Heard it on the news few minutes ago, MBC has a new web site since yesterday (yes, AGAIN!)
Anyway, I find it nice, much better than the previous versions
This shows once more that wordpress really rocks!
To whom it may concern, a few things which need a small fix under Firefox 3.0:
- The drop down menu is hidden by the video player when you want to play something
- Remove the rating indicator near the post title while viewing it. It is confusing since the user cannot actually click on it. He/She must scroll down to be able to rate the page.
A final note, it is a good thing that they have hosted it on a Mauritian server, lets hope that the server can handle all those requests n streaming… Oops, a few minutes, the database connection was lost, probably due to high traffic 🙂
So, what do you think about the new site, powered by the blogging platform WordPress?
Yashvinblogs 
@Nit
B fer ene site kuma BBC to montrer nous. Mo sire dans 2 zours to kav fer ca twa, na?
MBC pan paye mwa n sou. Al fer to recherche au lieu porte jugement. Ou soi kan banla va poz question la dans l’assemblee nationale (et mo sire zot pou poser), b zot tou va gagne ene reponse officiel lerla.
LikeLike
@Yashvin
To ena raison. Mon mal ecrire ca. My bad. Mo ti ena pou sanz li hier meme mais banla in sanz password FTP. As soon as they give me access again, I’ll have it changed.
LikeLike
The website is of a very poor quality.
There is no consideration for security, copyright and cross browsing issues and here i’m talking only about technical part, i prefer not to talk about the marketing and communication work that is necessary to produce a modern website .
The worst is how a national company like mbc can hire an amateur ( even for free a professionnal should produce a good quality product ) to do a so important thing like a website – the most visible part of the “savoir-faire” of the company.
It’s really a pity and unfortunately we still have to wait for a long time before having a professional broadcasting service.
LikeLike
For me the website is still the same!! The looks/graphics doesnt matter! The most important thing is to deliver the content in the right way. For example when u put the video to full screen mode, u can barely see anything even if u’ve got a good internet speed!
I think MBC should invest some more in its website, not just the new building!
Anyways at least Akash tried to make it look “better”. well done.
LikeLike
@chege
Cross-browsing issues took 50% of my time and I had to remove various features just because people still use Internet Explorer. (Yes, even today!) Care to explain about the security part? Or perhaps you’d like to email me directly?
Calling people names is sooo Mauritian! So it doesn’t make any difference to me that you call me an amateur. I know what I’m worth. All of my work is public. Even my name and picture. Unlike some who are there just to criticise others’ work. It’s so easy to pick apart people when you’re sitting comfortably and anonymously behind a screen. Right?
Well, carry on my friend…
LikeLike
@Anonymous
I think that’s because the videos are encoded in a resolution of 320×240. If they encode it at a higher resolution, the file size would be bigger and thus the streaming would be slow. It’s a trade off. You can’t have everything in life, I guess.
Thanks anyway.
LikeLike
One comment and one question for the MBC website:
1. The quality of the uploaded videos are awful!!! Very very bad! May be compression ratio and/or engine have been wrongly selected.
2. I can’t listen to the radio. Why?
LikeLike
My 2 cents:
1) none of the online radio works. For one particular online radio, the following error message is displayed.”Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn’t here!”
2)Watching a clip is a pain. I tried 4 clips and all of them after reaching the 1 min landmark had only sound. (No image)
Best of luck with the website. I wish you all the best.
Regards,
Tushal
LikeLike
I think everyone is just trying to prove smthing. So why dont we organise a sort of contest? Let all those who think they can do better, ACTUALLY DO IT. Why don’t they each build up a fully operational MBC website?
It’s just an idea. 🙂
P.s. mo presk sire PERSONNE pas pou fer li. Zot pou zis critiker. Ek zot pou ignore mo post.
😀
LikeLike
@Zorro
I think I’ll have to talk them into using flash videos. Everything would be a lot less complicated then. I’ll keep you guys posted.
I don’t know. It seems like there’s a technical problem with MT’s media server at the moment.
@Tushal
Thanks. Questions answered above.
