₦airaland Forum

This just in from my "sources" in Nigeria (chei! information super-highway sweet o! As soon as I hear tory, na im I kuku confirm via online chatting and double confirm by visiting various bank sites lol):

1) Zenith bank is currently paying 12%

2) a rate of 30% is impossible. For a loan, maybe, but definitely not for time deposit.

Perhaps pmone meant "as low as 3%"? It could also depend on how much you are depositing. I didn't go that far in my questioning

Just doing some surfing this morning, as I always do and as a result of the "time deposit interest rate" post, I decided to surf some bank sites. First up, UBA. Boy! am I blown away. It looks way much better than what it was before. But that's not all - it is easier to find information and the pages (at least the ones I checked out) aren't cluttered with unnecessary information.

Highly recommended as a case study, in my opinion. If you know who developed the site, tell them I said "well done". It is good to see many corporate Nigerian sites going for the redesign. It keeps them fresh and hip, with the times

Anyways, just thought I should share

edet,

Take a look at the "style" associated with box_content. First and foremost, why not just include that within the CSS declarations for box_content? That aside, note the "Microsoft" part of the style. That implies the opacity is specific to IE. You will need to also apply opacity that is specific to FF (I believe such a declaration would have "moz-opacity". Do a google for "css cross browser opacity". I am sure you will come up with tons of solutions.

Finally, again, I ask that you include a screenshot of your page so we can have a better idea of what you are talking about. I am a very visual person. It would also be nice to include another screenshot, created in say, photoshop, of the effect that you ultimately are trying to create.

Thanks,

while you guys are busy "arguing" such a worthless topic as this, politicians in your respective countries of residence are secretly plotting to loot your tax money and use it to line up their pockets. They love stuff like this.

na wa o!

a very interesting history lesson folks. So where did "boycott" or "draconian" come from? read on and enjoy!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/09/13/awful.words/index.html

webemarald,

I could be wrong, but I think edet's issue was on browsers other than IE7. Please read above. Again, I could be wrong, but I think I am not

LMAO! smartsoft. Not at all. Sorry if you feel that way. Na so media dey take misquote person. Are you sure you don't work for a tabloid newspaper?

This is where I am coming from - in the end, as far as a user goes, they could care less whether or not u use tables. They just want the site to work. Having said that, from a developer standpoint, tis best to build in web standards. Y? because by so doing, you ensure your code is backward-compatible and that in the future, it is compatible with newer browsers. This can come in handy when you are dealing with a client that doesn't have the money to be redesigning their site on a regular basis.

In other words, spend the time and code once, or spend money and re-code later. If you are like me, barely an hour will go by since you coded last when you go back to your code and say to yourself, "what in the world was I smoking to put up crappy code like that!?!" In other words, I would rather put in 110% now and churn out quality code in general, turn in the site and move to another, rather than 100% now and 200% later, trying to refactor.

I hope this helps.

every yr, someone talks up a party. Has there ever been one? if so, any photos?

No need whetting our appetites if no one will follow thru

edetcnn,

The only thing I see wrong with your code is that your CSS isn't defined within the "styles" tags. I just put them within those tags, below the "body" style declaration, tested it in FF and IE6 and the page looks fine.

If after u do what I did above, you still have problems, please include a screenshot of what your page looks like "out of sync" so I can have a better idea. In the meantime, try out what I have said in the first paragraph.

Kudos, by the way, for going with a pure CSS layout. I am happy to see that at least one person other than myself on here is coding to web standards

by the way: there are a few knit-picking issues with your CSS. Once you have fixed the above problem(s), if you want, we can go over those as well

Thanks,

You should find everything you need here: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-79406.0.html

I hope this helps.

kobo,

Granted this isn't for software engineers, it is still worth bookmarking. A buddy of mine opened an IT shop in Lagos a few years ago - http://www.kapstoneng.com/careers.html

Visit often as the page is updated often. For instance, around March, there was an ad for a flash designer and the pay was N4.5million per annum. I have also seen ads for Java Engineers every now and then.

I hope this helps.

I want to be able to make reservations on Virgin Nigeria from Lagos to Calabar from my home base in Atlanta, USA. Not to be forgotten, I would also like to be able to pay for my trip online (as opposed to how it is now where you have to print out an invoice and go to a bank to make payment) so that upon arrival, I don't have to go stand in line and go through the grueling process with my family.

You think you can make that happen?

adeniyi,

again, it depends on your audience. If the portal owners *know* that a majority/all of their visitors will come in with a certain resolution, then setting a width of 1000px isnt a problem. You can study your visitor's trends for maybe, say, 3 months, to see what they are coming to your site with, resolution-wise.

