₦airaland Forum

I'm horrible at math but I write decent programs

Wow I haven't updated this in a while.

In our latest episode, we decided to play "kiss f**k marry kill", where we decide which we'd do given a list of things from our past and present.

Unsurprisingly, Ezra would marry Paystack, I'd Bleep JavaScript and our guest Tolu Agunbiade would marry Abuja.

More controversially, Ezra wants to kill Delivery Science, I want to marry PHP and Tolu wants to kill Lagos.

We talk about our plans for 2016, Tolu living in Chile, her company Skrife and why it's unlikely there'll be a QR Code component to Paystack in the near future.

https://soundcloud.com/crudcast/episode-10-holiday-special

foldl:
Here is a simple and straightforward explanation of the concept of functional programming:

http://blog.jenkster.com/2015/12/what-is-functional-programming.html

I was going to post this but glad to see someone else beat me to it.

What has been mentioned above are tools to help the main objective of functional programming. They are not what makes a language functional or not.

The article was one of the best descriptions of this.

Basically, your functions have clearly-defined inputs and doesn't change anything outside its own scope.

This makes it easier to test each little bit of your program.

Also makes it easier to write better programs because all the components used to create it do exactly what was advertised and nothing else. Every component is simple, predictable and testable.

I don't contain myself completely to its rules but code that is clear to me is pretty functional, so I guess I'm approaching that day by day.

CRAZYMADMAN:
You seem to mistake me for someone just starting out with web development. I could probably develop a few wordpress themes given enough time, however, time is what i do not have. Am just curious as to whether there are resources, libraries, etc that would help out with some functionalities so I don't have to code all the functionalities that I might need

WordPress guy here.

It's a lot easier to start from scratch and fill in your gaps with plugins than to start with a theme and disable the functionality you don't need.

Build your site like it's a normal site then leverage wp plugin ecosystem to fill in your gaps.

You might get better success if you share what you need them for here.

JavaScript or bust, bro.

React is the only thing on that list worth considering.

shadowbox:
I do not know if this would help, but I'm tagging/cc the programming section moderators to see if they can push this thread to front page of nairaland for better exposure.

cc: kodewrita
cc: lordZOUGA
cc: Javanian

Very much appreciate the help. as much as I'd appreciate moderator help, I'm looking to connect with the audience who might be interested in what we do.

Publishing the episode's one thing, but getting to know those who listen, what they do and how we can all help each other out is far more valuable in the long run.

In order of importance to me: community > fans > listeners

shadowbox:
@Metalzoa
Nice job with the podcast.

Keep up the good work.
Looking forward to future episodes.

Thanks

If you like I can tag you in the message when a new episode drops ...

Ezra's still in America but we focus on what's going on in our local ecosystem this week.

I gatecrashed the first day of Startup Weekend Lagos and had a really interesting time. The keynote speakers were fantastic, bringing a (much-needed, in my opinion) perspective on the start-up mania in Nigeria.

We grapple with their opening question "what is the difference between a start-up and a business" which leads to some (maybe too much?) revelation on a start-up I'm very interested in.

Also in this episode: strange food confessions!
One of us thinks fear makes meat taste better and the other is down to try dog meat.

Find out what we think about start-ups, business and meat in this week's episode of CRUDCAST.

Episode 7: https://soundcloud.com/crudcast/episode-7

sunnico:
The way I see this program you have only 3 cases,
1. when modulus 3 gives 0
2. when modulus 5 gives 0
3. and when modulus 15 gives 0

so this cases are what u should switch

here is what i did

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){
int cases=0;
for (int i = 1; i <= 100; i++)
{
//setting my cases
if(i%15==0)
{cases=3; }
else if(i%5==0)
{cases=2;}
else if(i%3==0)
{cases=1 ; }
//for those not meeting ur selection//
else{cases=0;}

switch (cases)
{
case 0:
cout <<i<<endl;
break;

case 1:
cout <<i<< "Fizz"<<endl;
break;

case 2:
cout <<i<< "Buzz" <<endl ;
break;

case 3:
cout <<i<< "FizzBuzz"<<endl;
break;

default:
cout << "how did i get here" << endl;
break;
}
}




return 0;
}

Isn't that cheating?

You're doing the work with an if / else struct then outputting the result via a switch.

Raypawer:
what is this one talking about , i don't do copy and past of code, i tried the logic he explained using switch statement not copying and past. Am not that dumb if you are, the op used c++, i used the same logic with c#..

But even that doesn't work because low level behavior in languages differ, so you can't copy the same logic without accounting for those differences.

For example in php, the case is it's own separate comparison and doesn't check back with what was inputted into the switch statement.

