Terms and Conditions

You know one of the most hated parts of an agreement?, the terms and conditions section. Yes i hate it so much because it affects my freedom. But come to think of it. It benefits you if you have the guts to switch the agreement in your favour. Cant really elaborate much on this now, but I'll definitely keep you posted

Half Day At Work

I'm in Northern Nigeria Currently and as you'll expect, today's (friday) the day when businesses close early, everybody locks up their stores at 1.30pm. Traffic becomes hell and stuff. Of course you understand, everybody's going to pray. So turns out i had to stall my arrival at the office till around2.30pm when the mad rush had gone. Am still there now and should be leaving soon. Gotta work late to make extra cash ......

First Day in Kano Office

Today is our first day in our newly acquired Kano office. A modest Office space with good internet facilities and state of the art power generating sets. Never knew i will be staying this late in the office today. But well, it's all good. Just  rounding up now to proceed home. Tomorrow will be another day. And will be looking forward to cool biz. Have a lot of phone calls to make, contacts to meet....... Wish me luck

A Very Tight And Busy Day

Today has been probably the "hectiest" day of my life. Got a beating of my life from worked out extra tired Windows XP systems and the cumbersome and unforgiving nature of the most annoying cafe timer software in Nigeria "CyberKlock".
Had to reformat two computers almost twice. In fact, i'm suing my client for mis presentation of businesss problem. Thought i'll only be formatting sytems. Turns out i had to re-install loads of software


Ahhhhh. I'm tired.
Catchya tommorow

The Formatting Job and Company

Yeah i remember talking about a paticular off-company radar job with me formatting computers and installing Windows XP, Office.... blah blah blah.

Well i'm currently there battling with the systems and its so saddening that i did not back up drivers on the first two systems.

Turns out i have to start looking for drivers for the systems still on it. i'll up date u soon enough

Meeting Missed. Friends Pissed, Board of Directors Boiling

Turns out i fail to show up for todays board meeting because i have to fix some things. And you know what, my friends are boiling. Of course they make up the board and i head it but this picture ain't enough to describe how mad at me they'll feel.
Primary Reason: Didn't Notify them earlier

Formatting Computers, Windows XP and the Service Pack 3 Issue

I got a "job" from this man who wants me to format the computers in his internet cafe. Truthfully, that's not the kind of job my company takes and this man approached me on a personal basis. So, we meet and he tells me he wants me to format the systems, reinstall the OS and put Windows XP service pack 3, Microsoft Office 2007, Adobe PDF and Deep Freeze, and he offers me 500 naira per computer (approx $3.5 per PC).

Now, it's a good thing that pirated software is the order of the day in Nigeria thus allowing Engineers and software dudes to afford people cheap services. But i bought an original Windows XP Service Pack 3, and i paid for virtually every licensed software i have (definitely not all) and somebody expects me to sit in front of 8 pcs, 40 minutes per system to reformat them for a measly price? I aint takin that shit.

But come to think of it, there's a clause attached, 2 hours free internet access everyday and a virtual office space plus half a ream of paper, I'm so taking this job

I'm out.....

Web 2.0, Social, and My foray into PHP and MySQL

PHP, MySQL, SOcial Networking and the Web 2.0 Experience



I graduated with a Bachelors degree in microbiology from the greatest university in my country: Obafemi Awolowo University and because i had an inkling for compiters and computing, i had even completed a substantial part of my Oracle Certification Programme by the time i graduated.

I got my first interests in web development a year or two before my freshman year, back when heavy Flash enabled websites, table styling were the order of the day and facebook was probably still wearing diapers, Simply put: Web 1.0. Then, web pages were strictly HTML and you updated page contents manually on a regular basis.

With Web 2.0 however came social networking, a more social web, database-driven websites and a host of advanced features. Being an Oracle Database Administrator, i knew about displaying database results in HTML and although i never really bothered myself with the underlying framework that made it work, it turned out that all database driven websites used one Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) or the other (and mind you, the internet runs on Oracle). But then it turns out Oracle is expensive to run on a web server and unless you are probably deploying a critical mission centre or a large corporate data network, Oracle ain't really the choice for you which brings us to the need for something average websites can run on without going broke in a few hours, and there it is: MySQL.

