₦airaland Forum

and here is the message that started it all:

http://mashable.com/2007/09/19/happy-25th-birthday-emoticon/

Enjoy!

so pardon my naivety but though I admire the creativity, I found the site hard to navigate. I didn't know what to do, where to do it and when to do what to do. I found myself mousing over my screen to do stuff.

having said that, again, creativity - yay, but usability - nay.

tima,

I know your post is for jobs, but permit me to make a comment or two about your company if I may:

Though I personally feel the company site could be a bit more intuitive (I am kind of a slow learner and it took me a while to realize that I had to click on the tiles to the left in order to bring up a larger version (which also takes a while to load by the way, and I didn't realize this, thinking the links were broken) to the right from which I could click to see the site) and have links (better navigation in general, contact us form, services, etc) that are more obvious, I must say I like the variety of your work.

ITSI seems to have done a website for all niches. For the most part, the sites are also easy to navigate, simple and gentle on the eyes. If I were looking for work/for someone to develop a site for me, I would definitely consider ITSI.

I am happy to see that at least some companies in Nigeria are realizing that there is a need to separate the disciplines, with respect to creating a website. I am sure it probably boils down to affordability and lack of consistent high-paying clients. I must confess that I admire my peers back home who do everything from database design to graphics to business logic to front end work but, as that wise proverb says, jack of all trades, master of none.

Hopefully, assuming this isn't happening already, as the web dev environment matures in Nigeria, even more areas of specialization will emerge as is the case in say, the US: copywriters, Information Architects, database engineers/administrators, business analysts, etc.

If you are the owner, pat yourself on the back for me. It is well deserved. If not, tell the owners kudos!

I know I speak for myself and could be the only 1 on here who feels this way, but I just had to say something

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070918/ap_on_hi_te/emoticon_anniversary

I find it interesting that that emoticon is actually older than some people on this forum

Enjoy!

I don't know about q88 but bloomberg wreaks of CMS to me

Joomla, etc should come in handy here.

include() - http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.include.php

require_once() - http://us2.php.net/require_once

for all future PHP reference: http://us2.php.net/

To the Akwa Ibom people in the house in general and lovers of Akwa Ibom Nollywood movies in particular:

Please list all Akwa Ibom Nollywood movies that you know are in existence. If you see a movie listed here that you also had in mind, please don't post it again

I will start it off:

Ekaette
Udo Ekarika
Mfina Ibaha
Uwa Iban
Nsuto Anwan

Thanks,

First and foremost, Seun, why don't we get notifications anymore? It is kind of frustrating for me to have to guess whether or not someone has responded to my post. It used to help in the past. Even the RSS feeds helped in the past as well. Please look into these.

The problem with oil and naija is akin to the proverb, "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail to you".

On another note, someone up top implied that without oil, pple would have nothing to eat. Isn't that a blanket statement? Is okpenkulu from Mbanu chopping oil money? If so, why is he still tying that old wrapper and riding on that black bicycle left to him by his great-grandfather? It is in the hands of a few. If everyone indeed had something to eat as the writer posted, why is there MASSOB?

Look at dubai. I don't know if it has a lot of oil but from my readings, I can tell that they are starting NOW to diversify by coming up with numerous tourist attractions. Look at Norway, I believe. They sell their fuel for $7 a gallon. Yet they save that money for their citizens who are guaranteed a good retirement. They take advantage of the black gold.

Upon all the oil we have, we can't even provide constant electricity. Yet, countries we provide electricity to haven't had a blackout in years. I just watched a Ghanaian movie. I was stunned at the development of a country we used to laugh at in the 80s. Sure, it is possible that the movie is showing the good parts of town. I will say this though, when I watch Naija movies, they show the same aerial view with that tall white building. In the Ghanaian movie, they showed the streets, houses, etc. Made me want to visit the place.

