When you qoute someone be sure to use the qoute in the right context:

javarules:

. . . .@tomx
According to Simpson's law (Hommer Simpson that is): Anything that is difficult to do is not worth doing!

I guess u are not a programmer, programming is anything but easy sir

Original qoute:

@tomX:

Market/Bussines savvy.
According to Simpson's law (Hommer Simpson that is): Anything that is difficult to do is not worth doing!
End users do not want to bust their balls just to use a product. Manufacturers will always target the platforms that are easier on the consumers and more readily available.
consumers will go for the products that will give them less stress to use. . . .

The rule in question is a guide to general consumer attitude to product not to the developers. If you think creating difficult to use softwares is the way out for you then best of luck.

javarules:

I tot someone said on this post that learning linux wastes his time.
I hope this person wont mind spending MONTHS learning Vista and M$ Office

javarules:

. . .I don't even think I can use Win XP that well. I have been a linux person all the while. . . .

Your difficulties with Microsoft Office And Microsoft Windows is easily understood then. I did not need more than a few hours to migrate from office 2003 to office 2007. I learnt how to use Windows in a matter of days (back in the days) and I rearly have difficulties with it.

javaprince:

. . . My migration to Ubuntu - can't be seen yet as a lovely experience. I have to spend considerable time (which hav already started) to learn Linux Environment(commands) before I can do meaningful things on it.
Word should go to Dell, Sony, HP, Toshiba (all haters of freeware - so it seems) to start bundling their laptops with Linux(Ubuntu, GNU/Linux etc). But would they?

Market/Bussines savvy.
According to Simpson's law (Hommer Simpson that is): Anything that is difficult to do is not worth doing!
End users do not want to bust their balls just to use a product. Manufacturers will always target the platforms that are easier on the consumers and more readily available.

consumers will go for the products that will give them less stress to use. Which company will like to loose productive man hours all in the name of trying to migrate their employees to Linux? As if using a using windows and MS Office is not already too technical for most base users. I am a programmer and I am not set to waste my time learning to use Linux. I've got more productive things to do.

It's instructive to note that the same techniques that is employed by MLM coys is being employed by financial institution and blue-chip firms to market their products and/or services.

Some people make money, some watch, and some get the shaft up their behind. Cest la Vie.

Most softwares give you an option to check "Automatic update" either during installation or through some other menu item after instalation. If the auto update feature becomes a problem you could always turn it off. I personaly never enable any aout-update feature on any software I install and I never have the problems you guys out-line. If I need updates I know where to look.

My team of psychiatrist have been unable to come to a descision on your case. However the local witch Doctor here assures me his great-grand pa dealt with a similar case during the early part of the century. Here is what he says:
You need to come out of the closet boldly and forcefully. Locate the closest military barracks or facility closest to you. Put on the sexiest lingerie you can afford to buy. Run to the parade ground and declare your stand and insist on getting the commanding officer of the facility to endorse you. Of course don't forget to place an offering to appease the witch Doctor's ancestors on the parrade ground (a pot of red oil with feathers in it will do).

Problem: My wife wants me to buy baby food for our todler. The toddler has just started speaking and all she says all the time is "mamam . . . mama",
is it fair for me to keep spending my hard earned money on the darn kid?

I'll need a Yoruba-English Dictionary for this one.

You strike me as a pet-shop sales man.

I wont say so.

According to some unpublished findings from the Michigan State University, you are suffering from a classic [b]o[/b]pto[b]lo[/b]mpus[b]do[/b]ni syndrome.
It affects 3 out of every seven students. paste your exam questions on naira land and Nairaland gurus and guruettes will supply all the answers. If your lecturers won't mark your scripts, no problem, Seun and all the other moderators will set up a committee to take care of it. Enjoy.

Guys, I've developed an irrational liking for ghana-must-go bags and I am always dreaming of having a picnic somewhere in Apo Hills. That is a good thing right?

@sodgi
That is a very healthy symptom. Aged folks are prone to insomnia 'cos they fear they might not wake up. For a young Bro. sleep is highly recommended. Take a good dose of Vitamin C and a glass of water only (vitamin c is very soluble and will dissipate too quickly if you drink too much water). Sleep for about 16hrs a day. Do it in increments of 8hrs with 30min wakefullness in between. When you do this for a month, your productivity should tripple and so will your income. You'd easily become the star employee of your company and the richest brother on your block.

