Undo Send : The new feature in Gmail.

A new feature now available in Gmail aims to rid your life of that classic "Oh Damn it" e-mail moment.

"Undo Send" puts a five to 10-second hold on all outgoing messages. If you had addressed an e-mail to the wrong person, let slip with an embarrassing typo or simply said something you really, really shouldn't have, Undo Send can be a lifesaver.  As with most enhancements to Google's free webmail app, Gmail users can enable the new Undo Send feature by going into their Labs settings and turning it on, click on the little green flask at the top of the screen, or go to Settings and click on the Labs tab. Gmail users can usually access new features shortly after they're announced, but the features take time to roll out across all accounts, so be patient if it doesn't show up right away.

Turn it on and every time you send an e-mail, you'll see an Undo link at the end of the confirmation message that appears at the top of your inbox.

Do nothing and the e-mail goes out. Click Undo and you get dumped back into Compose mode.  The default setting is five seconds, but the Gmail Labs folks tell us you can increase it up to 10 if you wish. In my testing, I only saw options for "5" and "0" seconds in the drop-down list. Perhaps the 10 seconds option would be rolled out in future.

Undo Send cannot pull back any e-mail that has already gone out. But a 5-second window should catch most embarrassments. I have been using Outlook to access my mail and it has an option to re-call any mail that is unread. This Gmail Labs addition is perhaps a first time for web-based mail services, or so I think.

Check out a post on the official Gmail blog by Google User Experience Designer Michael Leggett for more information.

An after thought : Why don’t we just use the five seconds or perhaps more to make sure that we want to send it before it actually goes out? Re-checking an email before sending it causes no harm – or does it?

The Illusionist - A movie with magic.

I was asked by a friend, in fact someone whom I consider to be a mentor to watch this movie if possible. Unfamiliarity with the p2p downloading tricks kept me on it for almost 30 hours spanned over a couple of days, though 90% of the movie was downloaded in the initial two hours. What happened to the remaining 10% - or what was it that made it go on for 28 hours - I am still trying to figure it out. At the end however, i feel that the 30 hours were worth it.

I may have to watch the movie again, as when am writing this, I am trying to recollect the movie scene by scene. There were a couple of times when I found myself lost in the movie.

The story is told from the perspective of the Head of Police - Officer Uhl, who as you soon learn has just arrested the magically gifted main character, otherwise known as ‘Eisenheim the Illusionist’. It creates a vision of Vienna that is a mix of fantasy and history, which plays with the concept of distinction based on class - which tends to fade away - as the old world gives way to a new one. A movie where science and the supernatural mix. It finds a magical background where it pleases almost everyone, where its just strange to thrill the fans and effortless enough to satisfy those who merely seek a diverting entertainment.

The story then unfolds as you witness a young Eisenheim being torn away from his forbidden and aristocratic love - A Duchess a.k.a Sophie. It then skips forward to a time when both Sophie and Eisenheim are fully grown and a chance encounter reunites them. The Duchess is unfortunately due to marry the crown prince at this time, an arrangement she cannot leave. Crown Prince Leopold is the type of man who is jealous of anyone else’s fame and in his envy asks officer Uhl to destroy Eisenheim’s career and reputation. Charging the illusionist with making threats against the empire, Prince Leopold does everything in his considerable power to ruin Eisenheim and keep his own prized possession – Sophie – from finding happiness with her first love.

The Illusionist is an intense battle of wills between the Prince Leopold and Eisenheim, with officer Uhl - an amateur magician himself and someone fascinated with Eisenheim’s work - stuck in the middle. Is Eisenheim calling on supernatural powers when he makes butterflies appear out of thin air, plants grow to full height in the space of mere minutes, or performs other extraordinary tricks onstage, or is it all smoke and mirrors? Uhl seeks answers to the source of Eisenheim’s powers while delicately balancing his admiration for the magician with his duty to the Crown Prince. A murder, an investigation, and love-crazed trickery follow as the plot climbs to it’s somewhat disappointing climax.

Disappointing? You might ask, when it is evident that I had liked the movie. Of course, I had. Yet, I would have liked the characters of the Head of Police and the Crown Prince to have been stronger. The Head of Police comes to understand what actually has happened in the climax - where remembering a conversation he once overheard unfolds the mystery.

