The NOVICE MASTER|Welcome to Uncle Che’s NOVICE MASTER. This blog is all about Science and Technology, Business and Economy, Home and Family, Personality and Self Improvement as well as personal opinions, reviews and lifestream

In the previous post, I was talking about backing up data. Well, here it is not just any type of data I want to talk about. Don’t dare lie to me you don’t love movies. I bet you do. And if you deal often with DVDs, spread your arms wide open and say “AVI, Welcome”.

For the information of you all who are not very geeky about video files, .avi is just one out of a whole lot of video files. Each file type (of any media be they text, audio, photos…etc) is very unique in one way or the other. How is the video file .avi unique?

AVI videos can hold lengthy videos at high quality while maintaining a relatively small file size. Now, what comes to your mind? Back up? Not yet! Ah! Actually, yes. You got it.

If you really want to keep those DVDs of yours safe, then what you should be thinking of is backing them up. To maximize storage space, you will need to rip your DVDs and convert the files to avi files before doing the backup. The backup I am referring here is by saving on your PC or just burning the files on a CD as normal data to play back on your PC using software that supports AVI Playback.

You got loads of DVDs you legally own? Would you like to reduce that load by 75% or 80%?

4 or 5 DVDs riped and converted into avi can be burned on 1 DVD, thereby reducing the loads of DVDs you have at home. To do this, you will need a software that can easily convert DVD to avi and burn on CDs of DVD.

I am in no way affiliated to Movavi videosuite, neither is this a sponsored post. I just love the way the software works and the interesting stuffs it can do when it comes to DVD ripping, compression and backup. With Movavi videosuite it is very easy for a noob to make his/her own DVD collection for personal/home use.

After you have acquired a copy of this marvellou software,

1. Run the Videosuite, click the DVD button and Add DVD. This will allow you to backup everything on the DVD. Choose the correct IFO or VOB files that you wish to copy.
2. Select the correct audio track for the movie.
3. Choose the output format for the movie. You will probably want that to be AVI in DivX or Xvid format.
4. Select the place on your hard drive to save the movie after conversion.
5. Click ‘convert’ to start reading from the DVD and saving to your computer.

You can use this method to store many DVDs on one disk if you like. DVDs are converted down to as little as 1/4 or 1/5 their original size but still maintain good quality, so you can reburn 4 or 5 movies to a single DVD-R disc and store more movies on less disks.

More stuff, less space!

Oh! I think I must have skipped many questions I had to ask before asking this one. Anyway, I am sure while searching for an answer to this I will also find one or two for those. But before we begin our little examination, we really need to define success and make two key points very clear here: what we really need to achieve in life, and the length of time we really want to give for each achievement.

What made me think of this topic? I am a non-jealous over-ambitious type of person but earlier this morning, I found myself feeling something unusual. After completely reinstalling my blog, I felt as if the previous day was quiet a lot of mess and I have made many obstructions in my blog, messed my certain things I might never put back in the right place, and probably all these must have pushed me a few months back. Am I progressing or regressing? I asked myself. Why can’t I be as good at blogging as Mr. X or Mrs Y? Why can’t I write a post as good as that which Blogger Z wrote the other day? Do I really need to be here?

For the very first time in my life, I allowed my inner self the opportunity to discourage me about something I am passionate about. Uncle Che? Oh No! This can’t be me….I exclaimed. I am not that cheap to be beaten down so easily. My expectations are not yards of quick sand that I will sink in. After a while, I calmed myself and set out on a venture to seek and find why I had a low spirit and my moral boosted towards the negative direction.

Why don’t I think I am successful? I asked myself. I picked up a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word success. Oh No! I couldn’t. Why? I must not refer a word as easy as that. If I had no dictionary, what will I define success? After pondering for a while on the very first definition that flashed on my mind, I refused taking it. I told myself there must be something more.

What was the mistake I made? I defined success, in my won words and opinion, as a state of satisfaction with one’s self achievements, within a specified period of time, together with its impact on self and others. Yeah, when you are satisfied with what you do, you feel successful. You feel you are a champion and have achieved something at last. Yes, of course. Success is an achievement. It is something like a result. There must therefore be a path to it. Everything done within that path that leads to success is part of success and should be included when evaluating one’s success.