I have a little problem: I . . . um . . . I . . . darn! I've forgotten it!!

@lyssa,
According to new findings from Swedish scientist (don't ask me which ones) this is perfectly healthy and normal for intellignet individuals. You must never ignore this inner voice. Always debate issues with the voice (especialy in public). You should typicaly speak up loud since the inner person is a little hard of hearing (it is locked inside afterall). The most healthy environments to have such debates include, the market square and in the office. You should periodicaly do it on the street too. Violently resist any attempt by anyone to distract you from the debate (such people don't wish you well). If you get too hot from all the shouting, its OK to take off your clothes just to cool off. Good luck.

I've got a little problem though: Is it normal for people to wash their towels? Theoreticaly, since one is very clean after a bath, ones towel should infact be getting cleaner when ever one uses it.

The Obansajo's are completely innocent of any corruption charge. The money they are vairously accused of embezling was actualy lodged in the Federal account but the stupid accountants forgot to record the transactions.

Good for you. Faith makes life so good!!!

Yours is a typical cas of "Suffering in silence ignorance" syndrome. The treatment is in two phase: To make you awear of your problems, go to the Baale or chief of your area and give him a dirty slap. To solve your problems, a simple dose of panadol or any pain killer washed down with a bottle of bleach will suffice.

Halle Berry and Angelina Jollie are fighting to marry me. They both pledge their undying love but I don't know who to choose.

@jejelolatu
Just set the phone in your head to speaker mode so you and your neighbours can dance to the ring tone.

Please can some one tell me how to stop my laptop screen from mimicking me?Anytime I press an alphabet on the keyboard the screen show the same alphabet.

Here is how this works:-
The poster above you is your patient (for just a post). You automaticaly become the patient for the poster after you.
The first poster starts off with a problem. The next poster gives a solution to the problem and includes a problem of his/her own.
And the chain goes on. (The problems may be imaginery).

Example:

(1st Poster): I've got a problem with the weather. The sun just keeps shining even when I turn off my light switch.

(2nd Poster): @1st Poster, maybe you should try throwing a blanket over the sun. Hope that solves your problem.


Somebody please help me, I've been trying to send a bucket of ice cubes back to my village but somebody keeps substituting it with water!

It's quite instructive to note that a lot of HYIP, MLM fail and that most people that trade FOREX online loose. The fact remains however that these things work. One need to look at the reasons why they fail and you will see that the failure is not always due to a fault in the schemes but mostly to the mindset of people that patronise them.

By their very description, these high yield/high risk biz are attractive because of the possible returns that could be made. A lot of people run in with only the gains in mind without weighing the risks. Such people (being ill-informed) ussual fail (in droves) and the stories of the failures revebrate.

If as many people as rushed into FOREX and MLM etc were to have rushed into snail farming with the same level of information, I think you will quickly find that the similar problems as is witnessed in the HYIP/MLM/FOREX industry will attend to the snail farming industry. The chances of failure in any industry is high if stake holders in that industry are ill informed and have an urealistic expexctation.

Every industry that has ever made a boom also experience a lot of set backs. From the "pure water" industry to call centers, to video clubs etc. They were all quite lucrative at the onset but when every other person seems to be into it then a decline sets in and eventualy equilibrium is attained. There is no single business that is meant for everyone. People need to realy get information on whatever they whish to delve into or they end up as "Foolish People" as described by @Naijacutee.

However to rule on a blanket level that anyone that is into such ventures or bussiness is lazy smack of "Dilbertism" (According to Scott Adams - Authour of The Dilbert Principles: - "People ussualy think anything that they can't do must be easy". I trade Forex amongst other things and I know how much hardwork, research, time and resources it takes to make it profitable. If you think it's a lazy mans vocation then try opening a demo account with any broker and see if you can double your equity in a month. If you can, you probably will take it up full time and if you can't then give kudos to those who have and stop calling them lazy.

In any industry, people should strive for information before they take the final plunge. not all vocations are meant for every one. Some should be farmers, some sky divers, some dancers, some banker and whatever else, just do what you do well.

