Crimson room solution

On the eve of new year, I was playing crimson room by coincidence, and luckily won the game too! I had known the game for the past 13 to 14 months. But I was unable to proceed after a certain position in that game. Today I broke that jinx and got the solution!






2 rings: 1 falls from the curtain (keep opening and closing it), 1 ring is on the bowl next to the stereo






2 keys (gold and silver): 1 key is on the window, 1 under the pillow



CD Case: In the drawer, you don't need it



Note: In the drawer, you don't need it, except it points to a webpage that's supposed to hint a secret code for later on.



Power-Chord: Use the keys to open the drawer



Mystery Box: Use the other key to open the drawer



Ordinary Key: Plug the power chord into CD player and open the cd slot, there is another key



Metal Rod: Lift the pillow and on the bed, there is a metal rod



Battery: On the far side of the bed



Cassette: Below the desk which supports the CD player



Fit the rings & metal rod on the mystery box.



Open mystery box, fit in cassette player and battery, play the movie.



The dancing man points to a spot on the screen. Mouse click that point. [Wait till the movie stops playing before you click!]





Open the rectangular slot. The code can be found on a special page.In some instances, you may need to visit the website, then re-start the Crimson Room.) that the note you found earlier points to, use the key open the safe.



You get a screw driver in the safe





Use the screw driver to crack the door and go out.

Solution:

The hints to solve....

There are twelve things to collect in total. Seven of them are in/around the yellow drawers. Two at the curtain, three at the bed. Nine of the items can be found without using any other item - i.e. simply by looking around the room.

Now you know how many at each location that should help you to find them all, but if you are still stuck...

The yellow drawers
The top two drawers are unlocked and contain a CD and a memo. On top is a CD player, two speakers and a bowl. In the bowl is a thin ring. On the floor, beneath the drawers is a cassette tape. You now have four items.

The curtains
Open the curtains and you will find a key on the window sill. Open and close the curtains a few times and a ring will fall onto the floor. You now have six items.

The bed
Under the pillow is another key. If you click to the left of the mattress while the pillow is raised, you will find a metal stick. At the far end of the bed, face the bare wall then click on the floor bottom left and you will be able to look down the side of the bed and find a battery. You now have nine items.


Using the keys you can now open the drawers and obtain a power supply cable and a small strange box. The power cable gets the CD player working and you can open the CD tray to find another key. You now have twelve items.


Use the rings and the metal stick to open the small strange box. Once open, use the battery and cassette and click on the lens to see a movie.


The movie contains a big clue what to do next.

Meanwhile, remember the memo? It contained a URL and you really should go take a look. [If it is difficult to read, the full URL is http://takagism.fasco-cs.com/yellow_chamber.html)

The combination to the safe is found on four cards... you can get these cards by visiting the URL on the memo you found in the dresser drawer. (In some instances, you may need to visit the website, then re-start the Crimson Room.)
Okay, back to the movie.

Near the end of the movie the dancing guy points at a small cross. The cross appears three times and each time he points at it.

When the movie ends, click in exactly the spot that the cross was three time. An opening will appear revealing a combination lock and a keyhole.

Then use the key to open the lock and reveal item number 13 - a straight driver.

Go to the door and click on it to go up close, then use the driver to butcher the handle and you are out :-)

The year 2008 had ended on a high note with me solving the crimson room! Wish you all a very happy new year :-) Hope 2009 rocks!!!

Cross Bridge puzzle

There are 4 women who want to cross a bridge. They all begin on the same side. You have 17 minutes to get all of them across to the other side. It is night. There is one flashlight. A maximum of two people can cross at one time. Any party who crosses, either 1 or 2 people, must have the flashlight with them. The flashlight must be walked back and forth, it cannot be thrown, etc. Each woman walks at a different speed. A pair must walk together at the rate of the slower woman's pace.
Woman 1: 1 minute to cross
Woman 2: 2 minutes to cross
Woman 3: 5 minutes to cross
Woman 4: 10 minutes to cross

For example if Woman 1 and Woman 4 walk across first, 10 minutes have elapsed when they get to the other side of the bridge. If Woman 4 then returns with the flashlight, a total of 20 minutes have passed and you have failed the mission. What is the order required to get all women across in 17 minutes? Now, what's the other way?

Adding HTML code within blog post

While posting my previous post, Changing the favicon. I was facing serious problems. Blogger automatically converts the blog post into an HTML code. But when I wanted to share an HTML code itself, it was not allowed by the blogger and it showed the following error...

It was posing serious trouble to me. Though I had been blogging for the past one year, I learnt HTML, css, java script only before couple of months. Learning them came in handy for me. Because I used the textarea tag to over come this problem.

<textarea readonly="readonly" style="width: 335px; height: 79px;" name="code"> You can add the html code here and don't forget to close the textarea tag!

Though the same error would be repeated even while using the textarea tag, checking the stop showing title or body HTML errors for this post - checkbox would do the trick!

