I think I already made my point. We both know I'm not referring to Ejide.
Tell me something, if Ejide had left the pitch for any reason, who would have replaced him - The 'untested' fella of course.

Just so we are very clear - Cut the Super Eagles and their managers some slack.

No I did not watch the match. But did you realistically expect a make-shift Nigerian team to beat Colombia on their own turf?

Spare me the lecture about how good the current Super Eagles are - they aren't that good. They have massive potential but that potential is yet to be met. It's high time we start being realistic about this current crop of Eagles and start aligning our expections to meet reality.

You don't expect Nigeria to take some virtually unknown and untested goalie to face one of the more recognisable footballing nations and steam-roll them, just because we are the Super Eagles. Even Brazil find it difficult against Colombia, sometimes.

Na 1-0 na I'm NL-ers dey scream like this?

What did we expect when almost everybody pulled out and we took a virtually unknown goalie to a friendly with a renowned footballing country?

Abeg, leave Amodu and co to do their job. Even if it was Arsene Wenger coaching the Nigerian team today, I doubt they would have done any better. All of you crying foul about Amodu represent the [b]type [/b]of people who have brought about the ruin of Nigerian football recently. Finally, the super eagles are finding some stability and you are out to tear down the team based on a 1-0 loss to Colombia?

Get a life.

Yar a'dua is proving to be better than I ever imagined he would be.

In the midst of all this uncertainty with the world financial system, maintaining a satellite in orbit should be the least of our worries, moreso when the thing does not seem to be producing any responsible data.

The president seems to be putting down his foot and getting things done slowly but surely. First, he sends everyone (including Sepp Blatter) into a frenzy in a bid to cut down the budget for hosting the FIFA junior world cup, which he accomplished. Now, this.

I am very convinced that this is no coincidence at all. The story put out by the government is very different from the reality. I'm sure ( or at least I hope) this is all orchestrated and has nothing to do with reality. Nigeria will save billions a year if we don't have some useless satellite running around in space threatening the really useful ones.

Merril Lynch, the same one that was acquired by The Bank of America?

If they say so, I believe them. But Nigeria is not like other countries. All of the countries in major trouble today are credit-driven economies.
Everyone buys everything on credit and so banks are up to their necks in loans. This was bound to come back and haunt them.
Not so in Nigeria, though. There is a credit market but it's so insignificant, it might as well not even exist. The people are not clobbered with debt. That's not to say we are doing great, but at least we are not in danger of losing our homes to fore-closures, companies are not in danger of closing down because they can no longer service the loans they got from the bank (as there no no such loans anyway, at least not for small businesses).

In Nigeria, you want a house, build one or buy one with your own or government money (whichever comes first). In America or UK, you want a house - get a job and good credit profile and voila!, you can get a brand new car, house, whatever fake life you want. Oh, and don't forget to stay in that job or get a better one (or even worse, get 1 or 2 more jobs), because the moment you start defaulting on your debts, the real owners of your fake life will be on your doorstep.

The main cause of this crisis is the way the lenders have been allowed to run amock without any kind of supervision.

So when, Merrill Lynch says Nigeria's economy is safe, it shouldn't come as a surprise. However, this has not translated into a better quality of life for hard working Nigerians, or better education or jobs.
This is why I think the analogy used in the first reply to this thread is a great analogy.

You don't need a domain name to run you Snitz forum except you are ready to go Live.

Your localhost server will do just fine. In that block where you have the connection strings, [b]uncomment [/b]the line which points to the location of your .mdb file.

Currently, it should be in your installation folder.

That should be all.

Deji

Your strDBType is not set, please edit your config.asp
to reflect your database type.

This is simply ASP speak for "You have not set your database type in your config.asp file.
Look for the file in your Snitz installation folder and modify the following parameter:

strDBType = ""
If you intend to use a MySQL server then within the quotation signs, enter "mysql" same goes for SQL server, access, MySqli or anything else that's out there.

Be sure that you have a database configured to work with your webserver.
Also, make sure to comment out unsed lines _{(Just a tip).}

You can usually run most asp, asp.net, php applications on your local machine, with the right configuration of course. You don't need a domain name for testing out your applications.

Let me know how you progress.

No worries mate. When you are ready, give me a shout and I'll send the link to the project page. Not that it'll be "invitation only" for much longer - the BETA version should be launched by the year's end.

@Yawa

You flatter me. I really do need all the help I can on this one.

