WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter # 39 (December 2010)

Please help us spread the word about XOOPS!! .

If you are a happy XOOPS user, let the world know - please blog about XOOPS, share your experiences with others, rate and review us on SourceForge and other Websites. We need to let the world know about XOOPS!!!

And if you're not happy with something in XOOPS, please let us know so we can fix it and improve! Better yet - help us fix it and improve it!

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 2009 XOOPS Financial Report

This month we've got more donations:

Ian A. Underwood: $25
Danish Naseer: $5
Anonymous: $5
Jagan Mohan: $5
Juan Alvarez Alfaro $10

Thank you all! Ian has been a tremendous XOOPS Supporter, donating every month $25. Ian, thank you so much!!! We wish, there would be more donors like you...

Thank you so much for supporting XOOPS!!!!

02. New XOOPS developments

Over 600 fans on Facebook
Discussion about joining forces on X3 with XOOPS Cube developers in Japan

Current Releases

XOOPS 2.5.0 Final
X3 Xoops Engine Alpha
Modules working with XOOPS 2.4.x (Babylon by Xoops)

03. Team Reports

In 2010 we are re-introducing monthly Team Reports from our XOOPS Teams.

Core Development Team

DJ is working on refactoring X3 Xoops Engine Alpha

Documentation Team

XOOPS 2.5.0 Installation Guide Available for Review

Modules Development Team

No new team activities.

Theme Design Team

No new team activities

Community Coordination/Support Team

Standard maintenance of the Website, and keeping it current.

International Support Team

Posting news about 2.5.0 and X3 releases

See Support Site Guidelines. Unfortunately some support sites do not anymore offer the quality of support we are looking for so these sites will have to be removed as official support sites and no longer linked to from the International Support page. This will however, open the opportunity for other webmasters in these regions to start and maintain a local XOOPS Support site, which is a lot of fun and you'll help a lot by spreading our great CMS to your area and language. To apply for official status, use this form (login required).

XOOPS on Facebook: join the main XOOPS group on Facebook

Communication/Marketing Team

WOX newsletter, keeping press informed: XOOPS in the Press

04. 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 Hossien Azizabadi (Voltan) from Iran, for teaming up with Davide Rossi and helping on xNews and extGallery modules, and his continues support on Admin GUI on XOOPS 2.5.x and now on X3. It's great to see developers teaming up and working together on modules!

This is a third "XOOPSer of the Month" award for Hossien!! Congratulations!

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

I am from Iran . I was born in Tehran and now I live in Tehran

How long have you been programming?

For about 5 years. But I would not call it programming - I can write CSS an HTML code and very little PHP.

What is your expertise?

I love creating XOOPS websites and new themes and try to add some little options to XOOPS modules . And translating modules to my language - Persian.

What got you to XOOPS?

I think 5 years ago, I wanted to create a website for myself about cinema! Some people told me to use CMS! It's easy ! I found one fantasy website with XOOPSs ( http://www.jadoogaran.org), and from there I found http://www.xoops.ir and http://www.xoops.org

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

It's Open source and free software . It's easy to use, has a great code framework and offers a great worldwide community for developers! For users it has a good support and it's very useful for all kind of websites.

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why?

Localization, themes and modules ! My language and calendar is different from European languages and we need to write some code to change XOOPS to right to left! And I like to create new themes because I can use my creativity to implement any new idea into XOOPS themes, and XOOPS makes it so easy for us.

After I learned a little PHP I saw that XOOPS modules are very simple and with use of Core we can create a new modules very easily .

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

In XOOPS 2.3 we've done a big localization for our language, but it was not only my work. Many people helped us in the translation and in debugging of language files. They told us what was needed and we've made it happen! I am very proud of the collaboration among Persian user.

After that in XOOPS 2.4 I could work on admin area with some XOOPS developers And in XOOPS 2.5 we could complete it - with much help from kris, formuss and mojtaba

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

Reading books and watching my DVDs and Climbing . It's all of events in my free times

You favorite dish and drink?

I love Iranian foods ! For example “gorme sabzi“ and “abgosht“ and “kabab”

What about movies and music?

I love any movies ! Drama or action or fantasy and many more... (I have too many movies). and I like trance music

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

Stop all wars

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

I would like meet some XOOPS developers like phppp, mamba , kris , formuss , trabis and other developers and ask them how do they create XOOPS core and modules

05. 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 Ian Underwood (iunderwood) from USA, for his innovative UHQ-GeoLocate and UHQ-IceAuth modules

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

I was born, raised, and have lived most of my life in central Massachusetts. I live in my hometown of Leicester with my wife and 4-year old son. I lived in Colorado for a year, and it was a beautiful state.