I do not deny the fact that there is magic in the movie, the type that reminds one why we fall in love with movies, for creating illusions that captures us in and out and keeps us enchanted even when the rational parts of our mind keeps us hooked on to it. Yet, it could have been more thrilling.

Why not to forward to friends

We’ve all received that e-mail, right? The one that urges us to “forward this to 20 people” in return for anything from “a laptop from Dell” to “a miracle in 7 days” to an outright “surprise right after you click ‘Send’”. Who hasn’t seen the one that says Bill Gates will send you a check for $1 for every single person you forward the message to?

I just received one such e-mail the other day, and couldn’t help but shake my head at the gullibility and outright folly of the universe. The e-mail appeared to have traversed a good portion of the Internet, for it appeared to have been forwarded many a time. Scrolling through the multitude of e-mail headers (To, From, CC, etc.), revealing the e-mail’s traversal path, to the bottom of the message, brought me upon:

 

The scheme here should be fairly obvious: you send this to 8 people, cc’ing Ms. “Anna Swelung” at “Ericsson.com”. Depending on how gullible your 8 friends are (let’s say that an arbitrary 50% of them are in fact gullible and forward the message to 8 of their own friends), Ms. Swelung now has your e-mail address, plus the 8 e-mail addresses you forwarded to her (via cc), plus the 8 e-mail addresses that 4 of your recipients sent to her… (and this doesn’t even count the e-mail addresses of the folks upstream to you; i.e., the folks that sent you the message in the first place).

 Now, let’s say you and your friends are really, really gullible, and decide to up the ante by forwarding the e-mail to not 8, but 20 of your buddies… Think about how quickly (read: exponential growth) Ms. Swelung’s e-mail box will fill-up with the e-mail addresses of folks thirsty for a free laptop computer… Ah, thousands, if not millions of e-mail addresses, harvested, and ready to be spammed with Viagra, Cialis, and HornyAsianVixens.com come-ons.

And now what? The email above is slightly revised version of a 7-year-old hoax promising free phones to frequent forwarders. Though the phrase "computer laptops" has been inserted to reel in more and more people, the anonymous prankster who revised the message didn't even bother to change the names of the "free" items.

Also, the Ericsson T18 and R320 were mobile phones (not laptops) which are now no longer in production.

The email address to which copies of the forwarded message are supposed to be sent, anna.swelung@ericsson.com, is a corruption of the one specified in the original hoax (anna.swelund@ericsson.com), which, of course, was never valid in the first place.

It is important to note that often when you forward email , you leave all the information about the "send/mail to" email addresses of every recipient past and presently in the email "chain" - readable & vulnerable in the headers of the message. And the email address of everyone who has received or been sent the message, can be copied, saved and sold to email marketers, and a ready made listing can be sent  new chain scams  and hoaxes.

Think before you forward. That’s all I have to say.

3G

The third-generation mobile phone network is billed as a giant leap forward for mobile phone technology, with more services and features on offer than ever before. Handsets are now portable multimedia messaging and playback devices that can send and receive e-mail, grab content from the Internet without waiting and have personalised information and entertainment services delivered right to the hand, ear and eye of the user.

There are now a number of 3G networks operating around the world and 3G is soon to be released in India. Despite a slow uptake when the services were originally released, the growth of 3G networks is steady. Mobile companies see a big (read: lucrative) future in multimedia and Internet content for users hungry for faster, feature-rich mobile services ― so expect to see more and more services and competitive pricing bundles as we move forward.

Techs & Specs

The 3G mobile phone network uses a different frequency band than its predecessors to deliver increased data transfer rates. The 3G network uses the 2100MHz frequency, while the existing 2G network operates at the 900MHz frequency band (GSM) and 800MHz (CDMA). This high-speed data capacity enables more content to be sent to and from mobile handsets through calls, messaging and Internet-based content. For example, 3G phones can be used for video phone calls, video message bank, Internet and e-mail, real-time interactive gaming and media streaming, such as news, weather and dedicated TV shows.

