This line (subscription required) from today's Wall Street Journal pretty much tells you everything you need to know about how not useful Wall Street analysts are:

Just a month ago, Goldman's commodity analysts predicted crude oil would average $148 a barrel next year. On Sept. 16, they trimmed that forecast to $123. On Monday, they slashed it to $86 a barrel.

That's right: analysts are being paid millions of dollars and receiving tax deductions on pinstripe suits to raise estimates as prices rise and then slash them when they fall. Such analysis is truly priceless -- almost as valuable as a solar-powered flashlight or a Wiimote-powered Roomba. And keep in mind that Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is actually probably the best firm on Wall Street.

The point is this: most of the analysts you see on networks like CNBC are just expressing their mood on that particular day.

If you're in it for the long-term, the best thing you can do is nothing -- live within your means, invest regularly, and don't pay too much attention to the news.

One way to go broke is to buy oil when the analysts says it's going to $148 and then sell it after the downgrade.

This post is part of our Hottest Products of 2007 feature. Also check out our other Hottest Products of 2007 posts and let us know which product you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY)'s Wii gaming console was a non-contender -- an underdog -- this time last year. The gaming console with the funny name was set to launch with little fanfare compared to the Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3 or Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Xbox 360, launched a year earlier, but the Wii caught eyes because it was priced at only $250, compared to $600 for the PlayStation 3 and $400 for the Xbox 360. But then again, it had inferior graphics and other downgrades. My, my -- how customers didn't care about its competitors' touted features and other fluff.

Why not, you ask? The Nintendo Wii featured the most innovative and immersive gameplay, regardless of the hi-def video or audio output and inferior graphics. Nintendo figured out that consumers wanted a newer kind of gameplay -- not photo-realistic blood and guts. As an aside, they designed the initial games and many others to get game players off those duffs and onto their feet, wildly slinging those Wii-motes through the air -- swatting tennis balls, slaying dragons and driving cars. The mass, mainstream consumer loved it, and so the age of Wii was born.

Nintendo Ltd. (OTC: NTDOY) continues to sell the hot Wii gaming console in record numbers, and those numbers will probably become higher this holiday shopping season as gift buyers opt for the $250 gaming system over $350 and $500 systems from the competition. The only bad thing about Nintendo's Wii is that the physical interactivity is causing some to throw those gaming controllers all over the place. Hey, Nintendo can't legislate intelligence from its customers, right?

To keep the clueless from throwing their "Wii-motes" all over the living room and through windows and television screens, Nintendo added locking hand straps early this year to all shipping gaming controllers so that they could be secured to player's wrists.

Well, that apparently did not go far enough (unbelievably), so the company is now offering free silicon rubber covers, or "jackets" for these Wiimotes. So, if that remote somehow flies out of your hand, at least it will hit the wall or television set with a simple, rubber thud instead of a loud, glass-breaking crash.

Up to four rubber controller jackets will be offered per Wii owner, although the jackets won't ship until mid-October. If you have a Wii and find that the controller flies out of your hand on occasion, you may want to head over to Nintendo's website and request your jackets. Until you receive them, use those wrist straps and be careful, will you?