₦airaland Forum

Check out www.flashkit.com . I am sure u will find it there. Alternatively, u cd visit this thread and ask the developer how he did it (granted his is faster, it's the same thing): https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-78988.0.html

I hope these help.

hey guys,

Not to support access but it does have its place. If you are dealing with, say, a company of 10 people (again, for example), Access is quick and dirty with respect to storing information. For something larger, then you can go for the other DBs.

It all boils down to scalability. Of course, I am not in the shoes of the original developer who chose to use access. For all we know, that is the only thing they knew and/or they decided to hood-wink the client by giving them the bare minimum for the 40K or 50K they probably paid him

Kobojunkie (abi na Tokorie? I am a bit confused, based on how you signed off in the last post ):
That is what you get when nepotism trumps know-how. Also, as long as no one holds people's feet to the fire and in this case, students don't protest (not violently of course ), you can expect more of this, unfortunately.

Kobojunkie,

you think say you go fit pass muster so? According to their "about us" page, "The company was incorporated by a group of qualified and highly experienced Nigerians who are committed to providing quality, professional, customised and timely service to clients. We have to our professional credit several successfully executed projects in Nigeria".

Also, according to their "founding directors" page, one of the directors has over 23 years of experience in, "system analysis, design, programming, system software support/management, project management and consulting services". He has even studied overseas.

You go fit?

tomX:
I agree with all you say except for the customer is not always right part. The trick is to make them feel they are always right, even though they aren't

Orikinla:
Thanks. I strive for and push simplicity in everything I do, both with websites and in life. In the end, why take 5 steps to perform one task when you could do it in 2? Hopefully, as I make a move for the Nigerian market, clients appreciate simplicity as well. Not all sites should have continuous flash movies, for instance, that make me (and I am sure others) nauseous.

Ndipe:
I hear (I am not there, so I can't speak for a fact) that pretty much all of Attah's projects have been or are being cancelled or short-changed: AKUTECH, IPP, Airport. Prof Akpan Ekpo even resigned as VC of AKUTECH b4 it was scrapped. For a state that takes in billions monthly, you would think they would actually focus on its citizens in the areas of roads, light and water.

I don't think you can. At best, u can either, via "modify" delete the text or apply a strikethrough on your text to denote that the post no longer applies. Why bother doing that anyways?

Ace Web Solutions
"Redefining Web Development"
http://www.acewebdevelopment.net

Locations in both Atlanta, USA and Uyo, Nigeria for prompt service.
Contact us at info@acewebdevelopment.net for more details.

Services:
Web Development (From scratch, redesign, SEO, Audits, Web Architecture)
Training
Consulting

Portfolio:
http://www.acewebdevelopment.net/ace-portfolio/

As a standing rule, we will develop a site for you with your wallet in mind.

@all,

that is y you need to pressure the management to release the funds so I can start redesigning the site. Just to clarify, I have had nothing to do with the site to-date. In fact, but for them contacting me to redesign it, I didn't even know the URL . As it stands currently, I am still awaiting "oga's response".

Oya now, who wan start?

mdsocks:
Not to support the layout of the site, but in fairness to the original developers, there is a "home" button as part of the navigation. Also, it was pretty easy to find.

From the home page, it appears to be powered by: http://www.sidmach.com/

I hope this helps.

mdsocks,

what about it? u know the guy in charge (in Nigeria)? He is really slowing things down. If you know him, tell am say make im kuku release funds biko. I get bills to pay

cmon,

I have been coding for 8 years. One thing I do, which is good though, is store challenging code in libraries. That way, with future projects, I just copy and paste,with a few modifications. Over time, all I end up doing is copy and paste. Unless some new technology comes out, copy and paste it is and for me, it just gets boring.

Thanks for the pointers. I will definitely take them, especially with respect to location, into account.

Thanks once again.

nduaj,

1) I am not proud of what I said above. Those comments were made some time last year. I shouldn't have flown off the handle, for which I apologize to Kheme, if he is still out there. Looking back at it, it was very immature of me. I will try to make sure it doesn't happen again

2) I hereby call upon all my peers to make a "three-quarter year and beyond" resolution: let's focus on sites and not pple. When we do have bad things to say about otherz sites, let's use the "preview" button and re-examine what we wrote. For those who are on the receiving end, letz ignore posts that we deem to be attacking the person and not the site. Consequently, when responding, let's do so in a way that ignores the personal attacks and focuses on the actual sites.