Take a look at www.cnn.com for instance. They have set a width of 984px. I am sure b4 they chose this width, they monitored their web logs to see what resolution visitors come to their site with.

I am not in Nigeria and so don't know the trend there. However, from reading posts on NL, I would probably stick with a width of no more than 800px.

I hope this helps.

adeniyi,

how old is the book? For the most part these days, most people code for the 1024x768 resolution.

This is where web logs come in handy. In the end, it really depends on what audience the client is targeting. If the client is clueless, then I would suggest you go for 1024x768. Of course, to prevent horizontal scroll, you probably won't go for exactly 1024px width. I for example atimes will use anything from 780px to 965px and then center the page, depending on the design.

Of course, it would be preferable to go for a liquid or elastic design. That way, your page expands and contracts with each resolution. I for one, try not to do this as, depending on design, you could end up with items (especially when implementing positioning or floats. Also occurs when you are combining, say, images with fixed widths,with %age-based columns.) looking good in one resolution but messed up in another. In this case, it depends on design. Look at www.webmastersofafrica.com for instance. What I did here was make the header and footer 100% width while the middle content has a set width.

I hope this helps.

so,

u need to create a site, not that you have created it already?

If the former:
- Content Management System (CMS) - joomla, wordpress, etc
- Ability to customize CMS
- Ability to create a website (html, graphics, css, javascript)
- Solid site architecture (folders, links, etc)
- SEO

#1 is optimal, though in my opinion not necessary. If you choose it, that puts the task of updating in the client's hands. If you choose the other option, then you might as well ask to be put on their payroll or have, assuming they don't have someone working there knowledgeable in the department of websites.

So in the end, it depends on your skill level. If you have been doing sites for a while, then the learning curve isn't as steep. Otherwise, it may take a while.

I hope this helps.

Just learnt some stuff at a conference and as always, decided to share a few of the points raised. Some stuff of course, you may know, but if someone else says it, it serves as a reinforcement. Enjoy!

Search stats for US internet users in April 2007 (according to comScore.com):
7.3 billion searches. In general, search volumes were up 11 percent from April 2006. Google accounted for 3.6 billion search queries; Yahoo served two billion; and Microsoft users queried 757 million searches.

What Search Engines hate:
[list]
[li]JavaScript navigation – AJAX[/li]
[li]JavaScript rendered content[/li]
[li]Search forms[/li]
[li]Skimpy content[/li]
[li]Bad page titles[/li]
[li]More pictures than text[/li]
[li]Complex URLs[/li]
[li]Redirectors[/li]
[li]Poorly written code (code-to-text ratio)[/li]
[/list]

SEO coding best practices:
[list]
[li]Unique page titles – company name at the end[/li]
[li]Unique meta keywords and meta descriptions[/li]
[li]Unique, keyword-rich URLs[/li]
[li]CSS over table-based layouts, where applicable.[/li]
[li]Use H1 – H6 tags appropriately.[/li]
[li]Use the <img alt=“”> attribute.[/li]
[li]Use keywords in page and image filenames, if possible, separated by a hyphen.[/li]
[li]Use as few folders as possible, “grouping” like content.[/li]
[li]Use the <a href=“” title=“”> attribute (helps at some search engines)[/li]
[li]Stop using spacer images.[/li]
[li]Content only accessible via search forms and JS navigation is invisible to search engine crawlers – make it known so an alternate path can be created. [/li]
[li]Use keywords in DIVs and other tags as IDs and NAMEs. (aggressive SEO)[/li]
[/list]

u know mikky, it would be nice to get a URL. Otherwise, as cryptic as your request is, I am tempted to give a cryptic response in return. Something like, "a lot"

Please give more details, a URL, nature of the site, etc.

Thanks,

Etin,

Your points are very well noted. However, IMHO and with all due respect, I think you have missed some points in that article. Let me point them out, if I may:

Serious organisations should know how many users their site can handle and have in place a procedure to manage crisis or overload.

Here is what Mr. Ilube says about the above:
"Well, I can say from experience that building computer systems that can cope suddenly with a completely unexpected burst of perhaps 10 or 20 times their normal processing volume is notoriously difficult to do, but by no means impossible."

Impossible, no. "Notoriously" difficult, yes.

My question is, what is the point of monitoring if no process has been put in place to handle unexpected load?

I seriously doubt the guys at NR didn't have anything in place. If they didn't, they wouldn't have been that successful. Perhaps the process they had in place was inadequate. Again, Mr. Ilube says:
"There are sound economic reasons for taking this third approach as major spikes happen rarely, if ever." Note "as major spikes happen rarely, if ever". If there was no precedence, how would they know? Now that there is a precedence, other banks will take note and hopefully do something about it.