Akash
LikeLike
I have one question for the webmaster
Why is it that typing “mauritius broadcasting corporation” in http://www.google.fr or http://www.google.mu (i’m in france) shows as first result http://mbc.intnet.mu
which is a web site mixin resources from 2 domains (mbc.intnet.mu and mcbradio.mu) and having a very bad rendering ?
Are other people having the same problem ? Is the web site only accessible by folks in mu ?
LikeLike
@Doorgesh
Pou bizin atan ek ene la bougie rouge ca mo frere. Ena ene kin dir moi li kav fer ene site kuma BBC tou. Pa difficile ditou pou li ca! Lol..
@cats
I’ve asked them to redirect the old website (mbc.intnet.mu) to point to the new one (mbcradio.tv). The thing is they’re a bit slow. 😛
LikeLike
@Doorgesh : Nice idea, Nice challenge.
Who’s in to show that he/she can do better? I think I can organise some sort of competition like this, specially for this case. Do a web site for the MBC. Perhaps you can even sell it afterwards to get some money for the time u spent on it.
For those who r interested, I can even provide temporary hosting…
LikeLike
Wow!! I just went through all the comments above! Incredible! Some left some good comments, while others were completely off track! Why the HELL are you criticizing in a destructive manner the work of Akash Callikan? This guy work day and night, put his skills and knowledge to do something for FREE. Who among you would do that? If you are honest, your answer will be a big NO depending, of course, for whom you are asked to do that. Lots of you will think that the MBC has got a big budget (yes they do have) and you will try to have something for you out of it, even me 😉
I noticed that Adam Woozeer is a very awful blogger or commentator. Your comment is nasty man!! You listed this guy’s work with the intention to disgrace him?
I went to your website (http://www.woozeer.com/bio), I noticed you put “Pervasive Computing” as your “research interests” under the heading “I’m an internet professional”. What the HELL do you know about pervasive computing??? What research have you done yet so far?? How many papers have you published in conferences or any good journals?? Can you list any work you’ve done in Pervasive Computing? You idiot, you are like these UOM academics that just list “words” in their research areas, but when asked how many papers and what contribution they did in this area. NOTHING!!!
I published several papers in this area, though I don’t show off like you!
Besides, I wonder what kind of researcher you are???? Interests in Cloud technologies, Pervasive Computing, Service Oriented Architecture and Web Services, Lightweight Distributed systems, and Large Scale Distributed systems??? You are soooo good at all these things??? Stop showing off!
I let people read and share their opinions.
LikeLike
@ Akash
There seems to be a XSS vulnerability on this page: http://www.lematinal.com/marketplace.html , in the search textbox. User input isn’t sanitized properly and javascript code can be executed by the user. There could be more security flaws, I didn’t bother to check.
LikeLike
@Zorro
Thanks for backing me up. 🙂 I’ve stopped paying attention to people who try to bring me down for no reason. They’re just not worth it.
@XSS
I’ve just checked my source code. The input on the search form is properly sanitized using mysql_real_escape_string. I also tried running some javascript through the URL – didn’t work. Thanks anyway.
LikeLike
@Zorro: Akash only did this website now and also for ‘free’ because he is related to the Director General of MBC. Otherwise, why the sudden urge of finding the website disgraceful?
I wonder if we call even the ‘new’ website as the official website. As it was built/designed by someone, supposedly, by himself and for free. So, MBC is not liable for anything that happens on the website, because MBC does not own it. (Please correct me if I am wrong)
LikeLike
guys… give that guy akash a break! u find it weird that he modified that website 4 free??? every1 knows how that old website was… so we should be relieved that ena kit changement.
btw m pa tro fan mbc mw si but ena imp improvement aster 😀
only thing is that sa pub pou toothpaste la REALLY irritates me!!!!!!! la sensitibiliT dentaire blablabla.
anyway my point is that if ppl r trying to improve things,y stop them or add such comments that will do nothing but bad?? b mature n leave comments that will b constructive as some1 said above 🙂
im not a graphic designer or watever so i cannot comment abt sa ban points ki zot p discuss la. im just surprised abt the way some ppl r commenting…
LikeLike
@Amishi : You hate that advert? You are not the only one! I even made an article on that, check it out here : http://www.yashvinblogs.com/la-sensibilite-dentaire/
@Kaviraj : In fact, the domain name is for MBC, Akash did the web site, which was uploaded to the official space of MBC. I think that’s right, isn’t it Akash?
