Nominees & Winners for the 81st Academy Awards

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor” (Overture Films)
• Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon” (Universal)
• Sean Penn in “Milk” (Focus Features)
• Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
• Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Josh Brolin in “Milk” (Focus Features)
• Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder” (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
• Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt” (Miramax)
• Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.)
• Michael Shannon in “Revolutionary Road” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)

Performance by an actress in a leading role

• Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married” (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Angelina Jolie in “Changeling” (Universal)
• Melissa Leo in “Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Meryl Streep in “Doubt” (Miramax)
• Kate Winslet in “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

• Amy Adams in “Doubt” (Miramax)
• Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (The Weinstein Company)
• Viola Davis in “Doubt” (Miramax)
• Taraji P. Henson in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
• Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)

Best animated feature film of the year

• “Bolt” (Walt Disney), Chris Williams and Byron Howard
• “Kung Fu Panda” (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount), John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
• “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Andrew Stanton

Achievement in art direction

• “Changeling” (Universal), Art Direction: James J. Murakami, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo
• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Peter Lando
• “The Duchess” (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Art Direction: Michael Carlin, Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway
• “Revolutionary Road” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage), Art Direction: Kristi Zea, Set Decoration: Debra Schutt

Achievement in cinematography

• “Changeling” (Universal), Tom Stern
• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Claudio Miranda
• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfister
• “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle

Achievement in costume design

• “Australia” (20th Century Fox), Catherine Martin
• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Jacqueline West
• “The Duchess” (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Michael O’Connor
• “Milk” (Focus Features), Danny Glicker
• “Revolutionary Road” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage), Albert Wolsky

Achievement in directing

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Fincher
• “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Ron Howard
• “Milk” (Focus Features), Gus Van Sant
• “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Stephen Daldry
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Danny Boyle

Best documentary feature

• “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” (Cinema Guild), A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
• “Encounters at the End of the World” (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment), A Creative Differences Production, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
• “The Garden” A Black Valley Films Production, Scott Hamilton Kennedy
• “Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall in association with Red Box Films Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
• “Trouble the Water” (Zeitgeist Films), An Elsewhere Films Production, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

Best documentary short subject

• “The Conscience of Nhem En” A Farallon Films Production, Steven Okazaki
• “The Final Inch” Vermilion Films in association with Google.org, Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant
• “Smile Pinki” A Principe Production, Megan Mylan
• “The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306” A Rock Paper Scissors Production, Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde

Achievement in film editing

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lee Smith
• “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
• “Milk” (Focus Features), Elliot Graham
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens

Best foreign language film of the year

• “The Baader Meinhof Complex” A Constantin Film Production, Germany
• “The Class” (Sony Pictures Classics), A Haut et Court Production, France
• “Departures” (Regent Releasing), A Departures Film Partners Production, Japan
• “Revanche” (Janus Films), A Prisma Film/Fernseh Production, Austria
• “Waltz with Bashir” (Sony Pictures Classics), A Bridgit Folman Film Gang Production, Israel

Achievement in makeup

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Greg Cannom
• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan
• “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (Universal), Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Alexandre Desplat
• “Defiance” (Paramount Vantage), James Newton Howard
• “Milk” (Focus Features), Danny Elfman
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman
• “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Thomas Newman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

• “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
• “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
• “O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
  

Best motion picture of the year

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), A Kennedy/Marshall Production, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
• “Milk” (Focus Features), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
• “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti and Redmond Morris, Producers
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, Producer

Best animated short film

• “La Maison en Petits Cubes” A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
• “Lavatory - Lovestory” A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production, Konstantin Bronzit
• “Oktapodi” (Talantis Films), A Gobelins, L’école de l’image Production, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
• “Presto” (Walt Disney), A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
• “This Way Up” A Nexus Production, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

