Category Archives: How To

How to Improve Your Skills as a Programmer

Although you are an expertise and experienced programmer, there is always space for you to improve your skills in programming. There’s no certain way to help you become the best programmer. However, there are ways to help you become a better programmer.

+ Analysis your problem. Only after you know your problems can you come up with a solution to solve them. Then, you’d better think twice on how to solve those problems to make sure you are doing it right.

+ Draw up a complete plan. Your ultimate goal should be included in it and how you are going to implement the programming project. Listing predictions you can think of and measurements to deal with them.

+ Conduct testing process. It is a critical process in programming because it will improve and ensure the product quality and performance. In the meantime, you will learn a lot of things you didn’t know before and accumulate experience gradually via conducting testing process.

+ Be prepared for changes. Sudden changes can result in poor product quality and extending the deadline. You can take initiative to presenting your requirements documentation and your implementation plan prior to programming.

+ Count on others! After you finish writing your code, you can ask others to take a look. They are able to help you find mistakes and solutions. However, don’t solely rely on others. Or you can start with reading other programmer’s code, but don’t copy them. A good programmer should have their own unique thoughts and perspectives.

When it comes to doing better or being the best, it is always about your comprehensive ability. You may not possess a certain degree in programming but it doesn’t matter if you are competent to learn.

RayooTech is a provider of both global professional software and information technology service in China. Our programmers are talented and they are becoming better through our training scheme. We offer comprehensive services and solutions covering customer service IT life cycle. Those services include IT consulting, app development, maintenance and testing, as well as business process outsourcing service. RayooTech, with a view to establishing and innovating the first-class quality system, information security system and business management system, is the pioneer of IT service engineering management in its field.

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How to Become a Video Game Programmer

Video games have been popular among all ranges of age for so many years. Some people are addicted to playing while some other people plan to program. Game industry is the one that can make excessive profits. Thus, more and more people are getting involved in this attractive industry. Here are some suggestions for you to consider when you decide to become a video game programmer.

1. In general, the first tip is always the basic one. Fundamentally, if you are willing to step into this field, you have to learn programming. The knowledge of programming languages is necessary for every video game programmer.

2. Knowing about the knowledge of the video game industry through internet, magazine, or experienced insiders so that you have a general idea on the industry and be prepared for opportunities and challenges in front of you.

3. Conducting a self-evaluation process to position where your skills lie. A successful video game should be attractive in every detail from game characters to the plot. Different skills and tools are used in the process of programming a video game. It is necessary for you to know where you skills lie so that you won’t feel confused when you first enter into this field.

4. ‘Rome was not built in one day’. To become a video game programmer, you have to practice as much as possible so that you will be more and more familiar with it. You can start with a small game and then move to bigger one step by step.

5. It is not shameful for you to ask questions even some basic ones. However, you’d better solve those problems by yourself at first. Asking for help from others on where you are stuck if you really cannot come up with a solution.

Once you’ve made up your mind to become a video game programmer, you have to be dedicated to it and be focused. Keep in mind one thing that is ‘haste makes waste’. Don’t be in a hurry, do gradually.

RayooTech Co., Ltd is a provider of both global professional software and information technology service in China. Our software development includes video game development and other software development. Apart from developing software for PC, we also develop applications for mobile devices. We offer comprehensive services and solutions covering customer service IT life cycle, including IT consulting, application development, software maintenance and testing, as well s business process outsourcing service. RayooTech would be your perfect choice of hiring software developer in China.

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How Small & Medium Companies and Startups Can Hire For New Frontiers

hiring

How Small & Medium Companies and Startups Can Hire For New Frontiers (Software Engineering, Content Marketing, Social Media and SEO)

A decade ago your business probably didn’t need a website or a developer for that matter. In less than 10 years the way we do business in Nigeria has changed almost drastically. Almost everyone is going online and you cannot be left behind.

Companies and businesses that are serious about remaining competitive realize the need to be on top or at worst abreast of the trends.

The facts show that the web and mobile internet are beginning to play huge roles in shaping the performance of companies. The Nigerian Communication Commission says the number of active mobile lines in Nigeria has hit 113 million. As at the end of 2012 there were over 45 million internet users (web and mobile) in Nigeria and the numbers keep growing.

Businesses can no longer ignore the internet factor in business growth and thus the need to start getting talented hands in some of the areas needed to take advantage of the online growth.

