₦airaland Forum

kehers:
Yeah, I am thinking seriously about it. I like to view myself as Moses who lacks the skill of oratory but hey, even he ended up leading the israelites out of egypt right? Other than that sha, I need to iron out logistics (venue, how much to charge, etc). I will keep you all posted in the event that it will be going down.

dayo:
u never come up with name for my book o

To show his mad java "skills"

He probably just read an ebook off of google and/or just learned this in class so he decides to put fingers to keyboard and come up with a class without compiling it for himself to see if it makes the slightest of sense.

Sorry to be harsh but the code sucks. I was actually only trying to be nice at first. Java is an OO language. The way he has it there, it looks more like paschal. In fact, this is the kind of code I call JINO (Java In Name Only)

Here are a few things that have turned me off from using DW.  I like to call them, "The Big 3):

1) Top of page: you see javascript functions that start with "MM_". I see this and I am grabbing for epsom salt.

2) Page level CSS with id/class names like "style1". I see this, and I am grabbing for mist alba

3) countless (albeit meticulously laid out) tables. I see this and I am grabbing for conquer mixture.

I see all 3 and one can only imagine the chemistry experiment going on within my tummy

Of course, these could be avoided but in a zest to crank out N50K websites, the "webmasters" in question could care less.  Their usual defense? "Weeell, the client doesn't care about how the site is coded, as long as it is what they want and like".  Either this or the classic, "Google looks ugly but they are making billons".  Bad way of thinking, if I may say.

Bottom line, the above 3 are bad because they add unnecessary "weight" to pages (code bloat). This also makes code hard to read (bad for maintenance reasons) and hard to follow (especially for embedded tables. Again, bad for maintenance). These 3 also increase page download times which makes a browsing difference if you are in a place with a slow connection.

I see these 3 and I am saying to myself, "if ever I were hiring a developer, I wouldn't hire whoever did this site"

Okay, I am off my soapbox now.  Did this answer your question?

namzo: LOL, no yawa o LOL. Expect the ebook soonest.

dayo: Yeah, it will hv to be in Lagos as in my opinion, that is where everything in naija goes down

I will keep you all posted.

Call me crazy but I think your code would look a lot cleaner if:

1) Instead of "if x == 1" you used switch/case statements  

2) You ran your options in a while loop, reading the input and redirecting to a switch or outputting an error if the input isn't text or they pressed say, 5 for "exit".  the way you have it now, and I haven't compiled your code (neither do I intend to  ), it seems all I will see is "press 1".  Then after I am done with "1", you tell me to press "2" which isn't how a real-life software would probably work. Right now, it looks very linear.

If your boss is concerned with productivity, there is software that captures screenshots of keystrokes and windows that are open on the computer and it does so randomly. If on the other hand your boss wants to keep track of what time employees are coming and going, he could get a time card machine that stamps the time people clock in and clock out or use a card system that they would swipe at the door which records the card numbers and a time stamp as well.

dayotee,

Thanks for the compliments and it is nice to see you also changed the behaviour of your "why hire us?" accordion from onmouseover to onclick

I am happy to see you like the style of the book. It teaches the way that I love to be taught - with baby steps.  I hate it when people say, "google it" or "it's pretty easy".  Not everyone learns the same way.  Some actually want to be taught in the language of babies, so to speak and I fall into that category.  Having said that, once I get it, it sticks because I actually understand, as opposed to copying and pasting just to get the job done.  Most importantly though, I hope you are actually applying the lessons detailed in the book in your present/future projects.  Then only will the learning be complete.

Point noted on the company website. I guess I should have made it generic.  I will take it out in future editions.  Another name for the book?  What do you have in mind?  I am all ears.

I am definitely looking at putting out the book in print at some point.  For now, I was so excited to spread the news, so to speak, that I wanted to get the soft copy out first.  I guess you could call it a soft launching. She bi you go donate pepper on the D-day right?    As you said, that book will teach you in less than 30 pages what 5K - 10K books would teach you on the same topic - no fluff, straight to the point, plug-and-playable code on demand.  I am happy I came through on that for you.