Best live action short film

• “Auf der Strecke (On the Line)” (Hamburg Shortfilmagency), An Academy of Media Arts Cologne Production, Reto Caffi
• “Manon on the Asphalt” (La Luna Productions), A La Luna Production, Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
• “New Boy” (Network Ireland Television), A Zanzibar Films Production, Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
• “The Pig” An M & M Production, Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
• “Spielzeugland (Toyland)” A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank

Achievement in sound editing

• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Richard King
• “Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Glenn Freemantle and Tom Sayers
• “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
• “Wanted” (Universal), Wylie Stateman

Achievement in sound mixing

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
• “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
• “Wanted” (Universal), Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

Achievement in visual effects

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
• “Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

Adapted screenplay

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Screenplay by Eric Roth, Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
• “Doubt” (Miramax), Written by John Patrick Shanley
• “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Screenplay by Peter Morgan
• “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Hare
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Original screenplay

• “Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Courtney Hunt
• “Happy-Go-Lucky” (Miramax), Written by Mike Leigh
• “In Bruges” (Focus Features), Written by Martin McDonagh
• “Milk” (Focus Features), Written by Dustin Lance Black
• “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

6 Foreign Expressions You Should Know

Whether you like it or not, foreign expressions represent an integral part of the English language (and of many other languages, too). Knowing the meaning and usage of the most used ones is very important. First of all because it will enable you to understand pieces of text that include them. Secondly, because you might also need to use those expressions on particular situations (avoid using them just to sound smart though). Below you will find 6 foreign expressions commonly used in English, enjoy!

1. De Facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means “actual” (if used as an adjective) or “in practice” (if used as an adverb). In legal terms, de facto is commonly used in contrast to de jure, which means “by law.” Something, therefore, can emerge either de facto (by practice) or de jure (by law).

And what of the plastic red bench, which has served as his de facto home for the last 15 years and must by now be a collector’s item? (NY Times)

2. Vis-à-Vis

The literal meaning of this French expression is “face to face” (used as an adverb). It is used more widely as a preposition though, meaning “compared with” or “in relation to.”

It’s going to be a huge catalyst in moving the whole process forward and it really strengthens the U.S. position vis-a-vis our trading partners (Yahoo! News)

3. Status quo

This famous Latin expression means “the current or existing state of affairs.” If something changes the status quo, it is changing the way things presently are.

Bush believes that the status quo — the presence in a sovereign country of a militant group with missiles capable of hitting a U.S. ally — is unacceptable. (Washington Post)

4. Cul-de-sac

This expression was originated in England by French-speaking aristocrats. Literally it means “bottom of a sack,” but generally it refers to a dead-end street. Cul-de-sac can also be used metaphorically to express an action that leads to nowhere or an impasse.

But the code of omerta was in effect for two carloads of fans circling the cul-de-sac to have a look at the house. (Reuters.com)

A cul-de-sac of poverty (The Economist)

5. Per se

Per se is a Latin expression that means “by itself” or “intrinsically.”

The mistake it made with the Xbox is that there is no game console market per se; there are PlayStation, GameCube, and Xbox markets. (PCMag.com)

6. Ad hoc

Ad hoc, borrowed from the Latin, can be used both as an adjective, where it means “formed or created with a specific purpose,” and as an adverb, where it means “for the specific purpose or situation.”

The World Bank’s board on Friday ordered an ad hoc group to discuss the fate of President Paul Wolfowitz (CNN)

Add Your Current Location to Gmail Signatures Automatically

Gmail users who travel frequently will simply love this. You can now instruct Gmail to automatically add your current geographic location to all your outgoing email messages so that recipients get to know where you are at the moment.
Gmail takes the IP address of the computer from where you are sending that email and uses it to determine the city / state / country from where you are writing that email.

How to Add Location in Gmail email Signatures

Step 1: Enable the Location in Signature module from the Lab Settings of your Gmail / Google Apps of Gmail.




Step 2: Open the Setting tab of Gmail and select the check box that says "Append your location to the signature".

