₦airaland Forum

When the color was changed yesterday, that was an April Fool's joke. The "uprising" is nothing to be proud about!

kodewrita: Hypothetical question: What if you only do the retrieving of data once and convert the result into a picture that you cache (at data entry) on your server or an Amazon Web Service bucket?

Memory is a more likely bottleneck than the CPU, so storing the data in a more bulky format (as an image) will probably slow things down because 1.5 million images would require more RAM than the data used to construct the images. Simple applications like JAMB result checking (and Nairalist) don't require advanced optimizations. Just design your DB and queries carefully such that each page requires very few queries, all of which are perfectly indexed, and your performance would be fantastic.

I meant to say that while the 120s keepalive timeout is definitely tying down some resources, the issue has nothing to do with the number of TCP/IP ports (you can have more than 64000 simultaneous connections on a server). The problem is that every connection consumes some memory, and probably requires a separate thread depending on the architecture of IIS.

There are probably also configured limits on the number of simultaneous active/pending connections, so when those limits are reached, the server will stop accepting new connections.

Some rules have been relaxed:
- The deadline for indicating interest in the contest has been lifter, to increase the pool of contestants.
- The deadline for submitting your final entry has been shifted forward slightly to Sunday 2nd April at 11pm.
Go, go, go, go, go! Code away.

@dell_net: Love the way you think. What you've observed is the HTTP keepalive timeout. Wrong conclusion, though.

Found this nostalgicpicture of the current CEO of GTBank (Segun Agbaje) and the former, much-beloved GTB CEO (Tayo Aderinokun) on Facebook. What do you think?

pystar: @Seun,
Here is my solution on Google code http://code.google.com/p/nairaland-coding-challenge/. I created it using Python/web2py, if you have any issues running it contact me @ twitter.com/pystar.or leave a comment here.

Just seeing this. Thanks so much.

@Babaggio: It was just authoritative. Well, I'm sorry about that, but I'm trying to run a contest and it's so hard each time I come back to this thread only to notice that, apparently, a ₦150,000.00 prize is not enough to convince people to learn Python.

As I said before, you cannot separate script performance from server capacity. A bad script with horrible algorithms can be 1000 times slower than a well-written script with optimal algorithms, such that you will need 1000 servers to do the job that one server can do with a good script. You can argue that in JAMB's case the script was not the problem, but you can't prove it unless you obtain the scripts currently being used by JAMB, benchmark them, and compare them with the best script written by participants in this contest ad running on the same server. Without this information, the entire debate is pointless, so I will need the debate to end right now.

It's a problem we anticipated and solved a long time ago, but the username shown in the topic display pages aren't reflecting the fix. Visit www.nairaland.com/profile/programming to see your actual profile. No harm done at all.

Phew. Happy April Fools Day everyone.

@egift: I like your theme better than the current one. Pls send me the HTML and CSS codes.

mukina2: I reserve my comment

What's the meaning of this? I explained the rationale to you. Why not send me a private mail if you have issues with it?

I made a big mistake with New Nairaland, by making the colours too bright, so for a while now I've been experimenting with this theme. I know this new look not perfect, but I think it's much better on the eyes. I will keep tweaking it over time to make it better.

As a scientist at heart , I tried to research the issues with the old theme in a objective manner. My conclusion was that the old theme was painful on the eyes primarily because bright colors bombard the eye with excess photons, causing over-excitement of the cornea, leading to pain after using the site for a few hours. For me initially, I didn't understand this because I only used the site for 30 minutes to an hour at a stretch, but some days ago after a long moderating session of about 2 hours my eyes started to water and I knew something was wrong, so I started working on less photonic theme with dark colors that are easy on the eye.

The way it works is that the background occupies a much larger area than the text, so if the background is dark and the text is light it reduces the number of photon bombarding your cornea and provides relief to any pent up tension in the eyeballs. So I inverted colors to retain the same pleasing blend of colors you're used to while reducing the photonic bombardment rate considerably.

I know that my scientific rather than artistic approach won't win people over instantly, but if after browsing for 2 hours you notice that your eyes are perfectly relaxed and not watering at all, I hope you'll understand why that's happening and appreciate it.

Fayimora: [font=Courier][size=11pt]@Seun
Errm I dont understand what exactly is going on here! Who conducts the exams? I am sure they have THE database. How exactly are you going to get access to that or is there an API that the developers would make use of? Are they supposed to mock a db?(not a good idea) Couldn't see anything making that clear enough in your description.

You'll create your own database and populate it with randomly generated data.
I'm thinking of developing a reference DB schema to make things easier for newbies.

Hmm I thought I read a previous post saying "I also want to bring great programmers out of the closet (for jobs)". I think it should be rephrased to "I also want to bring great Python programmers out of the closet (for jobs)"

Great programmers can learn new languages. Python is the easiest language to learn. Piece of cake for you.

BTW, I sent you 4 emails when you launched NL2 but didn't get a reply.

I didn't get any of them. I don't know why .... where did you send the mails to?

morufoye: game on

Please express interest ASAP by creating a public repo and posting a link to it here.

PrinceDudu: Add java nah, abeg.

You can learn Python easily using links provided earlier in this thread

askphantom: @Seun: whats your beef with PHP?