So, based on what you have read, you think would be willing to attend a boring seminar I would organize to cover the topics in that book and more?     My style would probably not be the way it is done currently - in addition to talking (which if you are like me, you would find boring after a while), I would actually sit down and entertain questions and solve issues "live" during the seminar.  It would probably last 3 days (1 day each for xhtml, css and javascript.  I don't think anyone could do justice to say, PHP, in 3 days so I won't go there though I would entertain questions and answer such in pseudo-code).  I am still ironing out logistics. What do you think?

Once again, thanks for the compliments.  Hopefully others share the same sentiments.  I look forward to hearing from you soonest especially with respect to the seminar issue.

Thanks once again.

namzo,

because it is my prerogative when it comes to how I want to market myself and my product 

no need to suspect anything - it's absolutely free, no strings attached.  Many are now reading their copies and have said good things about it.

Just think about it - in the time it took you to load up your not-so-fast connection, reply to this post, click submit, wait for page to load then wait to see if i respond, you could have sent me an email and you would be enjoying the book in half the time.  who's more stressed now? 

wat brought him to the fore was that drudge broke the clinton/lewinsky affair. from that time, there was no looking back.

Omo had a vision and now, even the likes of CNN quote from his site. It has gotten to the point where, I don't even have to watch news anymore as they all get from him. I visit his site 3 times a day and get all the *useful* news I need and that's it

This is how you nurture and groom talent. Oh, how I wish someone/some corporation in Nigeria would do same


http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/biztech/11/24/startup.weekend/index.html

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Don Brown wasn't looking for a new job, but after working through a recent November weekend, he became co-founder of a new Web site.
Participants pitched their ideas for startup companies, then voted on which they liked best.

Participants pitched their ideas for startup companies, then voted on which they liked best. The 32-year-old programming consultant helped create Twitpay, a service designed to let people settle casual debts, like splitting a bar tab among friends, using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Twitpay was one of several projects in development at Startup Weekend, held November 7-9 in Atlanta, Georgia. The event brought together more than 100 programmers, marketers and designers who tried to create new companies from scratch in less than three days.

"The actual building of the product was about 80 to 90 percent done at Startup Weekend," Brown said.

The process began Friday evening when more than 100 entrepreneurs gathered to pitch their ideas. Organizer Lance Weatherby said about 60 ideas were presented. After a series of votes, eight or nine projects were selected, and the attendees split into groups to work on the ones they were most excited about.

The Atlanta event was the 25th Startup Weekend since the concept was created in Boulder, Colorado, in July 2007. Startup Weekends have been held across the U.S. and in a few cities in Canada and Europe. Past weekends have produced such companies as Market Monitor, a search engine optimization tool, and iDream, an online collection of dreams and dream interpretations. Clayton Stobbs, the interim CEO of Startup Weekend, says interest in the event has grown with the recent economic crisis. "Startup Weekend is more of a time commitment than a big expense," he said.

Participants pay $40 for the weekend and are provided meals, a place to work and a T-shirt. Stobbs said some participants just want to try it out during the weekend, and those with full-time jobs don't necessarily want extra work for the long term.

Paul Stamatiou didn't mind the extra work. The 22-year-old Georgia Tech student helped create Skribit at a Startup Weekend in November 2007. The Web site, which he said gets about 4 million hits a month, helps bloggers connect with their readers by taking suggestions for topics to write about.

Stamatiou is one of about 70 people who attended the Startup Weekend last year and one of two who continue to work on Skribit. He plans to work on the site full-time after he graduates next month.

Meanwhile, Brown and his co-workers are trying to turn Twitpay into a successful business.

"I think there will be some exciting announcements coming from us in the next month or so," Brown said.

But Twitpay and Skribit are rare among projects created at Startup Weekends. Many don't see much progress after the event is over. And some don't even survive the weekend.

Dean Gebert attended Startup Weekend because he wanted to help create a program for the iPhone, but his team fell apart six hours after it formed.

"Failure is part of the process," he said. "It just happens very fast."

