First, my daily rotation. The first thing I do every morning after sitting down at my desk is run through the following five sites. They keep me abreast of the very basics of my existence -- money (I work for a financial website, cut me some slack), web design, programming, news/views/barbecues and laughs.

Upside.com

Originally, I was supposed to be the guy who seeded our message boards with interesting conversation about investments, 401ks, company financials and other fascinating financial topics. That was until everyone involved realized I'm a financial idiot (I tried to tell them...). Part of that job was cycling through a ton of financial sites, reading the news, and tryign to get a grip on what everyone was buzzing about. Upside is the only one I still visit daily. Initially, it was because I dug their columnist Tish Williams, who's pop cultural references and goofy stories belie a strong and insiteful understanding of he computer industry. I rarely read Tish anymore, but visit the site daily to see what companies they're reviewing and to catch their coverage on all kinds of topics that go beyond the standard Wall Street Journal fare.
 

C|Net's Builder.com

How's this for a "duh" statement for you -- the web was built by web developers. Knowing that, you'd think there would be better sites out there for just that group of people. But the sad fact is that good sites providing solid information on building the web are few and far in between. Builder.com is one of those sites that actually provides useful information and tutorials, allowing people in my profession to stay on top of new technologies and design ideas as they are brought public. While not an overly technical site -- they spend way too much time abbling about the new Internet culture and patting web developers (i.e. themselves) on the backs for ushering in this new technology -- some of their tutorials and columsn are pretty top-notch. If you're looking for a good overview of a technology and want to catch the buzz of what's new, Builder.com is a good place to start.
 

Webmonkey

The Monkey is the grandaddy of all great web tutorial sites. When folks come to me seeking help on learning some web technology, such as HTML or JavaScript, I always point them to the Monkey. This is a site with real personality. The writing style is informal and really gives the reader the impression that the topic they're reading about isn't quite as intimidating as it first appeared. Unlike so many sites that spend most of their time celebrating the web and the folks who develop it (see Builder.com above), the Monkey goes out of its way to help those developers by providing thorough tutorials that are unafraid of tackling difficult topics. Most of what I now know was learned through a combination of a Webmonkey tutorial and an O'Reilly book. MY one complaint about the site is that, aside from their Monkey Bite, which I've found quite useful, new content comes at an inconsisten pace. Frustrating when you're looking for a new challenge to tackle.
 

Salon

Silicon Valley -- home of the young and noveau riche, grotesque demonstrations of wealth, and pseudointellectual debate. Salon fits snugly into that last category. It's a solid site with terrific daily articles. I read it to stay on top of what everyone else is talking about and for its entertainment value. While much of it seems to be slipping into the "sex sells" black hole (when isn't the "Nothing Personal" columnist talking about some starlet's breasts? And she's a woman!), the perspectives of its writers presents the reader with a diverse amount of information. Where else can Camile Paglia, David Horowitz, Susie Bright and Garrison Keillor all coexist in harmony?
 

The Brunching Shuttlecocks

If I ever decide to give up the wild and crazy life as an engineer for the more tame career of internationally famous rock star, my back up band will be given the name "A lot of Olgas" as a tribute to the strange, wonderful world that is The Brunching Shuttlecocks. I have never laughed so hard in my life than when I went through the complete list fo their ratings. L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg is one of the greatest comedic writers of our time -- and I mean that in all sincerity.
 

 
The following sites are those I visit throughout the day, when work gets rather slow. Some I visit to help improve my technical skills, some to just break the tedium. And some would be in my daily rotation if all I did all day was surf the web.
 

Quicken.com

What am I up to lately, you ask? Just surf this site and you'll see. Consistently rated one of the top two financial web sites on the Internet (Yahoo Finance is the other one -- they switch places in the number one and two spots all the time), Quicken.com is your one stop source for all things financial. And, before you start calling me a corporate stooge, realize that, even before the brainwashing began, I felt this way about the site. It's well produced, well designed, and fairly well organized. A fine example of how the Internet should be used. Much of the front-end coding you now see on the site was done by me. Pure bliss.
 

Jakob Nielsen's Usability Site

There's a serious disconnect between the folks who build technology and those who design it. Those who build it often concentrate on making it work at any cost, completely ignoring the user element. Those who design it try to make it easy for people to use while also making it attractive, often creating designs that are either far too expensive or too challenging to accomplish using current methods. The reason for this breakdown is a lack of communication and knowledge on the part of both parties.
 
Having argued with our design team so many times over the tradeoffs between what's possible and what's usable, I've realized that, if I want to be more valuable as a programmer, I need to understand not just how to make things work, but also how to make them attractive to the user. It's sounds simple, but it's a true challenge, particularly for someone who has never learned design and human dynamics. Jakob Nielsen is considered by many to be the pre-eminent user interface guru. He writes a bi-weekly column on the topic that has proven invaluable to me. After reading through the archive of his columns, I have not been able to look at any program without judging it's usability. What's even more shocking is how I've come to realize just how awful the UIs of many of the most commonly used programs (i.e. Windows) are. It has inspired me to find better ways to help people navigate and has even given me some new ideas for a graphics based Operating System, which I do not currently have the skills to build. On top of all of that, I have gotten maybe three or more WONDERFUL business ideas from his columns that I'm not currently in the position to exploit. But they are things I will be keeping my eye on for the future.
 

