Our local free paper – Weekender
Just got back from Rotherham to find our free news paper just slung on the drive in our garden and so I thought I’d write the company a letter, I found it rather amusing so thought I’d share. lol 
This weeks news paper was delivered to my front garden which could be construed as a form of littering, considering the paper could have blown all over my garden and into the streets. I’m sure the snails and other garden habitants would love a read though but I don’t believe this is the target audience of your paper.
I assume that your paper boy/girl is not trained in the art using a letterbox and would therefore suggest an intense training course to help progress their skills, I’m sure they will welcome this in later life when they come to use other equipment in their chosen profession as it may lead onto them developing their own intuition especially when it comes to problem solving such as fitting newspapers through a set size letterbox and not simply slinging it on the floor in someone’s garden.
I jest of course but I would appreciate it if your delivery person posts the actual paper and not just leave it in the garden.
Kindest Regards,
Timothy Bowers.
I did want to comment on a career in some fast food place, but thought that I should typecast. 
What a ranker! More sad new for the XOOPS project
Whilst its come as no surprise, its still another nail in that proverbial coffin for XOOPS, even more sad news which can only be accredited to the “new” management and their dictatorship style. Current XOOPS developers are angry at the current dictator style being used to manage a once great open source project.
After forcing out the previous management, then censoring posts and articles to suit their own agenda whilst damaging others credibility on the internet, they have managed to keep the appearance that XOOPS is thriving and alive with a strong development path.
In recent news you may remember how they targeted a hate campaign against Herko Coomans, a previous project manager who was responsibly for making XOOPS as well known and popular as it is today! In in fact it was him and others who have since left XOOPS which made XOOPS recognised, In all due respect not everything done under Herko’s leadership would be considered a success and mistakes were made, however when Mamba, one of the current project management took over, they inherited a developed community. I severely doubt they could have built this community form scratch and yet they offer no respect or acknowledgement of the the great work done before they came to steal command.
Interesting Reading:
XOOPS – Legal dispute and lies backfires on them!
Herko releases official statement – Xoops Foundation LLC loses its civil lawsuit
I quote from a recent thread found on XOOPS titled “What a ranker!” which was renamed after the original word sounding much like ranker was seen to cause potential offence.
* Note: I’m quoting snippets here and as such some items may seem out of context and therefore it maybe in your best interest to read the full thread.
Wishcraft:
Quote:
After changing my rank from core developer to module developer without asking my permission I have decided the admins of this project are impossible to work with.
Not only did I do all the planning for 2.6, and headed up most of the development of 2.4 which because of our changes offered the most and best reviews we have had in 4 years. It seems I am not wanted or needed in this project.
Wammes:
Quote:
I agree that this admin isn’t doing the project any good.
When somebody contributes to the project, but it doesn’t fit in the admins thoughts, they just get deleted, edited, or wrongfully quoted.
This has got to stop. I don’t think this project is the old xoops anymore. The admin has hyjacked the projectname, kicked out the old members and created a different project. And with the current development of this different project, you can’t win from the other CMS available.
Just for example take the block on the right side: Xoops vs. Herko. The case is lost, only 235 persons signed it. That number of petition signs is absolutely not representive of the xoops community. Just remove it. The admin lost, judge made his verdicht. Please admin, step away from this beautiful project before you destroy it completely. Or do something much more usefull with your time spend on this project.
Catz
Quote:
I see you’re not the only one that has been dropped from developer status without even being told. Would have been nice if you (Mamba) actually had spoken to me about it first.
Well, I will no longer be supporting Xoops from this time forward. I would like to thank all of you who have supported, helped or used any of the WF-Modules in the past.
Quote:
Does Xoops actually have any Core developers apart from DJ?
Quote:
Dj as already informed me a long time ago that when and if he ever finished version 3, then nothing of the work we have done will be used.
Quote:
Xoops is dying, everyone I know (personally) that used Xoops has either gone to Joomla or Drupal.
Quote:
1. Where is the Xoops Roadmap for v3
2. Why do we not have a place of discussion, that users, coders, graphic artists and theme designers can work on the ins and outs of every step of development?
3. Why is there no repository in sourceforge for Xoops v3? Or one that is being used and kept up to date.
4. Why are developers just being handed out willy nilly version of Xoops that they can work on? Again, wouldn’t it be quicker and easier for all of us to work on one version at a time.
5. Why are more than 4 different version of Xoops being worked on without no real direction? If we are going to work on more than one version, then one should only be two, the first for bugs and security issues only and the other is the actual working branch/version.But, honestly, DJ should have had something workable by now. I did Zarilia in a year on my own. Xoosla refactoring in three months, Eduardo did Exm in a shorter time and the same with Simple Xoops.
Quote:
the point is that there should have been no way one developer of a CMS should have gone off on his own and decided what is best for everyone.