HARD WORK: A teacher of mine once said “there are three routes to sucesss; hard work, hard work and hard work”. I laughed out loud, but later on realized the true meaning of that. Even if you are not seeing any prospects of being successful, hard work alone guarantees your success.

FAITH: You must believe in yourself first, and then in what you are doing? How can you talk about success when you are sure you will fail?

HOPE: Even if you do not have the current tools that will enable you put in your best, you should be hoping for them. They always say a lazy carpenter complains about his tools. I am not sure anyone will want to say that if they knew that so –called “lazy” carpenter is hoping for better tools. We are not talking about miracles here, but who says they can’t happen?

LOVE: this one word surpasses all. There is no way you can be faithful, hardworking or hoping to succeed if you don’t love what you are doing. At times, even love is not enough. You should be passionate and compassionate.

I wasn’t just consoling myself. After putting together many things and exposing them to light, I decided I am a very successful blogger. Instead of looking down on myself, I will rather set limitless limits and look up to them.

Can you call yuorself “Successful”?

There was a little girl who was greatly loved by her mother. Loved so much that the mother never ever wanted to punish her even for the deadliest crime she committed. Any time she committed a crime, instead of punishing her with hard work or beating, she required the little girl just to say one simple phrase… “Mum, I am sorry”.

That was it. She was never required to do any punishment for crime except saying that she was sorry. One day, the little girl was being accused of something that she did not do. No matter how much she tried to defend herself, all evidences pointed but to her. She saw that there was no way out except accepting the crime, which she didn’t commit, and said, “Mum, I am sorry for what I did”. “I am also sorry for not admitting to it in the fist place”. “Mum, I promise never to do it again”. As usual, her mother held her close to her and made gentle little strokes on her hair.

Two days later, it was discovered that the little girl didn’t commit the crime she was accused for. She was very happy that this discovery and at least expected something in return for the pain she went through. He mum told her many advantages and disadvantages of accepting a crime one has not committed. She also advised her, however, to always stand by the truth till death even if no one accepted it.

When she was talking, the child was staring at her and expecting just one thing from all. All that she said didn’t mean anything. The little girl wanted to hear just one short phrase and she decided she will make herself even happier if she heard it. I guess her mum didn’t say that phrase. She concluded the discussion without mentioning it.

The little girl continued staring at her mum so much that it was very difficult for her mother to pretend it wasn’t happening. She asked her “Baby, why are you staring at me like that”? The little girl replied the question by asking another question “Mum, why don’t you tell me you are sorry? “I am sorry”? “Sorry for what”?

The girl didn’t answer, but it all came to her mother in a flash. She realized she had to apologies for forcing the girl to admit she committed a crime, which she didn’t. She was just a child, but apologizing will not do the woman any harm. She went closer to the little girl, bent down she that she could look her straight into the eyes, and said, “I am sorry”.

The little girl was very happy and the only way she could really express it was by drawing her mother close to her chest and making gentle little strokes through her hair with her fingers.

How easy or difficult do you find it to say “Sorry”?

Some will stand for what is right. No matter the cost or degree of fear nursed in them
I can’t think of any other symbol of courage against overwhelming odds.

Have you ever watched the movie titled “300”? You may not be a movie fan, but I will still recommend it. It is not only exciting, encouraging and educative but somehow lets you see hidden parts of yourself.

“300” is not only a movie about a Spartan King who takes 300 men and goes to battle to stand against the whole of Persia’s army. It is a real story being told on the big screen.

In 480BC a Spartan king named Leonidas refused submission to the Persian Empire, which was seriously expanding into Europe. He took along 300 Spartans to fight against the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae in central Greece. Today, that battle is referred to as the battle of Thermopylae.

300 Spartans, plus some soldiers from other Greek states and allies made a total number of 7000 Greek soldiers standing against 2,641,610 Persians soldiers. Mathematically, one Greek soldier had to fight 440 Persian soldiers. Is that not great? Is that not courage? What else should I use as an example of a courageous move.

I don’t know what the outcome of the fight could have been if the Greek army was not betrayed by Ephialtes who revealed to the Persian army, a secret mountain path that led behind the Greek lines. Thank God it happened that way. Although the Greek at last defeated the Persians, it was in another battle. If they succeeded in this particular battle, you and would never have believed it. We could have named it a myth. 7000 against 2,641,610? That’s weird.

