on my side projects:
PHP - easy to pick up and since I intend on setting up shop in naija, I figured I'd learn it as it is the language du jour in naija and I wanted to speak their language, so to speak.

at work:
GWT and JSP - they are powerful and can do a lot of things. Some pple argue that PHP is coming of age. This could be true but too many major corporations hv invested in JSP to just up and switch to PHP. I must confess that I don't know the pros and cons myself so I will not comment any further.

Call my argument location-biased, but to me a designer is the one who comes up with the "comp (graphics)" for the site. In other words, he/she is the photoshop maestro.

I developer (or programmer) is the one who cuts up the graphics, lays out the page(s) and does any (html, css, javascript, php, database, jsp, etc) coding.

So to summarize (and to answer your question), in my books (and again, this is how the job description is laid out where I live), if you do the graphics, you are a designer and if you as much as open a text editor for the purpose of typing anything that results in a web page, you are a developer/programmer.

But that's just me

Another good link:
http://www.nigeriantourism.com/index.htm

meet,

although I am not aware of an rss feed, this might still do the job for ya (it's a scrolling marquee):

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://www.africancapitalmarkets.com/stock/reports/daily/marquee3.php"></script>

ThePhantom,

First and foremost, welcome to the forum. If you are like me, when you were first told of this forum (for me, that would be 1.5 years ago), you spent a lot of time reading various posts without actually being a member. Once you were convinced, you then joined. Be that as it may, once again you're welcome.

Unfortunately, when all you have is a hammer, everything to you is a nail. Speaking for America, when all you have been taught with respect to Africa is famine, hunger, AIDS and corruption, even in these internet days, what else do you expect? I am sure there are stereotypes that you have which as hard as you fight them off, still remain lodged in your genes. Be that as it may, good luck on your project.


What I would like to see?
1) Photos of the various tourist attractions in Nigeria (refer to slideshow in the right column of http://nigeria.gov.ng/ , as bad as it is, for pointers

2) Short videos/audio clips beside each phot describing such attractions

3) Interviews with accomplished Nigerian citizens in Nigeria (video would be great).

4) A list of Nigeria's accomplishments in Sports, politics, etc

5) A list of efforts Nigeria is making to clean up its image (think EFCC).

Suggestions:
1) To entice skeptics, I think the site would be better served if implemented in Flash

2) I think the photos you have on the site presently aren't crisp enough

3) I also think you should control the flow of photos, articles, etc to the site. Users can submit them to you, but you should be in control of what goes up on it. This is all about image. A little propaganda wouldn't hurt.

I hope these help. Once again welcome and good luck!!

mav, if u r referring to me:

If you read my post again, I am not dissing your banner. What I am saying is, because the thing flashes very rapidly, it's making me nauseous. Plus, the flashing takes me away from reading posts on the page. Trust me, based on the size of the banner, I would still notice it without the flashes.

Whether or not you leave it on there obviously is your prerogative. It is also my prerogative not to respond to any posts on pages where I see your flashing banner. However, if you don't mind, I will still insist that you remove it and place it on your profile page. If you still want to advertise your site (cos we all know that is why you have made it that big), biko, put a non-flashing version. Again, based on banner size, I (and I am sure others) can see it loud and clear.

Thanks,

mecussey,

u can be successful at wat you do without resorting to 419

and you are right, NL is filled with very bright individuals. I wouldn't go as far as you saying you don't know anything. At least you knew to visit NL abi? Everyone is smart at something, no matter how small. That is what makes us who we are. I bet you, there is something you know that none of us know. It's just a matter of you sharing it with others.

Never sell yourself short!!

mecussey,

also, note that if you want to set up a forum for the purpose of making money, the forum itself is no guarantee of success. Seun is successful because of, and not limited to, the following:

1) catchy URL
2) ads
3) interesting sections
4) quality of posters in the programmers/webmasters sections, which are the main sections I visit.

I have been invited to join many forums but in the end, I stick with this one. Why? largely because of #1 above. Even when I tell others about this forum, no one ever asks me twice to pronounce the name. "Naira" says it all.

mavtrevor:
is it possible to remove your flash banner, or at least put it on your profile page? I don't know about others, but the constant flashing is giving me nightmares.

Thanks in advance.

yes smart,

I have been back in the states for a week now

If all works well, I will be back next year. So start praying for me, that things work out well

oya, I need the following games implemented:

Ludo, whot, that game where you dig 12 holes in the ground and each whole has 4 "seeds" each (I think oyibo call it "mancala". I know what it is in my language but I don't know what it is called generically in Nigeria).

Oya, almighty programmers, begin! A few years ago, when I returned to the states, I brought with me all 3 games. They are clunky to say the least. It would be nice if I could have software versions of these.

Do I hear someone saying, "weeeell my2cents, these games already exist as software, either online or stand-alone". That may be true (I in fact wrote a mancala game, java-based, in college many years ago). However, Just like I wait till I get to Nigeria to buy nollywood movies, I would rather buy a "Made in Nigeria, in Nigeria" product so as to help support our software development industry.

Let the game-making begin! Good luck!!

unfortunately not mecussey,

Unless you chose (which is dangerous) the 'save password' option, there is no way you can retrieve your password. Again, I suggest you talk to your web hosts about resetting ur password.

I hope this helps.

