Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder and Facebook president, says early-stage investors will fund almost anything these days. That's not good. The normally party-happy but press-shy tech entrepreneur Sean Parker was a bit of a buzzkill on the subject of Silicon Valley Tuesday

What if you didn't send your money to a faceless investment bank, but instead gave it to a local business? We spoke to author Amy Cortese about local investing, where people keep their capital within 50 miles of where they live. "The crazy thing is it’s easier for most people to invest in a company halfway across the world than in their own backyard," says Amy Cortese, author of the recently published Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It.

Several of Lauren Conrad's former castmates on The Hills, which ended last year, have started businesses of their own. Here's a sampling: Kelly Cutrone, founder of fashion PR firm People's Revolution (at which Conrad worked on the show), is set to debut her own sportswear line, the Electric Love Army, this fall

We pronounced the netbook phenomenon all but over last year--they're now merely another class of laptop one can buy, at the cheap end.