Someone will instantly believe that a battle of 1: 440 will not last an hour. Believe this, the Greeks sustained that battle for three days.

How many times have we actually stood up to fight against odds in our life? How many of those battles have we won? Why did we refuse to fight when we had a chance? Is it because the odds outnumbered us? Numbers are just imaginary. Courage is in the mind.

Can you boast of being courageous?

To my own opinion, friendship is the greatest of all relationships in the world. It is the basis and lays a solid foundation on which any other relationship stands. For every good relationship, we must consider it as being a form of friendship, before we can give it a bigger meaning.

I always hear people saying this to others “Please take my advice, I am not advising you as a friend, I am advising you as a brother”. I have heard this several times and as a result, I am very versed with it. To my greatest shock, however, I one day heard a boy telling his brother “I am not doing this for you because you are my brother”. “I am doing it because you are my friend.

For the very first time in my life, I heard a boy of about 17 giving more importance to friendship that family ties. This, at first, sounded very strange to me but now, I have begun giving it more meaning than I did when I heard it about 10 years ago.

Friendship comes with care and concern. Care and concern between individuals give rise to companionship. Companions express themselves freely. They are not tied down to very strict social relationships like parent, child, brother, sister, spouse, colleague, boss, etc.

I have witnessed many cases in with relationships have been clouded and apparently disguised by friendship. I had a friend who was so friendly and outgoing with his boss, so much that it will take a stranger more than an hour to differentiate who is who amongst the two of them. I once mistook a certain boy’s younger sister for his girlfriend because they were unusually very friendly, so friendly that they usually exchanged hugs instead of oral greetings or handshakes.

It is hard to draw a line between people who are your friends and people who are not. It is even difficult to tell how many friends. This is because a vast majority of people live by the principle of “love and trust them until they give you a reason not to. Most people also will consider their friends’ friends as their friends (Friend of a Friend or FOAF for short).

Is your friend’s friend your friend?

The case of the two Wanda

It’s indeed singular the case of the two Wanda, the story told from the “The Washington Post” in an article entitled “The case of the two Wanda”. Wanda Marie Johnson was living in Adelphi, in the Prince Georges County, and works as assigned to luggage in the Union Station of Washington, DC.

A second Wanda Marie Johnson was living instead in Suitland, in Maryland, a town that it’s also in the Prince Georges County, and she works as a nurse in the District of Colombia General Hospital in Washington.

Both the two Wanda were born June 15th 1953, had been residents of the District of Colombia, and are mothers of two children. Each of them possesses a two doors Ford Granada of 1977, of the same color. Not only that. The first eleven numbers of their cars’ matriculation are identical, only the last three differ. Their driver’s license numbers of Maryland are even the same one since they reported the same birth date. The result was that when the first Wanda has used services of the Howard University Hospital, where the other went also for checkup, troubles began. The case sheets of the two in fact were confused and only after many researches doctors understood that in effects in that hospital there were two Wanda Marie Johnson. Moreover the first Wanda was cited in order not to have paid some furniture that the second one had acquired. And nobody wanted to believe her. At the end the story, everything was cleared up and the truth has been re-establish.

The Tragic End of King Umberto’s “twin”

A singular historical coincidence happened in Italy. On the 28th of July 1900, during a visit to Monza, a city in the Northern part of Italy, king Umberto came to know a restaurateur (owner of a restaurant) who looks like him very much.

Speaking to him, the king discovered that both were born in the same date. Both had married a woman called Margherita and both had a son called Vittorio. Moreover, always for pure chance, the man had opened his restaurant the same day Umberto ascended to the throne. The king was amused from all that coincidences and, leaving his “twin”, he said that he would like to meet him again. But it was not possible.

The next day, cleaning up its gun, the restaurateur left a blow that, bouncing, hurt him mortally. The news arrived obviously to the police and consequently to the king. King Umberto was a lot shaken from the incident and asked, between an engagement and the other, of being lead in the restaurant to present his condolences to the widow. But even that was not possible.

At 10.25 p.m. of July 29th 1900, while he journeyed for the roads of Monza on an opened coach, king Umberto was hit to death from the blow of the gun of the anarchist Gaetano Bresci.

