World of Xoops (WOX): WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter # 21 (June 2009)

Posted by: MambaOn 2009/6/6 19:00:00 13170 reads

WOX - World Of Xoops

W.O.X. - WORLD OF XOOPS #21 (June 2009)

Welcome to the June 2009 issue of WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter (see here previous versions)

As always, as the first thing in each newsletter we wanted to express our gratitude to all of you who have donated money to XOOPS Foundation! We truly appreciate your trust and support!

This month was especially busy for Wishcraft! He not only got married, but also created new XOOPS Modules, and updated several of his older modules: X-Forum 4.11, X-Reaggregator 2.15, X-Invites 1.11, Robot Manager (Spider Module) - 1.01, xTRANSAM,, Multisite 1.20. Simon, congratulations on your marriage, and thank you for everything that you do for XOOPS!!!!

Highlights of the last month:

XOOPS Innovation Award - for people who create something very unique and innovative for XOOPS. This time the award goes to Mustafa Metin (_metemet_) from Turkey for his work on MyQuiz.
XOOPSer of the Month Award: is given to XOOPS members who show extraordinary dedication to XOOPS, and go the extra mile for XOOPS. This month, we would like to recognize Erol Konik (aph3x) for his work on the work on XOOPS Theme Gallery, and for all his beautiful themes for XOOPS.
XOOPS Nordic redesigned
Mobile Computing & XOOPS - Tested OK
XOOPS moved to a new server

Summary

Another very successful month for XOOPS! Government of Parana went live with its new Website based on XOOPS, Arabic XOOPS Support Site got nominated for World Summit Award, and we started the "Blue Move Initiative". So a lot of positive things are happening in the XOOPS community!

Our wonderful Theme Designers have created more new Themes with Sinnedesign and Algalochkin being the most active this month! Thank you!!!

Check out also updated news from around the world - it's always nice to see activities in local XOOPS Websites. Please keep us posted about new developments, so we can keep the worldwide XOOPS community updated!!!

Remember - XOOPS is powered by YOU!!!!

01. Donations

If you like the XOOPS system, and would like to give something in return, you can make a donation to the XOOPS Foundation! Simply use the XOOPS Donation System and use your PayPal account or your Credit Card to donate .

Your donation will be used to promote and advance the use and development of the XOOPS system. The XOOPS Foundation is a registered not-for-profit organization in the USA, dedicated to promote XOOPS! All donators will get the Friend of XOOPS rank here on this website. Thanks to all the Friends of XOOPS for their donations and continued support!

If you wonder what is happening with XOOPS money, please read the 2008 XOOPS Financial Report

This month we would like to acknowledge following donors:

Ian A. Underwood (iunderwood): $15
Anonymous from Brazil: $25
Mark Hutter: $50

Thank you so much for supporting XOOPS!!!!

02. New XOOPS developments

XOOPS 2.3.3 Final Is Released!!! (already over 17,000 downloads total: over 6,000 in May)
Modules working with XOOPS 2.3
Modules working with XOOPS 2.3.x (Babylon by Xoops)
Language Translations of 2.3.x
Mobile Computing & XOOPS - Tested OK
XOOPS Yogurt among Top 40 Free Downloadable Open Source Social Networking Software
XOOPS Traffic is surging 22% in the last 3 months
Nominate XOOPS for 2009 SourceForge Community Awards!
Welcome to XOOPS' new server

Current Releases

03. XOOPSers of the Month

Our "XOOPSer of the Month" Award is given to XOOPS members who show extraordinary dedication to XOOPS, and go the extra mile for XOOPS. Sometimes they do something spectacular, but most of the time they just do something everyday, but by doing it day-in and day-out, they make a BIG DIFFERENCE in life of XOOPS community. And we thank them for that!!!

This month, we would like to recognize Erol Konik (aph3x) for his work on the work on XOOPS Theme Gallery, and for all his beautiful themes for XOOPS.

Where are you from, and where do you live now?

I'm from Romania, currently living in the UK for the past 2years, Scotland to be exact, in a small town called Alyth.

How long have you been programming?

I started programming about 1year after I discovered XOOPS, so that will make it late 2005

What is your expertise?

Photoshop work spiced with a bit of JQuery

What got you to XOOPS?