My last statement above is supported by Mr. Ilube parting statement:
"That Northern Rock IT director is the only IT executive in the UK online bank world today who has been at the sharp end of a digital run on the bank.

That direct experience is invaluable - and whatever happens to the rest of Northern Rock's executives, he will be in high demand to share his experience across the finance sector and make the whole online banking world safer."

Again, note the first paragraph.

I have indeed read the entire article, which was well-written by the way and by no means am I cherry-picking to support my statements. I am happy that you dug up this article and shared it with us. I have indeed learnt from it myself.

Banks, like other businesses, are around to make a profit. In this age where investors demand continuous and consistent growth, businesses have to cut the fat in order to squeeze out an extra penny. The result is that unexpected things like a run on a bank will probably not be addressed until it happens. If they do decide to do it, who do you think will pay for it? The bank? Mba. It will be you via higher "service charges". In the end, no business pays for anything, including taxes. We as consumers pay.

Mr. Ilube wrote well. However, he is engaged in what we in the states call, "Monday Morning Quarter-backing". In Nigeria,we would say, "Medicine after death". Either way, again, well-written article. Let's hope that other online businesses heed the warnings in general and that nigerian-based companies learn that quality assurance and testing are perhaps the bed-rock of any successful software application.

Just imagine if a plane were the first bank of Nigeria website - I click the "internet banking" link and it doesn't work. Replace this with the pilot engaging the wheels in order to land the plane. Now, imagine the wheels not popping out of their compartments. Close your eyes and imagine what would happen then

As always, my 2 cents.

castrolng,

The last time I did this, it seemed like I got burned rather than loved, but I will do it again anyways as that's just the kind of person I am :

I noticed that though you have the sites you have worked on, on your home page (HP), your portfolio page link isn't working. I tried this from several other pages, but to no avail. You might want to correct this.

Other than that, I like the site and the 3 sites mentioned on your HP. They are exactly as I like them - simple and to the point. Good job!

Now, back to wrestlemania!

anytime ngmilitant,

At some point, I will also take you up on your offer

[size=15pt]Tag Team championship Match!!
[/size]
In the red corner:
http://www.wotclef.org/
http://www.wotclef.net/

In the blue corner:
http://www.wotclef.com/
http://www.wotclef-ng.com/

Come one! Come all!!

So I have been harboring this thought for a long time. Since I am not being paid to do it, of course I am lazy to start it:

How about a website that allows women who have been sexually harassed in Nigeria (work, school, etc) to post their experiences, including video/audio of those caught in the act. By posting photos, audio and video, this would take care of cases where the harasser denies the allegations. The site could even have a blog and a forum.

They could even publish the addresses, phone numbers, etc of the harassers. To cap it all, such a website could then be widely distributed to forums like this, newspapers, radio and tv stations. I think once pple start seeing their information posted online, kind of like www.419eater.com, the trend would come to a halt.

I am sure such a site could make a lot of money via ads.

Just a thought. So, who will beat me to launch this site?

IG,

but the cell phones still need towers for routing their calls and we are still experiencing cases where you place 2 phones side-by-side and call one from the other, yet the phone call doesn't go through, right?

Anyways, in the end, the internet and its web-based software isn't going anywhere. Will it totally replace desktop apps, not at all, not even in the states. For the same reason there will never be a paperless office. There are things which, for legal reasons, need to be on paper.

I personally see both types of apps complementing each other. Take the snipshot site you just sent out. Granted it can't do much, I at least was able to get done what I would have had to spend $600 on photoshop for (yeah, I know there are those who would burn me a copy of photoshop, but I am trying to be honest here ).

From the "View Source", it looks like they are using a scrolling marquee. Observe:

<marquee scrollamount="3">
	<img src="http://securitywatchafrica.org/logo/eko.gif" />

	<img src="http://securitywatchafrica.org/logo/dhl.gif" />
		<img src="http://securitywatchafrica.org/logo/nama.gif" />
			<img src="http://securitywatchafrica.org/logo/aero.gif" />
				<img src="http://securitywatchafrica.org/logo/ncaa.gif" />
					<img src="http://securitywatchafrica.org/logo/halliburton.gif" />
						<img src="http://securitywatchafrica.org/logo/zenith.gif" />
				<img src="http://securitywatchafrica.org/logo/intercontinental.gif" />
	
	
	</marquee>

If you copy and paste the above code into your favorite text editor, you should see the images scrolling by. I personally don't like the use of the marquee tag but I must admit, it's pretty slick how they accomplished the "slideshow". At first glance, I could have sworn they did it in Flash

I hope this helps.

