It’s been a busy few days. moving, unpacking, trying to get things organized, driving to civilization to pick up supplies (a couple of times now). We had a few things that required trips to Home Depot.

1) The shower here had some major flow issues (there was hardly any), not to mention it was at a height which required kneeling to wash your hair. So we picked up a new pipe to raise the shower up, and a new shower head that helped greatly to bring the water pressure back to a livable level. $30 later and the shower rocks!

2) The house appears to have an ant problem, nothing too major, but definitely ants have made it in, and are roaming around. So we picked up some bug killer and sprayed it around the house. It appears to have killed off the flow of ants into the house, we’ll see how the ones that are already here survive. We put some ant bait around.

We also had to head to the old place to set the garbage out last night, and then take the cans back in this morning. Only one, maybe two more trips over there for us. Natalie is meeting a cleaning company there on Thursday to clean things up, then we’ll do the inspection when the landlord is back in town.

After running around this afternoon I got the Burley D’Lite bike trailer that Natalie and I picked up over the weekend (used off of Craigslist). It came with the jogger attachment for it so I put it together and we took the baby for a walk.

After the Natalie made dinner while I dug through the garage franticly trying to find the box with my bike helmet and racing helmet in it. I couldn’t find it and was starting to get angry when I went inside and found it sitting just inside the house. Thankfully the helmets were there! After dinner I took off on a little bike ride. I wanted to see how far it was to get to the beach, so I took off that way to see. I had my trusty Forerunner 305 so I could track the ride. About a mile into it and I was at the beach!

I headed down a single track trailer, really pushing the limits of the CX1 (alright not really, but pushing my limits) through the brush and finally having to walk about 20 feet through a very sandy patch. I rode down the trailer for a while and came across a paved trail that seems like it would be a perfect spot for towing the baby around when she’s big enough.

I ended up riding about 5.75 miles, heading down the trail a ways and then back up towards Highway 1. I took 1 back to the house to call it a night. I’m hoping that I can get a ride in 3-4 times a week, but to do that I am going to have to start getting up early and heading to work, so that I can get home and ride after work. We’ll see how that goes!

Tomorrow will be my first day commuting from Half Moon Bay to San Mateo, I’m not sure what to expect.

Here are a few additional photos I took on the ride tonight.

Well, here we are, Day 149 of 365, and what is missing? Day 148.

I failed, I made it all the way until May 27th blogging every day of 2011, and on May 28th, I didn’t blog. This post will go up 7 minutes after midnight, on the 29th, meaning I missed the 28th.

Oh well, I will continue to try to blog the rest of the year, hopefully 5/28 is the only day I miss.

I blame Comcast. I was going to blog earlier but I got on with tech support trying to resolve our phone troubles, and completely zoned out.

This was supposed to be our final day of moving, 2 of 2, now it is 2 of 3.

This morning Macy Movers showed up with one truck, they informed me that the larger truck broke down (lost the clutch) climbing the hill to our place in San Carlos. So they were not going to be able to load everything up today

They ended up getting another truck, but smaller than the one they had, so we brought two truckloads over to the house today. We’ll head back over tomorrow and hopefully finish up fairly quickly.

So far the new house is great! The dogs love the backyard, and Jacqueline is spending her first night in her own room. So far so good! I wonder if Mommy will get any sleep?

Here’s a video of Jacqueline earlier in the week showing off her rolling skills for the camera

So here we are, it’s just after midnight, that means today is officially moving day 1. The guys should be here in 9-10 hours to pack up the house. I’m hoping it only takes them a few hours, we’ll see how that goes.

Tomorrow they’ll be here to load up the truck.

If you haven’t checked out the DotNetNuke Video Library lately, you really should, there is a lot of great content in there. I just uploaded 5 new videos as part of a new series that I am recording.

Beginning DotNetNuke Module Development, creating a Task Manager module for DNN. This will be a series of videos that get created over the next couple of months revolving around the creation of an open source Task Manager module. The module will be part of the DotNetNuke Forge, and the source code will be hosted on Codeplex.com.

The first videos show you how to get up and running with a new project, creating the project in Visual Studio using a template, how to install the module, and how to create the module in the Forge and how to use Codeplex for source control. The next round of videos (coming in the next couple of weeks) will get you into the development aspects of DotNetNuke.

You can check out the first 5 videos now in the Video Library, or using these direct links.

1. Task Manager Series Introduction
2. Creating the Task Manager Project
3. Task Manager solution overview and installation
4. Creating a project in the DotNetNuke Forge
5. Adding your source code to TFS on Codeplex
6. More coming soon!

For a continually updated list of the videos in the series, check out the Module Development Wiki page which has the videos listed, and will be updated as new videos are added.