@XSS : Perhaps you can give us a demo? 😛
LikeLike
@ zorro : well said. 🙂 i love it when people get pwned like that 😀
LikeLike
@ yashvin: fini checker. glad to knw m pa tousel! hehe.
LikeLike
I do visit Yashvin’s blog once in a blue mood or when directed on Google. However, today, seeing the comments of some people, I am forced to register myself. I am not a blogger, but I like to share my views to issues within my expertise.
LikeLike
Instead of always giving negative aspects of Akash’s work i think we mauritian should thank him first though many of us thinks that the MBC is a national shame he tried to uplift its lost honour a bit … li 1 mauricien pareil couma nous sa l’armer la et kouma 1 kikene fini dir avan moi give him constructive advice to improve zot p defoule zot lor li koumdir lin fer 1 crime 😛
LikeLike
Quoting Adam Woozeer on his Twitter page (www.twitter.com/adamwoozeer) : line touye site defimedia , lematinal …MBC next lor so la liste apparamment
Mo kwar c akoz ca em ki defimedia sorti depi neant pou vin 48eme zordi lor alexa na? C akoz ca em ki kan mon reprend le matinal, lin sorti la haut 400eme pou vin 83eme zordi ek li p continuer monter? C akoz ca em ki mbc aussi pou monter aster. Na? Dir c ki to lé. End-result ki compter. And in that respect I’ve always delivered. End of story.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/www.defimedia.info
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/www.lematinal.com
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/www.mbcradio.tv
LikeLike
@Yashvin
I bought the theme with my own money but I didn’t retain any copyrights. They own the theme now. But that was the whole point of it – I was just trying to help them deliver a better website for US Mauritians.
@Amishi
Thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it. 🙂
@Yiu
C exactement c ki mon essaye faire. Si mo ti kone mo pou tan ban kozer kumsa zordi, certainement mo ti pou think twice avant fer site la. Merci.
LikeLike
May be you guys forgot that no one is perfect 🙂
MBC has an official website, so who cares? LOL! I’m sure you don’t even watch MBC.
Why you guys still criticizing it? I don’t know. This debate will not end i’m sure. I think Yashvin should close commenting for this article now because it’s really rubbish now. Each and everyone is proving he’s better. Well, how much you can make out of a website (in terms of money) is what really determines the success of a website these days.
Don’t lose time in more commenting now..get back to work and start monetizing your website and prove how much you can earn via it.
I made over Rs 1, 000, 000 in one year on the internet. 🙂 Just a small idea.
Kind regards,
Jim
LikeLike
@ Akash:
You don’t seem to fully grasp the meaning of XSS.
Anyway just enter this in the search box on the le matinal marketplace page: alert(document.cookie); and press go.
This is only a proof of concept, not a real XSS attack of course but the behaviour is there, your site shouldn’t be executing javascript entered by the user.
LikeLike
About my comment above, the code should be between “” tags which have been filtered out when I posted the comment on here.
Here’s a screenshot:
LikeLike
@XSS
I assure you, I understand XSS attacks very well. I had just mistyped the javascript earlier.
Anyway, the vulnerability has been fixed. Please try again and confirm.
Thanks once more.
Akash
LikeLike
A great characteristic of Mauritians is that they are prepared to settle for average quality, because it is an improvement on what was utter crap.
The website is still crap, whichever way you look at it. Yeah, it was for free, yeah the old one was bad, I know Akash got the theme off WordPress or wherever, but I am not a web whiz, so as a user of the website, it’s very amateurish. I don’t know if this has something to do with your abilities, or MBC’s imcompetence or something else. The website is just not good enough for the sole TV station of the island. Yashvin, even though he blogs for fun and not for money has a website which is miles better than MBC’s. So, how can a big corporation settle for something so cheap? If a friend of mine wanted me to show him the website of our local station which is meant to be the pride of the nation, I would be very ashamed to show him that website.
At the end of the day though, no-one in their right mind would want to visit MBC’s website. I would rather browse the websites of the leading Mauritian newspapers. So, why get one’s knickers in a twist over an utterly pointless online presence of our joke of a TV station.
