₦airaland Forum

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'nuff said

same thing for me bro. I could have sworn it's a set up. But now I can rest assured knowing I am not the only one

Let us not fall into the trap that oyibo wants us to fall into. I seriously doubt that if you go to some random oyibo country, that they will be clamoring to watch our shows the same way we are clamoring to watch theirs.

If our shows aren't worth watching, we should either put in pple who will ensure the proper programming or influence those already in positions to do so.

I remember some time in the late 90s when Ted Turner, former founder of CNN, was pissed at the french govt. Why? cos they told him that either his cartoon station (cartoon network) started showing english cartoons in french (as in, no subtitles) or get off the air. I loved that move big time. The french, as weird as they sometimes are weren't going to allow some english guy come in and subtly make english the language du jour of the french kids.

Personally, I prefer nigerian tv, no matter how bad. I have stopped watching foreign films for one. Our films have a moral lesson to be learnt at the end. Sure, many are predictable, but they are getting better. I listen to AKBC radio online. I have stopped listening to american rap. When I am home, it is amazing how many of my buddies try to impress me (at least that is how I see it) by immediately flipping to CNN the minute I set foot in their houses. I immediately request they change to their local TV station. You should see the looks on their faces

Maybe it comes with age. I don't know. One thing is for sure though - I prefer Nigerian TV to American anytime anyday!

prodgal,

from now henceforth, I know thee not as a Flex developer. Ye shalt henceforth be known as a psycho-therapist

naijafan,

When you do start working for a corporate entity, one thing you will have to learn is the ability to be humble and bite your lip - it may not make sense to you not to have to enter a zip code when search for "any distance", but to the head honchos, it does.

My opinion (because I know you will ask)? it makes total sense. Not all zip codes are heavily populated. Some may have as little as 300 people living within in that vicinity. So, there may or may not be a dealer/private seller within 10, 20 or even 30 miles of where that person lives. Believe it or not, there are still parts of the US where people use a horse to travel 10 miles to school. If you doubt me, read up on South and North Dakota.

I hope this helps, and, who is Ikez? My "investigation" has turned up some important info - u were on the "4 man team" to develop the babcock website. I knew it!! I can smell such stuff 10 miles away

By the way, I am a UI engineer though again, not by a stretch one of the "top" ones. I don't work on the home page, but on the "Find Your Car" section (new layout launches on January 9th, so check it out when it does ) and the dealer community section (a section only registered dealers see). FYI: most all of us honest ones here at work agree that the home page is nothing to write home about, but again, we don't call the shots

Finally, so you don't start licking your lips like a hungry hyena the minute you see the section I am on (because I know you will ), I am not a designer, but a developer. There is a huge difference. I don't create graphics. I essentially take what a designer comes up with in, say, photoshop, cut it up and use those images, and in combination with my JSP coded, display stuff on a page accordingly. I am not, have never, and will never be a designer (not that there's anything wrong with being one )

bellars,

I wanted to check out the site, I really did, but it was taking too long to load (and I use a T1 connection). It even crashed the website analyzer that I use at work. 156K for a flash clip? Say it ain't so.

Will probably check it later.

naijafan,

for instance, i understand you work with autotrader.com. this is a site i admire but despite the fact that the doctype reads 'xhtml 1.0 transitional', it isnt xhtml at all. yet, ignoring the fact that its not standards compliant, i still like the site. moreso, the design of the toplinks changes once you get into some pages in the site. is that your own definition of consistency?

Very good research

1) the site isn't standards compliant mostly because of the use of "&" in it's urls. Currently, we are looking into ways we can encode this character so as to get rid of this CSS warning

2) When I interviewed with them initially, I informed them of their many errors (among which include use of inline styles on the page, which unnecessarily bogs it down weight-wise). I was assured it would be looked into, but 3 years in, I guess it's not a priority. There are 25 of us working in the UI department and fortunately or unfortunately, I am not on the team assigned to the home page. Could it be better? Sure it can. However, it's not my company, so I don't call the shots. I guess when you are a $500million per annum company, whether or not your site is standards-compliant isn't your #1 priority.

You may have got it twisted thinking that I run the company and/or can make cowboy decisions on the fly

3) I don't understand what u mean by "top links". Do expound please

4) Dissapointed? Sorry about that bro. I am not into this to seek anyone's favors. I say what I say, again based on facts and experience and realize that I will ruffle a few feathers along the way. However, for the sake of unity on this forum, if you felt offended, sorry

5) make a site like autotrader? hmmm, as i said before, I don't own the company. There are many business rules that even I don't understand after 3 years. Though, I can work with you on a contractor basis, which of course will cost you

'cause I believe in diversity (whatever that means)

cd be a combination of many things - weather, no state taxes, being around pple they know, etc. who knows?

one thing's for sure though: I will never live in a place that is predominantly of a particular race/tribe/sex/orientation

Oracle,

no mind dem. I would have said so myself, but as naijafan said, I shd hv noticed that abti was a "largely static" site and has boraddo said, saying so would imply that the whole world shd follow my "rigidly" "laid out plans" LOL

boraddo,

no b fight o! To answer your question about google:

1) 2 wrongs don't make a right

2) We both know your university site won't get the traffic that google does, so don't use that as an excuse.

