₦airaland Forum

I work at a place that uses XML to pull data as opposed to a database. That app has been around for about 2 years. We are now redoing it and guess what? We are going 100% database. Why? Based on the traffic we are getting on the current site, it takes a few seconds for the data to pull. In the meantime, you look at the results page and you see nothing, giving the impression that you are getting 0 results.

Based on experience, XML might be a quick and dirty and "easy" way to do things but if you are running an app visited by many people, you might want to consider using a database. Besides, it is a fact that XML code can get a bit verbose, which is why many AJAX apps are moving away from XML, in favor of databases.

As at the time of this writing, http://www.independentngonline.com/ is back up again.

Interesting

Depends on whether you are an app developer or a web develper.

If former: java/jsp
If latter: html, css and javascript are a must

Is there nothing to talk about that we now have to talk about pay per language?

Anywho, IMHO, it isn't how which pays the most but how much you can learn. You should also not look at programming because of the money you get but the satisfaction. Not to mention, it is quite possible that I can use my sweet tongue to get someone to pay me N1m for a 100% HTML website whereas you with all the languages you know can barely convince someone to pay you 10% of that.

Money isn't everything. Learn with an aim to increase your market value and not for the purpose of asking for more money each time you add another feather to your CV cap.

good luck!

friend has it right. Create as many photos of the same car with different colors then provide either buttons, links or icons with the different options. then via javascript, as u click or hover (your choice), you change the src attribute of the image.

If on same window, try jquery's thickbox for a start

Wetin una dey fear? Stop playing around with the comments in the source. You think IBB has time for that? Deface the site for real.

Come on guys! Grow some balls for once!!

Must everything about you 2 always center around whether or not someone has a "third leg"?

Na wa o!

its a small firm that am starting so i need someone professional

Does this imply it will be small pay as well? Don't forget, chances are that when you start making money, you will not be negotiating with your customers regarding price, or if you do, you will not be as flexible as they want. So please, bear this in mind when negotiating the price with whoever you pick to do your site.

Websites of the same feather, surely flock together.

i know it is not difficult since it is frontpage /

Alert: Token will be very, very small.

Thinking aloud**The thread owner never even call the host names a web designer don dey call am names**

Because OP wants his site back hence playing nice, at least for now

No offense taken at all. I too am interested to know how this pans out. Dual core also made an interesting contribution. It totally makes sense to me.

Oh well, we await OP's conversation with the host.

@friendehis: As i said, "you might" - I always leave myself some wiggle room in case I am wrong

I would still run the google webmaster tool thingie though with what you have now, I would probably contact the host with my findings and if they disagree, make them prove me wrong.

good luck

I dont have any Harmful or Bad Script on my Server.

Are you sure abuot that? You might be the victim of a script insertion. It happened to me where some dude inserted an iframe onto one of my sites that called an ad server. I only knew about it while attempting to show someone the site and I got the security warning in firefox. IE didn't complain though.

Here is what I did and which might work for you as well: Register your site with google webmaster tools and register the sitemap. If you are lucky, a report from google will show the existence of any foreign scripts.

If the above is too much work then yes, look to change to a reputable host. Not all who say, "unlimited bandwidth, etc" actually mean what they say.

As a matter of fact, my site security level is poor. This days what i do is, when i develop a site that i know security is of utmost priority, i engage a security expert to look into security and profer solutions!

Even my classes on web programming. Site security is taken, but not by me! By an expert. My graphics this days are not done by me, i engage a Graphics experts.

This is the way to go!  Many people think that by engaging others, they are losing money.  Here is a scenario that should hopefully convert you:

For easy math, let's say you charge $1000 per site and you spend 20 hours on it, including graphics, coding, database and testing.  This amounts to $50 an hour.  Now, let's take Donpuzo's example where he engages a security and graphics expert and say, pays each $100 each.  One would immediately scream, "you are losing $200 and now have a net profit of $800".  Not so fast!

See, a few things come into play when you hire others:
1) by engaging others, you are reducing the time spent per project, in my case, by at least 50%
2) you have more time to engage other projects instead of telling people to wait till you are done with a project.

Now, back to the maths.  If you are now spending 10 hours, as opposed to 20, you are now making $800/10 hours = $80 an hour.  Also, you can now spend the extra 10 hours, in theory, pursuing other clients (in my case, as many as 3 at a time), thus increasing your profits even more.  Another added benefit is the warm and fuzzy feeling you get inside when you share.  As the good book say, "tis more blessed to give than to receive". Finally, you live a less stressed life as you have reduced your workload by half as well (in this case, you have dropped security testing and graphics). Of course, the underlying issue is that you charge the client such that it takes all these into account, so as to make a decent profit. This example is based on a steady average cost of $1000 per site.

So there you have it.  Anytime anyone wants to argue this issue with you based on emotions, you show them the raw facts and watch their jaws drop.

bros1234: you should even be happy that he is hacking your site, and for free at that. As I have said earlier on, better him (for free) than some rag tag group that could do more damage. This board shouldn't only be for website reviews and boasting to others with respect to what you think you know (I am not referring to you specifically but speaking in general so, don't even go there) but other serious topics like web security as well.