After his team disbanded, Gebert became a freelancer, lending his marketing expertise to other groups working on their projects. Even though he didn't create an iPhone application like he wanted, he considers the weekend a success.

"I'd absolutely sign up again," Gebert said. "I got to meet some great people." Stobbs said that's the point of Startup Weekend. "The projects are a great byproduct, but our goal is to push community," he said. George Junginger, of Raleigh, North Carolina, has been to four Startup Weekend events and said he's still in touch with people he met at the first one he attended.

"You work like crazy for 54 hours, but it's actually way more than that," he said. "It doesn't end when the weekend ends."

why oh why did you use MS word?

To answer your question, try geocities.com.

Suuuure Mustay,

Just like when you "borrow" what doesn't belong to you, it isn't stealing

In a nutshell:

A website (as opposed to a web application) is a site that is devoid of any interaction with a backend/database. In other words, it's basically an informational site where you click from one page to the next - no personalization, no sessions, no logging in, etc. In other words, even though your files might have a ".php" extension for example, a website is basically developed in XHTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Example(s):
You develop a website for a lawyer to advertise his law firm - website. You develop a social networking website - web application.

So omni, are you saying that all you did was remove the UL tags? If so, you are wrong on 2 fronts.

I await other answers.

I noticed it yesterday but am afraid I won't be using it (not to say others won't or shouldn't). Why? I have too much on my mind already. If I don't find what I need in the top 5 results, I move on.

But hey, that's just me.

africanson,

ur url to whatson isn't working without tweaking. Click on it yourself and make corrections.

Wow! If you hadn't told me, I could have sworn the drudge site was hacked

he days of "Browser Compatibility Issues" have come and gone.

I seriously doubt that.  If you think I am lying, try this code snippet in IE6 and FF and let us know if they look the same across the board:

<ul style="margin: 0;">
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
</ul>

By the way, in reference to the above code snippet, I hereby call on all here to come up with the reason as to why the above code isn't cross-browser as well as come up with the fix for it

So, what is web accessibility?  In one sentence: It is concept that implies that a website should look and behave the same, regardless of browser and device it is browsed upon.  In other words, any website you do should look and behave the same whether I am using IE, FF, etc or am blind, color blind, deaf, etc.

To achieve this, the following at the very least must be in place (I won't bore you with what each means as via various posts, I have expounded on these in one way or the other.   Besides, what is google for?  ):

1) Use of web standards (XHTML, semantic markup, etc)
2) Ensuring websites are 508-compliant (alt tags, title tags filled out, etc)

Of course, before I am crucified here by the bad belle crowd, web accessibility, though it should be sought after, is an ideal.  Unless, as far as I know anyways, you are either doing a site for the US Fed Gov or own a very successful website within the US where not making your website accessible to all could lead to serious lawsuits that could run in the multi-millions, and I am not promoting this, web accessibility probably won't be your priority.

Speaking for myself, since I don't like looking at code twice, I build accessibility and SEO into all sites I do from day one.  Why? because if I am asked to do it later on, it will probably take more time to do it then than it would have if I did it on day one.

That's it for me. By the way, don't forget to solve the answer to my coding problem above

oh, even the poster hasn't voted? Kettle calling pot black, anyone?

Some ppl learn via googling. Others, like me, learn by sitting face-to-face with a human being, someone they can ask 20 questions and not have to post questions on a forum.

If he says he is willing to travel to even PH, that means he probably falls into the latter category

One thing I've learnt in my life as a coder is that you can never give up on old habits. Listen guys, anybody who learns how to develop web pages and of course websites using pure html and text editor like notepad will never like to use WYSIWYG, that's for sure no matter the ease of use, although you might try it out once in a blue moon.

and wat about those of us who are in between?

I just checked the polls, it seems like nobody is voting. Why?

IMHO, voting doesn't let us discuss and to learn. Typing is much better.

Weeeeell Omni,

Given the fact that most likely, hard earned money is going to be spent here, I can understand the concern. You don't want to give your money to someone who has nothing to stand on.