MySQL has been the database of choice for inexpensive websites that need to use a database and it goes quite hand in hand with PHP and even though it is not as robust and effective as Oracle, it's a very good cost effective option. Because it is open-source, it's quite cheap and developments come on a regular basis.
Now, i never thought (well with my Oracle Certification) that i'll ever work on anything as cheap as MySQL (Dont mind me, Oracle Certified guys are usually a bit proud). But with my entry into web development it turns out that everybody wants to enjoy the Web 2.0 experience with you getting requests for either a blog, a forum or some lil social networking thing from customers.

So it turns out that to stay alive in this business, my ignorance of "that underlying framework" has to be overcome and my ego has to be put aside. Started PHP classes a while ago and apart from the heavy scripting jobs, it's been quite easy hosting blogs, setting up this social network or the other and even news sites.

Chelsea Win English Premier League Title

Okay, i never really spoke about the sporting side of me. I'm a diehard Chelsea FC fan. And today, we humiliated Wigan 8-0 to secure the premier league title after 3 years.
Can't measure the excitement inside me right now. But at least it shouldn't all be about work alone. Up Blues

Weekend. Nothing Much. Just Chillin

Turns out today's just Saturday and there ain't work. But have to work. A client requests samples of my web design works. So i wake up 6 o clock, hole myself up in the office, turn a few websites into ZIP files. Yet to send them over though. Wish me luck.
Funny thing: the guy who brought the job will get the same amount i'm charging. (you know how these things work).

Yesterday, Public Holiday, Yar Adua (President) Dead, My Birthday

From that list, guess you can decipher a lot went down yesterday. Though he (Yar Adua) died the night before, we heard about it yesterday and thus the public holiday. So not much happened for me yesterday, although it was my birthday. That latter part was interesting and i had fun.
Still working on rebranding though.

Logos And Banners Created Recently

Worked seriously hard to get these running. Even if you ain't,
i'm givng it up to myself. And well, the Graphics Team leader
was of help. lol

Challenge: Sourcing Location Based Mobile Phone Numbers

I wrote earlier about our last board meeting where i developed a serious headache, price fixing... Blah blah. Well, that meeting was about a new service we were introducing, which is Location Based (Customized) Bulk SMS Advertising.
Of course customized bulk SMS sending ain't a new thing, we've been offering customized SMS services for a while, but customers come with their own target phone numbers.
This time around, there's a clause being attached: location to the bare bone, i.e local government/town specific. The idea came from a job we're about to get. A local government chairman gunning for senate asks us if we can aid his campaign with text messages to people within his senatorial district, and we have to start sourcing numbers within his district. Think this explains the extremities of our last meeting, the price fixing etc. Turns out number sourcing ain't all too easy.
I'll keep posting as things turn out.

Rave of The Moment: The Apple iPad

Let it be on the record. That as of today 3rd day in May, 2010, Apple has sold it's 1millionth iPad within it's first month of release.
Well, i'm not a big Apple/Mac fan (I love Microsoft, Windows and PCs with a knack) and Mac platforms are not common on my side of the world but, turns out Apple has successfully blazed the trail with tablet computers (iPad) and smartphones (iPhone).
I don't use the iPhone, i use a Nokia smartphone (and i'm proud of it), and my laptop runs Windows 7 64-bit edition (real hot) and like it or not these are the biggest raves of the moment and you might say i ain't moving with the trend (although i can't really afford any one right now, i mean, i'll rather invest that money). But come to think of it, Apple products are not meant for business oriented people like me. Most Apple products are streamlined towards multimedia and the youth (not that am not youth nor multimedia inclined) and those ain't my priorities now. I need business tools. And the worst part, Apple products have become STATUS symbols rather than their intended purposes in Nigeria. And that's why you see people walking around and raising their finger into the air and punching hard on their iPhone screens like "yeah! I use an iPhone you fool"

