₦airaland Forum

When I said "recognized fact", I meant that anyone who received proper training in any computer design related field learns this as the first principle.

Maybe I am one of those who speaks without thinking first but I have received training in computer design/development and what you say was never taught what you allude to, as a first principle. Oh, sorry, I guess I didn't receive "proper training".

I still maintain that without actual numbers, that assertion is wrong.

Its not genius but real stupidity when you invest precious time producing something from scratch when a ready-made form is available for the asking.

Again, I beg to differ. Generally speaking, you have more control over what you do from scratch. I have very recent experience to back up this claim - a client, in a bid to "save" money, bought a template from template monster. This template has at least 7 nested tables and the design/layout is plain vanilla. In the end, I had to gut out a few tables, replace image rollovers with CSS and do some other stuff just to make it manageable. In the end, guess what? I still charged him as though I were coding from scratch.

Of course, it takes more time but hey, time is money. Have you ever wondered why a ferrari costs more than a benz? This principle isn't limited to web dev. Sorry once again, I guess they too didn't get "proper training".

Yeah, he said, "since no one will praise me, I will praise myself" but we both know you knew that already, he he.

Anyways, I am happy at your accomplishment, probably happier for you than you are for yourself.  Just remember me come royalty time, that's all.  You slyly dodged that part of my post in your last post 

I will definitely promote it to all those that I know. Again, though I may never use drupal, just to encourage you and others, I will most likely buy it, again, just to have something to show oyibo that we can do it too.

By the way, other than letting packt do it, what r u doing on your own end to promote it? Will you travel out? Appear on CNN? NTA, etc? Just curious. This is huge man, especially if the entire drupal community loves it.

more than you think is not a proper answer because you cant possibly know whot i think.

I will give that to you so, though my point still stands, I will revise to, * more than you might think *

And as usual you have the wrong idea of wot a "fully custom-made design" really is if you believe its so common.

Oh, it is very common.  But since you seem to be in the know, why not enlighten us?  Also "as usual"? Since we are going into semantics and logic, this implies that I have had the wrong idea about this in the past, something I have not done.   I demand that you retract this statement, if not that you outright apologize 

In other words every1 copies from someone else. Its already a recognised fact.

If that is the case (for the sake of argument), then why bring up the issue of "fully custom-made design"?  This goes back to my question, just to make sure we are on the same page, what is a "fully custom-made design"? 

"Recognised fact"?  Again, since we are dealing with semantics, please prove this with statistics.

Do tell, please.

If you watch it again and zoom the screen, you will see that dhtml is tatooed on the chest of japanese fighter.

No wonder!  I noticed it too but since I didn't (virtually) know you at the time, I couldn't make the connection 

Seriously though:

Based on my experience I would say:

CMS: Joomla!
1) It has won awards to that effect
2) It has a very low learning curve
3) It's admin panel is easy to use
4) Even non tech-savvy clients of mine have found it very easy to update as well
5) Plugins (may of which are free) are a plenty

For Shopping Cart: Opencart
Except #5, Same reasons as the above.  In fact, an initial look will make you think it is joomla!

I don't blog but based on what I have seen around, i would say wordpress.

Hmm, I think the best way to pose this is as cactus has suggested -
"Based on your experiences, what opensource/php/mysql/cms tool do you think is best and why do you say so?"

Then readers can make an informed decision based on posts. I guess the question also reminds me of the popular saying that when all you have is a hammer, everything becomes a nail to you.

okay o! Though you have confirmed that it will have a backend when you said there is a database installed.

good luck all the same

LOL! Pretty interesting read, though too long to post:

http://www.independentngonline.com/fali/manu/article01

Besides, how many clients CAN afford custom-made designs

More than you think. Maybe you are sourcing for clients in the wrong places.

I gave up after 5 minutes and I got 15

I was so desperate that for DOS, I actually entered "Dark Operating System" LOL

Nice app though.

He he, unless you are simply promoting, why don't you just come out and say you are the author (at least based on ur signature and your profile)?

VERY GOOD sha.  I think the next step should be revamping the websesame site to make it more interactive cos I am sure, once the book launches, many will want to know more about the author. I also see that there are books listed on amazon attributed to the same person. VERY GOOD once again.

It is about time we did something unique, like publishing a technical book that will be read worldwide rather than cloning.  I have never used drupal myself but might just buy the book, if for no other reason, but to proudly point out to my oyibo friends that a Nigerian wrote it. Keep us posted as publish date nears.