LikeLike
@Yashi : Thanks for the compliment dude 🙂
@Others : Pas try hack mo blog la, to show that mone mal faire li ou koi, it is just a CUSTOMIZED theme from the net, lol!
LikeLike
@Yashi
That’s +1 for Le Matinal. Thanks. 😉
Akash
LikeLike
@Akash: Love your enthusiasm, but Le Matinal isn’t one of the leading newspapers in Mauritius for me. And I don’t browse them because of the website, but because they have better content in terms of news reports than the MBC. So don’t get too excited 🙂
LikeLike
@Akash: I understand your pain to support multiple browsers, specially a certain blue-icon one. If only I could do like MS once did: “This site does not work with your browser” or something like that wherever I see IE doing its stuff.
But sir, I believe people are flaming you because your comments sound somewhat like a wise-ass Mr. Knows-it-all. You know that you can’t really gauge somebody’s emotions from comments, so do be careful about your phrasing.
E.g.
“I assure you, I understand XSS attacks very well.”
“By the way someone informed me of an XSS vulnerability on MBC’s search form today. I fixed it in two minutes. I notified the plugin author, provided him the solution and he made an update.”
“I was also made aware of an SQL injection vulnerability in another plugin. Again, fixed it in less than a minute and notified the plugin author.”
Apart from those, I believe you did a good enough job with the websites you worked on. Modifying an existing CMS to solve a problem is a good solution IMHO. Why spend time and resources developing a system from scratch, when you could use some existing one and customize it to solve the problem?
The MBC website is far from being as good it could be. But hey, it’s a start and it’s definitely better than the (crappy) old version. Now, if I could suggest having a forum on the website to promote discussion and suggestions? You would need to have a very good administrative/moderation team though. I dunno if MBC would want people criticizing the Govt on its forum, but it might be a good idea in the long term. Possibly a blog too, where new developments could be posted. If you based the site on WordPress, the latter shouldn’t be too difficult.
Finally, you are still here to fight your case, even against those who flame you. For that, I congratulate you. More than one person would have just said “f*ck it!” and just go away, leaving the criticism to pile.
Just my 2 cents. Hope you don’t mind too much. 🙂
LikeLike
@Akash : I second what Inf said and I would like to add something.
You are fighting your case quite well, congrats for that and hats off to others for bringing forward some strong points which I think have really contributed to a constructive and enriching discussion on this post. I must admit it, even I am learning from your comments.
Soon going to sleep, will approve your comments tomorrow. Good nite!
LikeLike
@Yashi
You still contribute to our success. Thanks for that. 🙂
@Inf
I can see where you’re coming from but you’re taking those quoted comments of mine out of context. I was told by someone in here that I didn’t know anything about Php/MySql. Therefore my dry reply. You can only stay calm for so long, you know.
You’re right. As they say, there’s no need to re-invent the wheel.
There were plans to include a forum. I don’t know what happened to that though.
I’ll always be here. 😉
Thanks for the constructive criticism.
Akash
LikeLike
@Yashvin
Always nice to hear. 🙂 Good night.
LikeLike
By the way, here’s something fun for you guys to check out. It totally reflects my feelings about the Internet Explorer browser.
http://www.akashcallikan.com/fuckie
Have fun! 😉
Akash
LikeLike
@Akash : Nice one lol.
btw, IE6 is officially dead now 😛
We are left with its son IE7 and grand daughter IE8…
LikeLike
@Akash: If success means being an average news source in a shite market and people going through an ordeal to navigate through the website but only doing it out of desperation, then I am happy to feed your happiness. You almost embody what the MBC is all about. 🙂 ‘Success’ out of the desperation and lack of options for consumers. Defimedia and Le Matinal might as well put a webcam featuring some shit on a stick constantly on their website, it will be better content than the MBC and I will contribute even more to your ‘success’.
Glad to help out 🙂
LikeLike
@Yashi
And you completely embody the way I feel about Internet Explorer. Try the link, hopefully you’ll get my drift. 😉
LikeLike
chill out ppl…something to calm things down.
