Vinod Surendran R  (psindia)   India

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

I am from INDIA ( Kerala ) and still living here

How long have you been programming? 

From my 15th Birthday

What is your expertise? 

php,cpp,java .. but more php

What got you to XOOPS? 

It was just an accident .. I found xoops inside a magazine cd . Installed and found interesting and learned more about it .. 

What do you like the most about XOOPS? 

Everything .. :) ..

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why? 

My major contribution include XOOPS DHTML Hack  ( I felt that the current editor of xoops needs to improve alot). I also made a module X-monitor  for tracking user activities.

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

I made a software for my college eXamlog ... and the College is still using it.

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

Gaming , Reading IT Magazines

What about movies and music? 

Movies with action and stunning graphics.

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

" HATE WARS !!!! LOVE PEACE !!! "

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

Larry Page and Sergey Brin .. I am a big fan of these google founders and likes their style.

Andrew McCabe (XGarb)   UK

Where are you from, and where do you live now? 
From the UK (near London) and still living here.

How long have you been programming? 
Off and on since I was 12 but I don't consider myself that good at it!

What got you to XOOPS? 
Needed a CMS for a site I was working on and it was the best solution

What do you like the most about XOOPS? 
The group permissioning system

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why? 
Like to add bits and pieces into the mix when I can

What you you major achievement in programming that you're most proud of? 
The new Image Manager!

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

You favorite dish and drink? 
Probably something Moroccan with cold beer

What about movies and music? 
Films with beautiful women and sunshine. Mostly dance music

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say? 
Please stop being so stupid

If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why? 
Somewhere in the Med in the late 60's. Nice weather and less stress in the world

Simon Roberts (Wishcraft)   Australia

Where are you from, and where do you live now? 
I am from Sydney, Australia, I live with my partner in Sydney still.

How long have you been programming? 
I have been programming since the age of 8, my first computer was a commodore vic 20 which was a 32k eprom home computer, I moved over to IBM in the 386 days where I started to program in Turbo C++ from Borland. I later moved over to Visual basic which was my staple language for sometime. Around 4 years ago I started exploring web design and HTML Parsers and decided to learn PHP. I started by looking around for a library to learn with and decided to explorer xoops after building a few simple pages.

What is your expertise? 
Programming from a young age, and working in various industries, not all the time in the computer, My expertise is years of experience. I have not really wanted to sit in a learning institute and get a degree as most of the people I have met from University (at least fresh mans) have little experience and not much skill and are generally really prudent about what there course was. I find this being a bit of an anarchist and activist annoying, as well as enjoying music and culture. What got you to XOOPS? I was doing a contract with a client #1 Computing that never paid their development bill due to there dodgiest mentality, but they where using xoops for a system of roms.. I decided to check it out and decided to learn about it more.

What do you like the most about XOOPS? 
It flexibility and age of the project. A lot of CMS are very young and not matured but xoops has a resource and management system of websites that most people are use to. For example, when I was giving a demo of a site people where ‘ohh it is like myob’ which I felt was a great comment about the administration side of the site; also the fact it behaves much like most libraries being a very good RAD. You can have a simple module together in an hour or so that is working on the system. It also has a fantastic group of developers and support groups behind it.

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why? 
Recently, I have been contributing to the modules repository, documenting these on the wiki and putting my 2 bits worth into most sections of the site. Kris_FR put me on the design team, which was a great honour, but I feel I would be more suited being a coder to module or core development, even though I am busy with work. I contribute to XOOPS, to make a better community for all, I also contribute to get more contacts and business, as I work from home and would like to expand my business to a few developers and an operation specializing in xoops.

What you you major achievement in programming that you're most proud of? 
Well it was a couple of visual basic application, I wrote something called The Nexus Billing System, which took 5 years it was a windows application with a mysql backend that would provided interfaces with free radius etc, for billing ISP etc. The other achievement was coding a fractal encryption set (FES).

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

You favorite dish and drink? 
Butter Chicken and mixed dalh, I like a butterscotch snapps and soda water to drink.

What about movies and music? 
Rap, Psychedelic Trance, Punk Rock & Easy Classics.

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say? 
One World, One Unity with a pictures of people with there computers networked.

If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why? 
I like Sydney, but I would consider living in Cyprus or England.

Who is the person that you would like to meet and why? 
I would like to meet the queen of England to ask why sports stars should be knighted and not computer profession who are the staple foundation of the world communication are not knighted.

Ricardo Costa  (Trabis)   Portugal for MyTabs  and MyComments

Where are you from, and where do you live now? 
I'm from Bombarral, Portugal, you know, just beside Spain!

How long have you been programming? 
About 3 hours, just stopped to reply your kindly invitation. Well, I started coding when I was 10 or 12, can't remember. My mother gave me a Spectrum 48k, not so good as Wishcraft commodore, but good enough to learn "elses", "ifs" and other good things in life! I broke my Spectrum when I was 15 so... I've met the internet at the end of 2005, met XOOPS at the beginning of 2006. Started learning PHP in 2007. Started making modules for XOOPS in 2008.

What is your expertise? 
I'm not an expert in anything I must say, what I do worst is what I do best. I'm a bad electrician, a bad guitar player, a bad poet, bad lover and even worst coder. You can call me a "wanna be developer".

What got you to XOOPS? 
Luck, I must have been blessed that day. A friend of mine from a crackers forum opened a hosting company and offered me cheap space on a server. He recommended me XOOPS. I asked him why and still remember is answer - "It is very quick and easy to administrate".