Changing the favicon

Regual visitors of my blog could notice a change in the favicon of my blog(the one that's present near the url in the address bar). I had replaced the default favicon of the blogger!
Here is the method to do that...

Add the following code <link href="yourlink/yourimage.ico" rel="icon"> <link href="yourlink/yourimage.ico" rel="shortcut icon"> above the</head>tag

You can use all picture formats, make sure that it's size is 16x16 pixel. Upload the picture in photobucket or blogger or google pages and enjoy!

A letter from Deepak!

Dear Readers,
For the past six months I had been held up with the IBM - TGMC(The great mind challenge) project. It was a combined effort of the zillion trio(Me,Arun and Karthi). Especially from 16th to 20th December it involved continuous work. We hardly ever slept last week. This was one of the main reasons that my blog post frequency had come down. I was in a kind of mental trauma with this project, which didn't turn up as well as I wanted it to be. But now that I had submitted the project, I am back to business(blogging ;-)).

Do continue your support.

A chat between a software engineer and his wife

Husband - hey dear, I am logged in.

Wife - would you like to have some snacks?
Husband - hard disk full.

Wife - have you brought the saree.
Husband - Bad command or file name.

Wife - but I told you about it in morning
Husband - erroneous syntax, abort, retry, cancel.

Wife - hae bhagwan !forget it where's your salary.
Husband - file in use, read only, try after some time.

Wife - at least give me your credit card, I can do some shopping.
Husband - sharing violation, access denied.

Wife - I made a mistake in marrying you.
Husband - data type mismatch.

Wife - you are useless.
Husband - by default.

Wife - who was there with you in the car this morning?
Husband - system unstable press ctrl, alt, del to Reboot.

Wife - what is the relation between you & your Receptionist?
Husband - the only user with write permission.

Wife - what is my value in your life?
Husband - unknown virus detected.

Wife - do you love me or your computer?
Husband - Too many parameters.

Wife - I will go to my dad's house.
Husband - program performed illegal operation, it will Close.

Wife - I will leave you forever.
Husband - close all programs and log out for another User.

Wife - it is worthless talking to you.
Husband - shut down the computer.

Wife - I am going
Husband - Its now safe to turn off your computer

Motorola Cellphone

A new cellphone model has been released by the motorola company. It could be worn in the hand as a digital watch!

Some snap shots of that phone....

The Banana

A farmer would definitely be happy if he has such a banana plant....

Google's office...

We already knew that working for Google had certain advantages, but, believe me, this giant of the search motor takes the welfare of its employees seriously. As shown by this visit to Google's European center in Zurich.



Decompression (stress) capsule that is impermeable to sound and light.



Moving around - A slide allows quick access from different floors. There are also poles available, they are similar to the ones used in fire stations.



Food - Employees can eat all they want from a vast choice of food and drink.



Work Station - Each employee has at least two large screens. There are 4-6 Zooglers per office.



Innovation - Large boards are available just about everywere because "ideas don't always come when seated in the office" says one of Googles managers.



Leisure - Pool tables, video games etc. are available in many areas.



Communication - On each floor, there are private cabin areas where employees can attend to personal affairs.



Technical Support - Problem with your computer ? No problem ... Bring it to this area where drinks are available while it is being fixed ...



Health - Professional masseurs (eusses) available.



Rest - This room provides massage chairs that you control ... while you view relaxing aquariums ... !!!

The Library

My first anagram poem!

I tried an anagram poem for my story mystic murder.

My poem
Brave cow, serene lake.
Over analysed new fancy.
Invite queer,the hassle!

This poem is full of contradictions (could be called as oxymorons too)! There is never a brave cow, it is a calm cow always. The other terms are contradictions too!

This is an anagram of the haiku from the film fight club

Original poem
Worker bees can leave,
Even the drones can fly away,
The queen is their slave.

Don't believe what your eyes see!

If you watch the below images from your seat in front of the computer, Mr.Angry is on the left, and Mrs.Calm is on the right. Get up from your seat, and move back 12 feet, and PRESTO!! They switch places!!

PUNJABI CONFIDENCE!