I had to give away a little bit more than I would normally do as I didn't want to pre-empT unhelpful responses.

I'll let you know when the BETA version is launched.

@ Post

Good job. I applaud the Nigerian judicial system for this. I hope they don't fall into another lapse.

Now Oshiomole should realise that this is not time for partying. There is a degrading state to run, one he will be responsible for, for the next few years.

Hope he does the people of the state, people who put him there proud.

Hey there NlL developers, designers and graphics and web content experts

I am Looking for talented individuals to collaborate with me on a major project. It's a unique project and it's been in the works for just under a year now.

Ok, I know - I'm not giving much away but there's a very good reason for that, but I'll just say this is a fork between TripAdvisor and 43Places, but only for African destinations and hotels.

Essentially, a social network for African tourism enthusiasts and everyday travellers. I am happy to share more details with any serious peron who gets in touch.
The website is built using open source technologies including Joomla!, PHP, Apache, etc

Simply send an email to pie1ect@gmail.com and I'll get back to you with details.

Knowledge of the following technologies are especially needed.

Content Management System
Joomla!
PHP, CSS and Javascript
Web marketing
Web content development
Even if you don't have these skills, but you feel you will be able to contribute then drop me a message.

If you are interested, just give me a shout either via this forum or via email. This is a unique opportunity for web professionals to enhance their CVs and marketability. Let's bring Web 2.0 to Nigeria and Africa at large.

@Deji

I'm not too sure about IIS, but this is the standard way things of this nature are done

[list]
[li]Open up your Windows explorer, then navigate to the folder you initially configured as your DocumentRoot (IIS).[/li]
[li]Copy your Snitz forum folder (I presume you had to unzip it) into your DoumentRoot folder.[/li]
[li]Open your web browser and type in the URL of your Snitz folder. [/li]

On your local machine, that would probably be http://localhost/Snitz and on a remote server, that would be something like http://www.yourdomainname.com/Snitz.

Your Snitz Installation page should show up and from there on, just follow the instructions and you should be safe.

I hope that helps. Good luck.
[/list]

@ deji

You need to be clearer because I think a lot of us on here are confused as to what you really want to do. You already have Snitz Forum software which you are supposed to install on your webserver, but you still want to create [/b]one using [b]dreamweaver. How does Dreamweaver figure in the picture OR are you trying to [b]develop [/b]a brand-new forum software from scratch which looks like Snitz forum?

I'm pretty sure Snitz forum is not that difficult to install on your server, if you already have one.

@ Kelechi

You don't normally need additional software to create ASP pages in dreamweaver, at least not with Dreamweaver 8. I'd say upgrade your dreamweaver to a more current version. Make sure you have a server which can handle ASP files though.

@ post

STOP BUYING E-BOOKS.

Ok, I'm not trying to spoil business for anybody. But people should know that e-books are not [/b]the answer. For crying out loud, I'm sure Seun (the owner of this forum) did not need to buy an e-book before starting Nairaland. Today, Nairaland is one major success story after less than 2 or 3 years (at least from the looks of it).

Do you really need an e-book to give you a business idea? That's what your head is there for - to think up new ideas, bro.

The siblings who started Bebo.com, or the 23-year old guy who started Facebook.com (is he older than that?) did not buy a myriad of e-books to get him started on his way to billions. Niether did the guys who sold Youtube for $1.65 billion after less than 3 years.

Please, use your head and think of creative ideas.

Let me give you some ideas:

[b]Start a social collaboration website (trust me, it's not as expensive as you are thinking right now)
Start a unique social networking website (I emphasize the word "unique". Look up Web 2.0 and see the crazy businesses springing up everywhere, all based on web 2.0.
Just a point - when I say "social networking", I don't mean a "forum" or "dating website". Think of something creative. Nigerians like to gather online. Create somthing that'll interest them. Start a site which invites people to share their favourite Tales by moonlight or something, and then allow other users to rate these stories, add their pictures, share stuff with friends. You may take it or leave it, but I'm sure pretty soon some smart guy will get the gist.

These are things which are made possible by Web 2.0. They are not expensive.

If you want to do your business offline instead, come up with an original idea or a new angle to an existing idea.

Sorry bro, I don't program with ASP.
Even if I did, I'd find it hard to start answering the question you've posed.

Really, why is it so important to create a forum [/b]in [b]Dreamweaver [/b]with [b]ASP ?