Until we effectively utilize our oil revenues (build *solid* roads, have constant electricity, workers get paid on time, constant water supply, we have a national airline that we are proud of, I don't have to sleep like a cat when I visit Naija cos of fear of being robbed, I don't have to send money home to relatives. Should I go on?), the crude oil will remain a curse.

Remember, prior to the discovery of crude, Nigeria was surviving via Agric exports. Once the oil came in, it was the typical, "teach a man to fish". We go lazy overnight. Now, we have white people in states like Kwara growing the food we should be growing. All we want to do is do white-collar job when in truth, if you put your minds to it and dump the ego and pride, it is the blue-collar guy that stands to make more money.

As always, my 2 cents.

kerenti et al,

Here is another, perhaps simpler, link: http://safari.adobepress.com/0672320762

There is a "Start reading online" button to the top right. From what I have seen, this one is much cleaner than the other one I sent you. At some point, you might be required to register, but that's about it. There's no charge for registration from what I could tell.

Give the above site a try first, then if that doesn't work, let me know and I will try and find others. There was a site in the past that even I learned from but unfortunately, the site is down.

I hope this helps.

So, call me weird, but I have not heard from prodgalson in weeks now. I enjoyed his flex posts and his feedback with respect to site reviews and other matters.

He hasn't posted for a while. Is he away or working feverishly on a project? Anyone know?

Keep us posted if you do.

Thanks,

Whoever came up with the phrase, "The Black Curse" knew what he/she was saying. Most countries with oil, and that includes Saudi Arabia, are not utilizing the monies realized in a way that a majority of its citizens can benefit from it. Typically, and this also applies to other natural resources, those countries with the most, end up being among the poorest in the world.

and (again)^10 kobojunkie, I am not implying anything. If I say you should suck it up, it doesn't mean I am saying you are angry or whatever. I am just saying its part of life. For all I know, you could be more resilient than me when it comes to taking life's blows. Whenever, someone tells me what they are going through, I like to relate with them if we share similarities, thatz all. That way, hopefully, they realize that, hey, it ain't that bad after all.

Just advice, which you don't have to take, thatz all.

Kobojunkie,

Again you're not alone - I will be paying mine off, assuming I don't win the lottery, in 20 years time (I refinanced for 25 years to cut my loan payments in half). So again, suck it up and deal with it. Alternative? Leave for Nigeria and don't return to the US for 10 years, after which your credit file would have been purged and the govt can no longer get into your account. It may seem that I am a bit callous/cynical when it comes to life. That's just who I am. Maybe its age. I don't know. I am a firm believer in fate and destiny. No matter the obstacles you encounter in your life, if something is meant for you, you will get it, no matter what.

Also, as I always say, whenever you are feeling down, just keep in mind that there is someone out there who is far worse than you are. An example: I have a cousin who is a pharmacist. Just graduated. Making good money. However, she graduated with $200K in student loans Now you tell me, who is worse off? Sure she can go around getting respect for being a pharmacist, but at what expense? I mean, she owes as much on loans as she could pay for a house. That is why, despite my wanting to, I decided against med/pharm school. I have come too far to end up living from hand-to-mouth.

Like you, it pisses me off when I realize that every year, I am $2,400 poorer because of my student loans. Imagine the number of bags of cement that could have bought for a house project in naija. Of course, I could decide to never return to nigeria and thus have my mind in one place, but as my grandmother told me before I left 13 years ago, no matter how high a bird flies, its feet always point towards the ground. One day, like the Israelites, I shall return home, Lord willing

Good luck man!

Christino,

In my case, the client actually gave me the URL. So I didn't bother doing any checks, except to make sure that what he wanted actually existed.

I now have a "note to self" though - do more investigating in the future. Take the fresh air site for instance. When the client called, he told me that all of a sudden, even though he pays his bills, the site "disappeared". So I did a "who is" and found out that the site had expired on August 29th, hence the site being down. When I brought it up to the client's attention, he said, "oh yeah, I forgot about that". Yeah right!