No b "yapp". If you call me calling you, or whomever, out on trying to present personal bias as facts, then "yapp" it is. Google/yahoo bad code shdnt be an excuse for you to do same. If I interviewed with them, I would tell them where to improve upon their site. Standards are created for a reason. In the end, they are to be followed, but not necessarily adhered to. So, it's your call.

Every goal may be to delight the user, but which part of what i have said so far is a "laid out plan"? Again, not plans, but standards and I didn't write them, so don't shoot the messenger. Many sites out there "delight the user" but due to not following "laid out plans", for example, the site doesn't show up properly across both browsers. Check out www.akwaibomstategov.com in both IE and FF to verify what I am saying. The site may delight IE users but not me the "rigid" FF user.

Sorry if my attempts to help you are falling on deaf ears. As they say, some pple don't need help. I should have figured this out the minute I discovered that both you and naijafan attend/have attended the same school. Either way, and I will say this for the umpteenth time, I won't quietly sit back and let someone get away with spewing crap.

This is too much. At first I used to hear about it. Now I have seen with my own eyes.

full list: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2006/113006suspects.pdf

So, the next time u c me in Nigeria, rather than ask me why I take okada when my "mates who arrived there 6 months ago are riding in hummers and have built 2 or 3 houses", ask "hmmm, i wonder what he/she really does over there"

Don't get me wrong, there are those of us who are making it the legal way. That notwithstanding, from experience, those who show off a lot on their visits, usually don't make it the legal way.

For me, the lessons here are 3-fold:

1) All that glitters is not gold

2) Slow and steady wins the race

3) The end justifies the means

Now, it is possible that they will be spending retirement not back in naija but (for the men) as a boyfriend "servicing" fellow men in prison.

Take heed!

hmmm, naijafan, you're making me wonder whether or not college is for u.

1)

yahoo is the ranked the number one site in the world despite the fact that they disobey your web standards/design patterns. . . i speak based on facts

Ignoring the hideous grammar, ever heard of google?

2) What is obvious to you may not be obvious to Okoro. You can't code a site based on what is obvious to you. Just because say, yahoo may violate web standards (note: they are not mine but those of others smarter than myself who came together to set these up for the common good ), shdnt be an excuse for you to do same. 2 wrongs don't make a right. Besides, what are the chances of babcock's website being as popular as yahoo's? I can almost guarantee you it's pretty slim.

wow, i wonder how long it took you to come up with your "I speak based on facts" "research"

Kenny,

Sure, you may use notepad, but that may be a little archaic right now, granted I started off many yrs ago using it

You can use dreamweaver or homesite. Better yet, you could pose this question to others in the field who are in naija as they may hv an open-source (aka "free" alternative.

I wouldn't recommend you learn how to implement frames, in my opinion. Search engines for one frown upon it. Also, some users don't know how to turn them off and they can pose problems when it comes to printing.

CSS? Everything in programming is pretty broad. Just buy a book or download an ebook, focus on one topic at a time and in no time, you would have covered broad grounds. As I said, practice makes perfect. Once you feel you have learnt a lot, put code to computer and give yourself an assignment using what you have learnt. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

As for the difference b/w the discliplines you mentioned, I already have addressed this at: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-31963.0.html

enjoy and good luck!

LOL boraddo,

Thanks for at least clarifying yourself and vindicating me with respect to naijafan's comments (based on how you ranked your categorization of what you meant by "best site" I have indeed checked at random 5 sites and yours comes up a winner, at least amongst public universities. Kudos

As for being the observant type, that is what I am paid to do. Company website? Currently down but I am working on it as we speak. Should be back up by the end of the week. I will post comments here to that effect. For now, you may learn more about me as a professional here - http://www.geocities.com/myibibio/bios/akpaniquot.html

Finally, thanks for the link to all the naija university websites. I have googled the hell out of my fingers looking for such a site. In the end, we both have learnt something new today. At least, I know I have

naijafan,

static or dynamic, a website is the same, from a design standpoint. Without having to speak for the guy (though I am pretty sure that is what he meant ), when he said "best website", he wasn't referring to the use of a "relatively rare language in the nigerian developer community". Una naija atimes too dey like create effects with big grammar. I think he was speaking from a design standpoint and the features the site offers. In this case, it doesnt matter if you use HTML or JSP. Why? 'cause in the end, the browser will present html code and not say, coldfusion.

As for the 2 "different" websites, take a look at what is after the first "." - babcockuni.edu.ng. Web standards/design patterns dictate that navigation be the same throughout an entire site so as not to confuse the user. I say this not based on what I think but based on research. If the site was going to be different, then the user should be notified that they are leaving the original site and gointo to another one. Again, I speak based on facts.

Coming to think of it, and I am going out on a limb here, based on the photo on your profile page, it appears you attended or are attending this institution. Do I sense some bias in your comments as well?