I didn't know this, so it didn't look like the php version would work to me. I tried it, it worked and I learned something new about php.

Just because a switch works one way in a language doesn't mean it works exactly the same way in another.

Ucheernest:
bro, i still got an error, i have got a question, does it require internet to install? cos am thinking that it might be my proxy issue.

You need internet for the first time installing any package.

After that, the package is cached on your device so you'll be able to install it on multiple projects even with no internet.

But for the first install, you definitely need internet.

Ucheernest:
installing express has been hell for me, did everything i know, i still could'nt, how did you installed express.

First step is to install Node, which comes with npm. I think its pretty easy to do even on Windows (which I use).

https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/installing-node

After that, create a new project with npm init

c:\nodejs\project-folder> npm init

Follow the prompts and you should have a file in the folder called package.json

Install Express in your new project with this command

c:\nodejs\project-folder> npm install --save express

Your project package.json should now have something like this:

"dependencies": {
  "express": "^4.13.3"
}

This means express is now available to be used in your project

A simple way to test if this is working is writing a small js file that calls in express in the project.
I named mine has_express.js and this is the content.

var express = require('express');

if(!express) throw new Error('EXPRESS NOT FOUND');
else console.log('EXPRESS IS ON MY SYSTEM');

Run this command.

c:\nodejs\project-folder> node has_express.js

You should see EXPRESS IS ON MY SYSTEM.

Hope this helps

sleepingdemon:
just went through sails, and the mere fact that it uses ejs rather than dust for templating is attractive..meaning i get to write javascript like im writing php....

Ever tried using React?

I think trying to do the view layer of your front end without it isn't the wisest choice. It's not a template system but you should consider it for your app's view.

I really like react and I try to explain why it's a good idea. I feel I've failed in my attempts so far, but here's one of the more recent ones.

http://designbymobi.us/why-react-js/

sleepingdemon:
talking about sails, can u mention any advantage u think it has over kraken, and then, dealing with express directly, it might be more tasking than with frameworks

I've never used Kraken and I'm not sure I'm fully sold on Sails. Can't defend or condemn either one.

I prefer dealing with a Express directly because I'm a really big fan of composition over convention. I put libraries together rather than lean on a framework

No idea who the best is but I host on heroku.

sleepingdemon:
do u use express a lot or kraken? how easily do u deal with session authentication, passports?

Personally I prefer dealing directly with Express, but at work we use Sails.js.

Sessions .. I prefer stateless servers, so the session information is in a token. Preferrably a JWT.

Raypawer:
Am not sure any of these codes above me would work, because basically Switches cannot have evaluated statements in the case statement. They must be statically evaluated

But mine has a link to it working. Did you try the link?

[url=http://jsbin.com/suvugeveta/edit?js%2Coutput]JAVASCRIPT SOLUTION[/url]

I love node.js

Built a desktop app with it. Use it to build backends. Use it for build steps for frontend.

It's an important part of my toolkit.

What about node do you want to talk about?

Just posted Episose 6

Ezra's back.

He explains why he couldn't make it to last week's recording: his first trip to California!

He talks about his newest start-up, www.paystack.co, which helps Nigerian companies do recurring payments. Think www.stripe.com, but for Nigeria.

Though he won't talk about the machine learning employed to do fraud detection, he talks about early customers and strategies they're using to filter out the right first customers and how to build paystack.

He also shares his experience at a computing museum, seeing a driver-less car and a sight that moved him to tears.

Episode 6: https://soundcloud.com/crudcast/episode-6

fanwosu:
Hello Metalzoa, I don't understand your question. Can you rephrase?

fanwosu:
The idea behind this came from several not so good experiences I always have when trying to call on several radio and TV programmes to ask questions and not being able to get through, then I figured I can actually solve this problem which I realized others are experiencing too, by create an online platform where everyone can be able to get through to anyone who is hosting a question and answer session, and have their questions answered.

Let's say a radio show hears about amadesk today and wants to use it to replace (or augment) their call-in.

The listeners need an amadesk account to answer questions the show hosts ask, correct?

As they sign up, they need a way to be coached through the interface to learn how to do exactly what they need to do very quickly.

How are you trying to solve this problem?

Wouldn't a radio show who wants to use this now be dependent on their listeners an amadesk account?

Interesting question.

Solved using JavaScript ... my favorite language

function do_fizzbuzz( input ){
  
  if( !input ) return false;
  
  var output;
  
  switch( true ){
      
    case (input % 15 === 0):      
      output = 'FizzBuzz';
    break;
      
    case (input % 3 === 0):      
      output = 'Fizz';
    break; 
    
    case (input % 5 === 0):      
      output = 'Buzz';
    break;
      
    default:
      output = input;
    break;
  }
  
  return output;
}

Link to solution in action: [url=http://jsbin.com/suvugeveta/edit?js%2Coutput]JSBIN[/url]

My friend Ezra and I are programmers. We normally chat about things we're building, what's going on in tech news and business in general.