George Bush was sitting in his office wondering whom to invade next when his telephone rang.
'Hello, Mr. Bush!' a heavily accented voice said, 'This is Gurmukh from Phagwara, District Kapurthala, Punjab .. I am ringing to inform you that we are officially declaring the war on you!'
'Well, Gurmukh,' Bush replied, 'This is indeed important news! How big is your army'
'Right now,' said Gurmukh, after a moment's calculation, 'there is myself, my cousin Sukhdev, my next door neighbor, and the entire kabaddi team from the gurudwara. That makes eight'
Bush paused. 'I must tell you, Gurmukh that I have one million men in my army waiting to move on my command.'
'Arrey O! Main kya..' said Gurmukh. 'I'll have to ring you back!'
Sure enough, the next day, Gurmukh called again.
'Mr. Bush, it is Gurmukh, I'm calling from Phagwara STD, the war is still on! We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!'
'And what equipment would that be, Gurmukh' Bush asked.
'Well, we have two combines, a donkey and Amrik's tractor.'
Bush sighed. 'I must tell you, Gurmukh, that I have 16,000 tanks and 14,000 armored personnel carriers. Also, I've increased my army to 1-1/2 million since we last spoke.'
'Oh teri....' said Gurmukh. 'I'll have to get back to you.'
Sure enough, Gurmukh rang again the next day.
'Mr. Bush, the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne...... We've modified Amrik's tractor by adding a couple of shotguns, sticking on some wings and the pind's generator. Four school pass boys from Malpur have joined us as well!'
Bush was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat. 'I must tell you, Gurmukh, that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!'
'Tera pala hove....' said Gurmuk, 'I'll have to ring you back.'
Sure enough, Gurmukh called again the next day.
'Kiddan, Mr.Bush! I am sorry to tell you that we have had to call off the war.'
'I'm sorry to hear that,' said Bush. 'Why the sudden change of heart'
'Well,' said Gurmukh, 'we've all had a long chat over a couple of lassi's, and decided there's no way we can feed two million prisoners of wars!'

NOW THAT'S CALLED PUNJABI CONFIDENCE

Finished Mystic Murder atlast!

I have finished Mystic murder at last! I had chased my dream and quite lived it. But the response of mystic murder has been mixed from my friends circle. And so, I had planned to rewrite the entire story. Change the style too! It might take another five to six months to finish the story. And meanwhile I have started working on my next story too. It has been tentatively titled as "Final Fiasco"

Color illusion

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot,
the dots will remain only one color, pink.



However if you stare at the black " +" in the center, the moving dots turns to green.

The saying in a surgery book of my mom says,"Eyes do not see, what the brain does not know!" How true?

Cracking Klueless 4...

I started solving klueless 4 on November 11 2008 by 10 AM (it was suggested to me by my former blog mate and friend Surya) and finished it today morning by 6 AM. Cracked it in under 48 hours. I would have worked around 10 hours on it totally. I would like to share my experience on each level here.

Level 1,2,3: If one couldn't solve them in under a minute. Then there is no point in the player continuing with Klueless.

Level 4: The real challenge started from here. Relatively simple for Indians because of the title of the level.

Level 5: This involved nothing more than googling. The url of that page was to be observed.

Level 6: This was quite simple for me. 'nAMe' here was the clue. Google about the cartoon character in the page.

Level 7: Very simple level. Observing the name of the image and url held the key.

Level 8: This one was the first puzzle that really tested me. It was a poem. It made me to read about Santa and his reindeer.

Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen!

The above lines I got from Wiki helped me solve this round.

Dasher,Prancer,Vixen,Comet,Cupid,Donder,Blitzen

All these are reindeer of Santa.

I should have concentrated on Lucas number, which I didn't do.

Level 9: I googled the title of that level and immediately got the solution in wikipedia.

Level 10: This was very simple to me because I already knew Tom Cruise's birthday. It coincides with my uncle's birthday July 3. And I knew a little about Penelope Kruz too. That helped too. Then I also know the birthday of Angelina Jolie. That really helped me to solve that level!

Level 11: It was the first question related to cricket. And the clues in the page especially four and God, I couldn't have asked more in that level!

Level 12: This one i was really lucky to remember the geometric figure in the picture. Though it has connection with the prominent personality and dish present. For a stranger to that figure, it's quite tough I think!

Level 13: This was very simple. Being a big time LOTR fan. This level was very simple.

Level 14: I was lucky to get this one because, I was naming each stone in the ring and was typing it down in notepad. There were seven stones and I identified

1.Diamond

2.Emerald

3.Amber(This one was with help from wiki)

4.Ruby

5.Emerald

And couple of other stones. oh! oh! I am spilling the beans out. I will stop with this.

Level 15 a: This was very simple. Socrates' assistant helped me. The way level 15 a ended with the road not taken poem edited was amazing!

Level 15 b: Déjà vu of playing Level 1 took me to a semi completion of this level. Which had the prerequisite of completing level 15 a and c.

Level 15 c: This is the first one where my friends Arun and Karthi joined me in yahoo messenger. With search for some time. We found that it was a movie name so close to a man eating another man. Arun's role played important.

Level 16: In this level I found what was required really fast. But unnecessarily delayed due to some wrong misinterpretation. My friend Karthi had some power disruptions too. But he called me up to tell the exact answer, Bletchley Park would not have known this!.

Level 17: This level was nothing more than google search. Saving the image and observing it helped us. This was solved by my friend Arun.

Level 18: This is the level which I love. This was once again solved by my friend Arun. Who told the method and I found the solution. The name of the level has a very important role.

Level 19: Arun had the chance to watch a series which I hadn't watched at all. This helped him solve it really fast.

Level 20: When we entered this level, it was late in the evening around 9. So I left to have dinner and my friend Karthi solved this level before I could get what it was. But it was relatively simple.