Afam,

Take a look at the horizontal nav bar. Check out the colors used for active and visited states. Check out the arrow in the background. The new BofA site just launche recently. How do I know? I bank with them. Prior to what they have now, they used arrows in the background as well. Of course, I don't know when FB launched their redesign so I can't really say. Other things I noticed was the grid layout, and logo placement.

The changes are subtle and someone who doesn't frequently visit either site would barely notice. Having said that, as I said above, I could care less. What matters to me right now is that I am pissed I can't register for internet banking, not because of me but because the developers didn't bother to do some testing

So, I decided to do what I do best: google for stuff. I ended up visiting the first bank site, where I have an account: http://www.firstbanknigeria.com/index.asp . I dare say they ripped their design, in part or in whole from www.bofa.com but I digress and quite frankly, I could care less.

I must say I am impressed - no more crappy animations and a much simpler interface. So I decided to sign up for internet banking. It took me a bit of time to find the link (about 3 levels deep), but because of the better interface, I decided to ignore this issue.

Then came time to sign up. I clicked the link, got a pop-up window and began licking my lips for the golden moment as I clicked on the "agreement" checkbox which enabled the button for me to proceed further. The page didn't come up immediately, again, okay by me. Maybe, a trip was being made to a secure server. Who knows? Anyways, a few seconds later, I get this message:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

C:\INETPUB\ELEPHANT\ADC\, /Includes/dbconn2.inc, line 4 

Now I am angry. One would think that for such a prestigious bank, they would have hired developers to do the appropriate testing - unit, system and user acceptance. Now, I have to wait for when next I visit Nigeria to sign up for this. After that, who even knows if I will still be able to access my account online? I am even contemplating closing this account and opening an account with another bank

Lesson Learned: *Always* have test cases for each piece of functionality you write. This will help verify such functionality. If you don't have the time to do so, get a tester. You don't even have to pay the person. He/She could even be the akara seller down the street. But for pete's sake, **test all pieces of functionality b4 you launch**

Again, a few of my points taken out of context here and there:

I never suggested E-Learning. I never said he should not go to school but I did say that from my personal experience.

I am not accusing you of either

I hit the books and 1 year after that I became a junior level .NET developer by reading and practising and writing simple apps here and there.

In today's world where you are competing with cheaper counterparts in India and China, this is what you are supposed to do, school or no school. you are to continuously develop marketable skills. I started off with Java in the stone age of pre-swing, when Java only had 10 classes. I then moved to ASP, then Cold Fusion, then JSP. Now, in order to put my foot in the door, with respect to web development in Nigeria, I am learning PHP. It never ends and it never will end.

2 weeks ago, I had an interview where the dudes wanted someone with flex experience. They were willing to pay $100K for it (note to others: don't take prodgalson's posts on flex lightly. This new technology appears to be more serious than it seems). Since I am still in the PHP-learning phase of my life and I do thankfully have a decent-paying job, I have decided to table flex for now until probably early next year.

A few days ago, it just hit me that perhaps all this running around like a chicken with its head cut off, is probably getting a little too much. I think the best way to work smart is by setting up a website that has something for sale that appeals to others. With a world population of 6billion, if I could just come up with the perfect product, all I have to do is set up the website and hope that .0001% of such people buy the product. Then all this learning of 100 skill sets will come to an end. The only work I would be doing would be to type in my bank's URL/log in info online to see how much money is in my account. I know I may seem to be rambling but my point is that, hey, perhaps the IT version of "working hard" is cranking out of code and scratching your head to the point where you get premature balding (which I suffer from ). Perhaps the new "working smart" is sitting on the couch with your wi-fi enabled laptop and checking your account every 5 minutes. Who knows?

Then when I got a job, I discovered that many of the programmers I work with and all do not even have college degrees and they make just as much money as their counterparts who have a college degree and then the same level of experience.