The original analogue network was the first-generation cellular mobile phone network which was operational in the 1980s when handsets resembled 'bricks' rather than the tiny, feature-packed devices they've become today. The next major development was the digital cellular mobile phone network that started to offer data as well as voice services and was considered the second-generation mobile network. The 2G network has a data rate of between 9.6Kbps and 14.4Kbps and the 2.5G network boosted rates to between 56Kbps and 144Kbps. The 3G network can deliver data rates up to 2.4Mbps although High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a 3G technology that allows for higher data transfer speeds. Current HSDPA in Australia now supports 1.8Mbps or 3.6Mbps in downlink. Speeds of up to 14.4Mbps and beyond are planned for the future. But the real future is 4G that will deliver data transfer rates of between 20 and 40Mbps, comparable with ADSL and cable Internet transfer speeds. However, the 4G network is only in development and is still some time away from trials and commercial release of services.

In many countries, the 3G network uses the UMTS standard, which is built on the GSM network. The other 3G standard is CDMA2000, which has a number of variations, but only some of the operators has a version for mobile broadband packages. (See Networks & Data Rate box below for speeds and the Glossary for technical terms related to 3G networks.) Theoretically, any UMTS 3G-compatible phone will work on the UMTS network with any operator, although limitations or restrictions may be imposed by the operators as the service develops. But the phone companies are offering a selection of handsets with plans, which limits choice but avoids compatibility issues.

Features

The 3G network brings the world of the Internet to a mobile phone with the addition of enhanced messaging and multimedia functions. Each mobile company offers specially chosen TV, music, multimedia and Internet content, such as news, sport and weather.

Video Talk - With 3G, standard phone features are enhanced with video calls, video message bank, video ring tunes and multimedia messaging. Users can make video calls to other users with a compatible handset and network. It's also possible to leave video messages and add images to contacts so their image appears when they're calling. It is also possible to send video messages to compatible phones as an MMS or e-mail. For example, Hutchison in Australia offers videotalk, a video phone call from the handset to a PC with a Web camera using Microsoft NetMeeting over broadband Internet connection.

Internet & E-mail - 3G handsets can send and receive e-mail as well as browse the Internet. Yahoo Go and Gmail can be installed in most of the 3G handsets. As I mentioned in my earlier post ‘Nokia phones and built-in Skype’, the new Nokia phones would be released with Skype pre-installed in them.

Multimedia - The enhanced data transfer rates of 3G means that multimedia and gaming has come alive. Handsets can be used to play back music files, movie trailers, live TV and a vast array of multimedia files available through the Internet. Handsets play a variety of music files (MP3, AAC, AAC+) and video formats, including MP4, as well as playing polyphonic ringtones and loading and viewing digital photos online. Games can be downloaded straight to the handset and come with 3D graphics and enhanced sound and some can even be played in multiplayer format in real-time.

Personalised Content - There is also specialised content available on each network, depending on what licence and sharing agreements the mobile carriers have made with content providers, such as publishing, TV or internet providers. For example, Hutchison in the past offered Big Brother content, while Telstra has offered video clips from Australian Idol and the ABC. Vodafone offers financial market information and satellite radar images with the weather. The other content services that are on offer with 3G include interactive communities, group chatting, dating, movie trailers, horoscopes, weather and adult content.

Plans & Pricing

In India, we will have to wait and see.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

For the past fifteen years I have always started my diary with “and miles to go… before I sleep”. I became familiar with these verses when I was 11. It’s been long 19 years, yet I could remember this poem even now. Some say, ‘a child's mind  is like a blank white paper – what is written on it stays for ever’. Many of us would have learned this poem as ‘miles to go before I sleep’, an adapted title (original – Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening). I think we all have those early people we learned about, people our teachers loved and passed on to us. I like to dive into them. It’s good to remember poetry that moved us at one time or another in our lives. And to think about poetry as connected to memories, much the way music is. I have seen many of my fellow bloggers quoting the entire poem. I wish to do more. We are all perhaps aware of this poem, but not about its author. Let me try to throw some light on Robert Frost himself.

Robert Frost was an American poet who lived from March 26, 1874, to January 29, 1963. He was born in San Francisco, made his way to Massachusetts via Harvard, and finally settled in New Hampshire. The Robert Frost Farm in Derry was home to Robert Frost from 1900-1911. In October of 1900, he settled on the Derry farm in New Hampshire, just over the Massachusetts line, purchased for him by his grandfather. But from 1915 to 1920, it was The Frost Place, in Franconia, New Hampshire where he and his family lived full-time, and went on to spend nineteen summers.