Level 21: AT SiX PoinT. This was the text in that round. Arun gave the idea of what it could be. And we were working on the intermediate part of this level. Suddenly I got the solution, which was so close to what all three were thinking. I was back on track.

Level 22: We worked on this for a long time and it was 10:30. My friends bid adieu and left. And I was working on that level, thinking of finishing 25 on day one. And finally patient reading in wikipedia helped me solve that level.

Level 23: I have read some forums where people say that they have solved it but without understanding the crypt. All I can say is prime numbers have never let me down.

Level 24: I liked the concept of this round. Of the rounds that I solved within a minute, this was one too. But this was the one I loved the most of them. After solving it, I tried to match the other clues too.

Level 25: When I reached this level it was 11:30. I was feeling very sleepy. But I couldn't, because my target was finishing 25. But after finishing around 80% of the level I accidentally read the rules of Klueless 4. And the 13th one, Take breaks between levels. It invariably helps :) . Caught my attention. So I decided to sleep by 1.

As I slept, I had dreams about level 25 ;-)

Then when I woke up, I solved it. I never imagined it was such an easy level.

This was my longest level in klueless 4. First time I posted in the forum of Klueless was for this level. And I solved it before I got a reply :-)

Level 26: Hmmm, optical illusions are always available in the net. And this one was a huge let down sort of level after an amazing level 25. Maybe a refresher.

Level 27: The next level didn't test one's mathematical skills or physics skills. It's an altogether different area. Relatively simple.

Level 28: After level twenty five. This one was the best! There's one phrase batman comes to the rescue. I never knew the answer was hiding in this phrase. But solving in the normal route by identifying the picture ignoring the batman sentence proved to be correct.

Level 29: Though this level didn't take much time. It was a master piece from the klueless 4 team. I got the direction to proceed from the picture name. But thought I could solve it faster if I had one of my friends to discuss this with. And Karthi came online. He helped me to unearth the image which was not just the image as I already knew little about the content of the picture. But the way the title of this level was linked to the picture was amazing. The best one of klueless in my view is this level. I was needlessly wasting time on this after finding the correct solution!

Level 30: I had not visited the original iris site. So I didn't understand this and posted in the forum for which I received a reply that I should check out the iris site. After checking the iris site. Solving this level took more time because. There were some differences to be discovered. And this level was aptly named alternate. I had my semester exam today. So I had to stop at that point and study. Today morning, when I woke up, I woke up the solution to the alternate. And reading Dan Brown helped me to solve this level.

Level 31: After solving thirty levels this titled XXX+1 took less than half a minute to solve. This level was more a tribute to Klueless team.

I enjoyed playing klueless. But it is addictive. So try it only when you are free. Definitely not when you have your semester exam happening.

I would now like to solve the previous versions of klueless(1-3)!

Fantastic Contraption

Fantastic Contraption is an addictive puzzle game. The laws of physics apply in the game. To win the game you must get a designated piece into the designated goal area. To accomplish this you have to build contraptions. Your building blocks for your contraptions are, three distinct balls with five potential connecting points (top, right, bottom, left, middle)and two types of connectors. One ball rolls right, another rolls left, and the last does not move under its own power. The difference between the connectors is one is solid and the other allows some things to pass through it. If you get stuck or just want to see how other people beat the level, you can see what other people made available and even modify them.

The game is free, but if you want to design your own levels or play other people's levels you have to pay $10. Even without paying, you can share your designs with other people easily through a designated URL. You do need to register for a free account to save or get a URL so you can send the link to your friends.

I have embedded the game here for you.

Below is my design for each level:

1.Rolling away

2.Reach
3.Mind the gap
4.Junkyard
5.The Wall
6.On a roll
7.Full Up
8.Higher
9.Around the bend
10.Up the hump
11.Mission to Mars
12.Up the stairs
13.Big ball
14.Four-Balls
15.Down Under
16.Awash
17.Handling
18.Tube
19.Back and forth
20.Unpossible
21.U-Turn

I won't claim them to be simple. But they aren't bad either!

Share links to your contraptions as a comment.

Homesite: http://FantasticContraption.com/

Blog anniversary

This is indeed a very happy moment. It's been one year since I started this blog (I started it on October 19 2007) I had been receiving stupendous response for my blog from all my readers with the alexa ranking of my blog reaching 7 lakh and odd at one stage. Thank you readers. You gave me all the inspiration to work with my blog. The success of my blog doesn't lie with me alone. It lies with all my readers. Once again thanks for supporting me. I hope that your support continues forever and we celebrate many more anniversaries like today.

An interesting anagram to mark this occasion.
Try to identify this person: He admires talk,pen,UK!
Clue: Those who know me can solve this easily.

Are you still trying???
That's my name Deepak Senthilkumar!

Anagram Poems

I found interesting anagram poems when I searched the term ''Anagrammatic poetry" in google.