Thanks,

mdsocks:
which site?

ndipe:
I no been go convention o! My daughter was born about a month before and so we felt she would be too young to undergo the stress of travelling Attah was there but from what I am made to understand, he was boo'd big time. He claimed there was 24/7 electricity in Uyo, but we know that's a lie. In fact, I heard the chairman of the occassion was so angry at Attah that he walked out in the middle of Attah's speech.

dearstan:
if the "@poster" comment is directed towards me, please expound as I am left more confused that I was when I read it. Thanks. If I do understand what you meant, the purpose of this thread wasn't to point out the inefficiencies of hosts but to point out the differences b/w what a site was and what a site presently is

all:
Anything I do for the client at this point, granted it is part of the "be there for your client" deal, is done totally as a public service - I was paid for this site 2 months ago. I was bored at the time I decided to do some googling. If I wanted to be the bad guy, I wouldn't have even notified the client/this forum

All, thanks for your input. Much appreciated. This is the kind of civilized discourse I look forward to

Seun et al, as I said earlier, the client is having problems getting info from the old webmaster. Nonetheless, I will drop him an email and tell him to demand a handover of the information. Until that happens, I guess we are going to have to live with 2 sites.

juintade, the photo gallery actually is using lightbox2. Perhaps I didn't word it well or we are talking about 2 different things? I only added those instructions cos when I looked at lightbox2, it wasn't obvious to me that I had to hover over the left and right sides of the image to see the "next" and "prev". Either way, visit the site again and click on the thumbnails. I just verified this in IE6 and 7, Safari and FF and it works. Let me know what you find.

Once again, thanks all.

Webmonk, I realize for every rule, there is an exception. What works for you may not work for me. I guess I was coming froma best-case scenario. I really respect my peers back at home who have to deal with a lack of infrastructure yet, are able to put up websites.

Seun, maybe its that simple, maybe it isn't.

I may have forgotten to say (and if I did, I apologize) that the user didn't have access to that information at all. Look at it this way, if the client couldn't even recall the URL, that should tell you how technical he is.

Here is another scenario that I may be involved with:

The owner of fresh air (I guess those of you in Nigeria know of this company. I just heard about it last week) wants a redesign. Guess what though: The old site http://www.freshairline.com/ expired last week - it is back up now though). The owner had retrenched his IT staff due to lack of work. They had all the information (username, password, etc) I would have needed to "take over the site". As of last week, the client was looking for the contact info for his former staff. What would I have done in that instance? Thankfully, the site is back up though. Now, business can proceed as usual

So, 2 months or so ago, I got approached by someone who wanted me to redesign their website. I asked for whatz out there at the time. He said the site was down. I asked y. He said he was having "issues (webmaster never returned calls, client stopped paying, webmaster deleted site, etc) with the webmaster. I said okay, then we need to get another name. Hence, www.ibompeoplescongress.org was born. The client has been pretty happy with me so far. In fact, even though no one but me and the client know about the .org, people have some how found it and are requesting to become members.

All was fine and dandy until this weekend when I was doing some googling. I noticed a www.ibompeoplescongress.com. What pissed me off about it was that it appeared above my site. So I clicked on it and behold it was the original site of the client. From the looks of it, not to say my site is any better, I am happy the site was redesigned. Information is easier to find, mine is more appealling to the eye and all in all, it provides for a better user experience.

I have since asked the client to instruct the webmaster, who all of a sudden decided to show up (I wonder why ), to take down the .com site.

Lessons:
1) For clients, always know who you are dealing with. Get references directly from other clients of the webmaster. Don't just go off of a portfolio page.

2) For webmasters, always be there for your client. You never know who he/she will refer you to.

3) The cheapest solution doesn't always necessarily pay. When the client told me how much they paid for the .com, in my mind, I immediately said to myself, "no wonder".

Just thought I should share.

yeah, letz just say I have been in the biz for quite a while. So much so that I am seriously thinking of quitting - it's getting boring and I no longer get excitement from doing it anymore. But hey, don't tell anyone

I kind of applied some things you thought me on www.paulcom.net (eg, the style sheet). You can punch some holes on this site if you find one.

Yeah, I went through your portfolio over the weekend

With respect to paulcom, i would say you should unify the horizontal and vertical navs. They appear to me to be the same thing. I am not a fan of nav dropdown. In my opinion, they confuse the user as atimes they may click the nav bar and expect to be taken to a page. Not all users know that this isn't always the case. Also, if you are dealing with form elements for instance, nav dropdowns, if not properly implemented can "bleed through" such elements. Only a hack can get you around this and I try to avoid hacks at all costs.