How long have you been programming?

I've been programming in some fashion since 1984. My first exposure to computer languages was with Logo on a few of his Apple //e computers. The following summer, my parents bought an Apple //e for the family. Since then, I have worked with a multitude of languages including BASIC, Pascal, C, Perl, and most recently PHP.

In the very unlikely event that he's reading, I'd like to thank Mr. McHale (OLV 7th Grade) for giving the class and getting the fires started in me.

What is your expertise?

I am a network engineer by trade, and hold certifications from Cisco and Sun Microsystems.

What got you to XOOPS?

I used to DJ for a radio station which used XOOPS for its own website and I was quite impressed with what it could do. The admin that ran it made a number of mighty fine tweaks to the code and wrote a few of his own modules, which left me very impressed.

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

Modularity. I was most blown away with how easy it was to install, uninstall, and update modules. I did not like how other systems scattered files around, especially after I was done trying a module that I would then have no idea how to remove.

Why did you decide to work on the UHQ-GeoLocate & UHQ-IceAuth modules ?

I started work on IceAuth a few years ago based on a module called "Ice". At the time, I was setting up a website demo for a friend and I wanted to limit one of IceCast's mount points to restricted accounts only. At the time, it was the only authentication module out for any CMS. Unfortunately, it did not work with XOOPS 2.3, so I figured I'd rewrite it from the ground up in pieces. Then I added a whole lot of stuff. I am not aware of any single piece of software anywhere that does what this can do in an administratively-friendly fashion.

GeoLocate came about rather recently when one of my associates on PowerFrag thought it would be neat if we could get an idea where our listeners were tuning in from. I had already logged IPs and reverse DNS, so I sought out some geolocation information. A number of libraries and providers exist which provide that information, and I thought it would be good to write a separate module instead of just embedding a single provider into the IceAuth code.

Ideally, I wanted to be able to use the capability in other modules and figured it would be better to write those capabilities modularly. I have some other ideas that would benefit from location capabilities. I'm sure that others have great ideas as well.

What other modules are you working on right now? What can we expect from your next?

I've added MaxMind's web services to GeoLocate and I'm testing that in pieces. I expect to release v0.92 next week before the new year.

Right now, I'm focused on rewriting the request engine in UHQ-Radio. The list and search are very much based off the sample PHP code that came with SAM Broadcaster, but it doesn't really scale too well with several thousand tracks by having one linear list. I'm also working on writing in a hook for IceAuth so listeners won't need to use their website password to authenticate if required.

I've got a couple of big ideas for modules which I'd like to give legs to next year, including a simple weekly-rotating schedule, a network asset manager, and a media analyzer which can make some more meaningful reports out of the information I log in IceAuth and Radio. I may rebuild GameStat if my UnrealTournament crew ever finds time to run our own server again.

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

In 1993, I wrote an update parser and packager for WWIV-based networks. I was very proud to have it running on a couple of small message networks, OgdenNet being the one that ran it the longest. I wasn't familiar with the concept of open-source at the time, so it didn't grow as well as it could have, and I really wanted to make money off my creation. Ah, the joys of being a teenager.

I was very proud of the precursor to UHQ-Radio which got me started with XOOPS programming, but that code was lost to the ages. At this point, that is a good thing because it needed a lot of polish.

I hope that the best is yet to come!

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

My dominant hobby is the small Internet radio station I run, PowerFrag.FM, which is powered by XOOPS. I have long loved video game music as an art form, and I am very pleased to collect it and share it with the world.

I also enjoy spending time with my family and taking care of my house and renovating my basement.

You favorite dish and drink?

I love food quite a bit, so there are many dishes I enjoy. Home made lasagna, a turkey feast, and steak cooked over charcoal are among my favorites.

For drink, I prefer a cold Sam Adams, or a Guinness on-tap.

What about movies and music?

My favorite movie of all time is "The Empire Strikes Back". Admittedly, I have not seen it in years because I am waiting for the BluRay release with baited breath. I am very fond of "The Matrix". Also, "Falling Down" pokes at my darker side.

Outside of game soundtracks, I like to listen to hard rock, electronic, and industrial music. My favorite band is VNV Nation. Other bands I've seen and listen to are too numerous to count. I own over 1,100 CDs crossing most genres.

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

If we focuse more on how we are alike than how we are different, the world may find peace yet.

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

With all the blessings and challenges I've had in my life so far, I wouldn't trade this time for any other. So much of the past is romanticized and the bad stuff glossed over.

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

I'd like to meet my paternal grandfather since I've never met him.