The poem below, in yellow, was written by Shel Silverstein. Below it, in rose, is an anagram of the poem created by Meyran Kraus. It scans and rhymes well, paraphrasing the original remarkably closely. Such anagrams take a lot of time and patience to produce.

The Little Boy and the Old Man
Shel Silverstein

Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
"I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded, "So do I."
"But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems
Grown-ups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
"I know what you mean," said the little old man.

And here is the anagram poem:

The Tot and the Elder
Olin Foblioso & Billy Foblioso

The tiny tot went: "When I eat I mess up."
The elder replied: "O, that makes two of us."
"I soil myself," went the tot with shame
And the elder added: "O, I do the same."
On the tot told him: "I sob a lot."
"O, not only you," answered gramps to the tot.
"And what's totally bad," the tiny tot told,
"I think mom and dad don't love me at all."
While grandpa simply, pitiably smiled,
then said: "O, I understand, my child."

Article idea: http://www.fun-with-words.com/anag_short_long.html

Windows Word Shortcuts

Few shortcuts used frequently in Windows word...

1. Ctrl + Shift + A All Caps

Makes the selection all capitals (toggle)
2. Alt + Ctrl + 1 ApplyHeading1

Applies Heading 1 style to the selected text
3. Alt + Ctrl + 2 ApplyHeading2

Applies Heading 2 style to the selected text
4. Alt + Ctrl + 3 ApplyHeading3

Applies Heading 3 style to the selected text
5. Ctrl + Shift + L Apply List Bullet

Applies List Bullet style to the selected text
6. Alt + F10 App Maximize

Enlarges the application window to full size
7. Alt + F5 App Restore

Restores the application window to normal size
8. Ctrl+B Bold

Makes the selection bold (toggle)
9. Ctrl + PgDn Browse Next

Jump to the next browse object
10. Ctrl + PgUp Browse Previous

Jump to the previous browse object
11. Alt + Ctrl + Home Browse Select

Select the next/prev browse object
12. Esc Cancel

Terminates an action
13. Ctrl+E Center Paragraph

Centers the paragraph between the indents
14. Shift+F3 Change Case

Changes the case of the letters in the selection
15. Left arrow Character Left

Moves the insertion point to the left one character
16. Shift + Left arrow Character Left Extend

Extends the selection to the left one character
17. Right arrow Character Right

Moves the insertion point to the right one character
18. Shift + Right arrow Character Right Extend

Extends the selection to the right one character
19. Alt + Shift + C Close Pane

Closes the active window pane (if you are in Normal View and have, for example, the Footnote pane open)
20. Alt+Drag (or press Ctrl + Shift + F8 and drag) Column Select

Selects a columnar block of text
21. Ctrl +Shift+C Copy Format

Copies the formatting of the selection
22. Shift + F2 Copy Text

Makes a copy of the selection without using the clipboard (press Return to paste)
23. Alt + F3 Create AutoText

Adds an AutoText entry to the active template
24. Ctrl+ Backspace Delete Back Word

Deletes the previous word without putting it on the Clipboard
25. Ctrl + Del Delete Word

Deletes the next word without putting it on the Clipboard
26. Ctrl+W, Ctrl+F4 Document Close

Prompts to save the document and then closes the active window. (But doesn't intercept the menu command)
27. Ctrl + F10 Document Maximize

Enlarges the active window to full size
28. Ctrl + F7 Document Move

Changes the position of the active window
29. Ctrl + F5 Document Restore

Restores the window to normal size
30. Ctrl + F8 Document Size

Changes the size of the active window
31. Alt + Ctrl + S Document Split

Splits the active window horizontally and then adjusts the split
32. Alt + Shift + F9 Do Field Click

Executes the action associated with macro button fields
33. Ctrl + Shift + D Double Underline

Double underlines the selection (toggle)
34. Alt R, G Draw Group

Groups the selected drawing objects
35. Alt R, I Draw Snap To Grid

Sets up a grid for aligning drawing objects
36. Alt R, U Draw Ungroup

Ungroups the selected group of drawing objects
37. Ctrl+Shift+F5 (Or: Alt I, K) Edit Bookmark

Brings up the bookmark dialog
38. Del Edit Clear

Performs a forward delete or removes the selection without putting it on the Clipboard
39. Ctrl+C Edit Copy

Copies the selection and puts it on the Clipboard
40. Ctrl+X Edit Cut

Cuts the selection and puts it on the Clipboard
41. Ctrl+F Edit Find

Finds the specified text or the specified formatting
42. F5, Ctrl+G Edit Go To

Jumps to a specified place in the active document
43. Alt E, K Edit Links

Allows links to be viewed, updated, opened, or removed
44. Ctrl+V Edit Paste

Inserts the Clipboard contents at the insertion point
45. Alt E, S Edit Paste Special Inserts the Clipboard contents as a linked object, embedded object, or other format
46. Alt + Shift + Backspce Edit Redo