One day, we decided to start recording them ... hopefully other people might like to hear the conversations. So far we've recorded six episodes (one a week) and we've been getting positive feedback in general.

We've been thinking of bringing it to a wider audience like Nairaland, where we can connect with more tech lovers and programmers like ourselves. Hope you like it!


ALL THE EPISODES: https://soundcloud.com/crudcast/


HIGHLIGHTS

Episode 0: https://soundcloud.com/crudcast/episode-0

Our very first episode! We got tickets to AfricaBeta, where tech start-ups across the continent come to showcase what they have been building. We go over the list of companies and share our thoughts on each of them.

---

Episode 2: https://soundcloud.com/crudcast/episode-2

This is currently our most popular episode. We have our first guest on the show: Lanre, CEO of www.deliveryscience.co. We talked about what Delivery Science is about, how Lanre got into programming in the first place, how he would really like to see investment industry revolutionized by technology, Nigerian start-ups understanding the importance of soaking garri, blocking and tackling and many more interesting concepts.

---

Episode 5: https://soundcloud.com/crudcast/episode-5

The most recent episode. We had 4 guests on the show. Each of these ladies really smart, doing awesome things in their own regard. We discussed how a gmail account could be a technical barrier to adopting a product, building focused products with no need for plugins, the power of Instagram and image curation as a way to reach your audience.

Site has strong potential, but growing forums is a very costly activity, very self-involving.

It's easy to look back and see "you can make something like this" but the amount of blood sweat and tears it takes to grow the place to this level , yeah you don't have it. Why would I say that? Cause you wouldn't be on Nairaland if you could ,

So they are letting people register at the retailers now, instead of the QuickTeller website.

Still haven't announced a date but they have made it easier to secure a device though

We're not sure yet, to be honest. Nokia is realizing their preorder system through QuickTeller is not working properly and they're trying to organize it better.
As soon as they release a date, I'll get it across.

Still running

b u m p

I don't mind criticism. I ask for the harshest possible because its the most direct way to get to problems people intuitively feel.

My only problem was that I didn't understand if he actually visited the site or just wanted to push slot's website.
As you have correctly noted, the points about the categories and sorting made absolutely no sense unless he didn't see the page at all, which is hard to believe since he would have to see it to critique it right? The whole thing was getting too confusing and it was looking like I came for a fight so I dropped it.

Excellent usability points brought up.

1. I hadn't really thought people would want to return to the all phones view,  until I found I wanted to do it quite a few times on the site but it became a small issue in comparison to most other things wrong at the time and I never went back to review it. To be honest I just got so used to going into a phone's single-view page then hitting the product gallery button to go back instead. Should be a one click solution on the original product gallery though, as you've correctly noted.

2. Search is the being worked in. This is my first major project so it was a big learning process. Site is doing a bit well for 3 months under its belt, and im getting more tips and tricks to add to the arsenal. Hopefully will soon mount a search bar because its unfair to make them manually scroll through multiple pages to find what they are looking for. I'm sorry for making you hit next so many times

I appreciate your direct feedback. You have a very clear understanding of how to deliver objective criticism. I wouldn't even care if you referenced examples from other sites or slot's, as long as you were making a logical point, like you've displayed.

Please keep them coming, Dual Core. I really appreciate it. What was the loading speed like? Where did the site face the most slow-downs? Areas of improvement, major and minor would be appreciated as well

Thanks for the feedback.

Not being antsy, but what he addressed is something i get tons of emails about, stating the opposite. Had he said he preferred Slot's then that's a different issue from there being no sorting at all.

My objective is to explain why I disagree with his verdict. It is an opinion and he is entitled to one, but misinformation is not justified simply because it is in form of an opinion. I pointed out why I disagree with his verdict and my suggestions/rationale behind my decision.

However this appears to be to defensive for some, so I'll avoid responding to any critique. I'll remain neutral and continue to promote the Preorder, as originally intended.

Products are not repeated over 3 pages. The gallery is randomized so you get an opportunity to see other phones every time you visit. The results are organized properly, it is just set to display randomly so people get to see their results displayed in an organic manner.

There are categories for manufacturers as well as for sorting phones by features, such as touch screen, android operating system, wifi and whatnot.

Perhaps you should try using the site objectively instead of assuming features aren't in place and recommending we should be more like our competitors. What advantage to the customer does it bring if all retailers followed the same approach to problems?

Variety is the spice of life.