₦airaland Forum

I wouldn't call this top irrelevant. Every topic (even mine) is worth discussing. To me, if something isn't relevant, then I simply won't comment

Wow! Nice photos. As I mentioned in one of my posts, I am thinking of getting into photography. What camera do you use? I haven't bought one yet. I have sourced for a school of photography and hope to start in the next few months. Did you study a book, take a class or pretty much wing it as you went?

Once again, nice photos.

For professional ethic, if you get a template then copy and paste, you should not charge more than the number of hours it took to do such. If you charge N1000/hr be sure to stick to that.

Interesting. I would say let the free market forces determine that.

I think in the end, the nigerian factor plays a part here - we are big into titles and if aburo yemi had started off with a template, every single person after him would have been yelling at anyone doing it from scratch.

e-saaaaay. gbam!

oya smartsoft, state ur case. don't just disagree

yeah, prototype = scriptaculous = THEY BOTH SUCK BIG TIME, he he

(wiping off dust, with engine oil, from my 4 dbl barrels, sharpening matchet (ouch! just got a cut so must be sharp. Just tested it on goat, e cut d head one time ), sharpening finger nails, fortifying self with air forces, tying 3 levels of wrapper, awaiting site to drop  )

google it.  For example "php sniff ip address"

Then your code could look like so:

store IP address
if file downloaded (file accessed) then
    if stored IP address = IP address of user
        print "you have already downloaded this file (or the number of times to download this file has been exceeded"
        exit (or maybe provide some other link)
    else
        print "proceed to download file"
        provide link to file
    end if
end if

Something like that.  Sites like rapidshare probably employ the same technique.

As mentioned earlier, I haven't done this before but from my pseudocode above, you can tell how I would go about it.  If it doesn't work, I refactor my logic first, then my code, until it does.

good luck!

no21 and all like-minded forumites, post forum-related vents here: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-305362.0.html

Preface:
As I have always said, I can take an extrapolation of what I see on this board and draw a conclusion about the entire nigerian web dev industry.

Recently, there has been a flurry of "sites" for review, most of which end up being forums. In particular, they have all had "naija" in them. Questions:

1) Why "naija"? Would a non-naija know what it means? For those who are afraid of nigeria and 419, wouldn't that immediately turn them off? I equate this to pretty much every single nigerian site having green in it.

2) Why not use "Nigeria(n)"? Sounds more professional to me

3) Why are a majority of them forums? Is there some new clause in the constitution that I am not aware of?

4) Is the target audience for all these sites nigerian? If so, I think given the nature of the net, this is limiting potential audience/ad revenue by limiting one's site to a certain locale.

Oya, let's discuss. I need to get this frustration out of my system

he he, as i always say, there are 6billion ppl on this planet.  What you are thinking of right now, 6b ppl minus 1 are thinking the same thing

I am so paranoid (and maybe ignorant  ) that I don't search for domains unless I am ready to purchase. Why? cos I swear, there is someone sniffing what is being searched on and is ready to snap it up if it makes sense.  It happened to a friend recently - he searched for a domain to purchase and it was available.  By the time he went back the next day to get it, it was done - fiam!

I know how you feel.  There was a time I went through a dictionary for words ending in "cious" with the intent of registering such a domain and guess what? *every* single one of them was taken, most of which were by squatters.

Ever since someone bought business.com for $7m, everyone and anyone is seeking quick cash (or so they think) by squatting on names. What they don't realize is that the .com days are over.  Personally, if a domain I am looking for is one I really, really want and is taken, if it means getting it as .info, I would rather do that than bother myself dealing with a squatter.  Hopefully sooner rather than later, the law of demand and supply sets in, with a lower demand running the squatters out of business.

You wanna know what frustrates me though?

Glad you asked
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-305362.0.html

One approach might be to store the number of times the file is accessed in a column in a database.  Another might be to store the IP address.  Another might be to allow the user to log in, with you storing the last time logged in, in a column in a database.

I have never done this before but I think what I have written, unless others post otherwise, makes sense.

to add a bit more, IMHO, unless you are concerned about exposing user information (credit cards, addresses), in which case you could go for an ajax solution, I don't think it makes sense to hide your html code.