This evening, after work and taking Pylon to the vet (he’s got a ulcer or something in his eye) I took 40 minutes to put the new hitch on the Mazda CX-7. I ordered a Curt trailer hitch for our 2010 Mazda CX-7 from Amazon on Thursday, it arrived today.

Why would we need a trailer hitch on the Mazda? Bicycles of course! A couple of weeks ago we got Natalie a new bike, a hybrid, a Cannondale Quick CX-3. I wanted to get one as well, but we decided to hold off a bit as we planned for the move. Well, my wonderful Auntie Carol sent me a graduation gift! Which I am going to use to buy myself a bike!

The problem we have is that the Mazda isn’t big enough to put a bike, at least comfortably inside, much less two of them. Of course we could get a roof rack for the CX-7, but I really didn’t want to stick a rack on top, for the aesthetics and the noise. I also want to be able to take a bike or two behind the 350z, and I sure as hell couldn’t (wouldn’t) put a roof rack on it! So a trailer hitch attachment is our best option.

I’ve got a trailer hitch for the 350z (though it is not installed yet), so it was just a matter of getting the hitch for the Mazda. The installation was super easy, basically the process was to. 1) Remove the 4 rubber hangers for the exhaust to let it move out of the way (resting it up a jack stand as to not put too much pressure up stream. 2) File a frame hole on each side of the car to be side enough for the bolts and spacers to fit into the frame. 3) Fish the bolts and spacers in. 4) Tighten the nuts (75 ft/lbs) 5) Reattach the exhaust.

Pretty simple, I didn’t clock myself, but I can’t imaging it took more than 40 minutes. to get on.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to go get the bike and a trailer hitch bike rack. I’ll post more when that happens.

I have thought for a while now that I should do some SiteMap integration for a couple of modules, but I honestly never got around to getting it done.

Something triggered my need yesterday, and I got rolling with things rather quickly. Chris Paterra has a great post on how to implement a sitemap for your modules, I ended up implementing one for the DNNSimpleArticle module which powers the homepage of Solo2.org and SCCAForums.com. I also implemented it for the module that powers ChrisHammond.com, Project350z.com and DomoticsBlog.com

The basics are pretty straight forward for getting a SiteMap integrated with your custom modules. I won’t recreate Chris’ blog post here, but basically you need to create a new class, and populate a list of SiteMapUrls. Depending on your module, and it’s content, that may or may not be difficult.

I think I’m going to implement the sitemap for the next release of the Wiki module, should be fairly straight forward.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been feeling awful open source like. We come from an open source background, and we, DotNetNuke Corporation, are still very very committed to stick with those roots. So I put together a couple of releases for projects I work on, and created a new project as well.

Read the full blog post to find out about

Wiki Module v4.5 almost ready for Release
The World’s Best Free DotNetNuke Skin
An Update to the DNNSimpleArticle Module

Well it has been four days since MultiFunction, The World’s Best Free DotNetNuke Skin was released, and over 104 people have downloaded it from the codeplex site. You can see it in action on our demo site https://multifunction.dnndaily.com 

Have you tried it out? If so, let me know what you think of it. I’m open to suggestions, though I don’t promise to implement all of them!

Have you found the commented out DIV tag yet? Know what it is for? Perhaps I’ll turn that on in a future release for all to see

If you are using the skin and want to be included in our list of Links be sure to fill out the Contact form on the MultiFunction demo site.

If you haven’t tried it yet, go download the skin!

If you are looking to move, and are looking for movers. Take my advice, NEVER fill out a form on a website requesting a quote. You are far better off calling a company. Tell them you want a visual estimate done. Do NOT accept an estimate over the phone, without them looking at your stuff.

If you fill out a form online, be sure to use an email address you can throw away, and a phone number you can throw away as well. I thought I was filling out a form for a single moving company, I think it was Reliable, but it really just went into a pool and I had over 10 different companies emailing me, calling me, and being just down right annoying.

One company even went so far to tell me I DIDN’T want a visual inspection, it would only double the cost of my move. Really? So I told him, over and over, and finally he said he wouldn’t do a visual, so I said thanks and hung up. I checked out their Yelp ratings, holy carp, all single stars, all people complaining to never use them. Glad I ditched that one real quick.

We’re using MacyMovers.com, based on a recommendation of a friend. Hopefully it turns out okay!

Are you looking for the World’s Best Free DotNetNuke Skin? Well, have I got just the one for you. MultiFunction, you can find it now on Codeplex, or check out the Demo web site to see it in action.

So here we go again, we’re less than two weeks out from our scheduled move. Time to start throwing things away!

This weekend will be spent going through the closets, and mainly through the garage. I am hoping to get a collection of things together to take to the Goodwill store this weekend.

