Chaotic Encounters

How many of you actually use any of the hundred thousand features that Microsoft Office applications provide? Maybe there is something that you use – that others can also use. Here I would like to talk about something that I’ve been using since Microsoft Office 2003 but which I believe is not something that people know about. So here it is.

So you come in at 8am and look at the 25 mails waiting for you since the previous evening. Or you are just back from a weeklong vacation and you have 500 unread mails in your inbox. How do you know which email is important and which is not? How do you know which email is asking you specifically for some critical information?

Here’s a tip. There is a beautiful option in Outlook called Conditional Formatting. You can conditionally format your inbox view so that messages that are addressed exclusively to you appear in Red; messages that are addressed to you and others in Blue; and messages where you are in the CC list in Green. This way, one look at the inbox tells you which mails you NEED to open and which mails can wait!

Go to Current View Settings (View –> View Settings) and click on “Conditional Formatting”. A window opens up. You can “add” a new condition there. When you click on “Add” – and click on “Condition” button, you will get a Filter window – where there are choices under a checkbox titled “Where I am” – (Values: the only person on the To line, one of the persons on the To line, in the CC list). Select one of them and select the desired font color and face/type. Then click on Add again and select the other options etc.

Now your inbox is in multi-color – The red ones are hot! open them NOW.

By the way, how many of you know that you can create a filter for Outlook Public Folders – For example, any message that contains Republicans and Democrats – don’t show it. It makes lives infinitely better especially when there is a fight going full swing on the public folders. Just explore the “Filter” button on Current View settings. It is fairly self-explanatory.

If you have any such tips, please share them in the comments space. I assure you – you have at least one reader!

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Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” has made the entire world sit right up and take notice of Mr. Nolan’s remarkable filmography. Inception is about to set a record of sorts for the maximum number of reviews on the internet for any Hollywood movie. Everyone has seen it and everyone who has seen it, seems to have written a review or two on it. Around 95.67% seem to love that movie. The remaining people attack the movie – mainly because of the urge to “be different” from the crowd.

If you are smitten by Inception in anyway, unless you are living under a rock in an inaccessible cave in African mountains, you have read about and seen the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip that has the same theme – A dream inside a dream. Nolan might have inadvertently got inspired by that comic strip though it is highly unlikely that Bill Watterson would file an IP theft case on Nolan. We are all reasonable enough to just laugh about this sheer coincidence and not take anything away from Nolan. His Inception screenplay was pure genius; an intelligent thriller that satisfies almost everyone (Yes I know only 95.67% liked that movie – Hence the word “almost”.) in the world. Nolan is God. Isn’t he?

Well, there’s this small “One More Thing” – (I admit I am no Steve Jobs to say the one more thing in the best possible way!)

Christopher Nolan seems to be heavily inspired by Calvin. It is not just “Inception”. Calvin’s heroics and ideas have seeped into at least two other movies of Nolan – The Prestige and The Dark Knight. While in The Prestige, Calvin’s “Duplicator” was put to good use, in The Dark Knight – Calvin’s “Transmogrifier” helped the Batman modify his Batmobile into a particularly suave motorcycle!

However, Bill W – the gentleman that he is – is probably not interested in taking Mr Nolan to court.

Any other C&H inventions that you think have inspired him? The comments space is all yours if you want to say something.

Disclaimer: This disclaimer is only for those who do not have the innate capacity to spot a satirical piece of work. This article is meant to be a joke. If the joke is lost on you, it is your problem – not mine J

As a policy, I don’t entertain piracy of intellectual content such as music or movies. Many a time I have come across as a pompous, self-righteous, whining old man and people have started avoiding me at social gatherings fearing my lectures on the importance of upholding a wonderful but little understood concept called Intellectual Property Rights.

So when I downloaded this movie from a torrents site, it was the first of many things. My first usage of the bit torrent client on my Ubuntu laptop; my first download of a movie in electronic form; in some ways my first “illegal” and “Criminal” activity on the internet.