LikeLike
@Akash: You sound like my 3 year old cousin in an argument lol Not surprised people are castigating you since you are behaving like a spoilt brat. 🙂
LikeLike
What i see in many of the posts criticizing this guy’s work is a need to show off that they know more about web development than him (typical mauritians , still think they are at school or something pff). What they don’t realise is that the web as we know it today has been refined over the years by strong collaborative effort between very smart and talented people. Of course many of them had big egos, but they could still work together towards solving problems. If they could do it why not us? Am yet to see an open source project with many mauritian developers collaborating (correct me if am wrong). Why make it a competition when it would be more productive and fun to do it together…
Anyway congratulations on your work akash, don’t let the haters get you down. Is your site perfect? No , Can it be improved ? Hell Yes! you probably think have so many ideas on how to do that yourself…
Good luck!
LikeLike
Saken p penser ki so website meme pli zoli ki nouvo site MBC la. Lol. Check pli komik la: http://twitter.com/angelmandini/status/10013271014
Li p penser so website http://www.chaya.fowdar.com/ ti pou fer pli bien comme site MBC. Ki zot penser ban camarades? Mo fer sanz li met li kuma sanla la? 😛
Il faut de tout pour faire un monde… aster ki mon al kompran meaning ca dialogue la.
LikeLike
Guys check out http://www.woozeer.com/portfolio
Epic #Fail…broken links on probably the most important page of his website or even worse his (portfolio == null)!
Dude you have zero right to criticize other people’s work then, go back to your hole troll.
LikeLike
Guys, you should check this. Someone’s been having fun with a certain “kurt avish” and “tushal”. I’ve colored the meaningful parts in red.
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/1650/screenshotmbc.jpg
Michael
LikeLike
First, i would like to thank Yashvin for letting this interesting debate going on; even though certain comments were totally outrageously brutal including mine’s.
1. Smart-ass? Well I am flattered, No actually i am not. 😀
2. I have seen some of the URLs you have given and meh, I am not very impressed. I would have to agree to some extent with the guy who said the BBC thing. To be the best, you got to inspire from the best. Pretty URLs, Fancy URLs or simply URL routing system heard of them? I think your news portal site must implement this system. (referring to Le Matinal,etc)
3. ” I don’t mean to brag Josh. I’m just saying you shouldn’t judge people/websites/whatever just by looks.”
Actually, everybody judge things by their appearance; which turns out to be always subjective. But still, coming to web sites, appearance is the only thing for a user to judge the quality of the work done. If the pages have a decent page load and if everything run smoothly, it means a good job from a user’s point of view. But hey, i am just repeating everything most of you already know.
4. Concerning the menu glitch, there is to my knowledge no actually working fix for it.
The ActiveX being natively Mickeysoft, and most if not all non-mickeysoft browsers have difficulties to instantiate the object with all the proper parameters. And this object is given the most highest position context in the DOM, quite a bitter nightmare.
There exists a quick hack that works only in IE though; by putting the object in an iFrame or by adding an extra parameter as follows:
I believe this fix is only native to IE6, I have not tested on recent versions. I asked some of my buddies about the issue, but still no luck.
5. The most appropriate solution would be to move to flash video format. You could just convert them before uploading or simply develop an addon that once the video is uploaded, converts it to flv. This can be easily done using by using PHP functions such as exec(), system() to run ffmpeg(with flv patch) with the correct command lines parameters to convert the WMV.
PHP functions; exec(), system() will run any executable passed whether Win32PE or Linux ELF/COFF in a console environment depending on the OS, obviously.
Then capturing the raw output stream or string formated output to get the status about the process. Finally, you move the output flv to the correct dir.
This might difficult at first but once you get hooked to it everything will be ok.
6. mysql_real_escape_string ?? I can not believe why people are still using the MySQL engine. MySQLi (MySQL Improved), heard of it? It is the way to go nowadays. With prepared statements, no need to worry about nasty SQL injections and it is much much secure and really friggin’ fast! OOP PHP all the way 😀
7. I know I keep stressing on this issue, but believe me, compressing your CSS, will increase performance by a great deal. All styles should be in one Stylesheet. Many stylesheets equal many HTTP requests, one stylesheet equals.. well you got the idea by now. You could also consider a CSS framework like the 960 grid system, which is badass for making WordPress templates.