Frost received four Pulitzer Prizes, in 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943. He lived a long life, and his poems are often recited and remembered by heart. The Road Not Taken, one of his most famous poems, was published in 1916 in his collection Mountain Interval. A glance at the new years day entry on my diary led me to go back and read Frost again, to revisit his life. So it is Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, published in 1923 in his New Hampshire volume, that I am choosing to post.

My favourite research find was a 1960 interview with Robert Frost by Richard Poirier in The Paris Review. The interview took place in Frost’s home in Cambridge, Massachusetts near the end of his life. He was wearing plaid slippers and was seated in a blue overstuffed chair (with no arms) where he often sat to write. He never had a writing table, a desk, or a writing room. He wrote on a writing board, or the sole of his shoe.

Now, that’s where Frost and I part our ways. Though I often write in coffee shops on the back of a crumpled Post-It (just ask my mom how many sheets of poetry she has found from my desk ), or in a pocket notebook at a sunken spot near the living room window — I still long for a writing room. A comfortable desk, floor to ceiling bookshelves to display my personal book collection, a room of my own.

Robert Frost wrote Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening in June, 1922 at his house in South Shaftsbury, Vermont (now home to the Robert Frost Stone House Museum). He lived in the Stone House from 1920 to 1929 (there is an excellent chronology with photographs at The Friends of Frost). It is said that Frost had been up the entire night writing the long poem New Hampshire, and had finally finished when he realized morning had come. When he went out to view the sunrise, Stopping By Woods came to him like a hallucination.

Sometimes writing comes like that. You hear songwriters talk about flashes of inspiration, or dream sequences where whole songs write themselves, and the next morning flow magically from their pens. My second favourite research find was an audio version of Robert Frost reciting, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. You can listen to it at Salon Audio - Robert Frost.

Robert Frost is one of the classical poets — traditional enough to capture those who have been around awhile; detailed enough to lead us across that bend in the woods; wide enough that anyone can find a small opening.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

I wouldn’t choose him as one of my favourite writers of all time. It’s just that he has a place in my childhood memories about learning of writers and poets. And so he has a place in the heart. When I did this post, I read the poem with my eyes many times as I was posting it. But when I actually read it out loud a few times, it came to life - I loved it all over again.

Nokia phones and built-in Skype

Latest announcement on Nokia Conversations is that Skype is to be integrated into Nokia devices.

"Kicking off with the Nokia N97, Skype will be part of the address book in the device, enable users to easily see when their Skype contacts are online. It’ll also enable them to use 3G and Wi-Fi to make and receive free Skype to Skype voice calls.

Skype will be rolled out on other devices after the Nokia N97 goes live in the third quarter. New Nokia N97 devices will have it pre-installed, whilst early versions will be able to get it through a software upgrade. Other select N series devices are also likely to come with integrated Skype functionality which includes Skype contacts, Chat, VoIP and Presence. "

With Skype a popular and secure VoIP service this should be a welcome addition to many users.  However Skype does use closed protocols and more important. On the PC it uses part of the bandwidth of your internet connection to route other peoples calls. Whether Skype is going to be implemented like this on your Nokia is a good question since many mobile users still pay a premium price per internet byte transmitted. Another issue is that phone batteries have a already limited capacity.  Playing routing node for other Skype users can take a hefty chunk of your battery life. Particular in more remote locations.

Another possibility is the iSkoot implementation, where it only sends chat messages over your mobile internet. Voice calls are forwarded through local lines and from there forwarded over the internet to the receiver. Where in case of another mobile Skype user, the call is forwarded from internet via a call to your mobile phone at your (Skype) expenses.

There is no mention of video calling support. Current video calling prices are absurdly high and thus mostly unused. Cheap/free video calling would be a major reason for many users to start using the service in the first place. Without video support Skype has nothing to extra to offer to the already available VOIP and IM options on your mobile phone.

SIP and Jabber are open standards that are available on most of Nokia's N series devices for voice and chat, allowing users of Yahoo, Google, Gizmo and a lot of other services to chat and call each other for free as well as make calls to regular phones for a small fee. Where as Skype, like MSN, is only VOIP talking to itself.

Still Skype is a very popular service and many will welcome the opportunity to use it as a integrated service from their mobile phone.The particulars of the Skype implementation will no doubt determine its success.

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Beautiful advertisements, are they not? What do you think?