Learn Python using the links provided above. Your eyes will be opened to wondrous things you never imagined.

I tried to create a project on google code bt couldn't can you explain hw to do this.

Go to code.google.com and click on "create a new project". You have to be signed in to your Google Account.
If Google Code doesn't work for you, try Bitbucket. The most important thing is to setup a public hg repo.

eazyd: Can you answer this so i can indicate my interest ASAP

This is a really tough decision for me. You can enter but let me think about the prize issue for a while.

If you're interested in this contest, create a project on Google Code, Github or Bitbucket and post a link to the source code repo on this thread. If you don't indicate your interest today or tomorrow, you won't be allowed to participate later.

life_style: How long will it take me to learn python?

If you're competent in another programming language, Python is the easiest programming language to pick up. Just download Python 3.2.3 and read the Python tutorial that comes with it. If anything is not clear, browse/search StackOverflow. Go through the Python module documentation. Ask questions on this thread.

Once you understand Python, download the CherryPy web framework and install it. Read the documentation to get up to speed and play with it for a while. If you have questions, search the web or ask on this thread.

You will also need the MySQL driver for Python. Download this and follow the Python 3 installation instructions. Of course, you must download MySQL to your machine in order to use it.

Koolking: why this [bold] criteria oga seun?

I want to promote Python3 & CherryPy in Nigeria. I also want to bring great programmers out of the closet (for jobs).

You can develop your version of the software using PHP or ASP.net. You may not win my prize if you do that, but's not impossible that someone else will offer a prize for the best PHP/ASP.net entry. The key thing is to show the world what you can do.

We're going to benchmarks the scripts, inspect the quality of the code, etc. We're going to introduce the world to a new set of super-smart geeks who can create solid websites in record time using effective tools. People need to step up their game.

niyyie: I suspected JAMB's annual problem is a server capacity issue and not necessarily script-related.

That's possible, but you can't separate the two issues: script quality affects server capacity. A inefficient script would require a more powerful server to handle the same amount of traffic that a more efficient script would handle effortlessly on a wimpy server.

I suspect that, with a well-optimized script, any entry level dedicated server would be able to handle the level of traffic JAMB's website has to handle when UTME results are released each year. The site is a read-only web application. People visit to check results and that's it. There's no access control or account management to worry about. No updates. It should be an extremely fast website.

but that money small o compared to what jamb will offer u if u were to sell to them.

The scripts submitted for this contest will be developed in public repositories and released as open source.

IT Experts working for JAMB can just follow this contest and download the winning script when it's over. They can take it, polish it, and install it on their server, free of charge. I don't mind. I'm just doing this to expose the hidden programming talents among us.

Hello Guys & Girls,

The JAMB website goes down every year when results are released. It's a national embarrassment, and it needs to be fixed right away. I bet the JAMB website is going to crash again after the next UTME exam if we don't show them how it's done!

I hereby announce a programming contest to create an open source JAMB result checking script just to show the JAMB Tech guys how it's done. You're to create a simple JAMB result checking website that works just like the official version and can handle millions of candidate records and heavy traffic from all of them trying to check their results on the same day.

I'm also offering a prize of 150 thousand naira to the person who writes the best JAMB result checking script, but in order to win the prize, you must satisfy certain conditions:

1) You must be unemployed or employed/self-employed and currently earning less than ₦251k per month.
2) You must develop your JAMB result checker with Python 3.2, CherryPy , MySQL 5+, & hg on Google Code.
3) You must indicate your interest immediately by posting a link to your repo here.
4) You must complete the result checker before 11pm on Sunday 8th April and link to it on this thread.

The writer of the best result checking script as assessed by me and other judges will win 150,000 naira, provided you qualify and follow all the rules. The money will be deposited into your account about 3 days after the submission deadline.

Ask me any question about this contest and I'll try to answer you promptly.

Good luck!

Science and Law. Hmm.

Pa22: But was it Seun Tinubu that initiated the courtesy call?

No, but, from the story:

After listening to the group, the former Governor was reported to have told the students to put their request in writing.
He thereafter directed his son, Seun, who is also a student of the Law School, to “settle” the visitors.

Seun had contested a seat on the Students Representatives Council (SRC) against a daughter of the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, Azeeat. He lost.

Apparently to worm himself into the hearts of fellow students, Seun gave the visiting students a sizeable sum.

The "paltry sum of N23,500" per student is definitely much more than what they need for transportation.

How does giving students that paid Tinubu transport fare translates to tinubu bribing them?

Topic changed, but it's obvious that the goal of the "gift" was to promote Seun Tinubu's political ambition.

Ok, I see what you mean. Thanks so much.

@abbyode: Thanks for your entry. Can we see your source code?

I use python 3.2 with mysql connector/python.

the site gets new members almost at the rate of one per minute [give or take] and this has been consistent for a while and didnt change even when you switched to the new interface.

So? It just demonstrates that people don't register on Nairaland in order to enjoy the interface. They register to enjoy and interact with the content, and since new Nairaland did not change the content of Nairaland, the registration rate could not have changed. Also, any reduced usage by PC users would have been counterbalanced by increased mobile usage. The comparison with Western forums is irrelevant; you should be comparing us with other Nigerian Forums that target Nigerians living in Nigeria. Use common sense.