I was once new. What I did was piggy back on to those with more experience. Call it an apprenticeship. Then the 2 parties split the proceeds. While doing so, the newbie is hopefully learning valuable skills and building up a resume, whether it be for free or paid jobs. Once the newbie feels he/she has learned enough, they amicably break off from the "senior" and venture out on their own.

One thing I will say in general about us Nigerians is (and again, I speak in generalities), we like to do things OYO. For the most part, this isn't a good approach.

here here, pie1ct

dvonne,

FYI: get ready to fork out at least N120K as a deposit with interswitch.

Good luck!

xclusiv,

Yeah like you, what I have taken out of that article isn't about the drudge site per se but about what you should aim for when developing a website.

On the other hand, considering drudge once used to live out of his car and is now living in the poshest area of Miami because of that site does make me question what I am doing as a developer sometimes

Dante,

For the end-product of the rail system not to match what's in the picture doesn't imply in any way that it is or will be mediocre.  Read my posts again please.  I wish them well.

In other news, last time I checked, sarcasm doesn't equate to sense of humor.  I have never in any way, shape or form implied that I have one.  I am trying really hard here not to be negative of your ability to understand English so before I say something I will live to regret, I will end it here.

Thanks,

I had read as recently as no more than 3 weeks ago of some place in lagos that either has built or will be building the largest cyber cafe in the world. If the former, perhaps you should seek them out. Do a quick google for "lagos world's largest cyber cafe". If the latter, then maybe you should consider some kind of corporate sponsorship.

Good luck!

Thanks for the compliment quadrillo,

Hopefully others share the same sentiments. Even if they don't, I will use the points noted to make future editions better.

Thanks once again.

pie1ct,

Points noted and it makes perfect sense. I was just reporting and giving the forum the chance to decide

I do visit all the sites, excluding the retort, mentioned here.

Thanks for your post once again.

switchmax, just in case you still haven't sent the email try again. It's there. I have gotten at least 10 emails since I posted this so someone's getting it from somewehre

The next time someone says your site sucks, without reason, maybe you should show the person this. Note: Don't code your sites cos of this but the reasons might be something you want to incorporate into your own site. As a matter of fact, this site's design inspired a news site that I also own:

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1407-why-the-drudge-report-is-one-of-the-best-designed-sites-on-the-web

A couple weeks ago on Twitter I said: “I still maintain the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web. Has been for years.” A few people agreed, but most didn’t. Some thought it was a joke. I wasn’t kidding.

To clarify, my definition of design goes beyond aesthetic qualities and into areas of maintenance, cost, profitability, speed, and purpose. However, I still think that the Drudge Report is an aesthetic masterpiece even though I also consider it ugly. Can good design also be ugly? I think Drudge proves it can.

Here are a few reasons, in no particular order, why I think The Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web.

Staying power

People talk about timeless design all the time. But most things people point to that are timeless end up being time stamped. The Drudge Report, on the other hand, has proven timeless. It’s generic list of links, black and white monospaced font, and ALL CAPS headlines have survived every trend, every fad, every movement, every era, every design do or don’t. It doesn’t look old and it doesn’t look new — it looks Drudge. It hasn’t changed since at least 1997, and I believe the design goes back even further. How many sites can survive — and thrive — unchanged for a decade? That’s special.

It’s straightforward

There are no tricks, no sections, no deep linking, no special technology required. It’s all right there on one page. “But it’s a mess!” you could say. I’d say “it’s straightforward mess.” I wouldn’t underestimate the merit in that.
It’s unique

When you’re on the Drudge Report you’re on the Drudge Report. There’s no question where you are. The design has become iconic. How many other news sites can claim that? If you pull the logo off some of the other major news sites/networks (CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, ABC News, CBS News, etc.) you may have a hard time distinguishing them from one another. They all sorta blend into the same standard news-site look and feel. There are a few standouts, but even the NYT and the WSJ aren’t that unique. Drudge’s design stands alone.

