Dual Core: The error above is unlikely to have anything to do with traffic surge. It is very likely they updated a plugin and the updated plugin was obfuscated with a different (maybe newer) version of Ioncube OR they updated the Ioncube loaders on their servers and some plugins are dependent on older Ioncube loaders.

IonCube? really, what are they scared of?

a chic comes up and says she won miss NYSC without pics? FINE, I TOO JUST WON A GRAMMY. Happy?

corruptst: I could remember vividly few years back when Etisalat stated emphatically that they needed applicants for their Graduate Trainee Programme irrespective of the course of study. I learnt from a reliable source that they employed all 1st class and virtually all 2nd class upper candidates that applied. If you have been a member of Association of Unemployed Graduates since then, you don't need to explain, we understand your situation.

Nairalanders are not even left out of this decadence. Yoi see a topic on front page and when you quickly take a peep into it, it's a different story entirely. If you can't present a suitable title for your post, how then can you write a business proposal, application letter, letter of invitation, letter of reference, etc. I shake my head. The use of English on nairaland is no poor that we may have to beg the administrators to include a grammar check software to save us from persistent 'gunshot'. 'Bastardization' of the use of tenses, word structure, concord, and what have we, all exist. I always have my fun moments though. Association of Unemployed Graduates. Lol! You need to see the written English of some posters (not all) in this section. Practically, unemployable English. No offence intended.

You also start wondering what planet most posters come from. From the 'End time things' posters whose only sensible thing to say is thus. Imagine being in an interview and they ask you to comment on an issue and all you have to say is "End Time Things". My brother, your employment letter is reserved for you in Heaven. The '1st to comment' people kinda make me wonder of our educational system is breeding intellectuals or clowns. Rather, I should ask my 'able moderators' if there is a prize attached to making such annoying proclamation. And for those who think using the pen for tribal bashing is fun, my guesses are that you either didn't pass through a higher institution or the higher institution you claim to attend didn't pass through you. I am not sorry to say this.

As a way of concluding this piece, reality shows, musicals and sports are fast replacing educational programmes on screen. A below average student can authoritatively tell you how many goals Messi scored in his career, how much Mikel Obi currently earns, who won the champions' league in 2002 including the top goal scorer then, the winners of MTN project fame from inception till date, where Davido is this afternoon and what he ate this morning, etc. Why can't they channel this energy and obsessive information seeking into their education and/research and let's see how things will go from there. These are the same set of people that cannot tell you the first president Nigeria had or tell you the second line in the National Anthem yet d unreleased remixed version of Skelewu is in this their skull.

All stakeholders and the government must wake up to their responsibilities. What the future holds for our educational sector and our youth, all I can say is, "Time will definitely tell".

I hope this post makes front page.

You talk like a sage. Nice piece.

good point

I am sorry, i just wanted to point that out again.

Allohrandy: it seems like you are among those scammer giving Nigeria a bad name because it takes a thief to know a thief. I know many Nigerians in the States and 99.999% of them are hard working and involved in legitimate businesses. Most of the crimes in my city are committed by Americans. I am not really mad at the writer of the article because she is ignorant and needs to be enlighten but I am really piss off your statement. So if a 20 years old Nigerian makes a lot of money and buys a home after spending a year oversea, it means that he is a scammer or a drug dealer. There are many young Nigerians making lots of money legitimately overseas without getting involved in crime. you sound like a Uncle Tom ( A black man during the days of slavery who will do anything to stay in good standing with "the white man" including betray his own people). Go and kiss Ann Coulter as5

he said a 20 year old goes abroad and starts to spend millions of dollars within a year. That is abnormal. For a 20 year Old, its abnormal. There is no crime in being suspicious and reporting to the authorities. They will come in and investigate. If he is clean then fine.