The Two-way life savers

On a hot July night of 1930, a policeman called Allan Folby from Texas got in a car crash and damaged a femoral artery in his leg. He would have bled to death had not a passerby intervened and saved his live. The passerby’s name was Alfred Smith. He applied a tourniquet and Folby stopped bleeding. The policeman recovered and went back to his beat. Five years later, he got a call to proceed to a car crash site. He saw a man lying on the ground. The man was bleeding; his femoral artery was apparently damaged. The man’s name was Alfred Smith: he was the very man who saved Folby’s live in the past under the same circumstances.

Have you ever heard of the case of the American Kennedys?

Web design became a very competing art in these days. People can design and compile websites without much knowledge of web design. Software packages which available on the internet and at computer shops make it easy for the novice to design and develop effective websites. Good looking websites can be produced with these packages with merely a drop and drag action in many cases. Even more complicated applications like database and interactive applications can be automated and easily created with some of the latest online packages.

Web design is aimed to create web pages and websites in such a manner that it is suitable for interpretation and can easily be displayed by a web browser.Web design can be effectively used to attract clients or customers to your website and web pages.Web design can be seen as an art or skill when properly applied.Website design involves not only graphic design skills but also includes other Internet and IT technology skills.The ability to navigate easily through a website is definitely obtained by lots of experience and skill.

Web design is in many cases a hobby that becomes a part time money earner and sometimes a full-time profession. Web designers should train themselves to become skilled to provide a wothy product to potential clients. Some so to say web designers cause a lot of damage to the web design industry. Customers are getting the wrong impression of web design an the power of this great marketing tool. Websites can be designed with static pages but also includes dynamic and interactive pages in which case different users can access the web pages and database of such applications.

Websites collect information about certain topics and subjects and is a a combination of skilled and professional web design tools of computer technology, database applications, internet tools and other business skills like marketing and accounting knowledge. Well planned an thought through web design is the make or brake factor to attract new customers to your website and organization. Websites should be well balanced in terms of presentation, functionality, navigation and professional search engine optimization. This holds the key to success most websites.

In most cases the first page or homepage of a website is is most important. However,other pages can be designed to draw attention before your client sees your homepage. landing pages which are also called splash pages are used as the attraction in some cases. Attention of a client get drawn by these pages and then get diverted to the main application or page where the sale is converted. Web designers will design a home page or splash page in such a way that it will draw attention to specific areas, but also in a way that the rest of the website’s pages can easily be reached. They structure and layout of splash pages is simple and meant to capture the attention of your client, the moment it opens.

Each web page within a web site is a file which has its own address, better known as the URL. These pages can be of various formats like HTML, PHP, or other document formats. The website is the final product of web design and is the result of the combined skills of more than one person. The project is then managed by the webmaster or project leader. The webmaster will combine the different skills of graphic designers, database experts, marketing specialists and other to compile the final website before it is published to a server on the Internet.

Seo is probably the most important factor in web marketing today. Some great looking Websites can never be found on the internet because of lack in this area. Web masters and web developers make use of professionals when it comes to serious optimization of certain keywords. Owners of Websites that are not properly optimized for search engines are a waste of time and money. Experts on SEO can easily be found on the internet, but be careful as there are also many fake sites and different levels of skill.

Hmmm.
Suddenly I developed an extraordinary high interest in digging up information on things that I take for granted. I made a search on Google today for top Universities on this planet. I don’t really know what I expected but…

According to The QS World University Rankings, Harvard is the world’s top University. Other Universities in the top ten list include

* YALE University
* University of CAMBRIDGE
* University of OXFORD
* CALIFORNIA Institute of Technology
* IMPERIAL College London
* UCL (University College London)
* University of CHICAGO
* MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology
* COLUMBIA University

After digging up some info, this is what I found out about Havard.

Harvard University is the oldest and, arguably, the most prestigious university in the United States. In 2005, the Times Higher Education Supplement and the Academic Ranking of World Universities both ranked Harvard University first among the universities of the world. In addition, the US News and World Report rankings placed Harvard at the top of the list in a tie with Princeton. Moreover, with a financial endowment of $25.5 billion in 2005, Harvard is considered the wealthiest university in the United States and in the world.