Such is life my friend. I know of nurses (you heard that right) who, during the IT boom of the 90s, dropped their gloves and stethoscopes and learnt coding. They had degrees, but not in anything computer-related. I took working alongside them as a slap in the office, considering I actually had a computer-related degree, but hey, I got over it. Such is life. Looking back, I admire such flexibility. In America, you have hopefully learnt 2 things thus far: no one ever makes it working 40 hours a week and in addition to your primary job, you need residual income (which doesn't necessarily have to come from coding). Anyways, when the IT bubble burst, they went back to wiping patient's behinds (literally - Seeing you live in Ohio, I am sure you know what PCTs and CNAs do). Let not your heart be troubled. The end justifies the means.

The dude I work with who has no college education has no social problems whatsoever, infact, he is more connected than I am.

I didn't make a blanket statement. Just because that one dude isn't like that doesn't mean all others are like that.

and if these guys are serious, I am willing to help them.

Very noble of you. Kerenti et al, take note

You can pay all the money you want for school but at the end of the day, what gets you working is what you know and you get to know these things by actually studying on your own and practising on your own.

With all due respect, if you have come to realize this, based on the above, why work on "masters among other things"? I personally decided not to go for a master's degree based on me realizing just this (note to others: what is good for the goose is not always good for the gander. If you feel you must go for master's or phD, don't let my statement discourage you. GO FOR IT!).

I paid 45K to get the same job my co-worker has and did not pay any money for.

I paid roughly the same and am experiencing pretty much the same. What's worse? I am now competing with 20 year-olds, full of ego, who think they are the best thing since boiled dodo (I was once like that, so I have trained myself not to get upset ). But what do I do? I suck it up. It's part of life. No 2 fingers are the same. I am sure somewhere out there, someone paid 100k to attend Harvard and is saying the same thing about us that we are saying about the dudes who never went to school

I know people who live in Nigeria and still get to purchase goods online through family or friends who live here and maybe travel down that way on occassionally.

Perhaps kerenti et al want to learn it right away, as opposed to going for the situation as outlined by your quote above? Perhaps it can't wait till tomorrow? Just wondering

As for school, yes, I am with you on all points. I have personally experienced/witnessed 100% of everything you have said. Having said that, there is still a place for school in society. The essence of any school isn't to teach you what you will apply in the real world but to teach you how to LEARN. That means, for instance, that my current manager who has a degree in history and philosophy can go to school not to apply what he learnt to the war with Iraq but to learn to expand his mind to other areas, one of which is what made him a coder for 5 years before becoming a manager. In college, I took Calculus 1 - 5 and Calculus-based physics but am yet to use it in 8 years.

Finally, there are people like me who don't learn fast and are not "talented (or insert whatever word that goes best here)" enough to be able to learn on their own but need that social contact. I wasn't one of those "fortunate" enough to be coding FORTRAN from the womb. My first encounter with a computer was late in life, so the way I learn is different. I am sure there are others like me.

In conclusion, I say if kerenti et al can afford school, let them go, but if they can't, then e-learning it is, I guess.

kobojunkie:
In a country where Amazon doesn't deliver to, I don't think it makes sense to provide links for the books, unless of course, you were just letting him of books he could buy from a bookstore over there. Either way, I think providing online resources is better.

kerenti:
I just did a google and came up with this link which should suffice: http://globalnetpromotions.com/free--html--tutorial--ebook--learn--dreamweaver--frontpage.htm

Personally, I would rather you learn it in a class setting. Why? Because I am a huge fan of social contact. Sure, you can read it for yourself at home. However, sitting with other people can provide valuable networking capabilities, and easy access to answers to any questions you may have, to mention but a few. Of course, this leads back to your original question of where you could go learn. I am currently working out something so I could come there to teach the basics. I am trying to get the logistics straight (location, price, etc). I will definitely keep you all on this forum posted.