Dream Weaver and Front Page are both HTML editors. When you add web elements in the design view they include html for you in the code view. I use both front page and dreamweaver (over 8 years) and if you are very conversant with both you will see that there is not much that you can do with one and not achieve with the other. Front page works well with flash elements and other forms of plugins (contrary to what a lot of people believe).

Now the platform you use to build your page will add some script to your page (either CSS or Java script or META tags etc) to facilitate some operations. Mostly you should not bother yourself with these scripts as long as they don't get in your way. If the scripts become an issue you could always use the in-built command to clean up the scripts. Most web editors have such commands.

Try to improve on your HTML and other scripting languages so that you will not get any "code-sickness"  when you look under the hood. You will quickly find yourself getting the hang of any web page even if it was built with MS Word or MS Excell.

MS Front page works with all web browsers but there are things that come with Frontpage that some browsers may not support (like in-line frames). I see this more as a limitation of the browsers than the editor. I once used Namo web editor and it had a "Sliding Frame" feature that was realy cool to use. While it worked well with Internet Explorer and NetScape, opera and others did not support the feature.

Dreamweaver has a lot of cool features that endears it to designers so while I'd advice you to start with dream weaver, do not shun other editors, There are many cool trick I pull with front page that leave my dream-weaver-using-friends wondering "How come?"

Ultimately your ability to work between editors (or not) is a reflection of your strenght (or weakness) as a designer. If you are quite good with coding then you bearly miss a beat when you switch from one editor to another.

lojik:

. . . @tomX
if i say they should fill a validation form on my site that gives them a specific key for their machine, a lot of Nigerians have computers that have no internet access.

Well, its not a global solution but it works for me. The request code can be sent to me through any means even via SMS or even spoken over the phone. Each request code is system specific hence the matching authorisation code is specific to the system producing the request code.

lojik:

. . . @tomX
Also, some of my softwares are developed for childrens' education and that process might be somewhat long for them.

The children probably won't be the ones paying for the softwares so the adult who pays should not have much difficulties with the process.

lojik:

. . . The problem with code request is that i can see your algorithm if i use a decompiler.

I believe a combination of most of these solutions would eventually work. i'm still working on something. i'll let u know soon.

Well I make no claims there (since I've not tried using one).  You will however only get one half of the puzzle. Here is What I did:
I built a couple of encryptors (lets call them Ea and Eb) and a couple of matching decryptors (say Da and Db).
I insert the codes for Ea and Db in the software. Da reads the users system specs and produces the encrypted request code to be sent to me.
On my back end I have a software with Da and Eb built in. Da in my back-end-software decodes the request code and passes this to the back-end-software to create a code which is encrypted by Eb to form the authorisation code. When this is sent to the user, if the code is the right one then Db in the users software will be able to decode it and match it to some registery values on the clients system. Decompiling the software will only give you one half of the pie.
But then again I only build softwares for specific clients (kind of One-of solutions so hackers will probably not be intrested in cracking a software that is tailor-made to a specific client.

Seun:

Isn't it ironic that after using pirated software to develop our programs, we don't want others to pirate our own?

@seun, I've never cracked anyones software and I have no qualms using any cracked (over-priced) software wich filters down to blessed Naija. But I defnitely will not be careless enough to let someone crap where I eat. If strugling Nigerians come up with a way to protect their meager efforts so they can stay afloat in this industry (that is skewed against us by the way) I am all for it.

I still don't know if "Masa" and "Gurasa" refer to the same thing. Whatever it is called though, I enjoy taking it with suya with a lot of yaji (peper).

My all-time favourite is a fruit locally called sour-chop in Nigeria. I still haven't figured out the real name for it though.

Bassie:

. . . .@tomX
one possible and correct value is returned

What criteria will you use to deterimine the value returned?

One problem a lot of people have (but they may not be aware of it) is that their certificates act as blinders for them. They only see liffe through the narrowed vission that their certificate affords them.
I don't have a degree but I work along side degree holders in some firms (I work freelance) and often time I even pull more pay than they do. I remember when I interviewed in a firm and performed brilliantly. The MD told me point blank that I was a waste since I had no degree. A couple of weeks latter he called me back for a meeting and told me that most of those he interviewed did not perform as well as I did but the constraint he has to face is that if he has to tender the resume of his staff to a client then he would have a hard time defending my lack of a degree. We worked out an agreement where by I get to handle jobs for them from the comfort of my home and I get paid. I get more money off him than he pays his employees with their 1st class and 2nd class upper.