Make you remember me come royalty time o! 

Em, I am trying to find out, what is so great about that site?

I need to clean my glasses

He he, nairahub is so white, it reminds me of my secondary school days when I used to soak (with bleach) my white blouses, then wash, rinse, blue and starch 

hmmm, if backend is what I think, maybe you should reconsider - I would say 99% of plugins out there are meant for plug-and-play - download, read the instructions and install. Sure, there can be a backend (php and/or database) but considering what most are used for (animation, etc), there is no backend involved.

Also, be unique. Why vQuery? When jQuery came out, the maker didn't name it after scriptaculous or prototype or ruby though it might be based on those. People might have dumped it in a heart beat if he simply modified the name. He came up with a unique name. hint, hint.

good luck!

nani:

For a news site, I think you need to add the kitchen sink and then some up front.  You then fine tune based on excess rather than shortage. What else will be your Unique Selling Point?

There are tons of sites out there.  If yours looks like everyone out there, I will stick with what I know.   Talking about NL for a moment, I have joined other fora in the past.  This one is unique to me in terms of topics posted and so I dumped the others and stuck with this.

good luck!

ekiti:
Much better.  Very professional.  Good job buddy! At this point, I will say it is 90% done.  A few issues/concerns:

1) Move the headlines on the right further to the top.  I assume that is the best way to get people to read them.

2) I would go for image ads as opposed to text.  As it is right now, the text blends with the news and is hard to notice.  Also, consider moving at least one further to the top, maybe below the headlines. If I hadn't scrolled, I wouldn't have seen them.

3) Are you using a CMS tool? If not, I pity you when it comes time to update.

4) I won't talk in general as I am sure you are still working on it so i will focus on the "contact us" page instead - I notice that it takes me to a page that looks nothing like the home page.  This should not be.  The layout of every single page of this site needs to be consistent.

5) Think of adding RSS and ability to comment and maybe even a blog and/or forum

Wow! you take corrections so well I think I am in dream land.  Good job once again.

This post reminds me of a scene in what I deem the best kung fu movie of all time, Jet Li's "Fearless".  Ever since this scene, I have been looking at some things in life in a totally new way.  Oh, why can't we all think like this?

Paraphrasing (Scene: Where Jet Li is sitting at the table with the Japanese fighter, prior to their fight):

Tea is tea.  One type of tea doesn't look at the other and say, "I am better than you".  It is we humans who have ranked tea.  All tea is the same.  By drinking it we might come to discover that one might have certain traits but I see all tea as being the same.

Interpret the above as you wish.  For me, as I stated earlier, I stopped ranking things after this scene, which I have replayed over and over, at least 10 times 

One might be better than the other in a certain area and it is only through using it that we expose its strengths and weaknesses, but there is no "best" one. Also, until a poster has used *every* one out there, he/she can't make a *factual* decision regarding this. In other words, you can't use 3 or 4, for instance and claim you know which is better. Based on your experiences, yes but definitely not in general.

It probably would be nice if you could group the items rather than show me one mighty long page.  I guess I am thinking something more like www.goal.com which in and of itself is also a pretty long page

LOL Cactus,

I have told everyone that unless you are someone worthy of being followed, it is the ultimate case of joblessness

Unless I have something to promote, business-wise, twitter no go ever smell me. I mean, I believe the most popular twitter is a dog or cat if I am not mistaken. That just about sums it up

Option 1
1.make sure the file you are attaching is not opened/in use by another application. It may sound silly but hey, nothing wrong in trying

I fell victim to this as recently as yesterday actually so yes, it does happen. At least for me, I couldn't attach my doc in an email I was sending out and I spent quite a while trying to figure what was going on wrong. In the end, I closed out everything and the attachment went.

When everything else fails, it doesn't hurt to take the extra 5 or so minutes to do the following, assuming you haven't done so already, in the order given below:

1) Sign out of your email programs
2) Clear cache, cookies, history, etc (** All ** Browsers)
3) Close your browser(s)
4) Turn off your computer (not restart but turn it off)
5) Wait for a minute or 2, then turn the computer back on
6) Log back in to your email program

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Well I just visited a few of my sites today and found out that I was wrong all along about favicons not showing up - they do, just not in the same place FF (which is the browser I use ALL the time) does, which is why I could never find it. In other words, I didn't even have to modify my code to reflect the suggestion above.