This is important

Many news sites have lost their balls. They’re afraid to really call out one big story. They may have a leading headline, but it’s not all that obvious or different from the others. It may be a font size or two bigger, but it’s not confident. They hedge. Drudge, on the other hand, says “this is the story of the moment” with a huge headline. This is what’s important in the news right now and nothing else even comes close. Drudge isn’t afraid to be an opinionated editor and his site design perfectly emphasizes that. It’s bold, it’s risky, and it’s pure Drudge design.
It’s good cluttered

The Drudge Report usually leads with a “font size=+7” ALL CAPS headline in Arial. Sometimes it’s italicized. Sometimes, for something big big, he’ll cap it off with the infamous siren.

After that you have three columns. Some headlines are sentence case, some are ALL CAPS. Some have photos, some are just a plain text headline. Sometimes more controversial or sensational headlines are colored red. There’s usually a big ad at the top and a few other ads sprinkled among the columns.

Stories aren’t grouped or organized except probably more interesting ones up top. And that’s it. Your eye darts all over the place looking around for something that looks interesting. The design encourages wandering and random discovery.

The site feels like a chaotic newsroom with the cutting room floor exposed. I think that’s part of the excitement — and good design.

Breaking news is breaking news

Have you seen “breaking news” on MSNBC or CNN lately? Almost anything can pass for breaking news now. “So and so speaks to the press about this or that” is now breaking news. Breaking news used to mean something seriously big and important or spectacular just happened. But the major news sites have watered it way down. When I hit MSNBC or CNN, and they have a “breaking news” bar (red/yellow usually), it’s easy to ignore because they’ve cried wolf one too many times. But when you see a big honking red ALL CAPS headline with the flashing siren on Drudge, you know it’s newsworthy.

One guy can run it

The site is run by Matt Drudge full time with help from an occasional part-time contributor. If the site was 5 pages or 10 pages or 30 pages, he’d likely need additional people and technology to manage it all.
No news is the news

The Drudge Report is a headline site. There’s no “content” on the site. Yet, that’s news. The headlines themselves can be news. Drudge breaks stories without writing stories. In fact, The Drudge Report may be one of the only sites on the web that can break a story with just a headline or a photo. That’s baked right into the design.
It sends people away to keep them coming back

There’s actually no content on the Drudge Report. Well, sometimes he will post an email or a memo on his site, but it’s 99% links out to other news sources. His site is designed to send you away to bring you back. The more often you hit his site to go somewhere else the more often you’ll return to go somewhere else again. You visit the Drudge Report more because you leave the Drudge Report more. This is one of the secrets to building traffic: The more you send people away the more they’ll come back.
It’s fast

When you visit The Drudge Report, you get the Drudge report. There are no interstitial ads. There’s no load time. There’s no buffering. There’s nothing but instant content. The Drudge Report is Google-fast and Craigslist fast — quite a feat for a site that does 3,000,000 uniques a month run by one guy. BTW: Those 3,000,000 uniques a month translate into hundreds of millions of visits a month (source: CNN).

It’s cheap to maintain

The design of the Drudge Report doesn’t require a fancy CMS or, in fact, any CMS at all. It’s edited by hand. His overhead is probably a couple grand a month max. A few thousand bucks a year in overhead that generates a few million a year in revenue. That’s good design.

It’s one page

The Drudge Report is one page. Every visit and every visitor is focused on that one page with a headline and three columns. He knows exactly what people are going to see, he knows exactly how people are going to see it. There’s no mystery page here that hasn’t been redesigned or mystery page there that’s throwing an error. It’s one page to look at at one page to work on. It is what it is. It doesn’t try too hard to be something it’s not.
It makes him a great living

Based on published ad rates and traffic numbers, it’s estimated that Matt Drudge makes “over a million a year.” Not bad for a single black and white page on the internet.

So these are some of the reasons why I think The Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web. Swing away.

That wd b me

I have homesite, notepad (of course) and DW loaded on my PC at home but I only use homesite. I no longer use notepad for my work but in the rare event that I am where I need to make a change to one of my sites and don't have access to my computer and the one I am using has no homesite or whatever, I have been known to pull up notepad in a jiffy. I have even used UNIX's VI editor a few times as well and believe me, if you think notepad is as basic as it gets and is thus old school, you need to check out VI