I am guilty of this. I know some people who knows yahoo boys, and despite the fact that i cannot scam anyone myself, i cannot report these pple for fear of being termed "enemy of progress" by thier families. I have neva met them face to face, but u need to see the kind of cars this kids drive. Something wey my papa no go even dream. Are u telling me these guys are legit? All they do is club, party, smoke, drink, and later they will travel again to malaysia probably when the account is running low.

I see a bright future for nigeria but it will take some time though.

God Bless Nigeria

As others have pointed out, Polling at intervals will cripple your servers especially if u use apache. And most of the time you connect to the server even when there is no data to fetch wasting bandwidth and increasing network traffic.

now, you have 2 options:
1. using nodejs with socket i.o
2. using only nginx with long polling.

1. Using nodejs with socket i.o:
(please note that i will not go in details as i feel these information is available evrerywhere online. I am just pointing u in the direction that solved my problem sometime ago.)

Nodejs handles all requests to it from one thread. It is event based which means while it is doing heavy work, it can use available resources to do other works. In Short, it is asynchronous in nature. Anyways, this means it can handle 10s of thousands of connections maybe 100s of thousands if optimised. When combined with socket io, u do not need to poll anymore as the connection will be opened only once from the browser and it is kept open. Whenever there is an update on the server, you could use a pub/sub technique to subsribe to updates for a user and then push it directly to that user's browser(as in the case of chat messages). At intervals, the user's browser can send a heartbeat to nodejs to say "i am still online". It reuses open connection so no hassle.

If i will go this way, i will have to dump mysql for this task ONLY, and use something in-memory like redis.

2. using nginx with longpolling:
The interesting thing is that this technique is still being used by facebook. open facebook in chrome browesr, then ctl-u, click on network. U will find out that facebook makes an ajax request to thier server at an interval . But the difference here is that, the response does not come back immediately. Facebook will not send a response if there is no information for the current user. It keeps the connection opened until it times out on its own. They anoda one is made immediately. This means facebook keeps an activity-like table for all its users that gets updated whenever an action has been taken which relates to a user. This table is then polled(maybe) or like before with a pub/sub and updates is sent back with the open connection.

Also with this technique, i dont see how mysql will last.

In conclusion, since u are just starting out, play with a few tricks to see how they behave. u should not have any problems for now until ur app starts to get real popular.


Sorry before i forget: since nginx will be using PHP, I suggest you have multiple instance of php runnnig in fast cgi mode, and then feed them to nginx as a pool. Nginx times out with 502 gateway nonsense if it has no php instances left to run requests.

you have to implement your own.
first, streaming videos on your own is resource intensive, you have to convert it into formats that many devices can read (iphone, android, ipad, browsers etc.)

Anyway, get jwplayer, or flowplayer(just google them). Then u have to find a cloud provider that allows storing, streaming, and converting of videos for you. Try vzaar, or jwplayer cloud offerings.

My guy, no be small thing oh, and it mite be a bit expensive sha.

if u wanna go a bit cheap, u can opt to upload your videos to amazon s3, use thier transcode service to transcode the videos and deliver it to your player with amazon cloudfront. Its a cheap way but u have to be a little techy.

We want to catapault Nairaland from the present level to the next level of ‘international’ and money making social platform like its peers - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, My Space, etc

Sorry bro, but Nairaland is a Forum, a Nigerian Forum!

The site works great as it is(fast and efficient).

Its not a Social Network.

mollytinrox: I find many things very disturbing about these posts that make front page.

1. I don't know why Ice Prince is here, besides the fact that he got that BET award, and we've heard already. And seen too. Why can't we lay our heads to rest because of this "yanlaboi" that has the same rap pattern for every song?

2. All these cheap magazines that nobody ever reads. I see y'all on magazine racks when I go shopping, and ignore you. So does every other sensible Nigerian. Why are you still in production? I mean, who funds you? Who sent you to be stalking wannabe popular rappers who are almost gonnabe (almost doesn't count )

3. When will you guys ever do anything humanitarian? Even a little picture on the bottom left of the front page of that brain tumor Onyinye will go a long way. This choco boy has money, that girl doesn't. Its not fair at all o, ehen.