I guess one could equally argue that cell phones are on the way out as there are places where pple have phones yet due to lack of light, can't charge which by implication means they can't use it.

The internet is it. Now, the extent of penetration is another thing. We can no longer afford to say for instance, "Well, nigeria is only 47 years old and America wasn't as advanced when it was the same age". Europe, for instance, hv a head-start on the US in terms of telecom because they dumped the land lines and went wireless long b4 the americans decided to jump in.

I remember my first trip home to Nigeria in 2000, after 7 years away. You had to stand at a certain location and in a certain position (literally) to receive cell phone calls at Uyo. Internet? You had to pay N500 for a yahoo account and you couldn't even use a computer - the attendant had a box outside his office and you would weed through the paper there to find a reply to your mail. Internet browsing? I remember paying N500 an hour and I could literally travel from Calabar to Uyo and have the page still loading. Now, some people are browsing from their homes and also doing so via wireless from their cars.

Was the above an excuse for saying "the internet in Nigeria is on its way out"? I don't think so. It may take a while, but we are getting there. Besides, we have no choice. All we need is the Foreign Direct Investment. As our government gets more stable, more and more companies will invest. As long as the govt doesn't stick its nose where the free markets should reign supreme, things will only get better.

As always, my 2 cents

militant,

dont you mean securitywatchafrica.org ? , as in at: http://www.securitywatchafrica.org/pics/ ?

In any event, the slideshows that I saw weren't anything spectacular - they are loading a new page for each photo.

If this isn't the page, let me know.

web,

I did read it actually, loud and clear. Again, as I stated in my post, designing something 10 years ago shouldn't be an excuse for not making sure that your links aren't working. At the very least, your links should work.

Damn. I try to help out (for free ) and I get rebuked. Note to self: Learn to keep quiet next time.

webemarald,

I know this might make me sound like a busy-body, but I can't help it -

clicking on the "home" links in both your nav bars results in "page not found". Whether or not you do a redesign, at least make sure your links work. You never know who might be poking around looking for clients.

As always, my 2 cents

kerenti et al,

here is yet another site i ran into this morning. I hvnt been thru it all, but so far, it looks pretty good: http://www.tutorialstream.com/

Enjoy!

Etin,

Glory Hallelujah!

At first it was a call for graphic designers and now you are calling for testers. Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come with respect to software development in naija, in general.

With respect to the Northern Rock (NR) incident, I will beg to differ though, in terms of definition of quality assurance. Allow me to indulge you please:

I have been following the NR things for 3 days now. To cut to the chase, customers made a run on the bank for their money. In the real world, this was seen in the long lines outside the banks. Online, this was seen in terms of jamming the site with excessive hits which resulted in the site hanging/crashing.

Now, sure, it could b argued that lack of testing was a cause of this. I would beg to differ. When it comes to money and life, the software that supports such systems are referred to as "mission critical". This means that there are many fallbacks and redundancies put in place to ensure that if something goes wrong, something is in place to detect, catch and alert to the situation. Also, such systems have a less tolerable level of defects. In line with this reasoning, I will say that I am sure that the developers carried out the necessary levels of stress and performance testing before launching the site. This of course would not take into consideration a run on the bank. Why? Cos this seldom happens. If you beg to differ, I will then ask this question: would you also blame the civil engineers who built the bank building for not conducting enough testing of that structure to ensure that it would handle an event where all customers lined up outside the bank for the sole purpose of asking for their money back? I don't think you should. There is an acceptable level of failure built into all things.

Look at it another way - the day the Lewinsky report was published, CNN's website also crashed. Why? Cos it was handling more requests than it could bear. Of course, one could argue that they could have bought more servers in anticipation, but truly though, how many servers are enough? That's just like saying, "let's build more roads to help ease traffic". We all know that once an additional lane is put in place, those who stopped driving will end up driving, thus clogging up the roads yet again.

To me, quality assurance/testing has to do with the functionality of software. So, given the First Bank website, if I click on "sign up for internet banking", i expect to be taken to a page that allows me to do so. Currently, I get a "page not found". In this case, enough testing wasn't done on the site and consequently, the quality of the software is very poor.

I am not an expert in the art of testing, but have been dealing with testers for a long time and also took a few courses so as to understand and appreciate what they do. What I have written, is based on my experience dealing with those in this discipline.

As always, my 2 cents.

I am hearing reports from various nigerian states that the police is now arresting any woman they see in trousers. Moreover, I hear this is being instigated by the first lady.

Are any of the above true? If true, why should they be?

Let's discuss (professionally and civilly of course)