If you used the vertical nav, then consider making it "more lively" as well as collapsible. Take "our solutions" for instance. How many more links will you be adding in the future? I would probably use collapsible divs (as in display: block and display: none" that way only the appropriate nav is showing. For some eye candy, I would probably use openrico's accordion effect or one of the scriptaculous combo effects.

my2cents, you're a web genieus and a good teacher too.

I don't know about the genius part but as far as teaching goes, I do like to impart knowledge. For one, it reinforces what I know and it is also possible for the teaching to go both ways. I don't know everything and don't intend to as my brain is finite when it comes to storage. Having said that, I am seriously thinking of organizing some seminars/workshops back in Nigeria in the nearest future. What's holding me back? I need to determine pricing, venues, location (as in Lagos, Abuja, Calabar, etc). Any ideas?

Thanks,

but the slices where done to keep the visitor "entertained" while it downloads. I didn't just want to have a big graphic downloading at once

There are many other ways of keeping the user "entertained" without resorting to having so many slices. Back in the day, the slice effect was done because users had slow connections and so smaller graphics ensured that the user doesn't get to wait ad infinitum for an entire graphic to load.

What if I make the graphic a background of the <div> tag, is that a better Idea?

I have an even better suggestion:
[list]
[li]I would have one container div, with position relative.[/li]
[li]I would make a thin strip of the blue portion and via CSS, repeat-x.[/li]
[li]I would then add the image of the man, position absolute and play with positioning till I got him in the right place[/li]
[li]I would do same for "futoite" graphic[/li]
[li]"freedom to express" could be done either as a graphic, again positioned absolute, or as CSS using the opacity attribute[/li]
[li]The white bubble would then be done via CSS (4 corners and a middle section. [/li]
[li]Text in bubble would be actual text, not graphic. If you are concerned with crispness of text, google for "sifr". Sifr renders regular text, via javascript as a flash object. The advantages are that you get crisp text that is still text and accessible for those with disabilities and readable by search engine bots and by screen readers. I have used this technique at www.heavensentfoundation.org for my headers (both the green and the black - the site isn't yet done, I am waiting on content from the client)[/li]
[/list]

As for the horizontal scroll, it also appears in internet explorer. The Idea of the site is to make it appealling to both those using 800 by 600 resolution and those using 1280 and 1024.

Unfortunately, you so many tables which are also mingled with divs that it is hard to tell. Also, there are instances where you have your main content area of 1020px, yet it is surrounded by a table (or cell) with a %age. Right there, this page wouldn't work for 800x600 as you have exceeded the width by 220px.

I will however go out on a limb and say that perhaps it is because, whereas you have %s for the table cells, your graphics are in pixels. If you used my technique above, so that the container div were also a %age, I am sure the scroll would go away. If you visit www.webmastersofafrica.com and view source, I did the same thing you are trying to accomplish with your site, via %ages. The site expands and contracts accordingly with differing resolutions. The trick is, I only apply it to the header, navigation and footer. The inner content is set to 800px, or whatever.

I'ld also like to know how the stretching navigation that seem to go into the ends of the screen

I am afraid I don't understand what you mean here. I could be wrong, but if I do understand, then I think you have already achieved the effect. If you are concerned with centering, you could use "text-align: center;" styling for the red container div. If not, do clarify.

And also note that I have an external CSS sheet.

I did notice that. However, based on your page-level styling, I don't see why you couldn't put that in an external style sheet as well. In other words, those "a:visitor", etc styles aren't page specific. They apply throughout your site. Move them into your external stylesheet. It may be a minor change, but it conforms to web standards.

I hope these help

1) The main graphic seems kind of busy - I was torn b/w reading whatz in the white bubble and the stretching man

2) The different "squares" with varying heights leaves a lot of white space. I would consider making them the same height. Either you set the same number of links per "square" or you give each "square" a fixed height and don't enter content beyond a certain level

3) I think there is a better way to cut your images (main graphic). From a "view source", you have it cut into multiple squares, each having an href associated with it. Out of curiosity, why didn't you just surround all the slices (not that slices are a good thing) with one href? If you have to change the URL in the future, you have to update the URL for each slice. Baaaaad.

4) In Firefox, there is horizontal scroll. Baaaad.