If you need a head-start, head over to Sourceforge and I'm 100% certain you'll get a forum application written in ASP. I know about Forum Plus!. Whether it's still a SourceForge project, I don't know. But I'm sure if you typed in something like "ASP Forum", you'll get nothing less than 20 relevant results. Instead of trying to set the record for most unwarranted project start-up, you could go through actual source codes and learn faster.

_{Really, I don't know why people don't visit sourceforge more.}

@ Smartsoft

This "header" redirection code does not work when placed inside <HTML> tags. Your code seems like it'll get the job done. I came across something of this nature when working on a church website with a few guys recently.

Check your code to make sure no text is sent to your browser . You could implement the mail and redirection separately but check first to see if they are working against each other. Also for good measure, close your curly bracket.

@Techpros and Webdezzi

Lay off Yawa. Any person who's been in web design for more than 6 months knows how time-saving third-party codes can be. Instead of trying to grand-stand, you might want to offer practical solutions.

@ Post

Just seeing this for the first time.

The website is wrong from the logo, counter-logo (or whatever it is), navigation control, layout and links (why not inform us that links are going to open up as PDF files?)

What's with horrible horizontal scrolling?
What's with "Nigeria Direct"? Is that a slogan associated with any Nigerian institution?
I think this site reflects the state of professionalism in the web development industry in Nigeria at the moment, but it is our duty to raise the standard and flush out incompetence.

The developer needs to make up his/her mind on what technology to use. ASPX does not seem to be doing great on that site at the moment.
I assume this is a custom content management system, judging from the links on the site, but the user interface really needs a lot of work.
If it's not a CMS, then they need one FAST.

Conclusion: The site needs a complete revamp. Layout, navigation, links, graphics and content structure is completely wrong. The site needs to be re-developed from scratch and with proper planning.

So we got here without any major hang-ups - Great!

Now for the good stuff.

Your webserver should have a folder which holds your web pages e.g "htdocs" or any folder you've indicated for that purpose. We'll refer to this folder as your "webserver" from now on (unless otherwise specified)

Now make sure all the files and folders were properly un-zipped into your Joomla! folder.

Next - open up your web browser and type in the URL of your Joomla folder in your web broswer. That would be:
http://localhost/[joomla folder](redirects to this page).

Your Joomla page should look like this:

For this tutorial, we'll stick with English (United Kingdom). Feel free to select whatever language you are most comfortable with.

Click on Next and you are taken to the next screen:


This is your pre-installation check. You must make sure that all entries in the top half are green (YES). The entries in the econd half should ideally be green. If you have set-up your server correctly, all entries on the page should be gree. If they aren't, then you need to make the neccesary changes and make sure to restart your Apache Server for the changes to take effect.

If you are still with me, then I'll go on.

Click Next and we should see the License Screen. Not to worry about this. It simply says you can Use the Software. For our tutorial, please click NEXT.

Now we are on the database configuration page. This page is important. Here's where you set your database Name and access details.
For this tutorial, the configuration shown below should do.

Enter your own password. The one you set during configuration of your MySql database.

You still with me? Great stuff.

Click NEXT.
This is now your FTP configuration page. We are installing Joomla! on a local server, so this is not a critical configuration option at this time. If the need arises, we can make changes later from the Joomla admin panel.

Click Next.
Now your main configuration page.



This is where you set all your username, password, sitename and email.
It should be pointed out here that for safety reasons, make sure your username and password aren't the same. You don't want someone messing up all your work, if you can help it. Also the Site Name will appear at the very top of your screen, so select a descriptive name, say - Joomla Testing Server.

Having entered all the details requested, click on "Install Sample Data". This should give you a head-start with how content and other stuff are structured in Joomla!
Click NEXT.

Congratulations, you have just installed Joomla! successfully. Open up your Joomla! folder in your webserver and delete the installation folder as asked.


Now go back to your web browser and click on "Site" to see the result of your 5 minutes hardwork or click on "Admin" to get started right away.
Here's the Admin login panel



Enter your login details which you just saw in the last screen and here's your Admin interface



Slick, huh?
Wait till you start adding components and content and banning users.

We'll continue from here next time.
Have a great day.

So we move on. . .

@everyone
Thanks guys for your input.

First off, Joomla! comes with requirements - PHP, MySQL or MySqli, Apache.

All these can be downloaded for free as they are all open source. They can all be downloaded from their respective websites.

