Roll up a real or wishful-thinking stock portfolio at a new in-beta investment Web site, Tickerspy.com, and see if you have what it takes to beat Warren Buffett.

The site aims to build an investment community that shares news and tips and a little bit of chest-thumping as members compare their portfolio's perfomance against each other and against professional investors - including an estimated comparison point for Berkshire Hathaway, Buffet's $130,000-per share iconic company.

You can track particular members or professional investors, and then check a tab of alerts on the site to see when their portfolios change. You'll also see alerts for the top pro and member portfolios for each day.

Tickerspy members can add links to stories of interest, or post up their own words of wisdom. Those links or posts then show up for other users under alerts if they deal with items in their portfolios.

The site will send an optional daily e-mail with your portfolio's performance, posted items of interest and a list of the day's top traders.

Tickerspy is by no means a replacement for a full-service finance site like Yahoo's, and it sadly lacks the ability to track mutual fund symbols. But there's good fun and info to be had from seeing how your trading technique stacks up.

The Wall Street Journal's Kara Swisher today posted what some insiders are telling her may come next with the Yahoo/Microsoft buyout drama. One source (which she doesn't name) says Yahoo will likely call Microsoft to negotiate terms within 14 days.

While that's not a universal consensus, Swisher writes that she expects such a call will happen, and that the only realistic barrier to the buyout in the wake of Yahoo's ho-hum roadshow is the Justice Department stepping in.  Not a likely event, she says. 

Sobering stuff, given that a Microhoo could drastically change the Webscape for consumers and business alike, though I couldn't predict just how.

In other Yahoo news, the company changed their home page design to once again put their logo in the top center instead of the upper left. A blogoscoped.com post looks at the change and compares it with past designs from the 90s through today.

I just came a cross an online utility that can quickly turn a Web page into a downloadable PDF. Htm2pdf.co.uk looks to be a useful tool if you need a snapshot of a page that might change frequently, or if you want a record of a site's appearance at a particular point in time.

The service is dead-simple. You paste or type a URL into the site and click a button, and end up with a link to a PDF. You can also add a bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar that will convert the page you're currently viewing, or cut and paste html code directly into the site.

The PDF will include a Web page's full length if it scrolls down for multiple screens.  All told, it's a nice free step up from taking a screen shot of a Web site.

The auction is over, and Verizon and AT&T are billed as the big winners. According to the Associated Press, Verizon "won nearly every license in the consumer-friendly "C block."

Echostar reportedly also picked up enough regional licenses to cobble together a national offering. Google walked away with nothing, but was happy with it, as its losing bid achieved its goal of requiring open access on the new networks.

One surprise was the DISH network's winning bid for a block of licenses. Reports speculate that the company might intend to use their spectrum swath for a mobile TV service.

Here's a selection of coverage on this hot topic from around the Web:

BusinessWeek summary wrap-up

Summary from Gizmodo, with a link to a background guide on the 700MHz spectrum

Associated Press short summary

TechCrunch on Google as the real winner

Engadget with links to AT&T, Verizon and Google statements

PC World/Reuters on DISH surprise

If you've found some other good stories on the topic, by all means link to them in comments below.

A blog isn't just a welcome vehicle for journalists to escape the editor's red pen or for teens to wax poetic about their latest crush. They can also be a great tool for promoting your business.

Whether it's computer security, San Francisco real estate or pretty much any other business venture under the sun, some of the best info you can find comes from pros who write their own blogs. Namely, people who can apply expert analysis and commentary to the latest trends and practices in their sector, and do just that in a blog format.

Think back to the last time you had to schedule a meeting with multiple people outside your company. You're gritting your teeth, right?

A new free Web tool named TimeBridge can take away much of the aggravation that comes with all the back-and-forth e-mails trying to find a time for people who don't share the same company calendar. You create a meeting and propose up to five meeting times. E-mail recipients (who don't have to sign up with TimeBridge) choose which times work for them and which don't, and the system automatically chooses a time based on all the attendee responses.

It's no secret that judicious use of Web tools and sites can seriously boost productivity and cut costs for your business. But if the 90s tech boom and bust taught us anything, it's that all that's digital is not gold.

And that's where this brand-spanking-new blog comes in. I'll be wading through the ocean of news, products and tips for the glittering good stuff on making the best use of the Internet for your business.  Things like keeping your company Web site safe against hackers, finding free and paid Web services and tools that improve your business practices, and sundry other business data that deals with the wide, wide World Wide Web.

Yes, that's a lot of ground to cover.  I'll be busy.

So who am I? Well, before working as an editor for PC World I toiled as a unix systems administrator, building and maintaining Web servers and unix networks for companies large and small. All that past and current tech work helps me dig into the nitty-gritty details of important issues like company security and use of technical tools from all angles.

But there's of course plenty I don't know, and I hope you'll join in with comments and suggestions on things I post. Corrections too.  Share your own learned treasure trove of Web business tips, and together we'll make a great blog.