Redoes the last action that was undone
47. F4 Edit Redo Or Repeat

Repeats the last command, or redoes the last action that was undone (unfortunately, doesn't work for as many commands in Word 2000 as in Word 97 and below, but this is still one of Word's most useful shortcuts, if not the most useful)
48. Ctrl+H Edit Replace

Finds the specified text or the specified formatting and replaces it
49. Ctrl+A Edit Select

All Selects the entire document
50. Ctrl+Z Edit Undo

Reverses the last action
51. Alt + PageDn (to select to end of column, use Alt + Shift + PgDn) End Of Column

Moves to the last cell in the current table column
52. Ctrl+Shift+End End Of Document Extend

Extends the selection to the end of the last line of the document
53. Ctrl+End End Of Document

Moves the insertion point to the end of the last line of the document
54. End End Of Line

Moves the insertion point to the end of the current line
55. Shift+End End Of Line

Extend Extends the selection to the end of the current line
56. Alt+End End Of Row

Moves to the last cell in the current row
57. Alt + Ctrl + PgDn End Of Window

Moves the insertion point to the end of the last visible line on the screen
58. Shift + Alt + Ctrl + PgDn End Of Window

Extend Extends the selection to the end of the last visible line on the screen
59. F8 (press Esc to turn off) Extend Selection

Turns on extend selection mode and then expands the selection with the direction keys
60. Alt + F4 File Close Or Exit

Closes the current document, or if no documents are open, quits Word. Horrible command, as it makes it a long winded business to quit Word. But there's a simple solution - assign Alt+F4 to FileExit instead.
61. Ctrl+N File New Default

Creates a new document based on the Normal template.
62. Ctrl+O File Open

Opens an existing document or template
63. Alt F, U File Page Setup

Changes the page setup of the selected sections
64. Ctrl + P File Print

Prints the active document (brings up the dialog)
65. Ctrl+F2 File Print

Preview Displays full pages as they will be printed
66. Alt F, I File Properties

Shows the properties of the active document
67. Ctrl+S File Save

File Save
68. Alt F, A (or F12) File SaveAs

Saves a copy of the document in a separate file (brings up the dialog)
69. Ctrl+Shift+F Font

Activates the Fonts listbox on the formatting toolbar
70. Alt I, L Insert File

Inserts the text of another file into the active document
71. Ctrl+Shift+P Font Size

Select Activates the Font Size drop-down on the formatting toolbar
72. Alt + Ctrl + K Format AutoFormat

Automatically formats a document (or sometimes, automatically screws it up)
73. Alt O, B Format Borders And Shading

Changes the borders and shading of the selected paragraphs, table cells, and pictures
74. Alt O, E Format Change Case

Changes the case of the letters in the selection
75. Alt O, C Format Columns

Changes the column format of the selected sections (brings up the dialog)
76. Alt O, D Format Drop Caps

Formats the first character of current paragraph as a dropped capital (must select it first)
77. Ctrl+D Format Font

Brings up the Format + Font dialog
78. Alt + Shift + R Format Header Footer

Link Links the current header/footer to the previous section (but does not intercept the button on the Header Footer toolbar)
79. Alt O, P Format Paragraph

Brings up the Format Paragraph dialog
80. Alt O, S Format Style

Applies, creates, or modifies styles
81. Alt O, T Format Tabs

Brings up the Format Tabs dialog
82. Shift + F5 Go Back

Returns to the previous insertion point (goes back to up to 3 points, then returns to where you started; this is one of the most useful shortcuts of them all. Also useful when opening a document, if you want to g straight to where you were last editing it)
83. Ctrl + > Grow Font

Increases the font size of the selection
84. Ctrl + ] Grow Font One Point

Increases the font size of the selection by one point
85. Ctrl + T (or drag the ruler) Hanging Indent

Increases the hanging indent
86. F1 Help

Microsoft Word Help
87. Shift + F1 Help Tool

Lets you get help on a command or screen region or examine text properties
88. Ctrl + Shift + H Hidden

Makes the selection hidden text (toggle)
89. Ctrl +Click on it Hyperlink Open

Connect to a hyperlink's address
90. Ctrl + M (or drag the ruler) Indent

Moves the left indent to the next tab stop
91. Alt + Ctrl + M (or Alt I, M) Insert Annotation

Inserts a comment
92. F3 Insert AutoText

Replaces the name of the AutoText entry with its contents
93. Alt I, B Insert Break

Ends a page, column, or section at the insertion point
94. Alt I, C Insert Caption

Inserts a caption above or below a selected object
95. Ctrl + Shift + Return Insert Column Break

Inserts a column break at the insertion point
96. Alt + Shift + D Insert Date Field

Inserts a date field
97. Alt + Ctrl + D Insert End

note Now Inserts an endnote reference at the insertion point without displaying the dialog
98. Alt I, F Insert Field

Inserts a field in the active document
99. Ctrl+F9 Insert Field Characters

Inserts an empty field with the enclosing field characters

Article idea: http://c-n-k.blogspot.com/2008/10/few-shortcuts-used-frequently-in.html

Beat around the bush

What is the meaning and origin of beat around the bush?