That’s it. Here how the signature would look like on the recipients computer. So instead of saying "Sent from iPhone" or "Sent from BlackBerry", your email signatures could now says "Sent from New Delhi using iPhone" or something similar.
City detection based on IP addresses may not be 100% accurate but you can always modify the detected value before sending the email.

Google Latitude

The latest mobile application that comes from the Google arsenal is called Google Latitude.

And what does it do?

It tells your friends and family where you are and vice versa. Yes, I know, I know, the privacy issues. As of now there have been mixed responses from around the web. But we’ll get to that later.

So what features does Latitude boast of?

The whereabouts can be tracked on a Google map using it’s My Location feature, either from a handset or from a personal computer. Besides the friend’s locations in Latitude you can also get in touch via SMS, Google Talk, Gmail, or by updating your status message.

Google tries to make all the info optional, which means that you get to choose who gets to view you, and if you do choose to let them keep a track over your position, you can also control what you wish to show them. So the next time you ditch your girlfriend for a cricket match, you can prove to her that you were in the hospital taking care of your cousin using this “fake” feature.

I know what you did last summer..

For all those who like the service, there are many many more who just don’t see it’s point. This group obviously feels that their privacy will be in danger. Imagine, if every moment of your existence, someone knew where you were, what you were doing. More over, the information is stored on Google servers. Now imagine if Google decides to mess with people, its not like they don’t have enough information about you already. Now they will know where you are with pinpoint accuracy (if you’re using a GPS enabled phone) or reasonable accuracy if you don’t have GPS.

Google also released a video explaining the privacy features of Latitude and how to use it best.

And what about the costs?

“The only cost that the consumer will have to pay is the data packet charges that are levied by the mobile operators. This has no revenue advantage for us since this it is not linked to sponsored advertising, we just want to promote the use of maps on phones,” said Vinay Goel, product chief, Google India.

But then again, it makes one wonder, how could such a service be leveraged in the future?

Competitors?

Loopt which claims to “transform your phone into a social compass” is quite similar to Google Latitude supports upto 100 phones including the Iphone (unlike Google Latitude). There’s also Pelago’s Whrrl which “allows you to discover the world through the eyes of your friends and other people you trust.”

More info

For the list of countries and languages which support Google Latitude, check here and yes, India is one of them. Strangely the Iphone comes in the coming soon category, this will surely bring a frown to the face of many. Why? Well according to Wired Magazine since Latitude is an always-on service (meaning it will be silently operating in the background), it runs afoul of Apple’s iPhone SDK. Google is reportedly working on a version of Latitude for the company’s Google Mobile App for the iPhone.

Google has posted a video showing the various ways to control your privacy and suggesting some tips on how to use Latitude. The video can be found here

To share your location from your desktop computer visit google.com/latitude and install the Latitude iGoogle gadget.

How to Clean Your Internet History in Firefox

Consider this - you are sharing a computer at home, there aren’t any separate user logins and all family members use the same Firefox browser to surf the web. How do you make sure that people don’t get to know about the websites you visited last night?

In other words, how can you selectively clear such tracks from the Firefox browser without deleting the entire web browsing history?

Forget about this Site

This option is recommended if you want to erase only a couple of websites from your browser’s history.

Press Ctrl+H to access your web history in the Firefox sidebar, type some characters in the search box to find the website(s) that you want to remove, right click and select the "Forget About This Site" option as shown in the screenshot.

This option lets you delete either entire domains (like google.com) or even sub-domains (like images.google.com) from your browser history.

*If you like to selectively delete only a couple of web pages from the history (and not the entire website), just right click the web page title in the History box and select Delete This Page or hit the Del key on your keyboard.

Clear History from the Last Hour

Your family members have gone shopping and you therefore spent the last two hours browsing the 18+ web. Fine but how you do make sure that all the tracks are erased before the door bell rings.

Simple. Press Ctrl+Shift+Del in Firefox to open the "Clear Recent History" dialog and select "the last two hours" or "my history for today" option. This will delete only your recent Internet history while leaving the old data untouched so your wife will still quickly access all her previously visited sites from the address bar.