On most Linux/Unix releases, you don't need to install the Apache, PHP and MySql. However if you use windows, you need to dowload and install all three or at least two if you prefer to use IIS server. If you are not sure how to install and set up Apache to work with PHP and MySql, there are numerous resources online and I don't intend to rehash widely available content just for the fun of it. You may click here on the links below to get up to speed.

Installing Apache, PHP and MySql and Suse Linux
Installing Apache, PHP and MySql on Windows Vista
Installing Apache, PHP and MySql on Windows XP
OR
You could simply get XAMPP which includes everything you need to get you on your merry way in a few minutes (ignore the nerdy-looking girl on the page). There's also WAMP, which includes all three applications as well. My personal recommendation - Get XAMPP and save yourself the stress.
You could also get a ready-made Joomla installation, JSAS which is actually a stand-alone server. This only allows you one Joomla instance at a time.

Ok, so we got that sorted. Now we need to download Joomla! and install it.
Head over to Joomla.org and click on the black button which says "Download. . . the latest version". For the purpose of this tutorial, we will be working with Joomla 1.5.x with frequent references to Joomla 1.0.x as we progress. Both installations are stable as of today but 1.5.x is more responsive to the demands of Web 2.0 from my own personal experience.

Having downloaded your Joomla package, open up your favourite ZIP software or simply right-click on the file and un-zip to a folder of your choosing.

Next Post.

@Quandrillo

That is a very wrong concept. There is a reason why professionals decided to define these jobs more clearly. Web developers and designers are more technically-aware than the webmaster colleagues. Webmasters, from my experience tend to be people with minimal web development or web programming skills.

So they are employed after the site has been developed to keep an eye on it, so to speak. To tweak one or two things, if the need arises. Webmasters are not web gurus as a lot of people are wont to be believe.

I think the idea of the "webmaster" is overhyped in Nigeria. I say so because I started my foray into the web development industry in Nigeria. We somehow portray the so-called webmaster as a know-it-all when it comes to creating websites.

This notion has to be revised. There should be more specialization and in return, we get more efficiency. I think this is the singular most important reason we still see many half-baked websites in Nigeria. One person (the "webmaster") designs everything from layout and navigation, graphics and colors, to usability, data handling and SEO and YES, you do get a website with no usability, weird color combinations, animated graphich flying all over the pages, forms that don't work, etc at the end of the day.

Cool. I was waiting to see if anyone was interested in a tutorial before delving in.

Well, before I go on to the tutorials, a little background info. on Joomla!

First off - Joomla! is NOT a website. It is a content management system which anyone with average technical knowledge can use to create different types of websites ranging from personal/family homepages and blogs to large coporate portals. E.g The United Nations uses Joomla, MTV and numerous other smaller websites and Blogs.

Joomla is basically a framework and it's design makes it very easy to extend and integrate new features. Anyone can actually develop an application to work with Joomla and to give you an idea of what is possible with Joomla, you can take a look at the Joomla Extensions Directory. There's over 4000 extensions as at this morning.

Now, these extensions are categorised into three types:

==> Components - which basically provide an extension to the core functionality of Joomla! It allows you to add new functionality to the core system.

==> Modules - which allows you (the joomla! user) to lay out different functions on your 'website'. The frontpage of your joomla website is really a collection modules laid out on a template. Modules are placed in different positions on the page which are defined in your template code. For instance, there's a left position, right position and bottom position. You decide to place your "main menu" on the left position, a banner on the right, and your copyright note in the bottom position and there you are. You have just put together a "website" in a few minutes.  I'll revisit this topic again in the near future as we go along.

==> Plugins (formerly mambot) - allow you to extend existing functions in your Joomla! installation. It does not neccesarily add new functionality to Joomla! (unlike components) but it extends existing functionality.
This is something I have debated with some of my Joomla colleagues with nobody winning, I might add.

I'll stop here for now. I've got work to go to. But I'll continue later in the evening with installation and set up. It gets more interesting.

I forgot to add - Joomla is Free to use.
Have a blessed day, folks.

I'm not sure how you embed videos on this forum but there are informative videos on Youtube relating to this topic.

Here's the link. I'm sure this should solve your problem.

Adding Adsense to Blogger Blog

Another Link
Link Two

I was on your website a few minutes ago and I don't see myself registering on there (at least not yet). The layout is not good at all. If you are going to put that "Free Forum" banner, then put it somewhere else.