Sometimes when someone asks us a question, we try and avoid answering it. It's not because we don't know the answer; the answer is rather embarrassing. Therefore, instead of giving the person a direct answer, we go about answering his question in a roundabout way. This indirect way of answering questions is called 'beating about/around the bush'. Very often, people beat about the bush in order to conceal their intention.

*For God's sake, stop beating about/around the bush. How much is it going to cost?

*Will you please stop beating around/about the bush? Just answer my question.


The expression comes from the rather cruel sport of 'batfowling'. In this sport, people ('batfowlers') entered the forest during the night and proceeded to kill 'fowls' (birds) with the 'bats' or clubs they were carrying. The batfowlers and the servants that they took with them used to scare birds by beating around the bush in which they were sleeping. The sleepy birds, dazed and confused by the sudden commotion, would then fly directly to the bright lights that the men were carrying. Here they were beaten to death. The men who were beating about the bush were not really interested in the birds that were sleeping there. Therefore, when someone beats around the bush, he is concealing the thing that he is interested in; he doesn't come to the point directly.

Artivle idea: From The Hindu magazine dated on october 7.

Puzzles to puzzle you!

Following is a dozen of puzzles that I found very interesting. Try to solve them.

1. A man is condemned to death. He is given to say a last statement; if it is truth
he is hanged to death and if it is false he is poisoned. He uttered his last sentence from which he escaped. What is the last statement ?


2. In a 3 way junction there is a house in which there are 2 brothers. Elder one always tell the TRUTH and the younger one alway LIE. Here a man comes from one road and wanted to go for a particular city (say city A) and he don't know which way to take out of the two. He knows that in that house there are 2 brothers who always made TRUE and FALSE statements but he donot know who is who. At one time there is one one brother at home. The traveller asks only one question from one of the brothers who is there at that moment and chooses the correct way for his destination. What is that question and whats the road he chooses ?


3. A,B,C are aligned according to their height. A the shortest. C the tallest. A, B,C are faced left. They cannot see back. C can see A&Bs' head. B can see only A's head and A cannot see anybody's head. After C there is D who holds a gun. ie they stand like A B C D(with the gun)
D has 3 white hats and 2 black hats
ABC are blind fold and hats are put onto their head. After that,
Now C can see A&B's hat colors,
B can see A's hat color

Now respectively C,B,As' chance to predict the color of the hat that they are wearing (one at a time starting with C). If someone made a mistake he will be shot to death(by D). A,B,C are intelligent and try to escape from the death.
They all can hear previous guy's answer and if the previous guy is shot to death the sound of gun fire.
This is what happend.
First C uttered the answer, but shot to death.
Then B uttered the answer, but again shot to death.
Finnally A uttered the answer and it is the correct answer
So he escaped from the death.

What is the answer and explain
how A thought(actually you) that it is the color of
A's hat.



4. You are given two threads which takes 1hr to burn from one end to the other. Using these 2 threads and a matchbox(or lighter) how will you measure 45 minutes You are not allowed to break these threads.


5. A warden of a prison comes back to the prison from a party very drunk. Inhis state, he accidentally turns the key to open all 100 of the jail cells.He realizes what he's done, so he goes back and turns the key on every othercell (thus, now cell 1 is open, cell 2 is closed, cell three is open, etc.).He realizes that he hasn't closed all of them, so he goes back and turns thekey on every third cell (thus, now cell 3 is closed, and cell 6, which heclosed when he turned every other key, is now open). Still drunk, he goesback and turns the key on every 4th, then every 5th, 6th, 7th, etc. until heturns the key on every 100th cell (thus, only on cell #100). After all this,which cells remain open?

6. There are 4 people that need to cross a bridge. Only two can go across at a time and one has to come back with the flashlight each time. They take 1 minute, 2 minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes. They only walk as fast as the slowest one. They are able to all cross the bridge in 12 minutes. How?


Very good one

7. Pretend you have two strings which burn at random rates but which will alwaysbe completely burned in exactly one hour. Thus, after 1/2 hour the stringswill NOT necessarily be half burned length-wise, only time wise. How do you use these strings to time exactly 45 minutes without using any othertime-keeping device?
It is inaccurate to assume that each 4th of string A will burn in exactly 15 minutes. Three of the fourths could take one minute, and the other could takea full hour (thus, the entire string burns in one hour, as said).
The string, remember, burns at random rates in random places. If you were tocut it into four pieces and light each SEPARATELY so that one would beginburning when another stopped, the sum of the time would be one hour. That isall you can assume. For example, if you lit all of them together, three ofthe fourths could burn in exactly one minute, and the last fourth could take57 minutes. Thus the entire string burns in one hour. That is the onlyassumption you can make. You must look a little beyond just the string.


8. There are 3 settlers and 3 indians on one side of the creek. How can you get them all over to the other side by using a boat that holds two(they can only get there by boat). You can never have more indians than settlers on one side at a time because the indianswill kill the settler.