In general, u can find out anything you want to know about niit locations at: http://www.niit.com/Admin/ASP/Aboutus.asp?Section=Global&L1=Contact%20Us&L2=NIIT%20Worldwide

2 hints:
1) Nigeria is listed under "niit centres".
2) Google is a powerful tool. USE IT!

xclusiv,

I wouldn't have appreciated this post if I hadn't experienced problems with internet access in Nigeria firsthand a few wks ago. From cafes/homeowners browsing on 800x600 resolution, to waiting a whole 30 minutes for a page to show up at a cafe, to only being able to send 3 emails in 1 hour at a cafe, to seeing many cafes close shop because of no light, I have seen it all. Trust me, when next I handle a naija project, I will take all this into consideration. As I have said elsewhere on this forum, I really respect web developers back home in that, given what they have to deal with, they still manage to crank out websites, regardless of quality. Even pulling up NL atimes was a problem.

In general, I go to this site to make sure my sites aren't too heavy: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

Gridlock, as Bossman has pointed out, there is a difference b/w char and varchar.

I actually knew the answer. I just wanted to see some discussion as my inbox has been kind of NL-dry lately, and I am happy I got it. It's like, if I don't read anything from Nairaland, I go into bouts of depression

In the end, it's all about space taken up on your server and efficiency.

In a former life, after getting angry at notepad for not doing what I wanted it to do, I wrote, in VB, my own version of notepad which I called, "Notepad+" on the Windows NT platform

I entered SUPERNET300.COM, they accepted it and asked me for the password they gave me and there is nothing like password, but they insist that when you by service from an ISP company, they must give you your username and password, they even showed me an example on a video. Please did you notice such.

That is correct, you were given a password when you registered a domain with your ISP. If you can't remember your password, ask your ISP to reset your password. They will probably ask you certain questions to ascertain that you are indeed who you say you are. That's okay. Once they reset your password (usually, to something like, "password", you can always go back and change it to something much harder to crack.

I hope this helps.

LMAO chiki!

From your description, I think a movie or some short comedy clip should be made out of it!

I can see the both of you popping gum upon gum into your mouths and meanwhile, you are thinking, "Will this be enough gum this time?" Seriously though, for you to be with him for 2 years tells me there is something you are getting from him that is worth destroying a few of your white blood corpuscles.

RLMAO!!!

Pretty much every movie has a sequel these days. As a tribute to this tradition, after una don tire to dey discuss this topic, direct your browser to, "Her crotch smells; should I tell her?"

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-101455.0.html

I go dey wait

omobachi,

The lack of a black guy was a concern, but in the absence of images/photos provided by the client, I had to go with what I had. In the end, the client was happy and I guess, that's the end of that story. Nice observation though. Very few pple catch that

mat6plus,

should I store text data as char or varchar? Please provide reasons for whatever choice you suggest

wow! what a list!!

I can't blv that bank is ranked #4. It should be ranked #1!! What is wrong with these guys??

Oh, I forgot - if only I could SEE the actual list, perhaps I would think differently

webguru,

going by what you say abv, first and foremost, you/the seminar organizers must realize that using jscrpt and using ajax r 2 different things. So for example, I could hv front-end form validation (in the form of a "form incomplete alert box) on my site. It uses jscript which wd imply that I am doing what the organizers say. However, that isn't ajax - there is no interaction with a server for one.

Ajax would be more interactive. So for example, as I leave the "email" field of my form, for example, I could use ajax to determine if the email already exists in my DB in which case I immediately alert the user. Without ajax, you would have to click the "submit" button and refresh the page with this information.

To answer the question you have for me, I believe you asked this on another thread and I have since answered it: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-101119.0.html

Let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks,

I actually use a paid web client to check my mails (bellsouth.net - part of my DSL service at home). The interface is sort of like google's. I have an option of going "classic" or "new".

With classic, it's the regular email service where you click, wait for the page to load, read your email, reply (waiting for page to load), etc.

With new, you get all your mails on the first page. You click the checkbox and you see your email in a separate pane. Only if you want to reply or forward that you get a pop up page.

For someone like me who gets at least 100 non-spam emails a day, when in Nigeria, I had to figure out a way to maximize my 1 hour. All things being equal, I could check all 100 or so emails (including replying/forwarding) in 15 minutes or less. But from my experience, it was a whole new ballpark. So the only way I could get to check/respond to at least 10 emails was to use the "classic" view. Waiting for a new page to load probably would have led me to commit suicide, literally

yes,

u need an FTP software (like WSFTP). Tons exist for free at www.download.com

You enter your ftp login and password, navigate (on both local and server side) to the folder where you want to upload your file(s) from and to, and press the appropriate arrow.

One thing to note though is typically, you have two options when it comes to uploading - binary and text. Choose the former for uploading non-text (images, word documents, pdfs, etc) and the latter for code (html, php, css, etc). From experience, it really doesn't matter what mode you choose (or maybe I hv just been lucky not to have my files corrupted ) but it is good practice to use the appropriate mode for the appropriate file to ensure your file(s) show up correctly.

I hope this helps.

One of the points was that you must ajaxify your website

Wow! I used the term, "ajaxify" about a year ago on this forum and didn't know others were probably using it as well :
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-18901.0.html

As far as "ajaxifying" goes, especially within the Nigeria context where internet speeds are slow (refer to my posts on how frustrating it was, even from home, to browse the internet in Nigeria), ajax makes perfect sense. I really appreciated ajax when I accessed my email from Nigeria - it has an ajax interface that would enable me to read/delete/reply emails without having to wait for eternity for a new page to load.