Companies and businesses previously never needed to hire specialists and talented workers in areas like content marketing, design and development, social media, SEO etc. Today the story is changing and adverts for titles like Social Media Specialist, Java Developer, Chief Content Officer are becoming more prominent.

I call these emerging areas of recruitment need the new job frontiers. Ambitious companies and organizations are well aware of the need to recruit able hands for these new frontiers to enable them strengthen their positions and gain massively from the online opportunities for revenue and brand growth.

While tech companies and startups are mostly aware and in fact do much of the hiring for these new frontiers brick and mortar businesses will need to learn how to attract new hires in these areas and jump on the internet wagon.

Finding Talent in New Frontiers is Difficult

Depending on the skills and expertise you are looking for it is more difficult to hire qualified people in these new frontiers than it is to hire for traditional positions such as business development, accounting, operations etc. While there may be several developers for instance you will find it tough getting the real talented ones at a budget you can afford as a small or medium company. Those few talents often prefer being consultants or running their own gigs.

The relatively new popularity of these frontiers mean that there are not enough qualified and experienced hands to choose from.

Determine What Your Company Needs

Depending on what your company does you may not need to hire a full time developer for instance. You will first need to determine what your organization needs then explore possibilities around these needs

Full Time Employees vs Contract/Freelance

The needs you have identified will help you choose whether to bring in full time workers experienced in these areas or make do with contracted work from freelancers and consultants. If you do most of your business offline but need to have a comprehensive website to attract prospects you might go for paying a web developer to design your company site. Then you will also decide if there is enough work involved in maintaining and running the site to warrant having a web administrator.

However these days there’s not much value having a static website that does not have regularly updated information to attract reasonable visits from the search engines. Many companies serious with having an active online presence now know the value of a company blog and some other content marketing channels in bringing new, targeted prospective customers and users. Deciding to go with a content marketing strategy (inclusive of maintaining an active blog, guest posting, etc) will mean hiring specialists to drive the strategy.

Social media is increasing in importance for businesses. Again depending on your area of business and ambition you will have active social media channels for your business on at least any of the following major social/business platforms; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+. Should you choose to have an active social media strategy you will also need to hire social media managers and engagement officers.

How To Hire for Design & Development, Engineering, Content Marketing, Social Media, Data Management, Community/User Operations, etc

Like stated earlier hiring for software engineering and development positions can be more difficult than for areas like community/user operations and social media. Still hiring for all these hitherto unknown job areas of a business is definitely challenging for business owners and managers who are not very tech savvy.

Hiring programmers, software engineers, database managers, social media and content marketing specialists etc will entail combining a few strategies such as stalking and poaching (which will likely get you better experienced hands at bigger wages), advertising on tech job boards and tech publications and word of mouth.

For the first you have to actually be conversant with the industry and build up your target list of people who have the skills and experience you require. A good place to start your search might be LinkedIn where you can search for people based on the title or skills you have in mind. Refining your search smartly can help you find developers around your location. You can check out their profiles, recommendations and send them connection requests. You can also cross over to Twitter and follow same persons to know more about what they do daily. Twitter has a curious way of letting you into the work or thought patterns of people you are looking to work with.

While many job boards are mostly useless for hiring experienced hands in these job frontiers you could find decent prospects for softer niches like community/user operations, Operations, Social Media and to some extent Content Marketing by advertising in a few reputable job sites. Tougher positions like those in engineering, design, database administration, digital security etc might require that you advertise in tech sites that attract a good number of these tribe of people.

If you are active in meeting and knowing people in these frontiers you could actually quietly pass word around via Twitter, email and face to face meetings and you could end up getting decent prospects referred to you this way.

If you are more tech conscious than savvy like me you definitely will need an associate or consigliere well versed in these areas to help you decipher the real valuable prospects from the chaff.

From sounding out prospects to the actual interview you will need to have one or two associates or advisors experienced in that particular niche to help you negotiate the various steps and get the best possible candidates. A software engineer will not do much to help you if you are recruiting for a Chief Content Specialist. Asking a Database Administrator/Engineer to help you hire a PHP developer will not cut it either.

The key to attracting and hiring A list people for your organisation’s march into the new frontiers mean is to be clear on what you want, be patient, utilize the right candidate attraction techniques and get the right assistance (if you are not savvy in these areas).

Source: http://www.ventures-africa.com/2013/04/how-small-medium-companies-and-startups-can-hire-for-new-frontiers/

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How to create a table with alternative row style using PHP?

