₦airaland Forum

http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/index.html isn't an ugly site.

That depends on what your definition of what ugly is.

That is an ugly site to me, design-wise.  However, its ugliness hasn't discouraged people from flocking to it.  That proves that people don't care about the flashy designs that some think is so important.  People would much rather get the info they need quickly than wait for flash to load.

I agree.

But the point we're making is that being beautiful is not something people particularly care about on the web.  That is totally contrary to what I've heard, and in fact have had to struggle with many ignorant designers on here about.

Here is another example:

www.michaelsavage.com - get about 2 million visits per month.

Nigerian web architects need to study the web and know what matters, and what doesn't if they want to succeed online.

Men u guys should stop beign sentimental here.

THERE IS NO COMPARISON UNLESS U R MEGA RICH. 4 THE AVERAGE MAN LIFE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER IN THE WEST. IF U DONT THINK SO, PACK UR BAGS AND RELOCATE TO NAIJA.

The western nations don't compare to naija in anyway jeeeeeeeeez.

You just commited the worst sin against diehard Naijaphiliacs.

I can't answer that because I don't have an authritative answer

Fair enough.

But my point is clear. Irrespective of how you interact with the machine, you still interact with it anyway. That leaves room for configuration errors, which in turn opens the door for vulnerabilities. There is nothing SAGE Brickserver can do for you in cases of human errors. I don't think I can explain it any clearer than that.

That is interesting.

I would like to know how applications are installed on it without a shell.

I know that sometimes in order to install an application, you have to change permissions for files/directories. Does brickserver let you change permissions? Please answer that.

You need more than that. Usually you need US residence + 2 years of cali residence + proof of intension to stay + ,

You mean brickserver wouldn't allow root to change /home permission to 0777?

If it would, then it is possible for someone to inadvertently change the permission to 0777. Agree?

Really i better relocate there, what the shell am i doing in New York

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough.  I meant cali residents.

I don't know about the UK. But kids in Elementary school and high schools here don't even pay "school fees".

Also, California residents pay next to nothing to attend community colleges, and university.

Furthermore, you could work in America as a student.
There are a lot of scholarships available.

That's true.  But you're assuming that the permissions would be set correctly always.  People make mistakes, and that is what crackers are looking for.

Besides, my example is only one example. There are tons of mistakes that programmers make when writing code, not realizing the security implications.

So, going back to my point, your machine is only as secure as what you put into it.

I understand what you are saying about the SAGE Brickserver OS being secure.

But my point is that you still have to run servers on it such as web, email, ftp, scripting, etc.

Weakness can be introduced into the machine that way.  I don't see how the SAGE Brickserver can prevent bad code from running, and hence from being being hacked.

For example, if I write a php code that allows a user to delete his own directory based on his username:

system("rm -fr $username";

What happens if the user decides to choose a username such as /htdocs, and I don't have anything in my code to prevent that?

The code then comes out as:

system("rm -fr /htdocs";

Now, assuming that /htdocs is where all my web documents are served from.  Suddenly, you've allowed a user to delete your whole website due to sloppy code.

For security - Try hacking into the SAGE-Brick Server - if any one can get in - I personally will give that person $200, it doesn't even have a shell.

A machine is only as secure as the software you run on it.

Do people really watch movies online as in it is a successful venture?
Seun, should you compromise standards because of money?

Oh yes, people watch movies online. Check out sites like movieflix, atomfilms, or winampTV, etc.

With assymetric 9 Mbps down/1 Mbps up Internet speed in people's homes going for $45/month, what stops you from watching movies online?

Sorry. A secret is no longer a secret once it becomes known to more than one person. Sorry to be direct, but that's my nature.

Doing a little thinking of your own should give you some ideas.

But checking pictures to be fake, how do you manage that? I'd be interested in knowing the rudiments of the technique.

I'm afraid I can't share that information, since it'd amount to giving 419'ers a way to circumvent it, which defeats the whole idea. Get it?

so what are we waiting for?

alexis is waiting for your response, which you haven't given any.

America is not the same for every Nigerian. Just the same way that it's not the same for every American.

There are people in America more downtrodden than a poor person in Nigeria. At the same time, there are successful people, living the American dream.

So, I think it's wrong to lump every Nigerian abroad together in a class. Also, the life of a Nigerian with American citizenship differs from someone living illegally, or whose status is questionable in some way.

America is great in a lot of ways. No malaria. No hunger. No rioting in schools. No religious mumbo jumbo. There are jobs. 911 brings the cops to your door. Opportunities abound. Things are organized.

Nigeria beats America in camaraderie among people. Most Americans don't know their next door neighbor. Also, life is more relaxed in Nigeria compared to America where life is constantly about making good better. That can be stressful sometimes.

In general, talk in cheap. I haven't seen anybody who lives well in America, and wants to return to Nigeria after a couple of years.

They do not need to share their cracks and patches with the world to make use of them, so that statement doesn't make sense. Am I missing something?

Yes, you're missing something.

It's the spirit of sharing that makes it possible to have all those softwares available.

Mr A has Photoshop.
Ms B has Win XP.
Ms C has AutoCAD.

Ms B wants Photoshop, and gets it from a website for free. Because of the gratitude of free stuff, she decides to upload her copy of Win XP. Now the website has Photoshop, and WinXP. Ms C repeats what Ms B did, and suddenly you have a website with many different softwares.

Without sharing, you won't have these softwares.

The most expensive car I've been is a Ferrari. They're always manual transmission, and you have to step on the pedal lightly, or the car would fly out of control. Too much power.

People who buy these expensive cars do it as an investment. They park them in a garage usually, paying tens of thousand of $$ a month in insurance fees. They take the cars out once in a while to car shows. They can also get paid by Hollywood for certain movies.

