@obraye is right. I just renewed my subscription last week. Less than 48 hours later, their network signal became weak at my location. I thought it was a temporal thing but they've not done anything about it till now.

The funny thing was they sent me a text to come and register the number of my modem when I'm thinking of throwing it away since I can't use it any more at my location. No I won't relocate just so I can continue using Starcomms. If they don't fix it in a few days, I will throw the modem away.

@stunware, a word of advice for you. You bought a domain. You paid for hosting; so the passion for web design is obviously there. But you have to go back to school. Nobody is perfect. Everybody started somewhere, even great designers. Your site is a joke at the moment but with training you can come up with something good. I'm still doing a lot of training myself because there's so much about this field I don't know yet.

Here are some tips:

1. Hop over to Computer Village (if you're in Lagos), and buy yourself dvd tutorials. You will find quite a few on every aspect of design.

2. Go to Google university {that's your biggest school}. You'll find answers to virtually every question you may have from your fellow designers.

One word of caution: before you hop over to Google, make sure you're down with the basics of web design {XHTML/CSS} or else you won't even know what you're searching for.

I think this nice. The green color obviously correlates with her passion for this country. The graphics is okay.

A few suggestions though; the designer should consider converting the template to run on one of the popular open source cms's out there. I'd suggest Wordpress but i guess Joomla will be okay as well. This will make the job of updating the content a breeze.

S/he should also consider implementing a Jquery-powered slideshow rather than a flash-based one as it is easier to update dynamically using a cms. Besides, it ensures that the slideshow plays in most javascript-enabled browsers.

Talking about plugins, have you tried Nextgen gallery? Just go to the wordpress and download the plugin. I think it will give you the lightbox or thickbox effect.

PC Guru has solved your problem. The plugin in question is cross browser compliant. So it will work in Internet explorer with no hitches. It allows to implement a wide range of effects among which is the fading animation you spoke of. It is simple to deploy for both static and database-driven sites.

I think I know what you're talking about. The effect you want can be created using Dreamweaver Spry effects. For that you need to be running at least Dreamweaver CS4. Next just get and review Dreamweaver CS4 essential training video (Lynda.com). Note that Spry effects is just a proprietary version of the popular Jquery javascript library integrated into Dreamweaver by Adobe. So you can also do the same thing by learning Jquery.

I'm relatively new to design. For now I only design for Wordpress. Meaning I can use it either as a CMS or for blogging. I certainly would appreciate any new projects to enhance my experience.

Yes, Seun is indeed creative. He can be Nigeria's answer to Zuckerberg because he has a deep appreciation of the limitless possibilities information technology can unleash. How I wish our leaders can recognize and nurture the creativity to be found in abundance in Nigerian youths.

Being a noob myself, I agree with pc guru. Photoshop can do a heck of good to that site. In fact, I'd say it is better to get the look and feel of the right right in Photoshop or whatever graphics app you're comfortable with before attempting to code the css/xhtml.

@pc guru

I like this initiative. I just got into web design recently. It looked overwhelming until I whittled it down to designing for wordpress. I design my templates in Fireworks CS4, and code the CSS/XHML in Dreamweaver CS4. I develop the underlying WP codes by running a special combination of WAMP and Dreamweaver. I will post screenshots if permitted because I want to be sure it is allowed.

You can check my portfolio site via my signature. I will be happy if other designers here tell me what they think of my works. I welcome all sorts of feedback no matter how negative.

Thanks and more power to your elbow.

My God! 172 killed. That's quite a high casualty figure for an internal security operation that is less than a couple of weeks old. Such a record of what will turn out to be mostly innocent civilian deaths will raise dusts in other climes but not in Nigeria where human beings are actually animals. In as much as I long for this menace to be rooted out, I strongly condemn the reckless shooting of unarmed villages based on mere suspicion of being kidnappers. They can be arrested and given a fair trial. A lopsided show of force will not suffice for justice in this matter.

Congrats bro! Watched most of the episodes and he was one of the really cool guys in the house.

Walk into computer village and get all the lynda tutorials you need on dvds. Don't ask the source.

Yep, this monster of a woman and her husband, the wimp, must be tried and hung from their neck until they expire.

The IG must administer lie detector tests on these wicked sons of bitches including the so-called spokesman. Independent ballistics experts should be involved in the investigation.

Yep. Wordpress is best for the blog. You can even have your blog look exactly like your website if you wish. In fact, you can manage every content in your site via wordpress.

Lynda is da bomb for sure.