By the time you go through all the links on the page above, you should be over-ready for your first project

Good luck!

what is this list based on? When forbes comes out with its list, it takes into consideration things like assets and income. What criteria is used here? or r we simply going by what car someone is driving or hearsay?

Just curious

kobo,

this will be my last post on this: You again, are missing my point. Size of church? doesn't matter. how much money you give? doesn't matter. What matters is "where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there I am also". So again, it doesn't matter whether you are under a mango tree or in a $1billion cathedral. Just like God won't accept someone's $1million yet will accept the widow's mite of say, $100, likewise, he will accept the worship of some over others, regardless of place of worship. Am I crucifying those who go to a big church? nope. I am however, crucifying those false prophets in the big churches. Why? because, unfortunately, they are taking souls with them and these souls, for the most part, don't even know it.

having said that, I will stand my ground that false prophets abound. I don't know what is in the mind of the preachers, however, I am able to choose which church to go to based on what comes out of a preacher's mouth. If they preach by adding or subtracting from the word, I am out. If they (as many do in the states) ask me for my W2 in order to determine how much I am to tithe, when clearly the new testament says that God loveth a cheerful giver, etc etc, I am out. and the list goes on.

smart,

your site map and portfolio pages are broken and your contact page is blank. Whatz up with that?

I just thought I should let you know, just in case

kobojunkie,

read my post again at least 10 times then come to me again. I didn't in any way say God accepts the worship of those who do so in "magnificent" churches any less than those who worship atop a canoe. What I am saying is, God doesn't care what you worship in. What he wants is your heart. That is why, when God instructed the Israelites on how to build an altar, and even quoting the new testament scripture someone posted up top, you will notice that God wanted a simple structure. Why? Of course, I am not God to know, but I can guess that he knows man and that if one man put up a "magnificent" church, the others will copy. In time, the emphasis no longer is on the people in the building (the actual "church" by the way) and more on the structure which will fade away.

Having said that, there is no denial that there is an abundance of false prophets running around. Have you noticed that a majority of preachers only preach of good times (how to make money, you will prosper, etc). Nothing wrong with that, but that is not what church is all about. You are not to go for just to feel good. You are to go and get your heart pricked as to the wrong you have done, pray for forgiveness and hope not to commit the same sin again.

There are people who will not worship under a mango tree because to them, it is beneath them. That is where certain "churches" come in. The better it looks, the better the crowd it will attract. In the end, again, it becomes an emphasis on the building and not the people in the building.

Am I clear? If not, let me know and I will try my best to expound. I am going to give you a pass and assume that you posted your response while in the midst of coding (having followed your many posts on the 'webmaster' forum ) and were probably thinking variables and arrays at the time.

Seun has pretty much said it all. it is the sign of the end times folks. Remember what Matthew says about false prophets. They shall "arise". Unfortunately, many churches are nothing but financial empires. By building expensive edifices, they are making a sales pitch. Why would you worship in a primary school with wooden benches, crumbling walls and poor ventilation when the mega-"church" down the street has cushioned seats complete with A/C? They are simply playing on the minds of the feeble.

Also, don't forget that even before the new testament, God, in giving direction to the Israelites, also instructed them on how to build their altars (Ex. 20:24). Of course, Solomon built a temple but let's not forget that God told the Israelites what he would do to it if they turned their backs on him. The last time I checked, that temple was destroyed.

In the end, all God wants is our hearts. I bet you, you could worship under pouring rain and have that worship be more acceptable in God's sight than a worship at the "Lion of Judah" "Church"

Thatz right webmonk,

Google is a very powerful tool. As a rule, I always google anyone I work/come into contact with - friends, clients, co-workers, managers, etc. Why? because you never know. In fact, I read an article a while back that said many employers in the states now google prospective employees as the last step of their hiring process. This is y u need to be careful with respect to what you post online (forums, blogs, etc). Luckily enough, I have been ahead of the game

LOL (sorry to laugh, just bear with me, you will understand why),

pretty interesting story. b/w the 2 sites, I will say yours is better. I can now c y the other site is free. In particular, there are ghost pixels on all the photos on there. At least you got paid, unlike me with respect to a site I did for someone about a year ago now (that will be under "a tale of 2 sites, part 3" some day ).