Table With Alternative Row Style

Figure 1: Table with Alternative Row Style

How to create a table with look and feel similar to Figure 1 from above? Follow these steps below:

 

Step 1: Create CSS style for the even an and odd class. In figure 2, the background color of the even and odd table are set to different variation of grey color.

CSS Odd Even Class

Figure 2: CSS Code for Odd and Even class

Step 2: Display array data in a table and set table row class to odd or even. Figure 3 displays the code for display the table from Figure 1.

PHP Code To Display Table with Alternative Row Styles

The array $tblData contains randomly generated integers. The variable $key is the array index and $value is the actual integers.

The key line of code to differ the odd and even row is:

The Key Line of Code for Differentiate Odd and Even Rows

($key & 1)  checks if the array index is even or odd. The code sets the table row style to even and odd according the array index.

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How to code in a team effectively?

If you are an experience programmer, you probably already follow something similar to the suggestions listed in this article. When developers work by themselves, they do not have to understand or decipher other people’s code. However, when a team of programmers collaborate together on a deadline, coding effectively can change the quality of the product and the team atmosphere.

 

  1. Use a content management / sharing system. Normally, I use SVN for sharing information. SVN allow developers to create update, submit, and revert to any version of the code.
  2. Add comments appropriately. Developers should always comment on their code, so that others can easily understand what they are doing.

    Example: This is the PHP comment style I normally use for methods.

    /*=====================================*\
    name       : getComments()

    intro       : use this function to get comments from object

    input       : $parameters, $passed, $into, $the, $function

    output     : returned value type

    modify    : 2011-07-19 11:22:33 by Developer

    \*=====================================*/

    3.  

  3. Think like multiple people, not one person. When working in a team, the project is normally divided into different parts for different programmers to work on. While you are doing your own parts, you should design your code to easily integrate with everyone else.

    Example:  Programmer A designs and codes the general structure of software. Programmer B develops the methods called which are called in the general structure. If Programmer A think in position of Programmer B, Programmer A would think about which methods are used a lot or really similar to each other. The Programmer A would use a consistent name for that method, and leave room for Programmer B to develop a well packaged method. This way, when Programmer B thought of ways to package the methods, Programmer A do not have to change the general structures again.

 

There are plenty other ways to code efficiently. But if you follow these three tips, it would definitely speed up the development process.

 

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How to convert website visitors to Facebook likes?

The like button is easy to install, highly standardize and tied directly with Facebook’s analytics platform which can provide you a lot of information about each like button’s performance.

The like button exists in three formats: a standard, which show the name of friends who likes the page (this format is available with or without pictures) as well as the total number of likes, a box count showing the number of likes in a large box above the like icon and the button count that displays the number of count in a smaller format.

clip_image002

A light and dark color scheme is available, as well as different fonts. Choose them carefully in order to either match your site’s look and feel or improve conversions by using a color scheme and font that stands out. Also, make sure that your like button is placed where users are most likely to click on it.

Like vs Recommend

The Recommend button is something worth testing because it implies something stronger than “like” and clicking on it can sometimes be more appropriate than clicking on the “like button”.

Liking vs Sharing on Facebook

Since February 2011, Facebook’s users have the opportunity to comment friend’s like which was prior that only possible with the share button. Considering this fact as well as the fact that Facebook is not developing the share button anymore, there is no need to have both buttons. The “Like” one is enough.

Source : http://searchengineland.com/how-to-convert-website-visitors-to-facebook-likes-70545

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How to shrink the data center: 4 lessons learned by NY City Health and Hospitals Corp.

The business that manages New York City’s hospitals consolidates 11 data centers into two facilities, dispensing with two-thirds of their physical servers for a predicted savings of $70 million over 5 years. The data centers serving the hospitals had reached the end of their usefulness and required a large number of staff to support. Rather than renovating the 11 data centers, the NYC HHC decided on consolidation. The healthcare system cut the 1,700 physical servers hosted in its data centers by 63 percent and reduced the staff needed to manage and maintain the consolidated data centers. Here are the 4 steps they followed :

1. Fast virtualization saves money

Each year, in order to maintain his eleven data centers, the NYC HHC had to replace hundreds of servers and supporting hardwares. By quickly virtualizing their servers and reducing the number of data centers, NYC HHC saved about $8 million by avoiding those upgrade costs.

2. Consolidation allows greening of the data center

Consolidation has allowed the company to spend on greener technology, such as a better cooling system because it only had to take care of two data centers instead of the previous 11 facilities.