5) Unless you have some page-specific styling (and it doesn't seem to be the case with what you are doing) going on, you should move all your styles into an external style sheet.

6) This one is more of an opinion, though still worthy of listing: I don't like "ad nauseum" animations. At least in your case, it isn't moving as fast as the horse on http://www.unionbankng.com/. Nonetheless, I would consider making that stuff static text. Whenever things move on my screen, I tend to concentrate, to my frustration, on that thing alone and there are probably others just like me.

I hope these help.

Well at least they stated that web development is like a puzzle, maybe they are still trying to solve the puzzle.

LMAO Afam

If ever there is a "quote of the year" thread on NL, I will definitely nominate this quote of yours for the award.

I would imagine (and I could be wrong) that just like MS Word 2003 is backwards-compatible with MS Word 2000, PHP5 will treat PHP4 the same way.

Even in Java, when there is an upgrade, worse-case, you get a "deprecated" warning. It doesn't mean you can't use a particular Java class, it just means you should be aware that what you are trying to use is "old school" so to speak and that you should consider using more recent methods, etc.

From what I am made to understand (PHP guys chime in please. I am a JSP guy and only know enough PHP myself to get through the door ), PHP5 is basically more Object-oriented than its predecessors. In other words, it makes use of more constructs and functions, for instance, compared to its predecessors which could be made, if you wanted, to be more procedural.

Again, I am no PHP expert, so if I am wrong, someone please let me and others know. Nonetheless, I hope my comments help.

mikky,

This post, put up hear a while back, might be of help:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-73953.0.html

A previous poster had asked about the existence of a free Rich Text Editor. I just found out that YUI has one (in beta currently): http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/editor/index.html

In general, if you don't use YUI, prototype, scriptaculous, dojo, openrico, etc (there might be others that I don't know about ) you should. They are good because:

1) There is no need to reinvent the wheel

2) They are popular and used by a lot of companies, including CNN.

3) For the most part, they are cross-browser (they took care of all the conditionals you would have had to take care of yourself)

4) They are all geared towards providing the user with a Rich Internet Application interface which is what many have been yearning for, for years.

Enjoy!

Sometimes I wonder what you intend to achieve with some of your comments especially as regards other people.

Afam nothing really. Atimes, I see the glass as both half-empty and half-full. From past experience, I have been scarred by giving absolute answers. So to me, the answer to any question you have (even "what is 1 + 1?" is "it depends". Atimes, I also like playing devil's advocate.

As for doing the work for him, I probably would if I were a designer. Even if I were a designer, chances are (and I hope this isn't the case) that seeing I am in the US, kay gets turned off cos he thinks I may charge "dollar rates (whatever that is)". I have sent in proposals for at least 5 jobs posted here and have been turned down every single time. It is very discouraging, but at least I get jobs from elsewhere (even from Nigerians in Nigeria) to keep my spirits up and running

so, although I don't use any of the technologies you have listed, here is what I would do, from a logic standpoint (I assume you would be doing an onload event for the sound. Regardless, just plug in your code. It should work):

[list]
[li]You start off by having, say, A.sound and B.sound in your file system. In your call to the file, you have a variable that holds either "A" or "B", depending on what kind of drug.[/li]
[li]You determine the type of drug, based on type, you assign variable "A" or "B" like so:
<?php echo $drugType; ?>.sound (where $drugType is either "A" or "B"[/li]
[/list]

If you are using a database, then you get the value of the "drugType" column and again, based on type, assign the necessary variable.

That should do it. If I don't understand, break it down for me and whoever happens to read this post as well.

sooooo,

Here are my 2cents on this:

1) If I had access to a site/info medium where I could check out designers (say, www.webmastersofafrica.com ), I would have the power to filter out unnecessary noise. Why? cos I could check out their websites and their portfolio and make up my mind based on what I see.

2) If I didn't have access to such information, I would have no choice but to broadcast for the information. Would 1 million pple suddently show up outside my doors looking for a job? It's a possibility. However, I am willing to take that risk. The more the better as I would have the upper hand when it comes to getting the best applicants. Would it take all day? Possibly. But that is the price I pay to get the best minds. In today's economy, no pain, no gain. If you are not willing, especially in a market with high unemployment, to sacrifice something in the hopes of getting a job, then perhaps you shouldn't blame anyone but yourself for your lot in life.