The "norms" of the past is an ever-changing thing - the "you must have a footer" is not always the case. Besides, IMHO it doesn't affect the overall usabilty of the site. Here are a few things that do:

1) Your pages are not consistent: The green band is all the way down the right side on the home page but not on the other pages
2) Why have "contact us" twice, in the green band on the home page?
3) On contact page, the google (or whatever) map is cut. What if I am coming from the south? How do I know where to turn?
4) Careers page: submit cv is not working
5) It is hard to read the "systems" in the logo
6) Nav bar on right side: it would be nice if yo have the light green stuff when the page is active to span the whole area instead of what you have now
7) Learn to optimize your images
On contact page, you say, "thank you for visiting site. We are ready to take your enquiries". Where exactly are you taking these enquiries, cos I don't see it.

Building your own sites from scratch = more control on your part

Building via template, though not a bad thing necessarily, means you first have to understand the code then you more than likely have to modify it. If you make a mistake without having an understanding, you then come to NL and ask for help and then get angry when no one can help you.

Building from scratch also implies being unique. How many times have you talked to a non-developer and you hear, "this looks like a template"? Do you wonder how they are able to know?

As I tell people over and over, Camry builds cars a dime a dozen. If that is what you want, go for it. I on the other hand build ferraris - to your taste. The latter of course may take more time but it is what you want and of course will cost a little bit more.

Slyr0x na so o. In as much as I want to ignore certain posts, some of them, and I am sure you will agree, are just begging for a smart ass response, he he.

Which is why I said, we need to back up and ask the right questions.

Okay, so we have postal codes. What are they used for, if according to you, NIPOST is "dead and gone"? Or are you implying that another wasteful govt organization is in charge of our postal services?

@bros1234 - even if slyrox did it, shouldn't you be happy that it was a fellow NL'er and not some actual ruthless hacker who did? NL is popular but it is still somewhat a tiny community, with respect to the webmaster board.

If he did it (and I am not saying that he did), I say it is better done by him, as reported, as opposed to some sinister person who most likely would have done worse. It is high time that together with quality assurance, we add security to our checklist prior to developing a site.

To IBB and others who don't have any regard to our local webmasters with respect to pricing:
Hopefully things like this will make you realize that you should encourage the good ones amongst us, by paying more for their work, as opposed to settling for the (bottomless pit) lowest bidder.

@Emperoh - thanks for the new url. I am wondering why they didn't do a redirect from the old to the new. The nation newspaper online did this early this year or late last year and it resulted in me not going there for at least 6 months. Same has happened here.

Thanks once again. They have a good online presence and I believe in rewarding excellence.

As a former prof once told us - your code should act just like car brakes - when you slam on it in an emergency, it better bring the car to a complete halt otherwise it's crap.

I think we should back up for a sec and ask a more important question: Does NIPOST still exist, technically?

The man might have money but don't be surprised he isn't in charge of the site itself. I speak from experience - I am currently bidding for a candidate's site. I noticed via google that he has 3 sites already and asked why he wants another to which I got the response that those are from people who are hoping to get some money from the guy. The one I would be doing is the official one.

Even if he is in charge of the site, in typical naija fashion, don't be surprised that despite his billions, he paid d guy no more than 80K to do it, hence what we are seeing.

I would go with http://osc4.template-help.com/wt_30242/index.html cos it has more white space which makes it easier on the eyes. Having said that, I would be wary of the "CSS" part of the description though - I once worked with a client who insisted on buying a template in order to "save money". That thing, for a CSS template, had so many embedded tables in it, I had to go in and remove at least 3 of them and guess what? the quality of the site wasn't harmed one bit.

So if the physical paper is being sold, then the previously given "theory" of "site is down because Ibori is in jail" gets shot down instantly.

I think something else is amiss, as in, someone has dropped the ball with respect to their domain of responsibility and figures that since Ibori is no longer in the picture for now, they can get away with it, forgetting the potential revenue lost via ads in the process.

60+ hours a week. In fact, I am taking a break from coding right now

You sound as if you are not informed about Nigeria,ones the govt in power wants you all your businesses will suffer,abiola suffered the same with abiola bookshop,bakery,concord,summit oil,farms etc

If this is the case, this is bad. If the companies are incorporated, they are (or at least should be) separate entities which means that they should survive with or without the owners.

Oh well, who am i kidding? naija is a unique environment where not even the most basic of natural laws are obeyed.

It's called capitalism folks. It is also about choice. Just like I have a choice to charge someone N1m for a 5-page site, the consumer also has a choice (and owes it to him/herself too actually) to shop around for lower prices. I might have my reasons for choosing to charge N1m, for the same reason ferraris are only custom-made and takes months to manufacture. Maybe I want to service a certain class of clientele. Granted there are frauds everywhere, that shouldn't take away from the fact that we should have a basic knowledge of what we are interested in. Are you aware that there is an enterprise version of MySQL which you have to pay for and maybe that is what the guy wanted to use? I am not defending the guy, am just saying.

Look at it this way, if you own a computer, how much do you think it cost to make it in china? I can't speak for that but I know for a fact that Nike shoes that folks by for $100+ in the US cost only about $5 to make in China. So should Nike be called a thief? Maybe but guess what? People still buy the shoes. Why? A combination of good marketing and quality of the product.

Folks, let capitalism be. The invisible hand works in mysterious ways. At the end of the day, the strong survive and the weak bite the dust. That's just plain natural law.