₦airaland Forum

To think that after learning all there is to know in flex, you could be earning as much as is specified here

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?cbRecursionCnt=1&siteid=cb_emailrec&APath=1.8.0.27.0&HostID=US&IPATH=JEH3RA&je=myrec&sc_cmp2=10_JobMat_JobDet&Job_DID=J3G4236QT0K5VJ63361&cbsid=58cd227696324b289233b1e505e0d9e2-290422454-JJ-5

I just got that in my inbox. Quite impressive! Does that mean I will be learning Flex anytime soon? Probably not but I thought you guys might want to use this as motivation

I decided to borrow a book from one of my co-workers titled, "Everything You Know About CSS is wrong" by SitePoint.  Normally, I wouldn't read a book on CSS but the title caught my eye.

It turns out it is quite interesting.  It's main focus is on how to create tabled design via CSS Tables.  Pretty cool until you find out that though FF, Opera and Safari support it, IE 6 and 7 don't, though IE8 will.

For those like me who aren't in the know, the syntax is quite straightforward and I particularly like how technically, you don't have to explicitly mention a table row or even table cell as the browser will create an "anonymous box" around such missing items.  Example:

<div style="display: table;">
    <div style="display: table-row;">
        <div style="display: table-cell;">A</div>
        <div style="display: table-cell;">B</div>
    </div>
</div>

Is equivalent to:

<div style="display: table;">
        <div style="display: table-cell;">A</div>
        <div style="display: table-cell;">B</div>
</div>

or even:

<div style="display: table-cell;">A</div>
        <div style="display: table-cell;">B</div>

Some issues/concerns I have:
1) Compared to floating, it appears to me that if you want to be explicit, you are using as many DIVs as you would TABLE, TR and TD.  In terms of code and page weight, it seems we are going back to implicit tables.

2) You can't use positioning within a DIV that has a display: table* property.  The workaround (a tricky one) is to surround the tabled DIVs with another container div that has a position:relative and then have another block-level element within the DIV cell that you can then do position:absolute.

3) Allowing the browser to add anonymous boxes, IMHO, is confusing in 2 respects:
a) What if the browser gets "confused" and doesn't display the table well and you have nested tables?

b) Nowadays, we don't code for job security but so that the next person can actually read what we are coding.  If we don't explicitly name table rows and cells, how will the next person (who could be us) understand what is going on? 

To this effect, if and when I use CSS tables, I will explicitly include table rows and cells even though it is at the risk of code/page bloat.

Having said the above, the good thing is, once fully implemented, the days of "I don't use CSS layout cos it is difficult and frustrating" are soon over as semantically, the syntax for CSS tables is easy to grasp.

Of course, if you are developing an intranet everyone will be using IE8, no problem but if you are doing something for the web and your target audience begins with IE6+, you will have to wait a while.

nitation,

Weeeeelll, for someone who is a bit wet behind the ears, it might be a good project for him to get down and dirty with and gain (based on his posts on NL so far) some valuable knowledge and experience.

Once he sees what it actually entails, trust me, in the future, he will adjust his pricing accordingly

Good job dhtml! A packet of cabin biscuit will be sent your way.

I am sure the poster appreciates (or will appreciate) your last post.

Speaking of poster: where are you? You jus loss all of a sudden. Have you found your guy yet? Let us know.

Thanks,

nateone,

Not to discourage you or encourage bidders but I think your budget is too low.  It isn't as easy as you make it sound.  I understand your request in 2 ways:

A) Unless you have done most of what I am about to describe, there is a lot of work to do:

1) Create the form
2) Validate user input (front-end)
3) Check input against contents of database
4) If input exists, take user somewhere on your site.

The above just covers a scenario where the input exists.  If it doesn't:

1) Prompt user to register, ask for their password or have it reset
2) Provide user with registration form, which has to be validated (front-end and back-end)
3) Store validated data in a database

Note the use "database" in both scenarios which implies that a database already exists.  If not:

1) Create a *normalized* database as well as at the very least, a users table
2) Create more columns than just username/password columns (date of birth, security question/answer, etc)

OR

B) You have all of the above done already and all I have to do is login and create a form. Even if this were the case, what kind of form? How many fields? Once I create, I just take d 5K clean mouth and run or am I to do any kind of validation or interaction with a database. I guess my point is, your request isn't clear to me.

As you can see, it's more than how you make it sound.  Again, if it's scenario A and most or all of the above already exists, sorry for the long post, and I guess I didn't understand what you want, based on how you framed the request. If B, then provide more details please. Otherwise, I suggest that if there are no takers so far, you up the figures a bit.  I have a figure in mind that I would take but I won't mention it here.  What I will mention is that 5K, at the most will only make me do what I am already doing right now - respond to your post.

All the best!