9. You ask a person to pick a number. Say they pick the number 20, 20 has six lettres in it, so therefore 20 is 6, then you see that 6 has three lettre's in it, so 6 is 3, 3 has five lettres so, 3 is 5, 5 has four lettre's so 5 is 4, and four is cosmic. this pattern works for any number, at all. so quickly, take the number 13 (thirteen), 13 is 8 (eight), 8 is 5 (five), 5 is four and four is cosmic.

10. Three men, members of a safari, are captured by cannibals in the jungle. The men are given one chance to escape with their lives. The men are lined up and bound to stakes such that one man can see the backs of the other two, the middle man can see the back of the front man, and the front man can't see anybody. The men are shown five hats, three of which are black and two of which are white. Then the men are blindfolded, and one of the five hats is placed on each man's head. The remaining two hats are hidden away. The blindfolds are removed. The men are told that if just one of the men can guess what hat he's wearing, they may all go free. Time passes. Finally, the front man, who can't see anyone, correctly guesses the color of his hat. What color was it, and how did he guess correctly?

11. Ten men stand in a line facing same direction.
Random Red or White hat is placed on their head(one hat per person).
One cannot see his own color(of the hat) but can see everybody else's in front of him.
The first man(Man1) cannot see anybody else's whereas the last man(Man10) can see 9hats.
They know ten men got 10 hats but we do not know how many Reds or Whites were there.
The game organizer starts asking men from the last in line(Man10, Man9,... Man2, Man1)
the color of individual's own hat.
When a man gives correct answer he is awarded a one point.
Individual's answers is heard by everybody else in the line. Their correctness exposed at the end.
What is the strategy the group should take to maximize their group score.
Hint : They can get 9 points.

12. X number of cards are placed on table A. Out of X, Y number of them are face down.
You have to move cards (one at a time) from table A to table B.
After the move both tables should have equal number of cards face down.
You are blind folded and sit in the middle of tableA and tableB.
(means you can touch the cards but you cannot see whether they are face up or down)
You are given the values of X and Y.
How do you accomplish this ?


ANSWERS

1."I should be poisoned" think a bit and analyse. Still if you don't get keep on reading.
Explanation : If "I should be poisoned" is TRUE(by sentense) you have to poison him. But according to the rule of the riddle "He should be hanged". Because of the contradiction no one can hang him or poison him. This solves by CONTRADICTION.

2. "If your brother is here instead of you what would he say for the question "What is the correct way to city A" ? " Then he chooses the other road whatever the brother say.

3.A cannot be black, because if A was black, C or B
would live.
If C sees A is black:
if C sees B is also black
then he knows he is white, and lives.
Cannot happen.
else C sees B is white
B knows this because if he were black
and A were black, C would live.
No matter how C answers, B has to be white, if A
is black, or C would live.

Therefore A cannot be black, and has to be white for
both C and B to die.

4.Burn both ends of one thread and one end of the other. After the first thread is burnt completely burn the other end of the second thread. The total time taken by threads to burn will be 45 minutes.


5. All the cells that are perfect squares (1,4,9,16,25,36,49,64,81,100)remain open because they have an odd number of multiples so the key will be turned an odd number of times on them, making them open at the end. Allothers have an even number of multiples and will stay closed.

6. 1&2 : 2mins, 1back : 1min, 4&5 : 5mins, 2back : 2mins, 1&2 : 2mins = 12mins

7. The first thing you must understand is that the time which it takes the strings to burn is proportional to the number of flames present on the string. If you light both ends of one of the strings, it will take HALF of an hour to burn, by definition. Thus, to time 45 minutes, here's what you'd do. Light string A at both ends while you simultaneously light string Bon one end. When string A is completely burned up, 30 minutes will have passed. At the moment that this happens, you will have 30 minutes left on string B. Right as string A burns out, light the OTHER end of string B, which will now only burn for 15 more minutes because you have two flames on a30-minute string. When it's gone, 45 minutes total have passed.

8. Any number could be ended in four which always has four letters only.

9.This is similar to the priest devil game that I had preciously posted.
Check the first comment of that game or play the game to find the solution.
http://24x7interestingfacts.blogspot.com/2008/09/priests-n-devils.html

10. If black is 1 and white is 0
All possible combinations :
a. 000
b. 001
c. 010
d. 011
e. 100
f. 101
g. 110
h. 111

a. does not happen ; if e fist buy can answer
if c or g, second guy could have answered
In all other cases 3rd guy wears black.

11. If one sees odd number of (say) Reds he calls RED. Then the one in front

12. Pick a card from tableA , flip the side and place on tableB
You do this until you reach Y.

Hope you enjoyed the puzzles!

How many colors do you see?

This week may be termed as the week of optical illusions. And here I am coming with yet another optical illusion.

How many colors do you see?



There are only 3 colors: White, green, and pink.
There seem to be two different shades of pink and green, but there is only one pink and one green.