The Force.net

Everyone who knows me eventually comes to the realization that, in the grand scheme of things, I'm not obsessed about too many things. There are so many fanboys in the world, especially in Internet companies, that it can be unsettling to come across someone who has not read every Robert A. Heinlein book or taped every Dr. Who episode off of PBS. The one place in my life where this all breaks down is when it comes to Star Wars. And, really, who can blame me? Aside from the cool effects and the magnificent storytelling and character development, Star Wars is all about the mythology for me. I have always loved folklore and mythology and Star Wars is a mythos that was developed within my lifetime. The Force.net is my dirty little secret -- I am just DYING for the next prequel to hit the theaters, and I read every spolier and rumor they post. Some say that ruins it for me, that I shouldn;t have read Terry Brooks' book before seeing Episode I in the theaters. For me, though, it's the complete experience -- the conspiratorial way in which rumors and scoops are diseminated to the public, the fascinating ideas and speculations that the REALLY hard core fans come up with. And then, when I see the actual thing in the theaters, it's not just watching a movie; it's comparing all that was said and speculated with the actual procudt and walking away with a full understanding of what I just saw. Long story short -- I'm a geek.
 

Epinions

OK, honesty time: I really only visit this site because I've written nine reviews that have been read by more than 600 people, and I like to check in to see where my stats are. But I also like seeing what other folks have to say about a particular product -- whether it be a book, movie or camera -- that I'm thinking of purchasing. Epinions takes the idea that Amazon started of having customer rate what they bought and brings it to its logical end -- an etire site of reviews written by regular folks. The reviews are often very useful and their system of reviewing the reviews, though oddly recursive, bubbles up only the best content to the top. Once again: a perfect example of how the web should be used.
 

SF Gate

I'm a hard core news junky. I want to know what's going on in the world. I feel out of it when I haven't read a newspaper or news site in more than 24 hours, and that's not a fun feeling. It's a leftover from my days at the Daily Cal, when my job depended on me knowing what was happening in the world. SF Gate, which is run by the SF Newspaper Agency (owners of the SF Chronicle and KRON Channel 4), gives me all that and more -- with attitude. IT's worth visiting the site just to read the unorthodox teases that point to each story. IF you want to keep up with what's happening in the San Francisco Bay Area -- especially SF itself -- this is a must read.
 

John Tchoe's Yellowpad

These link areas all too often degrade into a love fest between the author and his friends who also happen to have a web site. The fact is, few of my friends actually have websites and those who do haven't done enough with them to really warrant a link (not just my opinion -- often also their's). John Tchoe is the exception. We went to UC Berkeley together and spent many a long evening dreaming about the future, of becoming successful published authors and living the high life free of cubicles. I haven;t spoken to John in a couple of years, but last I heard he was an IST guy for Kennedy, Cabot and Co. And I, of course, work for Intuit at Quicken.com. Aside from the various news articles I've had appear in the Daily Cal, SF Chronicle and a handful of college rags, neither of us has been published. But John's doing the next best thing -- he writes a weekly column for his web site that he call's "John's Weekly W.I.T." John can be very opinionated and stubborn, but that's only an indication of his great intelligence. Reading his articles have made me laugh and forwn but, more than anything, they have made me think. You don't have to know him to understand where he's coming from and I'd recommend the Weekly W.I.T. to anyone.
 

View Askew Online

Actually, I'm only including this link here because I think Kevin Smith, apart from being a terrific writer, is one of the funniest guys out there. This is the same guy who brought us "Clerks", "Mallrats" (still one of the most underrated movies of all times), "Chasing Amy", and "Dogma" and wrote for the only comic book I've wanted to read in about three years, "Daredevil". View Askew Online has everything you could ever want from Smith all in one place. Anyone who has ever played with the Jay and Silent Bob action figures I keep on my desk know that the fanboy comment I made about myself in the Force.net entry also applies here.
 

The Fray

Rave, rave, rave... better you explore it than I describe it.
 

The Daily Californian

This is where I spent the majority of two years of my life. Despite the fact that I quit and pissed just about everyone off, I continue to love this place all too dearly. I won't say they were the best two years of my life, because they weren't, but they're damn near close. And, most importantly, the experience fueled my desire to become a print journalist as a profession.
 

Deuce of Clubs

By day, I'm a mild mannered web developer, sitting quietly in my cube (my cube neighbors will deny that and kick into a rant about my constant high-decibel swearing, but YOU try this job without swearing),typing away on the ol' keyboard. But, by night, I secretly desire to be an artistic anarchist, painting oddly organic lines onto my beat up Mercury Topaz and heading out into the Black Rock desert to burn an effigy of a neon man. Why haven't I done any of this? I have no clue. It's not really my scene, I say, but then I've had a blast at just about every Burning Man-style event I've ever been to.
 
Whatever the reason, I still secretly harbor these desires, and sites like Deuce of Clubs make me feel as though I'm not alone. I ran across the Deuce after reading an article in Salon about a phone booth out in the middle of the Mojave Desert that has become something of a cult travel destination. The guy who started it all was Godfrey Daniels, the owner and operator of The Deuce. He's got a practical "Question Authority" spirit that I totally dig. He drives an art car decorated with Herb Alpert and the TJ Brass albums that he calls "Whip It". He sent more than 200 questionnaires out to all of the countries in the world seeking a government that understands what true freedom is (i.e., privacy WITHOUT mandatory ID cards, the right to earn money WITHOUT forced taxation, etc.). He has a bust of the composer Richard Wagner that he carries wherever he goes and pops up in every photograph he takes. He inspires me, not in that sugary, "Wind Beneath my Wings" way, but in a way that makes me want to shove some shirts and underwear into my pack, hop into the Pope Mobile (the aforementioned Topaz) and relive my days in college when the road trip was not simply a luxury but a necessity. I need that.