In IE, the favicon shows up next to the url in the address bar as well as to the top right of the tab.

My bad for my previous bad post. I hereby recall my "point of information".

bandely:
Mine is same as my NL username, without the dashes

Looks like a template to me

So?

Sorry, but my brain is totally tapped out.  It is too full and if there were a way to get rid of some stuff, believe me I would 

I would rather focus on smaller websites, cumulatively making the money I would have made making one big app.  At this stage in my career, I have nothing to prove to anyone anymore.  Those days are gone for me now. 

Having said that, if your idea tickles me the right way, I just might be game

for your information i have been
following nairaland for quite sometime and i know the trend.

If you really mean what you are saying, then you would know that my last venture was gathering the people on here to come up with a better website for the federal republic. THis was when Akunyili said she was shutting down the old site then launched another official "website" which is totally crap. We would hen either announce it our own way and hand it over to them or hope that some people might gain employment cos of it. A lot of positive responses were posted but I only had 3 or so emails indicating interest. This was after I had said that for the project to succeed, it would require, by my estimation, at least 10 ppl.

Blv me, many idea have sprung up from here. The issue, as you have so rightly noted is moving from words and typing to action.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/06/internet.explorer.six/index.html

Some Web designers are staging an online revolt against an old version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, which they say is hampering the ability of the Web to move forward in a cool and interactive way.
Some Web developers are trying to weed an old version of Internet Explorer from peoples' computers.

Some Web developers are trying to weed an old version of Internet Explorer from peoples' computers.

The designers say Internet Explorer 6, which was released in 2001 and since has been updated twice by Microsoft Corp., is crippling the Internet's potential and slowing down the online experience. They also blame IE 6 for giving webmasters a collective headache, because they have to write special "hacks" into Web code to accommodate an outmoded browser.

An estimated 15 to 25 percent of people still use IE 6 as their portal to the Internet, according to two Web monitors.

In recent months, several Web companies have launched sites devoted to the idea of undermining or killing Internet Explorer 6. The most recent site, called "IE 6 No More," has gained momentum this week on social-media sites like Twitter and Digg in part because a number of respected Internet start-up companies have signed onto the campaign.

The "IE 6 No More" site provides Web developers with a piece of code -- an online hurdle, essentially -- they can install to encourage Internet users to download a new browser before coming back to the site.

"As any Web developer will tell you, working with IE 6 is one of the most difficult and frustrating things they have to deal with on a daily basis, taking up a disproportionate amount of their time," an introduction on the site says. "Beyond that, IE 6's support for modern Web standards is very lacking, restricting what developers can create and holding the Web back."

On the surface, the campaign against IE 6 may seem like a cult of disgruntled techies who are angry at Microsoft or want to gripe about people who lag behind the technological curve.

But that analysis is too simplistic, said Dan Oliver, editor of .net, a UK magazine about Web design.

"This isn't an anti-Microsoft campaign," he said. "Microsoft makes some fantastic products. The latest version of their browser is a good browser. But with regards to IE 6 , [it] is an awful browser and no one should be using it."

He added: "Ultimately, we've kind of waited long enough. That's why there's a big movement of support for it because the geeks out there have known about this for years and have been waiting for big sites to jump on and push it forward."

In a statement to CNN, Microsoft said it also wants people to turn away from IE 6.

"Microsoft has consistently recommended that consumers upgrade to the latest version of our browser," the company said. "Internet Explorer 8 offers improvements in speed, security and reliability as well as new features designed for the way people use the Web."

Oliver said his magazine started an anti-IE 6 Web site about three months ago. The movement has been growing among savvy Web developers for years, he said, but has hit a groundswell since bigger-name Internet companies jumped aboard.

YouTube, for instance, now sends a message to Internet Explorer 6 users who visit the site, asking them to upgrade to another browser like Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

The video-streaming site will continue to function in a basic way for IE 6 users, according to a statement sent to CNN by YouTube.

But bigger problems for IE 6 may be on the horizon as the Web becomes more complicated.

Developers are already working with a new Web language -- called HTML 5 -- that is expected to make Web sites able to display flashier video, save documents to computers more easily and act more like traditional computer applications.

When that shift comes, IE 6 will doubtlessly perish, said Ben Parr, a writer for the social-networking news blog Mashable.

"We're about to hit a breaking point where innovation will be stifled if Web sites must continue to cater to this browser," he wrote in a post titled, "IE 6 Must Die for the Web to Move On."