We’re also hoping to get out to the bay shore trail. Natalie got a new bicycle for Mother’s day, so we are hoping to make our way out to the trail so she can ride as I push the baby along in the running stroller. I’m hoping I can skate with her, we’ll see how that goes.

Is Android@Home vaporware? That is the question I have been asking myself since Google announced Android@Home at Google IO earlier this week.

There isn’t a whole lot of information out there as of right now, as to what Android@Home actually is, will be, or wants to be. The details are very sparse. The only information with any sort of a timeline that I’ve been able to find is an article from TechRadar that says the first “product” will be due at the end of this year (2011).

I’m hoping that things will flush out from Google over the next few months. In the mean time I think it is time that I dive into some Android development. I’ve been meaning to do so for quite some time, but with everything else going on I haven’t had the opportunity.

If you recall my last blog post you’ll see that I’ve dumb’d down the house, so this announcement from Google about Android@Home might have come at just the right time for me. Is it time to ditch Insteon and move to something else? Only time will tell.

I really wish I kept track of these things, so here it goes.

Today is May 11, 2011, I had a Seagate 2TB external hard drive fail today. It actually probably failed yesterday or before, but I just noticed it today. Prior to this I’ve had 2 750gb hard drives (both Seagates) fail on me. These previous failures occurred some time in the fall of 2009.

Fortunately for me the 2tb hard drive had recently been wiped clean (After backing up all the data to my Windows Home Server) except for my music that was being served through my Zune software. Fortunately any of the music that was on this drive is either a) already backed up on the WHS, or should be downloadable again through Zune.

I think I’m officially done with buying any Seagate hard drives ever again.

This one is going back under warranty, but I doubt I’ll trust it for much in the future when it gets returned. Hopefully this is the last blog post I ever make about Seagate Hard Drives failing….

DotNetNuke Training Year in Review

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been here at DotNetNuke Corporation now for just over 14 months. In May 2010 we started offering our DotNetNuke Training webinars on a regular basis, this program has been rather successful in it’s first year.

Over the past year we’ve basically offered four core webinars, Portal Admin, Content Admin, Module Dev and Skinning. These were offered on a monthly or semi-monthly basis for the past year. Anyone who paid for one of these courses got access to the recordings for the course for 30 days after they were delivered. This has worked out well from a training perspective, you can see some of the feedback we’ve received from various students over the past year on the Instructor page. Due to the frequency of the courses and the limited bandwidth I have as the sole deliverer of those materials, we haven’t been able to grow our training materials and offer new courses as I would have liked.

Read the full blog post for details about our DotNetNuke Training Subscription!

So here we are, getting ready to move again, so what do I need to do? Well, remove all the Insteon hardware from the house of course! This post is actually a year and a half too late, as we have actually moved once already, we left our house in Colorado to move to California. Making that house “dumb” was easy, as I had only put in two Insteon switches in that house.

Here in California I had wired up 7 various INSTEON SwitchLinc devices throughout the house, with a combination of relays and sending units. I never really took it 100% like I wanted to, but I also knew we wouldn’t be living here for more than a year. So I removed all of the switches this weekend. Installing the SwitchLinc devices is easy, removing them is just as easy. Though I did run into one stumbling block. The hall lighting in this house was wired with a 4 way switch. I had no clue what that meant, except that it had 3 switches that could control the lights.

When I had wired up the Insteon switches I ended up making only one of the switches work, the other two were plated off. Well that wouldn’t be acceptable for the land lord so I had to figure out how to get it working. Fortunately I came across this website that showed me how to figure out the wiring of a 4-way switch.

Hopefully with the new place I’ll have the opportunity to wire things up again and this time I can go all out. I’ve got plenty of devices to use.

Check out baby Jacqueline’s new hat!

I got that hat from the fine folks from MailChimp while at the CMS Expo conference in Chicago this week. I thought that was no way it would fit on her, but fortunately she has my big head!

It will easily fall off, but one day she’ll fit it snugly!

So I am home from CMSExpo and I am trying to go through photos. I’ve finally (I think) given up on Windows Live Photo Gallery, as my library of 543 GB of photos (146k files).

I downloaded Adobe’s Lightroom 3 for a 30 day trial to see how it works. Anyone have any opinions on how best to manage all your photos for processing?

I sort my photos on the file system by year/month/date (into folders for each). Fortunately for me I also tend to remember when an event occurred, so finding photos comes fairly easily because of this.

Part of our move to California I planned to travel less. I actually made that decision before knowing that we were having a baby, after finding that out the motivation to travel less increased.

Since Jacqueline was born I have definitely had less desire to travel and be away. I’ve been in Chicago for the past few days, and don’t get home until Thursday. Natalie has been great with all my travels, taking care of our beautiful baby and sending me photos so I can keep up with #Baby365!

We are at Day 123 for the year, here’s a photo of Jacqueline and her grandpa Gra.