*Drinking* soda water. . .with pop corn . . .

aaaaaand what does this have to do with the topic at hand?

Let's stay on point please. This guy needs help. Either you offer, ask for clarification or ignore.

Thanks in advance for your co-operation, both now and in the foreseeable future

oga cactus,

You gotta give it to her though, simply for her dedication. Was she ever interested in web dev? If not, what triggered the interest? 9hrs a day? No job? Is she learning web dev as a hobby or to go into biz?

Questions, questions. Answers, answers

goodmuyis:
I think the poster said "I use C#" and not "I want it done in C#". If the latter is what he meant, then he isn't clear.

poster:
I think you should look at Windows Scripting Host - basically VBScript. At the risk of encouraging a few bad eggs, it's what many virus authors use to write their programs. I myself have written a few (ahem) start up programs with it, again in the past.

If you haven't found a solution already, check out WSH and see if it can provide what you need.

Good luck!

nitation,

unfortunately, some ppl are probably asking themselves, "whatz in it for me? how much money can I make from this now (as opposed to in the long-run)?" and not seeing the long-term benefits, which is why you are probably not getting any responses.

I bet you if you said something like, "who can do this? call me at with your estimate" you would get at least 5 responses by now.

Thanks for your input and for clarifying.

Good luck on your project and please keep us up-to-date on progress, whether or not you choose to work with a Nairalander.

dhtml,

I think ur last post is the very essence of what separates a newbie from a vet. A newbie is expected to put up crap (though I am in no way suggesting he should do such for a paying client) whereas a vet isn't.

As for learning curve, it depends on the individual. It took me at least 3 sites to really get CSS layout. HTML? twas baptism by fire.

Okay, back to Read Only Mode

I was hesitant to mention ning personally. The problem I have with ning is that:

1) you have "ning" as part of your url and you have to pay heavily to get rid of it (unless you don't mind it being there)
2) if you want to make money from it, you have to get rid of their ads, at a monthly fee
3) There are other nuances (liek references to ning everywhere) which again you have to pay heavily to have them removed.

All the same, ning is another product and I haven't experienced any issues (other than the above) in setting it up/using it.

I sent out 2 attachments this morning on yahoo with no problems. Granted I am probably not in your locale, could it be the size of your attachment(s)? I think those guys each have a 20MB limitation.

Good luck!

I believe software called "dolphin" is one of them

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200903130514170

Excerpt:

The subscription fee is N600 monthly; that is, N20 daily, payable by cash, ATM or Visa cards. Cash payments can be made at any First Bank branch in the country.

For the record, my forthcoming questions aside, I think it is a good idea.

Questions:
Out of curiosity, is the cost quoted above worth it, compared to the cost of the actual paper (I will claim ignorance on cost since I am not there)?  Also, is the cost worth it when compared with quality of news?

As always, your contributions are accepted.

and what if I have javascript turned off?

Yeah, cos of some of the ppl here who are ITK, I try not to show much as they insist on doing everything from scratch in a "do you know who I am?" bid. You however, strike me as nice and as someone willing to learn, hence the tip.

Use it well

1) Here is one that in essence, looks like uefa's:
http://www.e2interactive.com/e2_photo_gallery/demo.php

Of course, a little customization is required

Good luck!

1) Top left: "page rank": what is that to a lay man? I think a lil description would help.

2) Personal opinion: I think you could use some better color combo. Try http://www.colorcombos.com/ for ideas

3) http://www.webdirectorysubmit.net/faq.html - 404 error

4) I think you need to better present "popular categories" on your pages. The way it is now, it always shows up at the very bottom and I think ppl might miss it.

Good luck!

a better way to make code more legible would be to use the "quote", as opposed to the "code" feature

segsa,

combo is short form for "combination". So basically, you will have to know a combination of things.

Who to follow? I say neither of us. You should never take anything anyone says (no matter how credible) unless you are able to independently verify what they say as the truth. Having been in the game for a while though, I think I can speak based on my experiences.

Hopefully I hvnt confused you even further

which is why i added the following caveat:

Sure, the main photo might be to large and the whole thing might take a while to load, depending on your locale,

In general though, for the reasons you stated, i decided long time ago, never to use flash or if i do, for something very basic. I have been at cafes where a site takes minutes to load (this even happened to me with sites that use ajax and as you know, ajax basically uses javascript), minutes that come out of my 1hr ticket

the size can never be compared to that of an swf file.

I think this is a generalized statement devoid of facts/numbers. Are you talking all swf files or are you doing it on a case-by-case basis, which is what I have been trying to do?

Again, it depends. There are ppl who are really good at optimizing flash movies, just as there are ppl who are good at optimizing html/css/js files.

Another example: The jQeury core is 55KB. By the time you add in a plug-in or 2, you could be talking 80KB. Again, depending on what you need done, one could write their own solution from scratch (whether or not it's flash is irrelevant) in less KBs than that. It all depends on the skill set of the developer.

