One of the aspects I really like in Stackoverflow is that it uses OpenID. Now a lot of sites use OpenID already but none have made it as easy as Stackoverflow has. This really should be viewed as a model to get larger adoption of the OpenID standard across the web.

What’s so great about it? Well the Stackoverflow site has used images of the big OpenID providers clear (Goolge, Yahoo, AOL, myOpenID) then a lot of the the lesser ones that are used a lot (Live Journal, Wordpress, Blogger ,etc..). Simply click an icon or image and Stackoverflow uses a little jquery to try and log you in or ask you for the username at that OpenId provider. Many sites and the DNN provider included simply present the user with a field to paste in the  url of the OpenId provider. Not a problem, but not every user on the web knows what that url  is or where to find it.

My first project to make my site operate like Stackoverflow is going to be to add so enhancements to the default OpenID provider built by the DNN core group....

I love Stackoverflow! If you are a programmer and haven't heard about it or used it yet visit it today!  Stackoverflow can be as addictive as any other social networking fad out there and more so because of the shear amount of content. The ideas behind Stackoverflow seem to me to be the natural progression of the older forum setup but if you want a clone you either have to pay (http://stackexchange.com/) or you can find and use one of the few clones out there. Quench (http://anantgarg.com/2009/12/09/php-stackoverflow-clone/) seems to be an okay start, there is a simple c# implementation by the guys at RA-Ajax (http://stacked.ra-ajax.org/), and there is a Chinese language site (http://cnprog.com/) that uses a clone that is available at GitHub (http://github.com/cnprog/CNPROG). Those are all great and good starts but since I use DotNetNuke all the time I wanted a module or series of modules that would allow me to duplicate the functionality...

I have writers block! I am not a professional writer, so times like this are real stressful for me. Usually I have no problem going on and on about useless stuff, as you can tell from my other posts. Sometimes I have ideas and post them and sometimes, well, its just the regular c*** that you find on other blogs.

 

I have ideas about what to blog about but I cant seem to get the mental block out of the way to write it all down. As my main boss would say ‘I don’t see as much mental vomit coming from you’, great visual huh?

 

How do you deal with writers block would love to see your ideas!

On Twitter Antonio Chagoury came through with a nice little tweet about his new tag cloud module, DNN Universal Tag Cloud.

The module is a nice tight package and integrates into the search provider for DNN so you have to have that enabled on the portal. I was able to quickly install the package without any problems on my DNN install and add it to my Blog page without any hiccups at all (look to the left here to see it in action).

The setup for the module is very simple and straight forward. Click on settings and pick where you want the tag cloud generated from, how many tags to generate, if you want an RSS feed of the tags, and if people can sort the tags. Click update and the tag cloud is there. Clicking on a tag takes you to a search for that term. You can even designate an outside search results page such as Google if you want, great for generating a little extra...

I am so glad I found the Kansas City Startup Weekend (purely by mistake on Twitter). Excited to go and see what the hype is about but mostly eager to go and get out of the funk I am in. One of my ‘goals’ for this year was to position myself as a freelance coder and consultant. If you are in the consulting business you know how hard it can be to establish a reputation, and I have had some unfortunate and bad breaks. However, I am determined to go and be productive and find or at least be inspired by all the entrepreneurial spirit I already feel online from the event.

You can follow along if you want online, Kansas City Startup Weekend, here are some resources:

Kansas City Startup Weekend Blog Kansas City Startup Weekend Live Video Feed (via UStream.TV) Dan Meltons Vimeo Group...

Overview: This software helps its users track the hours they work on projects.  The software appears geared towards consultants that bill by the hour like coders and web developers.


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