 players for under twenty. There is a definite technological bent to the products, but sometimes the products offered are unique and nutty, like the "Leakfrog" - a little frog-shaped device that sits on the floor in your basement and beeps when it gets wet.

If you are really lucky, you'll get a shot at the legendary "Bag-o-crap". Don't hold your breath. I've been on the site the INSTANT these beauties are offered three times now, and failed to get through the incredible server crush to order one before they sold out. Why are they so popular? Well, the "BOC" is a box filled with random odds and ends from previous sales, for the most part, and sells for $1 per bit (plus $5 shipping). When you consider that the typical offer on Woot! is usually in the $20-$150 range, these can obviously be a good deal. Or not, if you are unlucky and get a three dollar mouse cover. But, as I said, I've never been able to get one, so all I can say is, it MIGHT be worth it.

On rare days, Woot! stages what they call a "Woot-off". During those days, there is a new Woot as soon as the old one is sold out, and you will generally see 20+ woots, some of which will sell very quickly. It's fun, but frustrating to check the site in the morning and find that some gadget you've been DYING for sold out at 3 am for one tenth the price you were willing to pay.

So...if you like bargains, definitely check out Woot! - you'll be glad you did.

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Welcome!

Websites I **USE** (really, really, really!)

This blog is devoted to the websites I use. Nothing dumb or cute here (well, maybe if I run out of ideas). What you'll get in every blog article is a link to a truly useful website that has enhance my life in some way.

I'm going to skip over some of the obvious websites that I use all the time, like eBay, Amazon and Mapquest. Some of the sites will be tools that I find useful in my work, travel, play or blogging. All will be sites I go back to over and over for some feature that I have come to find indispensable.

If you have any site you'd like me to look at, feel free to drop me a line. I'm always happy to check out new websites. But be forewarned, I'm not going to review anything that I don't find really cool and useful. In fact, the next couple of dozen posts will likely be dominated by the contents of my bookmark toolbar and a bookmark folder I call "cool web stuff". If you think your site has what it takes, drop me a line!