Life and Business in Northern Nigeria

I am a Nigerian and as anybody will definitely know, Nigeria is divided into two: the predominantly muslim North and the predominantly christian South.
I, am from the predominantly christian south hailing from Oyo state, home to West Africa's largest and Africa's second largest city, Ibadan.
At home, there's the general impression about the North being very backward in terms of development, education and standard of living (Actually, the last two are relatively positive) but, it's quite funny that many years of military dictatorship under Northern Generals saw a bulk of the country's funds invested in Major projects in the North, thus the major states in the North aren't as bad as many will expect.
In the short time i've spent up north, i've visited/stayed in at least 3 states: Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa and Abuja. Without doubt, Abuja being the federal capital is the most developed and advanced state up north; Kaduna, is kinda the military capital of Nigeria with most military installations present there. But no place is more surprising than Kano, the self acclaimed and mostly evident "Centre of Commerce".
Walking around the streets of Kano state, you're prepared to see a mixture of classes, the super rich and the super poor, flashy cars, major markets and the best cuisines (It's well known that the average Hausa man doesn't joke with his stomach).
But most surprising is the volume of trade that goes down in these markets. With big textile markets, big food markets big household items markets and the highest population of expatriates (Mostly Lebanese, Chinese and Indians), Kano is definitely a huge representation of the amount of business that can go down up North. With these levels, it's definitely evident that Kano has a lot of business opportunities with new companies sprawling up everyday (although they are mostly owned by intellectual southerners and expatriates rushing to get the best out of an untapped resource), high rise buildings built by Northerners who have been able to exploit their state's wealth or made their wealth from the old military regimes, and cheap labour and living standards relatively available. It's little wonder why i decided to try out our company's luck up North.
With two government contracts almost within our grasp, there's no reason why we wouldn't spread out our tentacles to other Northern states and make the best of sprawling business opportunities.

Extreme Board Meeting

Have you ever been in those meetings where midway into the whole thing, you develop this serious headache? Yeah, this was a very tough one.
Starting out at 1pm, didn't finish until 8pm.
Ask me? Had to deliberate on a few issues, but the real headache came during price fixing. We're offering a new service and we had to fix a price, guess money is one thing where ideas are never the same.
Funny as it actually is, our board members being young (well young as in below the 30 age mark) and tech oriented still play computer games and this was one meeting that denied me from thrashing the Head, Systems Administration Group. Myself being Head, Web Development and Database Management Systems

The Nigerian Business Environment

Of course am Nigerian and yes my company is in Nigeria. Although we're still a small startup company just taking web development, IT and business consulting as well as database management projects, truth is we're a company and we're doing business.
Coming to the main point of my "rant", we've been in business for a few years but we ain't really what we wanted to be yet. Why? Well no thanks to the business environment in Nigeria. Yes, my own Nigeria.
When the first ideas came up, i wanted to startup a software company. The qualifications were there as well as the experience and a few tools. But, i'm not from an extremely rich family so startup capital wasn't much of my friend. Guess you'll ask me "is your family the only source of startup capital?", my answer will be "no of course". "ain't banks there to provide loans?" and i'll scream out Nahhhh! ! !, not in Nigeria.
Guess what can be most painful than loosing your entire investment is drafting down a good business plan, accompany it with a good loan application letter and getting turned down by the big boys, yeah "Nigerian banks".
Banks don't encourage startup, they're too scared to throw a bit of their excess profit into new businesses.
Another option: Microfinance banks, guess they're worse. Ever been to a microfinance bank for a loan of a hundred thousand naira and you're asked to bring a Toyota or Honda car for collateral, well it happened to me.
Hard point: we need business reforms in Nigeria.
Pray it comes soon enough

Welcome

Yeah welcome! You're reading this for the first time and wondering who's this. My name is Adetayo Kolade, but i go by other names too, something common wiv people like me (young, innovative, and looking for several brand names.). I am the C.E.O of my company ERISOFT Microsystems and yes i like (love) computers.
As said earlier, this is just my "diary"