Basically, my last question would be, "So you have seen the 10,000 other people who are here for the same job. Why should I choose you over the others?" Not all questions should be technical. You need to see how pple would react amongst other people. You need to throw them off by asking questions they won't expect. I personally don't care if you wrote PHP5 yourself. If you have no social skills, forget it.

3) In my broadcast, I would probably include my email address. I barely like talking on the phone as it is. With emails, I can easily weed out unwanted interviewees. Again, if I get 1 million emails, all the better.

In conclusion, I guess in the end, it is all about personal taste.

Just my 2 cents

However i'm still giving it a second thought if it will be a nice idea to make my Old man start going through the rigor of learning the basics of Web design.

aha! tunde, from your previous posts, I suspected there was some americana in you

back to the story at hand:
put yourself in your dadz shoes. If you were in your 60s and in a country where 60 is the new 40 and many people are working past their retirement age (not because they are broke but because they are bored staying at home), how would you feel if someone your age made the exact same statement? I mean, letz be honest here, there isn't exactly any "rigor" per se in learning web design. It isn't exactly rocket science. If he has the interest, thatz all that matters.

As I am sure you are aware, in the states they say, age aint nothin but a number. If web design is what he wants to do, then by all means, let him do it. Its better for him to try and fail than not to try at all. What's the alternative? Driving cab? Washing dishes? Being a greeter at the local walmart or sam's club? Sitting at home and watching TV 24 hours a day? Most of the pple I know who have been to america and never intended to work end up returning home in 6 months or less. Why? Boredome and no one is home. Everyone is out there hustling for the dollar to "pay the bills".

In my opinion (and this is what i tell anyone coming to america these days), he should engage in whatever will make him work smart, not hard. I think of all the jobs listed above (let's face it, given his age and the fact that despite his degree, it will be tough for him to get a job in corporate america due to "lack of experience", he should engage in self-employment.

Besides at the end of the day, do you want him to complain to you that if it weren't for you, he would have been the next google?

As always, my 2 cents

Seundare,

IMHO, nairaland isn't a fair representation of web designers in Nigeria. If you really want a good representation, you should promote this event on the public airwaves in Nigeria.

There are many talented ones who have never heard of NL (and hence this post). Getting to them will take more than posting on NL.

as always, my 2 cents.

kay,

better yet, you can point your browser to www.webmastersofafrica.com , click on "find a webmaster", filter the criteria based on your location and have tons of potential web designers at your virtual door step.

Give it a try. You have nothing to lose

hischoice,

"My analyzer" isn't actually mine. It is a highly respected analyser site (www.weboptimization.com) which millions visit daily.

after refreshing my browser at least 10 times, I get the following:

http://www.oauife.edu.ng/
The connection has timed out

The server at www.oauife.edu.ng is taking too long to respond.

* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.

* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.

* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

So many times, I log on to Nairaland to see a "Review this site" or "Constructive criticism" or "Hard critique" or some variation of these 3, thread. When such criticism is given, it usually varies between +ve and -ve. Either way, some times the person asking for the criticism gets offended by what his/her peers have to say. I am in a 2-day class where, among others, criticism is one of the topics covered.

I would like to share what the presenter had to say about criticism and I hope it helps. Personally, even though I already knew some of it, from personal experience, it is nice to have someone else, whom you don't know, reinforce your belief system:

[list]
[li]Criticism is good. Learn to expect it. You are where you are today, in part, because of all the criticisms (good or bad) that you have received in your life.[/li]

[li]Learn to welcome, appreciate and respect +ve criticism. Many atimes, even though it is positive, we get offended and that is usually because the "criticizer" is telling you the truth and as they say, the truth is bitter and the truth hurts[/li]

[li]Whether the criticism be +ve or -ve, never let it affect your performance at what you do, or your how you think of yourself. [/li]

[li]-ve criticism, in the end, doesn't do anything to help you. Don't bother trying to defend yourself when faced with it. It is a waste of time. Learn to recognize it. Then ignore it and move on.[/li]

[/list]

Considering my employer probably paid the presenter big bucks to come tell us this and I am imparting this knowledge to you free of charge (because I love you that much ), I would read the above and apply it to your everyday lives, not just in the world of website critiques.

I hope this helps.

Tunde,

Whether it is Turkish or Martians, the art of hacking (as I am sure you know. Just playing Devil's advocate here and not picking sides, so hear me out ) is fun for some people. I guess the lesson in the end is that we are not to take internet security lightly. Just because we are in some "3rd world country" somewhere doesn't mean we can't assume that millions of people aren't monitoring what we do online.