If an expensive car is stolen, the thief usually would do it for blackmail reasons. Once his demands are met, the car is returned to the owner.

There are many billionaires around the world. So, buying a $1.7 mil car as an investment is no big deal.

As far as what the website owners gain, I'd say they get to grab any software they want for free. Also, Bandwidth costs next to nothing these days (10GB/day data transfer for $5/month). Hence, they can afford to let people download huge files free of charge.

Another thing is vindictiveness. When people are fired from a job, they often want to get back at their former employer. So, if they have inside information about a software created by the company, they'd share the secret to sabotage it.

Furthermore, many people dislike Microsoft monopoly.

Personally, I don't have a problem finding softwares. Open source is my answer.

Eventually, I think all softwares will become free. The only thing people would pay for would be what is created with those softwares. For example, google is creating an online wordprocessor. Also, php has functions that let you process graphics. With a good knowledge of dhtml and ajax, most softwares can be moved online to rival their desktop counterparts.

@Typewriter

Channel your energy toward positive thinking. You waste a lot of time on trivilities.

It is a wrong move for any bank to out source their web hosting, especially if they plan to do e-banking. They should consult you to help them build there own web hosting and employ application developer to write the e-banking.

It should be fine to outsource hosting, if:

1. The hosting company is reputable.
2. The server is dedicated (colocated).

At the end of the day, outsourcing may be the only way to go in Nigeria, since hosting in-house could get really expensive. Stable electricity, physical security, high speed Internet lines, etc, all are expensive to provide. These things are already available in the isp's facility.

I did my home work and had my company buy the SAGE - BrickServer, a server that has never been broken into,

That is good news to know some banks in Africa are planning on automating their operations.  It's about time.  And I don't blame them for wanting assurance of the highest level of security.

I guess a SAGE - BrickServer is worth it if it's not overly expensive.  But you can achieve the same level of security with linux.  Besides, SAGE - BrickServer is only as secure as the software you run on it.

With linux:

1. Install enterprise version.
2. Turn off absolutely ALL unncecessary services.
3. Configure your software firewall (ipchains).
4. Get a router with built in hardware firewall.
5. Put yourself on security mailing lists.
6. Slap 32+ xter password on your root account.  Basically, a very strong password.
7. Visit hackers' lounges and have them try to penetrate your machine.  Crackers/hackers can be useful too.
8. Do your own hacking, and benchmarking.  Looking out for possible buffer overlows.
9. Visit sites like https://www.grc.com/ to check your sheilds.
10. Have logWatch email you daily activity report.
11. etc.

With adequate testing, you'd have a solid machine that is virtually impenetrable.

@sbucareer

You have a point about accessibility to the impaired.

But let's face it, if you're blind, you cannot watch movies online.  And no w3c standard can change that. Unless of course you're saying that movies should be removed from the Internet to accommodate the blind.

We shouldn't confuse w3c recommendations with w3c standards.  What you've enumerated are mere recommendations, which as Seun said could be selectively scorned depending on your target audience.

Funny you should mention 419'ers.  I've been closely monitoring the profiles posted by people from certain countries on my site, and I've noticed that they almost always claim to be female, they lie about their location (always claim to in the USA), and lie about everything else.  For example, some will say they're 21, but hold a PhD.  Or that they're 6'2" in height and weigh 75Lbs, etc.  For these reasons, I've banned signups originating from certain problem IP blocks, because they're basically polluting my site.

You'd need to take the same measures, or your site would end up being filled with nothing but fake profiles from 419'ers. 

I also do other things like programmatically screen messages for 419 content before delivery is allowed.  Basically, if your message contains certain phrases or terms, you'd be told it looks like spam and cannot be processed.  And most of the time they are spam.

As for fake pictures, I have ways of checking if a picture is stolen.  My site is the only site doing this as far as I know.  And everything is automated too.

You have an uphill battle running a dating site.  I wish you success.

why not now?

Yes, why not now?

Seun - I gave him 2 options.

1. I do it for free but you give me your word that you will credit the work to me by displaying my website link on the site you will host the page
2. I build it for you for a small fee and you use it as you like, you don't have to give me any credit or link to my site

@larger_20

I've been wrapped up in the building of the following e-commerce site for the past two months: http://www.mytruefans.com/

Once the site is done, I'd be able to take on another project. You can always contact me from my main site. Thanks for endorsing my work.

If Nigerian presidency were akin to a job opening, I could apply.  But the dirty politics, and the chaotic campaigning makes it impossible for me to participate in it.

The Nigerian president is the person we know.  However we forget that the president's power is limited in a democracy.  So, there are things that the president would like to change, but cannot, because our laws are an impediment. So, if I became president today, I would commence making all kinds of changes, but I'd be frustrated, because difficult, uneducated, selfish, individuals would hinder the effort.

A flash site itself is not a problem with w3c standards. A flash movie is like any other movie. The only concern will be the code used to embed the movie into a web page. And as already stated by some, the OBJECT tag is compliant with standards. For backward compatibility, EMBED also needs to go inside the OBJECT tag.

I commend those who are at least paying attention to standards. A unified coding system is better for the web community at large. Javascript used to be such a mess some years ago because of incompatible standards. Today, the newer browsers are getting better, and obeying the DOM standard.

eno7 is a well known turkish hacker and they are only mass defacing sites for the sake of record and nothing more, they are usually good in defacing php sites, maybe lagbaja's was php

What do you mean by "php sites"?

Some forum softwares written in php have had security issues in the past.  But that has nothing to do with php.  Rather, it has to do with the coders.  The forum could have been written in any language by these poor programmers.