But wetin I sabi? Just my 2 cents

for starters, some would argue that beginning with frontpage is the way to go. I tend to disagree. Using frontpage is like owning a car and not knowing what happens behind the scenes that enables your car to start. I prefer typing up everything yourself so you appreciate what your code is doing. In other words, keep up with your tutorials.

Once you understand what is going on behind the scenes, you may then "cheat" by using WYSIWYGs like frontpage, dreamweaver et al. Just be aware that they tend to add a lot of unnecessary code for the most part behind the scenes, code that more often than not makes your coder harder to read, not to mention that it tilts your site weight a little on the heavy side.

To summarize - code by hand first, then graduate to WYSIWYGs (What You See Is What You Get, just in case you don't know what that means )

I hope this helps.

chydon,

hv u checked this site in firefox? just wondering

boraddo,

so is your conclusion based on bias or the fact (emphasis on '"fact" that you have visited every single naija university website out there? Just askin' I personally haven't been to all naija university sites, but I prefer this one to yours: http://www.abti-american.edu.ng/ - simple and plain-looking but straight to the point.

Anyway, the site looks okay, although it is a little heavy (the random header image you spit out, underneath the top nav is a whopping 57K). Other observations:

- Your nav section isn't consistent across the site (compare http://alumni.babcockuni.edu.ng/ to http://www.babcockuni.edu.ng/)

- When the nav section is consistent, the secondary nav (look at: http://www.babcockuni.edu.ng/inner.cfm?bu=90&menu=shw) is so long that it pushes down the primary nav. Even if this is intentional, it doesn't look good.

My company, among others, can give you a detailed site audit. You may contact me for more details. The above 3 are just to get your feet wet

Overall, nice job sha. Keep it up!

kennyuche,

there are institutions out there that give certification exams, but technically, there is no one, say, int'lly-acclaimed institution. Practice they say, makes perfect. The more sites you create, whether for pay or recreation, the better you become. Again, whether for profit or charity, create sites that implement different techniques, learn from your experiences and save the code in a library for reuse at a later date.

Have your peers, whether it be here on Nairaland or elsewhere take a look at your sites. Welcome all criticism. Make the -ve ones motivate you to do better rather than as a source of discouragement. With a few years/projects under your belt, you should be able to have garnered enough experience to stand out amongst your peers. Finally, visit web forums, read magazines. You could even do what I do - on a daily basis, go to google, do a random search and check out the top 10 sites that it returns. Analyze the sites for conformance to web standards, design patterns, etc. Ask yourself, "How would I make this site better?" If it is something you like, assume you were given a contract to do a job and see if you could replicate it without copying from them.

The web biz isn't a one day thing. You have to do it daily. You have to eat, drink and sleep it. Then and only then can you be on your path to web dev enlightenment.

I hope this helps.

Here is the link: http://odili.net/news/source/2006/dec/1/565.html

Was this the right approach to take? I will reserve my comments till I hear from you all

Let the debate begin!!

Let me do what I do best - stirring the hornet's nest

First and foremost, let's look at the meaning of the word "programming". Since I can't show you my dictionary, I will refer you to answers.com. I will focus on the technology section and the first part of the 2nd definition,

"A person who designs the logic for and writes the lines of codes of a computer program"

By this definition, "programmers"- web developers and DBAs - are all programmers, by definition. However, by disclipline, is another matter. You could choose to be either a software (java, c, c++, etc) developer, web developer or DBA.

Sorry for getting on a soapbox. This, together with calling web developers "designers", has always been a pet peeve of mine. Now, let me answer your question :

What you should pursue should be a combination of "what you love versus what you know you know versus what the market demands at a particular point in time". Certainly, if you go for, say, DBA because you know it well, yet the market has no demand for it, then you are obviously wasting your time, effort and money. On the other hand, if the market is demanding PHP developers and you have a love for programming (this is where "logic" comes into play ), yet you don't know anything about PHP going in, assuming the company wants someone who can hit the ground running, your day of reckoning is only a matter of time.

Assuming you are in Nigeria, if you ask me, I would say know enough of all 3 disciplines to be dangerous, but like the kung fu masters of old would say, specialize in one. The one I would choose, based on what I have seen/heard about the naija environment, would be web development. There is still a lot of ground to conquer in this field over there, a lot yet to be unveiled. For instance, we are yet to have a true ecommerce online payment/ecommerce solution. Since we have been banned by the likes of paypal et al, we resort to being ripped off by the likes of epayassist and epaygold. As I have said on this forum time without number, whoever comes up with this solution will become an instant billiionaire. Then again, it's just my opinion.

as always, my 2 cents

luvlymoi,

It's a culture thang. As am sure u and others will attest, back in the day, it seemed to be a taboo for actors to even hold hands in movies. I was like, WTF!!

Sha, hopefully it will get **positively** (emphasis on "positively" "better" with time

Jerrymania,

Liiiiike?

Besides, isn't this a case of the pot calling the kettle black? u ask if there is nothing better to use our brains for, yet you not only are reading the post, but are replying to it too