I found a new search engine that uses an interesting idea. When you first go to the website, msdewey.com, you are greeted by a woman avatar. When you search for terms she will say different things according to what you search for. Janina Gavankar is the model who plays the avatar and really makes this project unique and sexy! The search results come from microsoft live and it seems like it’s a test from microsoft to have some fun. This site isn’t very useful but it shows what can be done in the future. I still search with google. If you want to see some of the funnier stuff that this avatar will do then type in the following for your search terms [Updated 10/26/06]:

halo 2
murder
ho
Janina Gavankar
how to fight a ninja
what is your name
how to do the robot
george bush
storm
How old are you
dick cheney
what are you

[tags]microsoft,search,internet,Janina Gavankar[/tags]

Let’s bring in real inventors and wannabe inventors to have a contest! The best invention will win lots of money! The invention has to be new, be something that will be useful and show off how smart and creative Americans can be! Sounds great right? Well the show “American Inventor” missed every part of that! When I heard of this show I was really excited! I love inventions and giving the audience a chance to pick the best invention was fantastic.
The first problem is that it came from the idea of American idol which totally works. The contestant on Idol must actually be able to sing and have some personality to win! Their back story would make sense to know who the person is inside and out. Let’s face it, An invention is an invention! Their back story of the inventor doesn’t matter too much. Sure it’s great to find out why they created the invention. It feels good to know they put in so much of their life into what they believe. But it doesn’t make a good invention. This show is only looking for inventors with good sob stories. I bet they passed on some great inventions from great inventors. I can even point you to a website with some details here from Americaninventorspot.com. Be sure to read the comments on that post to understand further. I would have loved the solar cooler to go further. Makes so much more sense in these fuel problem days!
Another problem is the inventions that have gotten through can be found already on the market or a similar product available! I am not going to talk bad about the inventions or the inventors that have gone through. I just think there must be something better out there. Another problem is letting the judges make the decisions for too long!! Give the audience a chance now! Not at the end when we’ll only have 4 choices I hope. Sure it might come down to popularity at the end but any voting by the public will always come down to that. Also way too much air time of previous inventions. I could care less about them now because your judges already dismissed them. Sure it was fun to see crazy people on TV but I think it lessens the impact of this show. Just makes it a talent show and not the best of the best!
[tags]american inventor, reality tv, johnramirez[/tags]

Want to try out the new Yahoo Mail Beta? Wasn’t invited to try it out or don’t know how to try it? I found a post on makeyougohmm.com that explains how to do it for anyone outside of the United Kingdom. Just need to change your location to English: United Kingdom and get the invitation. Can always change your location back and still have access. If you don’t like the beta version then you can switch back to the current version. The new beta version is nice. Similar to outlook and can be used with the keyboard easily. Try it out and see what you think!
[tags]yahoo,mail,beta,yahoo mail,johnramirez[/tags]

Another post which I should have posted weeks ago. I have so many topics on my mind I need to write about. As in previous posts you might know I am a big fan of Dr. Who. It was one of my favorite shows when I was young. As you might know the BBC, in the UK, has started producing new adventures of Dr. who last year. Doctor #9, played by Christopher Eccleston, made his appearance in season 1. (actually season 27 in the full who history)
This year, Season 2 has started on April 15th with all new adventures and enemies! I don’t want to give away anything for the people who are watching season 1 in America so I won’t explain too much about the changes. The first season of Dr. Who will be coming out in DVD on July 4th. Look for it in stores like buy.com! I really hope SciFi will show Season 2 soon because the only way for me to watch it now is downloading off the internet. If it was possible I’d pay for the privilege of downloading it from BBC but still no option for me to do that.
I will write a review on season 2 in another post. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that there is a season 2 being shown in the UK so let’s hope scifi will pick it up this year!!
[tags]Doctor who, dr who, johnramirez[/tags]

If you ever found yourself trying to make a web page with matching colors then I found something for you. It’s called colorMatch Remix! Sometimes when I am building a web page or doing graphic work I find myself using weird colors together. I don’t have a good eye on what colors go with other colors. I constantly find myself going a bit too crazy with the colors. When I found this site I bookmarked it quickly and figured I should post it here for anyone else who needs this help. You just pick a favorite color and it will give you back 6 other colors that will match the original color. Really nice and I’ll be using it from now on!

I haven’t been posting much for a couple of months and I have missed so much so I’ll try to catch up as much as I can. I posted in a previous post last year about the first season of doctor who showing in the UK. Actually season 1 is season 27 if you look at the previous doctor who history. Couple of months ago I heard that the Scifi channel bought the rights to show the first season of doctor who from the UK on their cable channel. They started showing it on March 17th and is showing episodes every Friday at 9pm/8pm central. If you were a fan of Dr. Who before then you really should check this new season out! If you are a scifi fan then you will love this show! It’s all about time travel and such great stories.
[tags]doctor who, scifi, science fiction, TV shows[/tags]

These past months I have been playing games in a virtual world called Second Life. It’s not exactly a game because there is no goal. It’s mostly a platform where users can create anything they want with the tools provided. I signed up at the beginning of this year and have been satisfied with it. I am on their free account which allows you to log in as much as you want, use anything in the game except for owning land. If you want land then you must pay for their premium account which is $9.95 per month.

It’s hard to explain how much you can do inside the game unless you try it. Here’s an article from business week about second life. It will explain a lot to the new users. Some of the games I have played inside second life are, Slingo, Tringo, Blackjack, Slot machines, War and Quintzee. All these games have been created from regular users. There are plenty of other games that I haven’t played yet and more are being created all the time. You can also buy cars, planes, clothes, furniture and gadgets for your avatar inside the virtual world. The one thing that makes this world different than others is you can buy Lindens(game money) with real money and you can sell Lindens for real money. This brings in some business minded people. Some ways of making money in the game is creating objects that others would buy, making scripts for games or vehicles, buying lindens at a low price and selling them for a high price, buying land to place games on and making money from them when people play and escorts or stripping. Yes this is a mature platform and can be used for anything that is legal. No one under 18 can sign up and use second life unless they use the teen grid which is not connected to the mature grid at all. In  the mature grid there are PG places also so not all of it is adult.

I’ve been using second life for entertainment. There are some singers and musicians who play live in certain places. These aren’t wannabe singers. They are very professional and give a great entertainment value. I also play the games for fun too. I haven’t found a business plan for myself in the game just yet but still thinking all the time. I use the name, JohnnyRS Hoggard, in the game. Join up and have fun for free or pay for some nice privileges.
[tags]second life, games, gaming life, virtual world[/tags]

I’ve always been interested in magic since I was a child. I even tried to do some magic tricks I found in some magazines I had but I wasn’t very good and I was too nervous in front of people. I still loved watching magic tricks and try to figure out how to do them. Recently been fascinated by the process of doing card tricks and other fun stuff. I found this magic trick link that has some great magic tricks for anyone to try. I found some videos of really great trick with a coin, disappearing magician, Flying woman and a cool card trick