Browse Privately in Firefox

Now in situations where you don’t want to take the risk of deleting history, activate the private browsing mode in Firefox by typing about:privatebrowsing in the address bar (or choose Private Browser from the Tools menu).

This is the safest option because none of your web activities will be recorded anywhere. The private mode is turned off automatically as soon you close the browser window.

Multiple Inboxes in GMAIL

An image is worth a thousand words, so here's what my inbox looks like:



In addition to a quick view of important labels, we also like to keep all my starred and draft messages in separate panels.

After you turn on Multiple Inboxes from the Labs tab under Settings, you can configure what you want to see, as well as set the number of messages displayed and the positioning of your panels from the Multiple Inboxes section under Settings.

How it Changed!!!

Here I am sitting in my office @ night… Thinking hard about life How it changed from a maverick collage life to strict professional life…...

How tiny pocket money changed to huge monthly paychecks but then why it gives lesss happiness….

How a few local denim jeans changed to new branded wardrobe but then why there are less people to use them

How a single plate of samosa changed to a full Pizza or burger But then why there is less hunger…..

Here i am sitting in my office @ night… Thinking hard about life How it changed…..

How a bike always in reserve changed to bike always on but then why there are less places to go on……

How a small coffee shop changed to cafe coffee day but then why its feels like shop is far away…..

How a limited prepaid card changed to postpaid package but then why there are less calls & more messages……

Here i am sitting in my office @ night… Thinking hard about life How it changed…..

How a general class journey changed to Flight journey But then why there are less vacations for enjoyment….

How a old assembled desktop changed to new branded laptop but then why there is less time to put it on……….

How a small bunch of friends changed to office mate But then why we always feel lonely n miss those college frnz.….

Here i am sitting in my office @ night… Thinking hard about life How it changed….. How it changed……..

India Internet Bus Project launches

For the last few years, Google India has worked to increase Internet usage in our country of a billion people via various products such as SMS Search , Voice Search, and Google Map Maker, translating our interfaces into Indian languages. We've also worked on numerous initiatives to increase the quality of search with useful local information like business listings, railways and flight status, and cricket scores. We've been witnessing a steady growth in Internet adoption, but as impatient observers, we wanted to do more to directly engage the offline population of India.

In that vein, earlier today, we announced the launch of the Internet Bus Project – a mobile bus designed to showcase the benefits of the Internet to the people across the cities of Tamil Nadu. We're aiming to reach out to people with limited exposure to the Internet, and the bus will cover numerous Tamil Nadu cities over the next month and a half.

The bus is designed to make a simple introduction to the Internet for a new user. With a focus on the four themes of education, information, communication, and entertainment, the Internet Bus will be loaded with useful and informative content in English and Tamil. We'll showcase how the Internet can make everyday life simple through services like search, email, social networking, maps and others.

We strongly believe the Internet is a great equalizing force, and this project represents another way Google is directly engaging with people in India.

We welcome you to visit the Internet Bus Project website at http://www.google.co.in/internetbus to see when the bus will visit your city, get regular updates, and view photos and videos as we travel around Tamil Nadu.

How to Say ‘No to All’ During File Copy Operations in Windows

While copying or moving a large number of files from one location to another folder in Windows, you may often encounter errors or warning messages saying the file(s) you are trying to copy already exists in the target location.

Windows No to All - Keyboard Shortcut

If you are using a previous version of Windows (like XP or Windows 2000 but not Vista), the default error window will offer four choices - "Yes", "No", "Yes to All" and "Cancel".

There’s no "No to All" button in the File Replacement dialog but you can simply hold down the Shift Key before pressing the No button and Windows will automatically interpret this action as a "No to All" command.

This will be so useful when you are copying a large number of files and folders but don’t want to overwrite content that already exists at the target.

In case of Windows Vista, Microsoft designed a more intuitive warning message with a check box that lets you repeat the same operation on all upcoming conflicts