As planned, the meeting happened!

A total of 7 people showed up, some from out of town, and we had a very fruitful discussion.

We started by introducing every one, and then I gave a brief intro to break the ice and get the discussion going. A copy of the presentation is attached below in Open Office and PDF formats.

After that, we went around the table and everyone showcased one of their sites.

Here is a photo of the attendees:

April's Fool day is about practical jokes, humor and being creative in those.

Here is a roundup of today's pranks:

We start with Drupal first ...

Skiquel posted a working rickroll module for inclusion in Drupal 6.2 core. The module did work. I even cleaned up the code style (by hand) and submitted a patch and a couple of screen shots. The followups are hilarious.

The inaugural meeting of the Waterloo Region Drupal Users Group is this Friday, April 4, 19:00 to 21:00 at The Working Centre in 58 Queen St. S. in Kitchener (near King St.)

The topic is a brief intro on what is Drupal, and some sites use Drupal, globally, in Canada and in Waterloo region. More importantly, it is about getting to know fellow Drupallers in the region.

Dries Buytaert, Drupal's founder and project lead, released Mollom in public beta today.

Among cities in the North East of the USA, and Ontario and Quebec provinces in Canada, Waterloo Region came out to be the 5th least costly place to do business in.

Waterloo Region is cheaper to do business in than Buffalo, NY, Baltimore, MD, and Detroit, M, but more costly than Sherbrooke, Que, Lexington, KY, and Charleston, W. Va. Out of the major centers closeby that are cheaper, London, Ontario and Chatham-Kent are cheaper.

The study includes labor cost, income taxes and transportation. 

Who says that money can't buy happiness?

Apparently, if you spend it on others, it will make you happy. 

Spending time volunteering, or writing open source software, has the same effect too (makes others happy, as well as yourself). 

After coming back from DrupalCon Boston, I had this conversation with Salma, my 4 year old:

Salma: You went to America?

Khalid: Yes?

Salma: What for? You were visiting cousins?

Khalid: No, I went to visit Drupal ...

Salma: Is he our cousin?

Khalid: No, but he sure is family ...

With a mom and dad who both code for Drupal, Salma is a Drupal baby ...

Bill Nuti, NCR's CEO, made $16.8M in total compensation in 2007, an increase of 141% over 2006 (which was $6.8M).

In 2007, NCR closed facilities in Scotland and Canada, outsourcing some manufacturing (Solectron/Flextronics in the USA) or moving it to low cost countries (Hungary, India). Moreover, the Customer Engineers had their pay and benefits slashed severely. In 2008, there is a hiring freeze in effect, as well as coop student hiring freeze. Many employees also got a zero % increase for 2008.

As expected, the record from 1932 snowfall (245.3 cm) was broken this winter (246 cm), and winter is not even over yet.

Even the amount of snow for one day was 32 cm on Saturday, topping the previous record in Jan 22, 1966 of 30.5 cm.

The total amount of snow from Friday/Saturday was 38 cm, but with wind and drift, it was waist deep or even chest deep in many places.