Before you pick up the phone and report me to the cops, let me reveal something – The producers of this movie have “requested me” (read on) to download the movie via torrents. I have their official consent. So while the transaction may have taken place via a medium largely known to beget piracy, I am quite on the right side of the legal line.

(Update: Eric D Wilkinson clarified below in the comments section that they did not “request” anyone to steal or download the pirated copy of their movie but did not have a choice. Read the complete comment: http://www.venu.in/blog/?p=280&cpage=1#comment-415. I would like to clarify here that the “request” part in the paragraph above should not be taken literally. I am happy Eric read my review and provided his point of view.)

The movie in question is Jerome Bixby’s “The Man from Earth”, an astonishing tale about a man purportedly 14000 years old. I was blown away by the script. (Jerome Bixby is the writer) There are no heroes in this movie. It is the script that captivates you. And that’s sad because, this amazing movie though extremely popular, has not made any money. In fact last heard, it is yet to recover the costs.

The producers of this movie, Richard Schenkman (Also the director) and Eric D Wilkinson, made a passionate appeal on the torrents site – encouraging people to go ahead and download this movie. If you watch it and like it, you are requested to make a donation however small it may be. I parted with ten dollars immediately after I finished watching the movie. Such attempts should be encouraged.

Let me forewarn you. It is a science fiction movie only in the strictest sense of the phrase science-fiction. The entire movie takes place inside a room and there is no movement other than people shifting from one lazy boy recliner to another. It is actually a dialogue – kind of a group discussion where the “14000 year old man” is subjected to a long, strenuous and sometimes scary cross examination by his friends. The dialogue is the soul of the movie.

I will stop at this point as any more disclosures will adversely affect your experience of watching this movie. It is not without its shortcomings though. In a crucial juncture towards the end, you find certain complex schools of thought reduced to oversimplified notions and if you are deeply religious, there are chances you would want to declare a holy war on the makers of this movie. However, it makes you think and it entertains you completely. The objective of this movie, if I am not mistaken, is to captivate the viewer and from that point of view alone – it merits a full five stars.

My recommendation:  Catch hold of this movie. If you like it, donate as much as you can. Let more such thoughtful movies delight us.

The movie website: http://manfromearth.com/

On Amazon: The Man from Earth

IMDB: The Man from Earth

Around a year ago, when Amazon announced the global Kindle, I wrote a post with details of the actual amount you’d have to pay if you wanted to buy a Kindle in India. The post also talked about the “extra” that Indian consumers had to pay compared to their American counterparts to buy the Kindle version of a book. In addition, the number of titles in the India store at that time was just a fraction of the US store. (Read it here: http://www.venu.in/blog/?p=188)

Now that Amazon has more than halved the price of Kindle, I see many Indians actually clicking on that “Order” button – Here’s what you need to know before you take the plunge:

The 139$ Wifi Only Kindle will actually cost you 216$ including shipping and “import fees deposit”. Also you pay a premium of 2$ on every book that you buy. Look at the screenshots below: The first features the US Kindle store: Freakonomics is 9.99$ here.

The second features the India Kindle store: Freakonomics is 11.99$

For every title, the “India” premium is 2$. This model, as I said in my previous post (http://www.venu.in/blog/?p=188), works in the US as the paperbacks are more or less priced in the ballpark. However, in India, paperbacks sell for around 300 INR. So you are effectively paying almost double the price for the Kindle version. The number of titles in India store have improved dramatically in the last one year. It still does not come anywhere near the US store though.

So, should you or should not? That’s your call. There is no denying the fact that Kindle is a superb eReader and offers a great experience. If you are in the US, it is a no brainer. Go for it. In India, you should take an informed decision. Just be sure that you know what you are getting into.

My suggestion: eReader device landscape is evolving almost by the minute. If you are not an early adopter, wait for a year and then decide which eReader to buy and more importantly, where to buy it.

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