There was a small yet interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today. The article discussed investing with just a few bucks and they listed some interesting ways to invest, which I'll try to summarize. First things first, diversify! Obviously, it's hard to own a wide variety of stocks with just a few hundred bucks, so WSJ suggests getting yourself into ETFs or exchange-traded index funds. The name speaks for itself. ETFs are mutual funds that are traded on the stock market and can be purchased just like any other stocks. Some interesting ETFs that WSJ recommends to look at are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (tracks U.S. stock market) and iShares MSCI EAFE (tracks foreign markets). They also listed four low-cost internet ...

While most good hosting companies will make frequent server backups themselves, I still feel better at the end of day when my blogs database is fully backed up and emailed to me. I value my content too much to risk losing it and starting from scratch! If you're using WordPress, there's a whole Wiki page on this subject: visit it. After reading it, my current backup setup includes two plugins: WP-Backup and WP-Cron. The first one does exactly what its name says, it backs up the MySQL database, archives it and lets you either download it, save it on your webspace, or email it. But who wants to do that manually? This is where the second plugin comes in. ...

I had a privilege of visiting Mellon Bank's foreign exchange trading floor, meet some people on the inside and have them tell us about their jobs and past experiences. This was one of the better trips in a while. It was interesting to be right in the middle of the action in the middle of the day. One thing that I found most interesting is that currency exchange markets are not regulated, other than regulations of individual banks, hedge funds and other institutions. It all makes sense of course. How can one entity regulate markets all over the world? Insider trading is allowed and very encouraged because that's how the traders make money, so they all have a network of friends ...

Charles River Ventures announced today a new investing model called QuickStart. The new model is the first attempt to modernize investing in today's low barrier world. As we all know, these days it's really easy to start with a small idea and be able to execute it without a big investment. The big world wide web lets entrepreneurs have unlimited reach to millions of individuals, with fairly low costs. With this point in mind, CRV wants to help those individuals who are in early stages of execution, not by forcing millions on them, but by starting offering small loans of anywhere up to $250,000 and requiring little equity dilution. CRV will work closely with the new company to help ...