The browser's popularity is declining as newer versions of Internet Explorer become more widely used. But it's unclear whether everyone who continues to use IE 6 does so by choice.

Many businesses have built computer applications that run on the browser, and upgrades to those systems can be costly and difficult.

That makes campaigns that tell people to switch their browser ineffective, Mark Trammell, a Digg employee, wrote on the company's blog.

"Giving them a message saying, 'Hey! Upgrade!' in this case is not only pointless; it's sadistic," he wrote, also noting that Digg likely will stop supporting IE 6 for some of the site's functions.

That leaves some Web sites trying to find a middle ground. They want to be cutting-edge, but they also don't want to alienate IE 6 users and business clients.

Justin.tv, which lets people stream video live online, is among the sites trying to strike a balance.

The company is backing an anti-IE 6 Web site, but Evan Solomon, the site's vice-president for marketing, said the best thing that will come out of this discussion is that more people will become aware that there are alternatives in Web browsers.

It's also important to know how much those browsers control a person's Internet experience, he said.

"It sucks for us if someone comes to the site and has a bad experience and the reason that happens is because they use a browser that was developed 10 years ago," he said.

Let's look around what does Nigerians need or what does Africa need or world new
web Idea can we bring into this world that it does not already have?
Let's do something positive instead of sitting around sipping wine and discussing without
taking any positive action.

what i mean is that we can come together and create something new.
talk about a "master mind alliance".

As I said, come up with what you have in mind first. You brought it up. Lead!

@yawatide look i am not here for a show down

Why does a challenge of ideas/debate of the issues have to be met by some as a "show down"?

Webmasters it's good to know what your frustrations are, but don't you think instead
of idling in this forum and discussing whats wrong with nigerian webmasters and websites
we can do something more result oriented? Like pool our resources and knowledge
and come up with something big.

Let's do something positive instead of sitting around sipping wine and discussing without
taking any positive action.

MOSS: No offense, but I think you are part of the problem.  Rather than ask directly and specifically, you paint with a broad brush.  Before posting such, I suggest you have concrete proof.  For one, I would say search for my postings, going back to last year to see how many I have posted along "positive solutions" lines, see how many responses (or lack thereof) I got, then do same for other posters.

This is just your 9th post.  That tells me you are still wet behind the ears, as far as nairaland goes (unless you are a banned person signing up with another name).

Speak based on facts, not emotions.  Having said that, since you suggested, I look forward to your "positive solutions" in this regard and working with you as well. I look forward to you being a leader in this area, not a suggester. Lead and others will gladly follow.

P.S. I am not a copy-cat developer. By that I mean, I would rather spend my time on something unique, rather than do a clone of myspace et al.

Thanks,

Believe or not, I have never done this before but the only way I know how to do it is via your admin panel (phpAdmin). I am pretty sure there is a way to do it command-line, possibly bypassing the admin panel but since I am not familiar, I will let others chime in.

Sorry I couldn't be of further assistance.

404 is just what it says - file not found. Since this is a forum, I would say make a backup of your database, uninstall the forum, reinstall and import your database again.

At least, this is what I would do. Any others?

I actually find your site unique in its approach however, consider the following:

1) Move "home" from the last item to the first. I had to look for it.

2) Why isn't there any form on ur contact page?

3) When I click "mind your business" on "news", I expected a new window, so as not to take away from your site. Personal call though I would say add target="_blank". I mean, you are already doing it for your portfolio.

4) You could have used CSS to implement your nav item area, with the same effect. Same applies to the site as a whole.

5) Consider increasing your font by at least 1 point.

cactus:
Thanks for the tips.  I was driving in to work today when I heard about this site on the radio:
http://www.floridasunrises.com/

All this guy does is wake up each day, go to the beach, take a photo of the sunrise and sell them to people on special occasions ("how about showing your kid 25 years later the sunrise on the day he was born?".  He sells as low as $10. Might sound cheap, but imagine if say, 1000 pple ask for it, even over the course of a year.  That is $10K for doing nothing but wake up a few hours early each day to take a photo of the sun rise at the beach.  Originality to the max!

Now, I am waiting for all the "*naija*sunrise.com" copy cats to follow, he he.

Phantom:
You first said:

Not everyone squatting on names are trying to make a buck on the domain name.

but then you said:

Also, if someone does offer me the right amount for one of my domains, I might let it go

So at the end of the day, even if it is a .0001% chance, money is still a motivational factor.

enough said