What do you like the most about XOOPS? 
Who said I like it? I love it, and I love it all, starting with block positions and ending in groups permissions. I've tried other CMS, I moderated sites with other CMS but you know, XOOPS was my first love. I have made a successful site with XOOPS from ground 0. When I started I could not tell the difference between an email address and an URL. XOOPS has given me a new life and I'm in debt to it. That is why I'm struggling to give back because of everything that this community has given to me.

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why? 
I like to contribute in the forum and getting old modules back to life. I have missed support on my early days here and I know how important is to help newbies. I want to feel useful here so, I'll help every time I have the chance and (as a newbie I still am) will not hesitate to post my doubts here.

What you you major achievement in programming that you're most proud of? 
"Mytabs" is being a very grateful experience as a team work, but I believe my best achievement is still to come. I have great plans crossing my head everyday. If there will be a module of the year, you and me will make it.

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding? 
I used to play in a band but not anymore, we have to make choices, time won't stretch. My hobby now is getting some sleep. I bet you know what I'm talking about.

You favorite dish and drink? 
The dish-washer. I can't drink anymore, I had my share!

What about movies and music? 
Matrix. I like psycadelic trance, black metal ... Nirvana, Doors, Sepultura, Bolero de Ravel, that kind of stuff.

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say? 
I would turn red and say nothing.

If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why? 
Nice question. It could be anywhere, just plug me to internet and I´ll be where I want when I want.

Who is the person that you would like to meet and why? 
As a poet that I am, I could not answer this any other way --> I would like to meet myself. 

Nicolas Andricq (ForMusS)   France for ThAdmin Module

Come from France, I live near Lyon, the second biggest city in France

How long have you been programming? 
I have been programming for 4 years. I've started to program in school, and now I continue with it on my job and with Xoops.

What is your expertise? 
I am an IT consultant in PROGRESS which is a programming language in 4GL. Progress provides an easy language for develop some application. I also consult different client in security, programming ...

What got you to XOOPS? 
It's an hobby to learn about PHP, the OO language of Xoops and all subject about Xoops. So I love to help Xoops and xoopsers. I developed some modules for XOOPS and I help people with know-how where I can. 

What do you like the most about XOOPS? 
First I like the support and the community and especially the French community, secondly I like the programming object-oriented language of XOOPS. If you don't know PHP, HTML or CSS programming, you can still create easily your own website with "YOU" the community.

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why? 
The development of modules because I like the development and creating something for others user. It takes a lot of time, but when it's done, it's a big satisfaction to see the feedback from users and seeing it as part of of Xoops.

What you you major achievement in programming that you're most proud of? 
I am proud of the modules "Content" that I realized for my company. It implements URL rewriting easily for a module and provides some features for creating some simple pages. The second module is "ThAdmin" because it provides a theme for the Admin area like the one of Xoops 2.2.x

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding? 
I have some time for my family, cooking and listening to music. Just some simple hobbies 

You favorite dish and drink? 
I'm French so I like all French food, but my favorite dish is "boeuf bourguignon" and of course red wine.

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say? 
"Peace and love" ... for Xoops

 
Marcello Brandão (Suico)

Where are you from, and where do you live now? 
I am from Brasilia, Brasil where I live right now.

How long have you been programming? 
I've started programming back in 1988, at that time on a commodore 64 . I asked my mother for an Atari to play video games, but since we lived at Algiers at the time and there were no games available to buy, she gave me a Commodore 64. I've then started programming in Basic, numbering lines, using "gotos" and "inputs" for almost everything. A long time ago...

What is your expertise? 
I have a degree in Computer Sciences, and am finishing my master in software engineering, I usually don't get inside the code a lot at my job, I rather manage projects, as I think I am good at processes rather than coding. Take a look at openUp and you'll see what I work with almost everyday. I just love standards, body of knowledge, etc...

What got you to XOOPS? 
Let's say I was looking for a CMS to build a videogame fan-site and found xoops, it was a love at a first sight 

What do you like the most about XOOPS? 
Xoops is for me a great framework rather than a CMS, I use it at work a lot in the intranet of the company I work for, I like the modular idea, the use of smarty templates, and the groups permissions more than anything else.

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why? 
I try to contribute making modules, rarely giving support on xoops.org and have helped a bit on local support sites: XOOPS Brasil, xoops paraná.

What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of? 
As I said programming isn't maybe my main area, the process derived from openup that we use at my job is maybe the major achievement I had related to programming. But in life I am quite proud of my relationship with my wife, we are together for 11 years now and we are quite happy.

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding? 
I love to play xbox360, just bought GTA4 which is a great game. I like to travel more than anything, unfortunately I do play much more xbox than I travel. I also watch soccer a lot, my club Flamengo is really addicting.

You favorite dish and drink? 
Shrimps and red wine.

What about movies and music? 
Indiana Jones and every movie with Al Pacino, for music I almost only listen bossanova, chico buarque, tom jobim, toquinho...

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say? 
Be young , find happiness, the rest is unimportant.

If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why? 
Geneva in the 90's, Algiers in the 80's... I lived there in those decades and found it great.

Who is the person that you would like to meet and why? 
Hummm... I have set an appointment with my classmates of Algeria in Paris in September, so I think I would be glad to meet them again, but apart from that one I don't know yet. I would like to meet Gisele Bundchen, because she's gorgeous