Disable right click? how about view source? html encryption? I will quote the first paragraph, bolding a few portions, again to say why it doesn't make sense:

There are lots of programs out there that you can buy that will encrypt your web page and[b] supposedly[/b] protect your page content from theft. Actually, the encryption of a page makes no difference at all to how easily it can be stolen by knowledgeable thieves who can easily bypass the encryption in seconds using nothing more than a web browser. So save your money and if you feel that you must encrypt your page source use the form on this page and the one following to generate most of the same page protections as the most expensive programs that can be bought to do the same thing.

When I see websites that think they are "smart", those are the ones I devote all my time to, to "crack". Maybe it's just me or it's human nature, I dunno.

IMHO, jquery has better documentation compared to the other libraries. Also, for the java/javascript lovers out there, jquery more resembles those 2 languages. I drew the conclusion after studying YUI, Scripta and jQuery. YUI is the heaviest and scripta has the worst documentation so far, bar none.

I was about to study mootools when I decided to stop after reading jquery. I have been using jquery for about a year now at least and I don't think there is any turning back.

Interesting.

I just googled for it and found this link, which is probably where you got it from:
http://leandrovieira.com/projects/jquery/lightbox/

It says there that it was inspired by the scriptculous version. I wonder what the difference in size is between the 2.

Well, I guess you learn something new everyday, and I just did

hmm, I thought lightbox was scriptaculous and the jquery version is thickbox

Efetur:

To see why those things you raised in your last paragraph is bad, regardless of what the client says and wants:

1) On the left side, put your mouse in b/w any 2 items. Notice how the 2 items dance as if they are on crack

2) On the top nav, again put your mouse in b/w 2 items. Notice how the item to the right has only the left tip highlighted

Also, in FF at least, if you scroll down, you will notice that the white background doesn't go all the way down. I take it you aren't taking advantage of faux columns.

Look, I go through issues with clients all the time. I would say, more times than not, I win. Why? Because I offer them compelling evidence as to why what they want may not be right and at the end of the day, I could win or lose another job based on what I have in my portfolio.

open source what? Software (dreamweaver, etc)? Programming language (PHP, etc)? CMS (Joomla, etc)? Framework (Code Igniter, etc)?

Open source what? Also, why would you agree to undertake a project without understanding what is at stake? What if what is recommended is something you are not familiar with. What then?

bugs: gbam! well said.

da enwe, you might want to consider revising the url you have in your post above:

http://www.globalcash[b]concepets.[/b]com/

Only God knows how many people/how much money you may have lost or may be losing as a result of your typo

good luck!

If u r referring to the blog in ur signature, I like this post the most:
http://www.obafemionline.com/dursnkpbfv

timmy used it on his site and am also planning to use the same image too when the need arise. so. . .

My point exactly

Nothing wrong with it per se. It is just that I have seen those 2 girls on here, on sites for review, at least once every 3 or so months. In other words, aren't there any other twins, assuming the site calls for twins?

I have actually seen adverts of sites on TV that have used the same images I have used, so again, nothing wrong with that. All I am saying, in a subtle manner anyways, is find another set of twins. I mean, if these twins (assuming they are really twins ) knew how many naija sites are using them, I think they will start demanding for royalty

1) Looks good, but as always, I would love to see the web version
2) Where have I seen those 2 girls before? hmmmm

I feel compelled to tell you a part of my story, as encouragement.   The year? 2001

I graduated 2 years prior.  I was the only black in a department of 8.  I was the only one willing to travel to anywhere in the country.  Some branch offices didn't have the people who knew how to solve the problems at the time.  Wherever anyone had a problem, they asked specifically for me. Consequently, I was called the "company savior".  I got bonuses and stock options.  I was thinking retirement with these people.  I got comfortable. When the economy tanked in 2001, who do you think was the first to get laid off? One mind said it was racism but I try not to think that way. I mean, it exists for sure but I don't let it influence my life. It hurts even till today.