4. I'm not going to be surprised if this isnt posted; just like NL mods. They never let a girl whose boss didnt show up at work for the second day running play with her work place PC.

Duhhhh!!

Omo mehn
babes, take it easy oo.

yh, i learnt PHP cos it was the easiest back then. I would have learnt python instead though but at the time python wasnt popular.

rite now, i just use PHP to quickly prototype an idea. if it works, i recode it in java.

.

Known_pal: ^^^ Java and php? aren't you limiting your self, you've got to know than that.

not at all. i can exress myself in anyway using those 2 languages. I would have been OK with just PHP, but PHP can be em' em' sometimes hence Java.

The two make a powerful combo.

Lemme ask u something, why would i communicate with you in french when i know english will do just fine?
I use the languages i am MOST comfortable with.

Known_pal: ^^^ Thanks Bro Does that means programmers should avoid social lifes and relationship stuffs.


Thanks for the url. What language are you good at?

just java and PHP. i dont like any other language

a bunch of them. Here u go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines

basically, c++
i dont know the particular game engine used.

with akeeba, u MUST have a remote database set up. The cpanel is important at this point.
Other options are:

1. ask ur client for the contact details of this host, then resolve issues about pw, login, cpanel with them.

2. if this user is on a vps, try navigate to www.yourdomain.com/cpanel to see if cpanel is installed, then check /etc/passwd on the machine. this is the file cpanel keeps it login details.

if cpanel is not installed, you can just install phpmyadmin, set up ur database as u have in ur localhost and thats it.

Seun: @Javanian: if they can be learnt after the programmer is hired, then they can be learnt before the programmer is hired.

Added this as well just now:
"The boss is committed to creating excellent working conditions for programmers, because he's a programmer himself. Every programmer will have an ergonomic executive chair, a huge desk with ample legroom, and a beautiful desktop computer with a quad HD touchscreen display and high-end specs. Our programming office has all-day air conditioning and lots of space. Commuting from Lagos will be fast and stress-free due to traffic dynamics."

Oga seun this is serious oo. I never new u were this serious. I am eager to see the outcome of this wonderful gathering of elite programmers. Something serious is about to be created. Can u give me a hint of ur nxt project pls, just a hint.

I am not sure, but i suspect it could be cherrypy.

when do you choose to use either of this two?

You choose a non rdbms if your data is non relational eg analysis of apache web server logs.
You choose it also when u dont need joins and transactions which typical rdbms provide
they are used in facebook for the messaging and chat.
In none rdbms parlance, each data is only unique with primary key. Eg mongoDB, couchDB, HBase, Casandra keep thier data as JSON. U are more like just fetching JSON. Nothing complex.

How do you know that your web app is to be developed using either of the two?

Honestly, you can develop any software with both. but of course stuffs like foreign keys, joins will have to be normalized for a non rdbms set up. Building some kind of applications might be difficult with non-rdbms eg. a social network. Most pple use them because of scale. These dbs were built to scale horizontaly, something Mysql is still struggling to do. Simple answer is if u are not Facebook, twitter, google etc, just stick with rdbms.

Are nigerian developers embracing the use of non-RDBMS?

I dont know, but the bigggest app here in nigeria is Nairaland But Nairaland itself is not big enuff to max out mysql.

My conclusion is non-rdbms was not meant to (and can neva) replace rdbms proper. The projects are still pretty young and need time to grow.

.

.

Since i get limcolm nafigato jheep. i dont need this

Seun: Too big, maybe?

Nothing is really too big. but i just feel a modern, relatively fast laptop with a 15' - 17' screen should do. Most of the laptop i see here are those that will attract graphics and gaming addicts.

As a programmer, i really dont know what i need a high-end nvidia or ati for.

A fast corei5 or corei7, 4g ram and any size hardisk larger than 100gb is good.

