Links

Useful and fun links from around the Internet; hopefully things you will enjoy. Dave, etc. has no real affiliation with any of the following sites or organizations.

Finance:

  • Google Finance - Unbiased financial news and information from Google.
  • Vanguard - Where you should open your Roth IRA. (This advice does not come with a warranty)
  • Bogleheads Forum - A community of investors (lovers of Vanguard) fixed on long-term goals, with a focus on indexing. This is one of the few places I trust in giving sound financial advice.

Online Games:

Humor:

  • XKCD - An outstanding webcomic for nerds.
  • Improv Everywhere - A group of geniuses from New York making the world a better place. In their own words, they "cause scenes of chaos and joy."
  • The Straight Dope - A source of information. They answer life's strange questions.

Music:

  • Pandora Radio - A free radio that is maybe the best tool ever devised for finding new music.
  • iLike - A site containing a lot of information pertaining to artists. It can alert you when there are upcoming concerts you may be interested in.
  • Indie Guitar Tabs - A guitar tab/chord site for indie artists.

Programs:

  • Firefox - A necessary program for all users of computers. Firefox is far faster, more secure, and more customizable than Internet Explorer. This is the best tool for avoiding malware from the Internet.
  • 7-Zip - Free and lightweight alternative to WinZip, WinRar, or other file extracting software.
  • Notepad++ - Free alternative to Notepad or other text file editing software. Most of this website was written in Notepad++.
  • OpenOffice.org - Free alternative to Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and others) that I swear by.
  • digsby - Lightweight multiprotocol instant message client; connects to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook, and so forth all through a single client.
  • VLC Media Player - A media player that can play just about any media file you'll come across.
  • AutoHotkey - Free scripting software that lets you create you own hotkey combinations on your computer.

Buying Online (and Saving Money):

  • Ebates - Get free money for shopping at a number of popular online stores.
  • BondRewards - Similar to the above, except they also let you take surveys for money and give you the option to be paid in EE Bonds. Just a warning, though, if you're comparing the rates between BondRewards and others, BondRewards is misleadingly high. They advertise rates in "Savings bonds dollars" (if such a thing exists), so you need to reduce it by half to make it comparable to Ebates or Bing. That is to say, a $50 EE bond is only worth $25 when it's purchased.
  • Bing Cashback - Similar to Ebates and Bondrewards, but their cashback rates tend to be a bit better. If you don't feel like supporting Microsoft, however, I won't blame you.
  • Retail Me Not - A very good coupon site. You should check here before you buy anything online.
  • Slickdeals - This site consolidates the best deals found on the Internet and has a pretty decent community that helps its cause.
  • DealCatcher - Similar to the above.
  • PriceGrabber - Price comparison website.
  • Google Product Search - Just like the above, but by Google.
  • Newegg - I tend to buy most of my computer components from this store.
  • B&H Photo Video - Another great online store for electronics.

Et cetera:

  • Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive - A lovely collection of astronomy-related photography.
  • wikiHow - A Wikipedia of do-it-yourself projects. If you want to learn how to do just about anything, here you can find how.