So y did I laugh at the onset of this post? Well, I did some googling to see where both sites ranked. As it turns out, you might be looking at a tale of 3 sites (or more) literally. I also found this site too: http://firecharismaticchapel.com/index.htm

How many "churches" does this "look like 419 'prophet'" run? I bet you he takes up 100s of thousands in collection, yet he couldn't pay you perhaps 1% of that? I used to take up 100% of the money I charge at the end of a project. Now, thanks to pple like him, I take nothing less than 50% up front. It seems, when they pay something, they feel obligated to pay in full.

Nice post though. May God help us all in this industry where we put in a lot of sweat to learn latest technologies, assemble all we know onto one website, all in an attempt to "wow" the client but yet, usually get little or nothing in return.

nduaj,

This beef b/w you and Cactus reminds me of what happened years ago in university:

Me and some white guy had a beef about coding techniques on a UNIX bulletin board (that's what we had then, unlike you lucky guys who have Nairaland. But I digress ). The guy immediately went personal. Others on the board even told him so. Then I jumped in and wrote something to the effect that, "don't mind him. I won't post another thread on here in an attempt to respond to him. As my Dad once told me, 'Silence is the best answer for a fool'. Let's see if he is a fool.".

Lo and behold, the guy responded and the young guy that I was, of course I shot back. Another guy posted back something to the effect that, "my2cents (of course not my name at the time, just play along), I am so disappointed in you. The guy went overboard and I had so much respect for you when you quoted that proverb. Now, you are just like him".

That post hit me hard. When I looked up the profile of the 2nd poster, it referenced a photo which had him by a computer with a sort of disappointed look, staring at me. Of course, that picture wasn't made for me, but I took it that way. Moreover, he was a little advanced in age, so I imagined him being my father saying, "my2cents, apparently what I taught you didn't sink in too well". I felt even worse.

That is the "control" and "social engineering" Cactus is referring to. He cast the bait and you fell for it - hook, line and sinker. Now, if you were fish, he would have since de-scaled you, fried you, eaten you and egested you.

Again, controlling emotions is hard for some and the art is what separates the wheat from the chaff with respect to maturity. I can't stick my hands out of your screen and shake you around obviously so all I can really say is work on it. Hopefully you will get it soon. When I apologized on the kheme thread, it took guts. I could have chosen not to. After all, what do I have to lose? The chances of me meeting any of you on this forum are probably lower than the chances of winning a consolidated worldwide lottery. But I did it anyways.

Back to your site: If you haven't yet handed it over to the client, make the revisions, apply the lessons learned to future sites and move on. Simple, short and sharp. Stop the beef. In the end, it doesn't benefit either of you. You should engage in discussions that boost your intelligence and not your egos.

As always, my 2 cents.

Imagine me as a customer for a sec please:

Hmm, I just netted $10million for the year 2007 and am looking at improving my relationship with customers as my #1 priority for 2008. I know that from the feedback form on my website, the #1 complaint was that my website didn't look nice and information was hard to find. To correct this, I am willing to splash $1million dollars for a better one. I hear that Nairaland is a good place to go for webmasters.

Ok (clicks on various threads, then is about to start a "webmaster wanted" thread when he spots, "What Site Have You Designed Best?" thread). This is interesting, let me see who is worthy of that honor. I kind of like most of the sites, however, the following usernames seem to catch my eye at random - smartsoft and niyyie. Why? I don't really know. I just like those names. Let me check out their sites. I will check http://www.mjsa.net and http://www.smartsoft-ng.com .

What!! The sites are no longer running? Sure, the sites could have been there last week but they aren't here now and that's all that matters. Oh well, I was willing to pay smartsoft and niyyie $500K for a collab on my new site but they just lost my business. Let me find another webmaster.