A beautiful Smile

Peace begins with a smile. ~Mother Teresa

As I stepped outside today, I took a long breath in appreciation of the freshness of the air which the rain had left behind. All the colours looked richer and expressed their beauty yet more refined. The birds sounded cheerful and seemed to sing a song of gratitude for yet another loving reminder that a wonderfully unseen Hand holds all together.

It was a beautiful day. Well, winter is gone and spring is almost here. I can see the daffodils flowering all around me. I could feel the sun penetrate through my clothes and I felt comforted by its warmth. I closed my eyes as I listened to the background noise of people talking and children laughing. The animals seemed especially happy for it was an unusually beautiful day.

I was looking on to River Lee and the terns in it from the bridge above. As drops of rain fell, I closed my eyes for a moment and enjoyed the Irish rain and its beauty. I opened my eyes and just then, a little girl of about 4 years passed by me. She held on to her mother's hand and I could tell in her eyes that her life was endowed with love. She was beautiful. Her eyes danced with innocence and beauty. I smiled at her and she quickly and tenderly smiled back at me. I watched as she and her mother passed by me. Then suddenly she turned and looked back at me and once more she smiled. I smiled back with as much tenderness and warmth as she had just given me. I nodded my head and waved my hand to her.

The happiness of the little girl made me think of all the children in the world whose eyes are dimmed with sorrow and the dance of joy cannot be seen. I thought of the many children who live in abuse and pain so unbearable, that the only thing they can do is to create an inward world where they can hide themselves in order to feel safe. They cannot express their loneliness and desperation, thus, only the streams of their tears that are shed in darkness, will keep life flowing for them.

Might they find understanding hearts and loving smiles to aid in their healing, as they dare to emerge from their very closed in world. May we all smile many tender smiles at others, since we know not on whose heart they may fall.

"Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free."

15 years! I watched the movie, often referred to as - one among the best in English Cinema, after 15 years of its release!!! Well, 15 years is not a surprising period considering that I watched BenHur 43 years after it was made. The surprising point is that I missed out on this movie, though I have been watching many English movies during the time of this one's release. You would have guessed the title of the movie if you had a chance to watch it. I am writing about 'The Shawshank Redemption' (TSR).

The film illustrate the liberating, redemptive power of hope and the religious themes of freedom and resurrection, with the words: "Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free." It's a movie that is patiently-told, an allegorical tale (unfolding like a long-played, sometimes painstaking, persistent game of chess) of friendship, patience, hope, survival, emancipation, and ultimate redemption and salvation by the time of the film's finale.

Sometimes many movies are ignored in the glory of others made at the same time. TSR was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Morgan Freeman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound - but it failed to win a single Oscar. And the film's director failed to receive a nomination for himself! In the same year as Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, and Speed, they received all of the attention. Fact remains that only through positive word-of-mouth did the film do well - although its original reception at the box-office was lukewarm. The film was the precursor for another inspirational and popular film (and a similar adaptation of a Stephen King story by writer/director Frank Darabont) - The Green Mile (1999) - again one of my all time favourites.

TSR is based on the Stephen King novel, 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption'. The film stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding. It is mostly portrayed as a narration. In 1947, a young banker named Andy Dufresne is wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and her lover based on strong circumstantial evidence and is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine. At the prison, inmate Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (the narrator) is rejected for parole after having served twenty years of his life sentence shortly before Andy's arrival. Andy gradually becomes acquainted with Red's circle of friends, and Red himself, who is known for cleverly smuggling in contraband. After a month of adjusting to his new life, Andy approaches Red and asks him to get a rock hammer, originally intending to pursue a hobby of rock collecting. Andy later asks Red to get him a poster of Rita Hayworth, which over the years is replaced with a poster of Marilyn Monroe, then Raquel Welch.