I was out of work for 2 years.  The painful part of it all was that in 2001, I had just bought my first home.  I was in it barely 2 months when I was laid off.  I hadn't even paid my first mortgage. My wedding was also 6 months away. Oh well, what could I do? I thought of going back to school, but where would I get the money?  I already owed student loans. Why burden myself with more? What was the guarantee that I would get a job upon graduation?  After job searching for 3 months and being down to my last, literal $400, I decided to swallow my pride and degree and hustle man.  Any odd job that was available, I did.  In the end, I made more money doing these odd jobs than in coding in 1 year.  My wedding was also a success (I refused to cancel or postpone it as a challenge).  So believe me when I say I know how you feel.  There is nothing as bad as going to work every day thinking it could be your last.  My experience taught me some things though:

1) No condition is permanent

2) Don't get comfortable in one job

3) have something doing on the side, no matter how "beneath you" it might be, as long as it is legal.

4) Always get ready to jump ship at the slightest opportunity.  Why? cos when the time comes, your employer will dump you just as fast, under the auspices of, "well, sorry it had to be this way, but we had no choice.  sure we know you have a mortgage and a family to feed, but we have our own bottomline".  In a way, you can't blame them, they don't owe you a job and the aim of every business is to make money.  At least we aren't in an industry like construction where age matters.  You can code if you want till you are 80 and I can tell you that companies are looking for those with years of experience as they tend to be the most disciplined. 

I now have my main job, a web dev company on the side and am thinking of picking up photography (a fellow nairalander was surprised when I told him that in the states, there are photographers who charge as much as $2,000 just to take photos at a wedding/reception). Again, I stay humble and am willing to do anything.  Why? because I gotta do that I gotta do otherwise the kids go hungry and next thing you know, you are so old and are gone from nigeria for so long that you are in limbo - America is tough on the elderly and you could end up in an elderly care home and you can't go back home because you are forgotten.

Now we are in another recession.  The good thing is, this one is affecting mostly the financial sector.  I still get job interview invites in my inbox.  I tell people that these days, I am like a cat - my ears are always moving around to pick up the slightest sounds (job opportunities) and I rarely "sleep".  Now, it is about me, not my employer.  sad but true.

I hope this offers some form of comfort/encouragement.

This time is it "the nation": http://www.thenationonlineng.net/

At first, they changed folders from http://www.thenationonlineng.net/news (or whatever it was) to http://www.thenationonlineng.net/web/ and I was only able to figure it out after 3 or so weeks when I decided to enter http://www.thenationonlineng.net/ . Since I have always liked the paper's layout and news content and have been faithfully visiting them daily, for about 2 years now, I decided to forgive them, unlike punch.

Now, for the past 3 days, I get "site under maintenance". It beats me how some firms think. One would expect them to have at least 2 servers (development and production) so that while they are "maintaining" on the development server, the production server is still "live". The development server doesn't even have to be a dedicated one. It could be the laptop of one of the developers. Then, after monitoring their logs for a while to determine when they have the lowest traffic, they upload from the development server to the production server. "The Nation" isn't the only site to suffer from this but I am only bringing their site up as it pertains news and I think is more relevant to us developers on here.

Okay, let's forget about me for a second. What of lost traffic which translates to lost ad revenue? what of a lack of confidence on the part of visitors who may probably lose faith and go elsewhere, also affecting the bottomline? It's more than being about me. It has monetary ramifications as well. Or am I more passionate about it than the owners?

Folks, we need to step up. No need "saving money" and taking short cuts. No excuse for not taking advantage of all google has to offer. No need paying good money for competent consultants. It beats me how some of us can sing the latest songs from the US, more so than its residents and are even aware of the latest news in some local area of the US, more so its residents, yet are not aware of what I would deem such a simple thing as the importance of having multiple server environments. At work, granted not in Nigeria, we have 3 environments: development, staging and production (in that order). At each stage, a quality assurance person goes through the site to make sure it is okay before promoting. You can do whatever you want in development but staging is as close to production as possible so there is little tolerance for error there. We deploy around 6am at least once every other week, based on our web logs. It can be done folks.

I have not visited punch website in at least 2 months. I will give "the nation" till friday. If they fail to put the site back up, they have lost me forever. Maybe someone reading this knows the guys there and can send them the FYI.

Yeah, if you can work for an international organization so that your salary is guaranteed, I am all for it.  Also, if you will be paid in dollar equivalent, even better.

I said all I said because if I am not mistaken, you are like me and expect to get paid on time, even if you put in 5 minutes.  At the end of the day, car allowance, house allowance, school allowance, makes no sense to me if you aren't paid on time.