Folks, this scenario, though fictional, could very well be a true one. I know we post millions of threads here and as such things are hard to keep track of. Having said that, try and check your threads at random and delete sites that no longer exist. You never know who might be out their looking for whom to give work. If the "Server not found" is consistent, as a prospective client, I wouldn't trust the webmaster ever again. And don't forget, Nigeria (I know, niyyie is in Ghana but that's not the point) already has a 419 perceived problem.

I am also guilty of the above but to an extent. Every now and then, I search for posts that have dead URLs so that I can delete such URLs. To me, it's okay if this were a "site review" post. "Site designed best" post? Totally different matter. Your best designed site should be your crown jewel. To me, it's akin to saying you have a best child in terms of behavior, who, just when you got to the child's room to show off to your friend, you find out the child is taking drugs.

I hope this helps.

I hope this helps.

yeah boraddo,

In fact, I was just YIMming with Afam a few hours ago on the same topic. Even when I was so busy to the point that I was working weekends a few months ago, I somehow found time to log on to Nairaland. It is very addictive.

Even more important sha is the fact that the more I review, the more I learn for myself. There is so much to learn and the only way to do so is by interacting with people. Even if you do something better than they do, you can still learn from such people, in terms of what not to do. In the end, such people perhaps had a reason for doing it their way. Finally, I also do site reviews for a living. If I am doing what I am doing here for free, just imagine how far I would go if you paid me

In the end, we all hopefully learn and it is a win-win situation.

thatz right folks,

Keep it professional and never personal

nduaj,

xanadu has hinted at the frame rate. Increase it. Having said that, I do like that FINALLY someone has thought about not implementing senseless and nauseous flash animations. At least you hv given the user the opportunity to replay it if they show wish. Kudos.

Other things of note (and I know, u said u rnt done yet, but just so you don't miss them):

1) I would probably make the "al-kenzo" image a little smaller. This would help bring your left nav a little above the fold. At first glance, it looks as if all you have it the navigation at the top. On a similar note, I would make the "I would like to" section smaller as well. There is no need in making it that tall.

2) I noticed that not all pages have the left nav. For consistency sake, either you hv it on all pages or you don't.

3) on pages other than the home page, I would also consider increasing the padding b/w text and the black border to at least 5px. The text currently is too close to the border.

4) In FF on http://www.alkenzo.com/customers.php , the "al kenzo" graphic doesn't extend all the way to the right. There is a white space. Not good

5) Also in FF, comparing http://www.alkenzo.com/customers.php to http://www.alkenzo.com/contact.php, you will note that your graphics to the right don't have equal padding b/w their right side side and the 1px border to the right. It gives the impression that the graphics are "jumping" from page to page.

Finally, I don't know when you posted this but don't forget the pledge I asked that we take (regarding my comments about kheme) on another post. You even said, I believe, "well said". No matter how people piss you off, strive to keep the conversation professional and never personal. I am guilty of doing what I advised you not to do, on this forum, but I will try to do otherwise. I know, it's not easy.

Regarding being a newbie or not, I guess it is a matter of how you see yourself. However, if I may chip in my 2 kobo (abi, cents ), I would say considering I have been at this for 8 years now, I still regard myself as a rookie. By qualifying myself as a rookie, it motivates me to learn more. If I regarded myself as an expert, I would probably feel I have reached the limit and there is no need to go any further.

I have developed too many sites (personal, for employers, on the side, business, government, etc) to count over the years, yet like when you watch the same movie for the second or third time, I still find myself learning something new each time. Heck, I just finished http://www.autotrader.com/research/model_info/index.jsp?restype=both (I know that by posting this link here, the guys at www.autotraderng.com will once again copy what took me and others 4 months to implement, in 3 days, but what the heck? I will share it nonetheless ) last month and already, I noticed there is something I did that I could have perhaps done better

I hope this helps.