Put your self in the shoes of a business man: would you rather pay more money to a person with a sparkling degree who can only partialy deliver. Or will you pay more for the person with a third class (or no degree) who can deliver even beyond expectation on the same project?

Do not let your degree or lack of it act as a limitation to you. Degrees are only good for getting you an interview, what gets you the job and the pay is your ability to deliver. If you can deliver (but have a poor degree) then all you need to do is work on how to get the attention of those who can gaurantee you an interview so that you can directly impress them with what you can do.

Just out of curiousity:
When your anagram is unscrambled, is it just meant to return one matching solution or all matching solutions?
Example
Anagram = nosops
will this return just "spoons" or will it also return "snoops"?

The solution I've been using is entirely software based. On commencement of installation my algorithm queries the registery and gets the system ID for the program. It feeds this along with other parameters queried from the registry into an in-built encryptor. The encryptor mangles all of this together and return the result to the user as the request code. The user will have to send the request code to me (with proof of payment) to get an authorisation code which will only work on that particular system. So far it works fine and it realy gives me the ability to enforce my license condition of one system per license.

I 've been trying to develope a dongle based protection but it's not been easy. I'm still working on it though.

A pal video will have 24 frmes (still pix) per sec. So unless you intend to spen an eon doing frame by frame edit for your video I'd suggest you get a pair of contact lenses.
On the plus side:
The skills will come in handy if you need to show a gradual change in the eyes of the character (from normal eyes to snake eyes) using composite animation techniques. You will still have to do the bulk of the shots with contacts though, so whip out your credit card.

Thanks for your response guys. I've always wondered why many IT firms that provide web solutions insiston employing people who know C# while you will rearly see any advert asking for C++ gurus.

sbucareer:

[font=courier new][size=12pt]
C# is another MS strategy to copy Java language. If you don't understand Java, you will not like C#. Overall, it is a web technology. To learn C# you must be thinking of moving into .NET technologies.

well considering that Microsoft already has Visual J++, why will they have to make a C centric language to mimic Java? Please shed more light on your opinion. Thanks alot.

I am 32yrs old now, a university drop out and I presently don't have any certificate of any kind (not even a birth certificate). I run my own bussiness from home and I am making good money. Every now and againg I do go for interview in companies ( I am talking about oil & gas / Civil engineering firms) and I let them know my age and educational status first off. I show them what I can do and let them know the terms under which I am willing to work (I ussualy like to work freelance so that I will have time for other things - besides I don't like to get tied down).  At the end of the interviews I end up with a job and a nice pay pack and work flexible conditions compared to regular staff. The least amount I've negotiated for is actualy #1,200 per hour and you know what that boils down per month (multiply by 160).
If you are are skilled and good enough to deliver the goods then things like age and certificate (or lack of it) will not realy hold you down. Maintain your integrity no matter what you do.

Hi,
I just wanted to know what you guys think of the languages C++ Vs C#.
Honestly, I've never used C#. I am a C++ coder and I've been using that language for years so I am ussualy not so inclined to drop it. When I heard about C#, I wrote it off as another attempt to make a RAD (Rapid Application Development) version of C++ to woo those who are more into VB and such languages. There have been other versions of RAD C++ in the past and they ussualy compromise some of the speed and power that are inherent in core C++.
C# however seems to be gaining a lot of popularity and I'm realy begining to feel left out. If you do use C# and/or C++ please feel free to share your opinion (from personal experiences) on the pros and cons of either languages.

If you mean film editing jobs then there is no straight forward way other than to package a show reel of your past works and send that to the big studios in Nollywood, sound city etc. If you are good at what you do however you will find out that working on your own will pay you much better.

Are you here yet?

You can make over #150k for editing a 5 min musical video clip if you are good enough. Years ago Bill Clinton had to go to Hollywood Video Producers to raise funds for his campaign. It's just a question of how good you are.
I edit videos and do a bit of composite animation and 3D animation. But I do it more as a hobby than as a career. I'm yet to formaly launch my video editing/animation studio (it's not the topmost thing on my todo list).
You can call or text me via 08062820779.
Enjoy.