If you were to be in Lagos, I'd say go to Computer Village and buy yourself video tuts on Dreamweaver, Fireworks (or Photoshop) and Flash for starters. When you've mastered your XHTML/CSS, then you can take a closer look at theme design for either Wordpress or Joomla or even both. That will expose to developing dynamic websites. Notice that I said theme design. That means creating themes from scratch, not installing free themes you get online or even premium templates. Installing themes other people created is not website design. As a designer, you must be able to create from scratch. You'll learn PHP/MYSQL along the way as you'll be using it a lot in either of the CMSes I mentioned.

As for online tuts, just use Google and you'd see loads of quality information but if you want to learn fast, stick to videos online or offline.

How much can you earn? It depends on the scope of the site, your perception of your client and most importantly on the quality of your skills. If you're sure of your skill set, you can earn at least 100k in any given month. That can come from a project or two. Beware of underpricing yourself as the work involved can at times be tedious otherwise you may lose your motivation and turn in a shoddy job.

I will prefer to give Jonathan the benefit of doubt. I want to believe he's sincere. If what he's saying on FB is anything to go by, there would be more to this than mere rhetoric.

PDP should stop confusing itself. Jonathan has shown he can be relied on. His party platform is immaterial. The constitution (not PDP constitution) says he is free to run. He is the best material with any chance of winning right now. If PDP likes, let it shoot itself in the foot by bucking the wrong bronco in the name of zoning.

Stop fooling yourself. Leave this girl and move on with your life. The relationship has irretrievably been damaged. It aint your fault. Trusted like the fox, that's your gf.

Sexual harassment is not seen as a serious offense in Nigeria. That is why the burden is shifted to the person being harassed rather the offender. Some lecturers harass even decently dressed girls. They feel nobody can get them.

I remember when some lecturers got dismissed from a university of technology owned by the federal government in the south-east in a bed-for-marks scandal. The girls involved weren't outrageous dressers. This goes to show there are other motives.

she must have done it out of desperation. no help for single mothers unless their families chip in. no social welfare from govt.

she should have given her baby up for adoption instead selling her. apparently, the buyers did not have any bad intentions. they wanted to help a childless couple. that in no way lessens their culpability. they should have gone the adoption route instead.

never been to yobe but my kid brother stays in damaturu. he says the weather can be extreme especially in the dry season. scorching desert winds and high temperatures. first rain for the year usually comes in june or july.

you may have to wear masks to cover your face during the harmattan plus everybody uses lipstick or else your lips will sustain ugly fractures [cracks] that would make them resemble a dried out millipede.

and there's a kandahar in damaturu just like in afghanistan. a sort of sin city. call girls and drinking pubs. an anything goes kind of place. a peaceful place though.

what of native canadians that bear names like whitehen, waterfowl, eaglefoot, runningdeer, etc? weird names are everywhere.

what of Mungo Park funny.

with all the hassles that go with having a paypal account as a Nigerian, i should think it maybe worthwhile exploring other alternatives. don't think for one moment that it's only Nigerians suffering from the sometimes seemingly arbitrary policies of paypal.

ask Jon Leger. he's a renowned US internet marketer. he got his account frozen because his business smelt like a pyramid scheme to paypal. I'm sure he's gotten it back now but i noticed that he wisely migrated to 2checkout.

incidentally, 2checkout (based in the US) is open to Nigerians and it allows one to accept all kinds of credit cards including even paypal. besides the company partnered with payoneer to to issue mastercards that one can use to withdraw money from atms around the world. that means you won't experience any hassles receiving your earnings here in Nigeria.

there are other options of course.

alertpay.com based in canada and plimus.com but pls don't think for a moment that their services can be used for fraudulent purposes. u'll be thrown out quick and your account disabled.

if one is really honest and wants to sell to the global marketpalce, they should consider these options.

it appears nobody regulates what anyone can say about making money in this country. people come out with ridiculous claims and feed it to gullible suckers all over the place and nobody checks them. u only get to hear what's up when the whole scheme collapses like a pack of cards. we've got "charles ponzis" and "bernie madoffs" strutting the landscape unchallenged by the regulatory authorities.

don't get me wrong. forex is legit business. but i'm sick of false and unrealistic claims of returns on investment made by some of our "gurus".

i'm sure there're laws protecting the public from such claims in saner climes.

consider selling your writing skills by writing "how-to" manuals like I'm doing. it shouldn't be tough for you since you're a student and already do a lot writing [term papers, seminars, etc.].

u don't even need a personal internet connection (though it would be very good to get a laptop as time goes on) because once your system is up running, you can run everything from a suitable cellphone with internet capabilities. my own little project has been running since august last year and i've made quite a bundle from it.

Tell your management to assign another person to the guy. If that doesn't work, then tell him direct to keep everything professional cos you're married as he's aware. No more funny texts. He obviously is leading up to something. Don't play with your marriage just for the sake of your job. Treating him with kid gloves could could backfire.