I was part of a small community on mIRC and we decided we should have a website and since none of us had any coding background someone suggested we should use a CMS and so XOOPS was introduced to us. We were amazed how easy it was to have the desired features and how fast we could change from one skin (theme) to another. After getting the hang of it, I started to get addicted to the the community and couldn't stop refreshing the main page of http://www.xoops.org to see what other questions I haven't thought of are being asked, what other ideas this and that user had for his site.

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

I'd have to say the easiness to develop for it.

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why?

I make themes and templates for modules because designing is the thing I do best

What you you major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?

Every site that is using one of the themes I've done, I consider it a major achievement! Being acknowledged as a good designer is enough for me.

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?

I'm a huge fan of video games and the more scarier the better ...find me on XBOX Live for some L4D , my gamertag is aph3xUK.

You favorite dish and drink?

Favorite drink is definitely coffee! As for the favorite dish, it is rather hard to nominate just one, but the Chinese Cuisine is my favorite

What about movies and music?

My all time favorite movie is Donnie Darko, all time favorite TV series is Six Feet Under, as favorite musician... Nas is the definitely The man but am also huge fan of Depeche Mode, Linkin Park and Massive Attack

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say?

Taking something what Stefan the Great (Moldavian king) once said, but to a higher level...."Take care of the Earth as it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to generations and generations to come"

If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why?

I like it here and now seriously, but I would go about 2000 years in the future just to see how off are we today with the predictions about it

Who is the person that you would like to meet and why?

If it could be anyone from any time at all, then I'd have to say Leonardo da Vinci for a number of obvious reasons

04. XOOPS Innovation Award

Our XOOPS Innovation Award is given to people who create something very unique and very innovative for XOOPS! We are clear that XOOPS can only succeed, when we push the limits of our creativity, imagination, and innovation to "infinity and beyond" . And therefore we would like to recognize people who create this "WOW!" effect, when we see what they've done. The XOOPS Innovation Award is not a monthly award, i.e. theoretically, there might be a month where we won't give one, but we certainly hope that this will never happen

This month the Innovation Award goes to Mustafa Metin (_metemet_) from Turkey for his work on MyQuiz:

Where are you from, and where do you live now?

I'm from Istanbul in Turkey but living in Ankara for a long time.

How long have you been programming?

I'm not a professional programmer, but I'm trying to program since 2005

What is your expertise?

Actually I'm a medical student and want to be an expert in medicine. It's a really hard field to study. But somehow I enjoy digital art and designing. I'm working on both 2D and 3D designs.

What got you to XOOPS?

2 or 3 years ago I decided to create a website about medicine. Then I've made a list of features that my website must have. And started to search the best CMS. I have analyzed nearly all free CMS, then finally I chose XOOPS which was best for my website..

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

It's easy to use and has a great community. Also handy for both module and theme coders. And maybe they are the main reasons why XOOPS has lots of modules and other hacks.

Why did you decide to work on the MyQuiz module?

My website was about education so it had to have a quiz system. I searched deeply but couldn't find a good quiz module. And then I decided to work on MyQuiz. I have examined the most of quiz applications and tried to use their handy features with MyQuiz. And I hope this module will be a starting point to using XOOPS for people who have education websites.

What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?

Major achievement comes with major learnings. I spent lots of time with MyQuiz, and while doing it I've learned more about XOOPS, and also jquery system. Maybe MyQuiz was my major achievement for now, but there will better development projects done by me soon.

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?

When I'm not coding and not studying for medical classes, I like reading books, watching movie, playing football (soccer in USA), drawing cartoon images and riding bicycle outside the city. I have lots of extra hobbies but its enough I think

You favorite dish and drink?

Well, I love all Turkish foods but iskender kebab is my favorite. And I drink tea all time.

What about movies and music?

I rarely listen music, but I watch 5-6 movies in a week.

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say?

" You suppose you are the trouble, but you are the cure. You suppose that you are the lock on the door ,but you are the key that opens it. Itâ€™s too bad that you want to be someone else You donâ€™t see your own face, your own beauty Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours." Mevlana

If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why?

Probably I would chose living in the Ottoman Empire time, especially in 1453 when taking Istanbul. Being a soldier in this time must be a privilege.

Who is the person that you would like to meet and why?

I'm Muslim and would like to meet with any Imam of Kaaba and listen Qur'an from them live.