I am currently using a dell latitude d600. someone got it for me in 2004 and its what i am using to type right now. whats more, it run eclipse, the jvm, python[when i need it to] and i have used it to develop countless sotware. I wont advice you get my kind of ancient laptop but i hope you get my point.

Moreover, most of your programmers mite not feel comfortable with that desktop u are going for. Its just too big, we love to move around and share ideas especially if its a team project. sometimes u even work outside the office(maybe under a quiet tree). Laptops are perfect for this.

its best to read on your laptop, why?

cos when u read something cool, u might quickly want to try it out. you mite also set a quiz around what u have read. If u read only print books, everything would look like theory.

But then again, if u do not have access to constant electricity then you can read print materials.

Also most books u will get will be ebooks (free).

spikes C: This is the language file for english. named en.php
Read the comments to understand the benefits of each part

<?php
function lang($phrase){

//static : so that the variable is not declared on every function run
//I use pure arrays so there's no need for preprocessing like sarutobi suggested
	static $strings = array(

//the keys are all small letters not capitals, very very important
	'home' => 'Home',
	'account' => 'Account',
	'join' => 'Join',
	'login' => 'Login',
	'proceed' => 'Proceed',
	'verify' => 'Verify',
	'post' => 'Post',
	'ad blocks' => 'Ad Blocks',
	'footer left' => 'Footer left',
	'footer right' => 'Footer right',
	'footer bottom left' => 'Footer bottom left',
	'footer bottom right' => 'Footer bottom right',
	'your e-currency account number' => 'Your e-currency account number',
	'your e-currency account name' => 'Your e-currency account name',
	);

//convert the phrase to small letters so as to match with the keys
	$phrase = strtolower(trim($phrase));

//if the phrase exists, display the translation, else display the phrase itself
//This is the fail safe part, if the phrase translation does not exist, the phrase itself should be displayed.
//If you use hash keys, the hash would be displayed 

	if(array_key_exists($phrase,$strings)){
		return $strings[$phrase];
		}else{
			return $phrase;
			}
}

This is the fail safe part, if the phrase translation does not exist, the phrase itself should be displayed.
//If you use hash keys, the hash would be displayed - it won't, it won't, it won't but i dont want to argue
@OP: there is ur solution
@spike c: good one.

spikes C: Oh dude, you're just fcked

You have 2 choices
1. Use the easy method, google translate

2. The "you're fcked method", build an internal translation function from scratch and run ALL your application ouput strings through it. Therefore you'll have to do a thorough manual search and replace

When you chose your method, tell me, i'll gladly help

No 2 is the way to go. and dont worry u are not bleeped . You still employ the same template as with ur current site. All u need do is have files that maps words to thier corresponding translations in diff languages. This can be done with xml, json or YAML. eg for french you have translations.fr, for italian you have translations.it etc

Then in ur template, u have string placeholders that loads this translations when the script encouters them. U will want to load all the data in an associated array(PHP), turples(python) or my personal favorite Maps(java) at runtime so that u dont open a file every time you need to subtitute a placeholder.

Your program will have to determine the location of the visitor through IP address and redirect accordingly. There are many projects that can help you with geolocation. In this regard, u also have 2 options as pointed out by javanian, u could create subdomains for each country eg fr.[youtsitedomain].com and have your script do the redirect based on ip address. or you could create a URL parameter like www.[youtsitedomain].com?lang=fr. the subdomain is cleaner though, but it is more work.

Most web frameworks come with this so just go for one of them.


@Spikes C
"Therefore you'll have to do a thorough manual search and replace" - manual search and replace mite be slow sir. Instead, each word should be represented by a hash key in a collection like a hashmap for fast lookup which then points to that word's tranlations. This way, words like ("is", "they", "we" that are common will only be replaced once cos all of them will produce the same hash value. manual search and replace will replace each time it sees a word, even if that word oocurs millions of times.

oga catch this ones:

breeast
fucck
boobi
pusi
pussyy

etc.

truth is, no matter how smart these bots are, humans will get smarter. Afterall they were designed by humans.

Nice post though.