I have no info for you, at least for now, unfortunately but hopefully others do and will kindly share. How far has your roommate who was learning to code gone? Do tell.

Once again, good luck!

segsa,

I like the latter though I wonder why form fields are "jumping" on the contact page when I hover over them. Consider making those tips tooltips that over outside the page flow, as opposed to being a part of the page flow.

Thanks.

our problem, generally speaking is that we have this crab mentality - you don't want to leave the basket but if someone else does, we pull him back down. Also, again generally speaking, we have this "sidon look" mentality. No one wants to risk it. Rather they wait for someone else to do so then we follow suit, if the other person was successful.

I have been preaching this very same thing for years, both on this forum and to friends in real life. There are plenty of opportunities even in Nigeria to make it in web dev. All I have to do, generally speaking, is look at some of the sites offered here for review. I can extrapolate based on what I see here to draw my conclusions. Unfortunately, I guess since unemployment is high and Aburo Yemi made a ton of money from google ads, all of a sudden, everyone thinks the way to go is blog/forum with google ads. Again, generally speaking, we are not originalists. I have had the opportunity to join other fora but I decline. Even facebook or twitter don't phase me. I am comfortable here. I don't need to subscribe to 200 fora only to discuss the same things.

Hopefully, it will change.

bug:

I have been following his copy and paste and decided it should stay as he is keeping it to what I consider relevant posts.  There is someone else who was doing the same thing, I forget who, by posting on every thread on here and I deleted every single one of them.

So, don't worry, this board is in safe hands. O small ting 

ning will forever be a solution. No need to hide the secret.

the more things you explain to your clients the safer and relieved you feel.

Exactly!

bugs24: As I bring am back to your memory, that means I get 80% of the cut

Seriously though, you voiced my sentiments exactly. I was in a similar situation: I had a client who wanted everything ning had to offer but at the time, I didn't know about ning/socialgo/dolphin. They said they wanted a myspace/facebook type app. The money was good and I couldn't say no. I figured worse case, I outsource it. I mean I could do it, but as I have said many times over, I am a lazy coder. Anyways, they paid me about half then folded. The project laid fallow for a year before they called me back. Within that time, I was invited to register on a ning site and though I didn't realize its potential or where I would use it, I joined. About 3 months after that, the client calls again and says they want to continue and stressed their online community again. Na so I dey grin
Of course I told them about the sub-domaining, etc. They had no problem with it and within minutes (as opposed to days/weeks), their social network was up. Like in your case, they can't thank me enough. I have gone on to implement 3 more ning sites for 3 other clients and in each case, no complaints whatsoever.

I have also lost (and I am only mentioning this, not as a brag, but for emphasis) a $3K job because after the guy kept rambling on end and could not seem to tell me what he wanted, I said, "you know what? Just go to ning.com and set it up for yourself. As a matter of fact, here is a link to an online tutorial." The guy was beside himself. He couldn't believe that I would tell him this and couldn't stop thanking me. I even told him how much money he had saved as a result. Sure, I lost $3K but I think I also gained some respect. Who knows? maybe in the future, he refers me to someone and/or he has a site he wants me to do for him. I believe in fate/destiny. If it isn't meant to be, no matter what you do, it won't be, and vice versa.

Folks, IMHO, the days of hiding info/wanting to prove to the world that you can code the next facebook, are over. Smart clients know how to google. In other words, they can get the info if they want. Why act like coding is a magic box? This isn't a case of "the more you look, the less you see" but of, "the more you tell, the more they will trust you"

Welcome back 

I hope you take this the right way but, why not go in with the intention of being self-employed?  Personally, after witnessing my parents going without salary as a kid and hearing in recent times of people, some even in the private sector, going without salary for months, I made up my mind not to earn a salary when I return to Nigeria.  I could work on a contract, in which case I charge at least 70% up front, but not a salary.

Consider taking the time to study the business atmosphere (I bet you can discern a lot by studying the posts on this forum, IMHO) there and then make a move.  Worse case, you become a sole proprietor. 

I firmly believe that there is tons of money to be made in IT in general and web dev/software engineering in particular in Nigeria.  You just have to find your niche.