3. Better service trough standardization

Enforcing better standardization during the consolidation process has resulted in greater efficiency. Patches and maintenance can be distributed much more efficiently because the standards allow automation. NYC HHC estimates that the company has improved efficiency by a factor of 10 in the past three years.

4. Don’t forget the help desk

They also brought together all the help desks in one facility using the same monitoring tools and ticketing systems. Compared to before the consolidation, support issues are resolved more quickly.

Source : http://www.cio.com/article/680132/

How_to_Shrink_The_Data_Center_4_Lessons_Learned?page=1&taxonomyId=3028

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How to Avoid IT Outsourcing Contract Disputes

Outsourcing customers can mitigate the risk of costly disputes by insisting on clarity at the time the contract is executed and at the first sign of trouble, say Peterson and Kriss. Anticipating all the issues that may arise during an outsourcing relationship is difficult, but drafters of outsourcing agreements should try to address as many specific problems as possible upfront to save money and heartache later.

1. Provide Specific Examples of Damages
Outsourcing contracts may state that the parties can recover only “direct damages,” not “consequential” ones. But case law is unclear about what constitutes direct versus consequential harm, says Peterson. […]

2. Avoid Open-Ended Terms
Many outsourcing contracts state that the parties will attempt to reach agreement on an important provision after signing. That’s a mistake, according to Kriss, who advises clients to avoid leaving contract provisions unresolved for two reasons. […]

3. Provide Specific Examples of Material Breach of Contract
An outsourcing contract often states that the relationship can be terminated for “material breach.” But as with damages, case law is unclear about the definition of material breach, especially in a particular case, says Peterson. […]

4. Define Performance Standards
Many outsourcing contracts require conformity to “industry standards” or performance that is “appropriate,” “sufficient” or “best practice.” The problem with these adjectives, says Kriss, is that they have no clear meaning. […]

5. Require Written Notice of Customer Failure
When outsourcing disagreements arise, the supplier may blame the customer. Therefore, the contract should require the supplier to provide contemporaneous written notice to a specified officer of the customer when the supplier contends that the customer is failing to meet its obligations. […]

6. Provide Written Notice of Any Breach of Contract
Outsourcing customers can limit the cost of disputes and litigation even after the ink is dry. “The biggest mistake we see in dispute resolution is failing to send firm correspondence about breaches,” Kriss says. […]

Read More:

http://www.cio.com/article/685011/Outsourcing_How_to_Avoid_Contract_

Disputes?page=1&taxonomyId=3195

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How to outsource

I just came across a very interesting article that gives some tips that every business owner should have in mind while outsourcing.

Here are a few

1. Select the areas you want to outsource:

Select the tasks that are going to save company’s money as well as the ones that are going to be better performed with the outsourcing that they are for the moment.

2. Choose your provider carefully

The provider should be seen as a partner so you have to take into account is culture, etc etc. Choose a provider that can understand your motivation and goals and that is flexible.

3. Get your foundations right

You need to include in the contract how the pricing works and how change is managed. You need also to establish a way to evaluate your provider.

4. Manage the transition

Don’t outsource work that takes more than 6 weeks for the provider to learn! If it is more, the cost of transition would be very high! Also, some employees may need to learn how to manage the partnership.

5. Hire a contract manager

He will be there to manage the relationship from an operational process perspective and to communicate change in the business to the supplier.

6. Don’t forget that you are not handing over the risk!

Keep in mind that you only transfer responsibilities. The risk remain yours !

You can read more at : http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs

/article5182716.ece

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How To Import .sql File in Three Simple Steps

Operating System: Windows

I’m writing this tutorial assuming your already know how to use windows operating system.

  1. If you don’t already have MySQL bin configured, you can access MySQL through the command prompt. First, you should locate your MySQL bin folder, then you need to change the command prompt directory to your MySQL bin folder.
    You can change directory by typing in: cd E:\filepath\mysql\bin

    2.  

  2. Now that you are in the MySQL bin directory,  you can open MySQL by type in the following:  
    mysql -u username -p
    Note: Replace username with your actually MySQL database username and enter your password. Then type in
    use databasename
    Replace databasename with name of the database you are importing the .sql file into.

    3.  

  3. Import .sql File
    Type in the following:  SOURCE filedirectory/filename.sql
    Note: Replace filepath with the directory path that contains your .sql dump file and replace filename with your actual .sql filename.

    4. Simple right?

    If you are still lost, here is the picture version

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