Kraven30
Quote:
We don’t develop xoops 2.5 because we do not know if our work will be included or not in xoops 3.0. We do not want to work for nothing.
Trabis
Quote:
We have many people able to do core development but there is no visible gratitude coming from DJ(leader of core teams).
As long as DJ keeps his solitude attitude there is no way we can work as a team.
We do not need core developers because core production is compromised.
Quote:
Stay on the dark corner hoping that DJ will save us, or burn our last matches and find a way out of the cage.
Xoops should be powered by us.
Both DJ and Mamba who are project managers have replied to this thread and yet nothing has really been answered, in fact if anything it simply appears that the points raised were ignored.
I’m please to note though that this time around Mamba doesn’t seem to be editing peoples posts to make them appear aggressive and nasty but perhaps this is in his interest this time round.
I really hope that one of two things happen here as a result of the current dictatorship at XOOPS.
1). Mamba & DJ step down from the project and either offer the leadership back to those it was originally intended for, or give it to developers and leaders more capable of running a true open source project.
When I say passed back to the people it was originally intended for, this would mean that ImpressCMS a recent fork of XOOPS could be merged back to form one central project.
ImpressCMS in my eyes is the real XOOPS, it was only because of the current dictatorship at XOOPS that the previous management was forced out, posts edited, hate campaigns started just to make people look bad.
ImpressCMS was announced the most promising CMS in the newcomer awards hosted by Packt Publishing in 2009, ICMS has real goals and real open source development, anyone and everyone is encouraged to contribute, in fact development videos have also been made to encourage the take up of coders.
This could be a real opportunity to set history right again!
2). Failing the first happening, I’d love to welcome all those developers and contributors now leaving XOOPS to join a real open source project, although still in its infancy compared to other Open Source Projects, ImpressCMS has real goals, real aspirations and a real drive to move forwards.
If neither happens and these great contributors go elsewhere then I wish them all luck in their journeys and I’m just pleased they can now see the current leadership for what it really is.
Godspeed to you all!
UK Election and who to choose?
Well if we’re not screwed by one we are by the other, we have Gordon Brown and you know some times I admire him but the majority of the time I think he’s just lying pratt that should just move on in life, he’s no better than Blair. I had to laugh when suddenly Brown whom was a rather hidden man with his personal life suddenly appears on Piers Morgan and not to much before the general election starts, publicity stunt or what.
You know that what ever Brown says, he really has something to say off camera, a hidden agenda me thinks! Just look at his behaviour when he thought he was away form the cameras and called a woman a bigot, I really wanted him to let rip in that car whilst people were listening. But all that said, it really just shows him as being human albeit a little two faced.
- I have to consider what Labour has done to us, Poor NHS funding and inadequate doctors resulted in my fathers death, my uncles death, my aunts death.
- Treated my mother like a criminal for their mistake, she’s an OAP for Christ sakes.
- Can’t even get their bin men in order but still charge my mother an incredible amount of council tax.
- I needed help from their job centre, but instead got sod all but I’m sure if I’d come from another country I could have had help. All those years of them money grabbing
- DVLA threatening legal action for a vehicle which I’d had sorn with them and later informed them was written off which my insurance company also notified them of. They harassed me for months despite me telling them the numerous times again.
- The list could go on, but for now this will do
We’ve then got the used car salesman, David Cameron. Honestly I think I’d struggle to buy a car from him he just gives off these vibes that he’s after a good commission this month.
BNP, well you know I was considering having a look at what they stand for and today we got a leaflet through the door so I had a quick read. The way I read it is they want to rip our troops out of other countries which could be a devastation not just for use for those countries we’ve gone into but also for ourselves. We need to fix the problems we’ve helped create there and we still need to fight terrorism, if we just pick up and leave places like Afghanistan then we might as well throw them back into chaos and give them some weapons to come get us with afterwards.
The bombings we’ve endured in this country hurt people who didn’t choose to fight in this war, it killed people who were just living their life and if we continued to do nothing they would still continue to come at us. The world is our oyster and we live in it so we have a duty to care for it and not just ourselves because if don’t then when all hell breaks loose we will then be dragged in to it.
BNP also don’t believe in climate change, well regardless of their belief the things we do which scientist claim contribute to climate change are still ruining our world and how we live. Coal, Gas and oil won’t last for ever, landfill sites will still be a mess and will still give of methane. The gases thrown into the Earth’s air will still be poisonous and waste from nuclear power plants still can’t be disposed of easily.
And the other parties……… Well if I’m honest I don’t really understand what they are proposing or what they stand for but I guess I should give them some consideration.
OK after careful consideration I think we should line them all up, blindfold some voters, maybe all of them and give them a paint ball gun who ever gets hit the fewest is in. lol
Maybe not?