Talking about promotion, promote your website subtly on Nigerian forums and blogs. It won't hurt to go to Facebook, Hi5 and promote your site to friends and Nigerian groups and ask them to send your website link to others.

Facebook, Hi5, Bebo and other social networking websites.

Just an aside: I saw a Nigerian forum being advertised on Google Adwords recently and I was like
Why would you go and spend all that money when there are so many cheaper options like Nigerian newspaer websites and the like?
Anyway, I'm sure the owner has his/her reasons.

I like the simplicity of the website.
For the fact that it does not seem to use tables, inline CSS and weird javascript. . . . . Halleluyah.

Seriously, too many Nigerian websites make me want to scratch out my eyes with all the tables nested inside other ill-defined tables and some weird inline CSS looking like something spewed out of MS frontpage.

Now to the critique part:

1. As yawa mentioned, the "Teammasters Limited" text at the top of the page should stand out more. I'm fine with the sub-text,    though.

2. Also to the right of the logo, believe something should fill that space, preferrably a shade of color or graphic (not animated). As much as I like the simplicity, it should be too simplified so it doesn't lose it's appeal. Just my experience.

3. Instead of "Welcome to Teammasters" as the header of every page, why not use a more appropriate header related to the content you are presenting to the viewer.

4. Why not implement a contact form which scrolls out when you click a link (or just a form) instead of placing an email link on the contact page?

I came across a thread with yawa and someone else discussing the demerits of having your visitors click on an email link. And moreover there's also issues with spambot which harvest email addresses placed like you done on the site.

5. It's always a good idea to have a privacy policy on any site which gathers user data (however minimal). My experience has made me take this seriously, maybe it's not such a big issue back home. But don't leave any loose ends.

6. What's with the full-stop (.) at the end of the foot links, after "contact us"?

Overall, I say good work.

Hello everyone,

I started web designing with HTML like everyone else. However over the last 24 months I have switched to content management systems and Joomla has become my favourite, not just because it's open source but because of it's wide range of applications. Joomla is not simply a content management system, it is a framework on which one can develop any sort of website ranging from small personal home pages, powerful social networking websites to enterprise intranets.

I know there are a few Joomla enthusiasts and others who would like to know how to use Joomla to create powerful websites within hours.
I'm happy to provide tutorials and/or pointers via this forum, if needed.

I could be wrong but I think in the Nigerian context, being that, generally speaking, we love our titles, the term "webmaster" is just one of such that makes people feel good. Just like, "Dr. Alhaji Engr Chief xyz

I agree with you.
As to change of name - I would change the name from "webmasters" as it doesn't really sound like the 21st century. It sounds too. . . tacky, if may be so bold.

I'm not bashing NL but the sub-forum could be more aptly named.
Having said that, kudos to Seun. NL is no small feat.

Does it really surprise anyone that the major news broadcasters (TV and newspapers) are not too keen on reporting on these issues?

They are supposed to channel the voice of the people. It won't help much that the only people speaking out are doing so online. If vanguard newspaper and the rest of them can be persuaded to take their eyes off most of the irrelevant news they constantly report, maybe just maybe they will find some space on their pages to channel the displeasure of Nigerians about the dangerous pattern this government is beginning to set.

It's Official folks.

Obama is the 44th President of the United States of America.

I can't stand this. . . I actually have tears in my eyes.

What a day!!

Watch it on Huffington Post.
Just click the link. and the video is on the page.

This is not touchscreen tech.
This is something straight from from Sci-Fi movies. If you've seen the movie "S1m0ne", you'll get the picture.

Obama is already on 175 according to the BBC and MSNBC.

Just to be sure, he's going to take CA (55) and Florida (27).  Add VA, NC and WC

This is definitely looking like a land-slide to me, guys.

--> Too late

Men, this forum could pass for a US election results Live forum.

I have been following the election results on Intrade.com
It appears to me everything is going according to the predictions by these guys (which is always correct, by the way) and they project Obama to win by 365 to 163 currently.

You can follow the election everywhere. If you can't watch it on TV, go to Huffington Post.
You can see google, MSNBC, CNN, Daily Kos and several others on that page.

Today is history in itself.

Viewers of CNN today were treated to something historic - live reporting from a hologram. Just to be clear, this is the first time ever anything like this has been done.

I'm not a graphics or media technology buff but this impressed me to no end. I'm gob-smacked.

What do you guys think? What's in store for us next?