Located at Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard was founded in 1663, incorporated as “The President and Fellows of Harvard College.” It was named Harvard College in 1639 after John Harvard, a young clergyman and the institution’s first principal donor. John Harvard, a product of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, left in his will several hundred pounds and a few hundred books to the college, which formed the foundation of its college library collection. On record, the first known official reference to Harvard as a “university” rather than a college was in 1780 in the Massachusetts Constitution.

During his tenure as Harvard president from 1869 to 1909, Charles Park instituted a number of radical changes that made the university into what was then known as the modern research university. Among his reforms were elective courses, small classes and entrance examinations. Owing to its successful implementation of these reforms, Harvard served as the model that influenced the American educational system greatly, both at the college and secondary levels.

In 1999, Radcliffe College, which was originally founded as the “Harvard Annex” for women, was formally merged with Harvard University to form the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Today, Harvard has the fourth largest library collection in the world and the largest financial endowment of any academic institution. It lists over 6,000 undergraduate and 13,000 postgraduate students as well as a staff of 2,300. Its well-known motto is “veritas” or truth. Since 1875, the official school color is crimson and that’s also the name given to Harvard sports teams as well as the daily school newspaper, The Harvard Crimson Tide.
Technorati Profile

One bright morning, at the age of about 12, when I got up and ran out to stretch myself and admire the beauty of the sky, I saw a very bright round abject of the size of the moon. It was not very bright, so I couldn’t mistake it for the sun. I concluded it was the moon.

A few minutes later, something flashed through my mind and for one moment, I thought it was the morning star. I loved poetry very much and believed every single thing I read in a poem. I have read about the morning stars in many poems.

I kept a close look at the structure that I saw in the sky. At about 10:00 AM, it disappeared into the clouds. I started asking myself why it disappeared before noon. It was still morning and so the morning star had to be up bright in the sky. It must not disappear before noon.

The whole day, I was a bit disturbed. I had seen the morning star, the legendary star I read only in poems but unfortunately it didn’t last in the sky for as long as I wanted. I kept hoping, just as Hamlet hoped that he father’s ghost will appear, that my morning star will appear again at night. I know there are many stars at night but I was very sure that amidst those stars, I would be able to identify my morning star since it was bigger than any star I had ever seen.

That night, my morning star didn’t show up, but to my surprise, I was still very happy because I saw it in the morning.

It is just about a year ago that I learnt a lesson from that story. I had a reason to be very happy that morning. Though that reason was short lived, my hope of meeting it again kept me happy throughout the day. Even when I didn’t see it at night, I was still happy that I saw it in the morning.

At least once in our lives, we find a reason to be happy. We should always be very grateful for such moments because they are too valuable. When we no longer have them, we should hope, and our hope should still keep us happy. If for some reason we lose hope of ever having such moments again, we still have the right to be happy, thanking God that at least we once had them. Not everyone finds a reason to be happy and seizes it.

Always strive to be happy.

When was the last time you observed a morning star?

At times, I think I am very tough, so tough that I feel it is very strange for a man of my height, built and age (29 come Feb 29, 2009). Recently, I developed some cracks on the right side of my upper lip. I really didn’t care what it was, except calling it a crack, but many people referred to it as signs of night fever. Oh come on! What the heck is night fever? Fever that attacks only at night? Ok you Mr. and Mrs. Doctor Folks. I haven’t been really sick for quite some time now and I really don’t except I will be sick until I turn 200.

Many people complained I was sick but hiding it. Why would I be sick and don’t want you all to know, is the question I always asked. “You want to act tough”, some will tell me, while others will calmly say, “you don’t ant us to be worried about you”. Well, maybe it’s true, but this is the very first experience I am having about this. Even Noela believes I am sick, and I am like “what!”, “Noela, even you”? I have been spending some of the nights recently with you and you really see me sick?

She explains that night fever isn’t really like the other type of fever I am thinking of. It manifests itself only in the form of tiredness, fatigue, and some body pains which I might not feel since I am deeply sleeping like a kid. Ha ha ha. “What makes you get so tired even very early in the morning”, was her question that set me guessing.

I know I am a little bit very careless with my health but since almost every friend I have is complaining, I guess I will have to go for consultation tomorrow and get some drugs.