One day, while tarring the roof of Shawshank's license plate factory, Andy overhears one of the prison guards, Captain Hadley, discussing the taxes he will have to pay on an inheritance he will soon receive. Although he nearly gets thrown off the roof for butting in to the conversation, Andy convinces Hadley that, with his knowledge of financial matters, he can help Hadley keep the entire inheritance. As other guards begin to come to him for financial help, Andy is given a makeshift office in the prison library to provide tax and financial services. His "clientele" grows to include the entire prison staff, guards from other prisons, and even Warden Norton himself. Andy’s presence enriches and uplifts Shawshank, but we rarely get much reason to think that he’ll be getting out soon. The warden capitalizes on Andy's skills and devises a program to put prison inmates to work for local construction projects, exploiting the prisoners' free labour for his own personal profit, with Andy acting behind the scenes as a money launderer. To keep Andy happy, the Warden lets Andy keep an inordinate amount of contraband in his cell, and expand the prison library through repeated requests to the state. Prior to being discovered for his skills, Andy had frequently been beaten and sexually assaulted by a gang called "The Sisters" led by Bogs and Rooster. After Andy begins to prove important, an attack by Bogs that lands him in the infirmary is avenged by Captain Hadley, disabling Bogs for life. Bogs is sent to a secure hospital and Andy is never bothered again.

We get a good-sized dose of prison brutality, largely the work of the menacing head guard. Although Andy is protected from most of that, the warden doesn’t hesitate to send him to solitary confinement for extended periods when he wanders from the straight and narrow. He matter-of-factly carries on, with the attitude that he must either have hope or die.

In 1965, a young prisoner named Tommy Williams enters Shawshank on a breaking and entering charge, and quickly becomes part of Red's and Andy's group of friends, with Andy helping him to pass the GED test. He learns of Andy's supposed crime and makes a shocking revelation: Elmo Blatch, one of his old cellmates, had gleefully described murdering two people who fit the description of Andy's wife and her lover, and how her "hotshot banker" husband got blamed for it. Andy hopes that he will be able to get a new trial with Tommy's help, and he approaches Warden Norton for advice and assistance. Fearing exposure of his illegal activities at Shawshank should Andy be set free, Norton sends him to solitary confinement and orders Hadley to kill Tommy.

Later, when Andy is back in the prison yard, he tells Red that if he ever gets out of prison he should go to a specific hayfield near Buxton, Maine to find something that has been buried there. Finally, something remarkable happens at Shawshank. The following morning, Andy is missing from his cell. In a fury over Andy's disappearance, the warden throws one of Andy's rocks at the poster of Raquel Welch, and it rips through it, revealing a large hole that Andy had used to escape. It’s surprising and inspiring to watch, but it’s not implausible. We come away from the experience blindsided by Andy’s inspirational example. Sure, he’s just another prisoner, but he’s also more than that.

In a flashback sequence, it is revealed that Andy spent years chipping away at the wall of his cell with his rock hammer, using the posters of Hayworth, Monroe and Welch to conceal it. After his escape, Andy assumes the fake identity of Randall Stevens, which he created earlier for the purpose of concealing the warden's embezzlement. Andy withdraws the funds that he had deposited over the years for Norton, and sends evidence of the scams to a local newspaper. The morning the story runs, Byron Hadley is arrested and Norton commits suicide in his office.

Soon after, in 1967, Red is finally released on parole after serving 40 years at Shawshank, despite not wishing to be free, worried that he would end up committing suicide once outside of the prison's strict regime, as happened to his fellow prisoner Brooks Hatlen. He recalls his promise to Andy shortly before Andy's escape, and heads to the field in Buxton that Andy told him about. He finds a small metal box containing money and instructions from Andy. He violates his parole and travels to Mexico, eventually reuniting with Andy in Zihuatanejo on the Pacific coast.

For most of its 142 minutes, you watch unpleasant things happen to a man who clearly doesn’t deserve it. Every time you’re about to throw in the towel and conclude that this is all just too depressing, this fellow does something remarkable – something that convinces you that he’s going to find a way to survive. When the film’s conclusion starts to unfold, you suddenly realize that this is one of the more inspiring films you’ve seen in a long time – yet you don’t feel the least bit manipulated.

There are aspects of The Shawshank Redemption that don’t work well. The bad guys are just a bit too monotone bad, and prisoners’ apparent complete lack of contact without the outside world is hard to believe. But many more aspects of the film work extremely well. Andy’s convict friends are interesting and likeable, if crude. They give the film great depth. The acting performances are also very good. Tim Robbins’ low-key approach to playing Andy is perfect – a much better performance than it at first seems. Morgan Freeman is wonderful as the wise but sad Redding.

I am being carried away remembering the movie. Have I written too much? I only have to say one thing. I am convinced that its among the best ones ever. If you believe me, go for it and let me know how it went.