Let me chime in frm 2 sides of my mouth on this

1) From experience, especially with nigerian clients (locale is irrelevant), sometimes we make things bigger than they are. For example: I once spoke with someone who wanted an "interactive website". Upon further questioning, he just wanted a 5-page website that would keep people coming back and staying on the site for long periods of time. Of course to me, an "interactive website" is one that involves some kind of database interaction but I am happy I asked him what he wanted. So one must know what a "computer reservaton system" is, even if there is no requirements gathering per se.

There is also the case of those who call themselves "banker" when in reality all they do is stay at a window and either take customer deposits or give out customer withdrawals - what other parts of the world would call a "teller".

2) From the name, even if the person doesn't work for some corporation, i would insist the person put pen to paper and write down specifically what they want. Why? cos if not, chances are that you will labor in vain only to hear "you have 419d me. This isn't what I wanted". You don't want to be on this end of the stick. Tis best to err on the side of caution and have them write down something that you can hold their fee to the fire with if things go wrong, even if it's a 1-page document.

Bottomline:
with or without documentation, it is the responsibility of the developer to ask as many questions as to make the mission of the project clearer. If you are not comfortable doing so or with what the project entails, be mature/professional and walk away from it, even if it is a N100m contract.

But the bitter truth is, if u can not start an application(software) from REQUIREMENTS GATHERING, SYSTEM ANALYSIS to SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT when situation demands it, Then you are not a Software Developer.

I will say it is neither bitter nor the truth. One can write a solid app without any of the above. Is it ideal? No but it can be done. Such documentation, again a good idea, is what people who can afford to go through the software development cycle will demand. If you are okoro with a brilliant idea looking for someone to code something for you, as has been advertised many times on NL, I doubt such documentation crosses his mind. Again, I am not saying it is good but it's reality. A software developer literally develops software. By that defintion, even if you code a "hello world"app, you are a software developer. Of course, a "hello world" app won't take you far but the fact remains that it was developed and it is software. My humbl opinion anyways.

kazey/niyyie:

I believe the ethnicity thing is a mere coincidence and not deliberate on the part of the author.

Sure, for the same reason some white americans will say there is no racism in america - cos they don't experience what the blks are experiencing on account of their skin color.

Let's flip the script for a bit: Supposing you met a list of 10 hausa names with, for the sake of argument, a sprinkle of ibo and yoruba. Let's even add that there are links to these ppl's works and they are actually good. Let's be honest, what is the first thing that would go through your mind, given that you probably know people who are good and who aren't hausa? Again, be very honest with yourselves. As a matter of fact, someone like me would probably add that "this is the same way they think they can rule this country forever". Of course the poster may be posting based on those he knows but its the perception and perception they say, is reality.

zstyle:
I would like to teach you but I would rather do it mano-a-womano

web_master:
It depends on how you look at it (again, I would rather use a javascript library myself but my point still stands):

Setting aside how heavy a flash movie may be as let's face it, it all depends on the experience of the developer, let's see how "light", lightbox is:

- There is the lightbox.js file, then there is the lightbox.css file, then there are all the images that are used by lightbox then there are the images that are being displayed by lightbox.

Again, I would rather use a javascript library. The only thing I have against lightbox specifically is that it's now on pretty much every website out there. If you are like me, you can spot such out quickly and such sites become boring ("here we go again" is what i find myself muttering out loud).

By the way, there are better alternatives to lightbox. I have used a few but to keep this post as open as possible, I will refrain from saying something just yet

Hmm, 'wild-card'? Doesn't that imply that you are only coming to NL to seek developers after looking elsewhere? If yes, doesn't this again imply a low regard (skill set, amount you are willing to pay, etc) for developers here? If yes, why come here at all

If I am wrong, I stand corrected. Having said that, 'wild-card' rubs me the wrong way.

Do explain. Thanks.

segsa,

Yes, you can't go by how long only. It has to be a combo of many things. Maybe i said what you just posted in a recent post. Perhaps it was within the context of that post. Sorry for the confusion. Again, yes, it goes beyond even how long or how well.

I don't think you can - it's flash.  I guess if you knew how, you could "decode" the movie and get the swf file(s) if you wanted though.

Having said that, you can replicate this either by coding from scratch or by downloading/modifying a plug in from any of the numerous javascript libraries (mootools, jquery, scriptaculous, etc).

good luck!

nitation feel free to answer but at the end of the day, let's focus on the actual post

Thanks.

Yes, the photos are amazing!

I score it a 10/10 on quality but 0/10 on user experience. Unless I am missing something, I hate having to scroll from photo to photo or having to click "more photos" only to see the same thing.

It would have been nice if they added some slide show functionality, or maybe it's just me being a weirdo