I really don’t thing being sick is my portion, Ha ha ha

You may not really understand what it means by “buying over someone’s case” until you really find yourself analyzing the way someone is being treated unfairly.

I knew a certain couple her and I thought they were really in love but yesterday I got the shock of my life. The young girl has put to birth a bouncing baby boy, whom I guess should be about 6 months old. The guy heartlessly threw her own of the marital home and asked her never to come back.

Why that? I have always heard rumors about that man’s taste for young girls and how he keeps chasing them around. But his wife is young and cute too. Well, that doesn’t always count, I guess. Some men are so lusty that they always want to have “varieties”. Why then will a man take the step of leaving with one woman if he is not yet satisfied of all the women out there?

Why is Africa like this? Don’t women here have any rights? This situation if even bearable, different from many others. In most cases, I hear of women being seriously battered by their husbands before being thrown out of the house. I hope the International Women’s Day theme this year will have something to do about this.

Very often, I refuse to listen to or believe stories about petit thieves and the type of crimes they commit, but I end up being forced to, due to the number of sources I hear such stories from.

One of the greatest fun about crimes is that criminals no longer wait for the night. Most thieves steal in broad daylight and get away with it. In big cities like the economic capital, Douala, stealing has become so rampant that some thieves have turned into bullies, harassing people and collecting from them even in the midst of hundreds of people and no one says a thing.

The hit and run thieves look for the slightest opportunity to snatch what you have and then disappear into the crowd. What they mostly snatch are purses and mobile phones, and at times money if hand held. Some specialize in using blades to cut open people’s pockets or cut of ropes of handbags and purses. Some pretend they want to use a commercial phone and once they are in possession of the phone, they just flee into the bush. This happened even here in Buea. One well dressed gentleman took a phone from a lady running and phone booth and pretended he wanted to call. As soon as he held the phone, he started running and although the crowd chased, they couldn’t get him. I laughed out very loud when I heard about this.

Now, let’s get back to the bullies. Stealing in broad daylight and getting away slowly and freely? Yes. The men are fun of collecting mobile phones from ladies this way. Just imagine a man walks up to a young lady, seize her phone and launches a few slaps against her face. He wil then pretend to be very upset with her and accuse her of leaving the house without letting people know her destination, or better still, accuse her of cheating and claim that he has just been told that she is from seeing her ex-boyfriend.

Passers-by will not understand the lady is being robbed and will just ignore the situation since the couple can better handle it themselves. Oh! What frustration!

Most employers have used the current situation of high level of unemployment and unavailability of jobs as a reason to exploit jobseekers.

The very first step of this exploitation is the demand for probation. How can you ask someone to work on probation for three months, against a job that pays $60.00 a month? You don’t even get any compensation during such long probation period. Instead, some workers “pay” for probation. Do you imagine looking for a jobs because you are broke and when you have one you are being expected to pay your fare to and fro and at the end of the month get nothing? Nasty!!!

A majority of employers, in order to lure you into accepting their cheap offers, will promise compensation you during the probation period. Since this is just a promise and not an entity in the agreement, you risk getting nothing at all.
What if at the end of the probation period they “decide” you are not the “right” person for the job? Yeah, this may be right. But what if you are actually qualified but the prefer living their entire lives with interns and workers on probation?

Some employers appear to be just but paying their workers at the end of the month is still a problem. Most of the workers won’t quit. They will sit tight hoping against hope. Before your how runs out, you are being owed a three-month salary. Oh, where is the job market heading to?

It is amazing how times flies. Just got up one morning, and heard kids from the Saint Theresa Nursery and Primary School playing loud in the school band. What are they up to? Why are they playing? A friend asked me if I don’t know every school re Hearses for the Youth Day?

Oh! It’s almost 11th Feb here. 11th Feb was always the best day of my life when I was in Primary and Secondary school. Though I hated the march past and all the events preceding it, I always had to bare it because I knew the rest of the day will be gold for me. I really can’t understand why I loved the youth day celebrations so much. I guess it was because on that day, I always get to see kids from other schools dressed in various outfits. Since it usually takes me a long time to save some cash for that day, it was always certain that it would meet me as a wealthy kid

I lost all the fun in Youth Day celebration when I completed Secondary School. Maybe I started feeling too big for it.