8. Same for for JS files, here is a quick tip; you do not need to use $(function(){} or $(document).ready(function(){} if you put all JS scripts below the end tag of body. Some think it’s faster because the browser will load the body then the JS part. Whereas in the conventional way, the JS is loaded first, which check each time for document.ready status, quite a waste of resources when you can just simply run the JS at the end of body tag.
LikeLike
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/realworld/356161/paying-for-code-doesn-t-mean-owning-it
LikeLike
They will be deleted without any notice.
Thanks
LikeLike
@Michael—>Oh well, some people are still retarded but who cares. Life goes on. Thanks for sharing that picture. Actually, I laughed.
LikeLike
Hi,
i think you could have learned the basics at w3schools.
Thx
LikeLike
@Yashi
And you sound arrogant. What are you trying to show? That you’re better than me? That’s not the point here dude. Grow up.
@lunatic
Thanks. Of course it can be improved. Actually Yashvin could set up a poll here itself about the MBC website. Like what should be modified/added/removed. I’d definitely take the poll results into consideration, knowing that many ‘experts’ would be voting here. 😉
yeah, I saw his portfolio page too. Quite a lot of empty categories there. I’m impressed! Lol.. 😛
@Michael
That’s very funny indeed! Thanks for sharing. 😀
@Josh
Thanks for all the input. And sorry we got off on the wrong foot.
@Yashvin
Thanks.
LikeLike
Things I find wrong:
1. Its was very cheap from our National TV to have a website done for free by the director’s nephew. It finally reflects the unprofessionalism of the institution. MBC is not a family business where dad gives son website contract. Oh contract! A corporate website done without any contract thats bad.
2. @Akash shouldn’t have put ‘Designed by AC’ in the footer simply cause this is not true. And stating earlier that he started from scratch is nonsense. Seeing his experience in the web dev world he should’t be doing such mistakes. He was looking for fame, he got served!
Things that are not so wrong
1. There’s nothing wrong in using a WordPress theme if the guys says he paid for it (subject he is respecting the license agreement). Buying a template saves both time and money and Akash seems more a developer than a designer.
2. @Josh’s evaluation of the website interface should be redirected to WordPress. Maybe he’s the best in the world in terms of design and user interaction. Does he mean he should be designing all the websites in the world?
MBC TV is lame in numerous aspects we might all agree. Still, this was a attempt straighten its image and we should respect that.
LikeLike
@Girish
There was no contract as such. And it wasn’t just Dan Callikan who took the decision but the whole board, i.e. the DG, the DDG, the Marketing Director, HR Manager, Radio Director, etc etc.
I know. That’s my bad. Like I’ve said before, the FTP password has been changed. Otherwise I would have changed that a long time ago. Oh and this is very important – I never said I started from scratch. Above I said “In re kumans tou a zero”. I was actually referring to the posts. We didn’t put the old posts on the new site. We’re going to add them later on in the archives. I think I’ve been very candid about this work.
LikeLike
paraite ki site la pas bizin QA, tousa bannes dimoune la pe report bug.. ene coT li bon pou designer/developer la li gagne tou so feedback 🙂
mo trouve site la ene ac bon attempt, css compatibity avec tou browser ene vrai la peine mem sa de toute facon. aussi aucun site pas vraiment fer from scratch these days, tou base lor bannes cms ki deja la.. ou sevi bannes plugin.. kifer re-invente la roue..??
couma yashvin pe dire ene tas dimoune pe critique mais seki zotte cpave fer ene full working site for MBC free of charge??
Mais moi mo envi rephrase sa!!
seki kikun envi fer ene site pou MBC free of charge mais parcontre zotte pou capve link back a zotte propre personal/business site? et servi li dan zotte portfolio (gagne station national lor so cv bien zoli sa pour ene freelancer).
Mo penC quelque part MBC ti bizin fer ene invitation pour sa avant assume ki persone pas pou postulE ek MD donne sa so nephew.
Aussi mo penC ena bannes salariE MBC ki bannes designers et developer, mo pas connE si sa bannes poste la rempli ou pas.. si oui.. ki zote fer sa banla???
anyway akash all the best and no harsh feelings man.
LikeLike