For one reason or another, the Power Line connection no longer seems to work. I am not able to obtain an IP address unless I connect the DVR directly into the router with an ethernet cable.

I am not about to buy a new connector or wireless connector and I was determined to find a work around.

There is a work around. The box does not seem to care, even though it complains, about an internet connection. It just cares that it has a connection to a switch or router that can provide a DHCP address to both boxes.

So what I did was gran an old router that is just collecting dust and I connected the wire that used to connect to the Power Line connector and I plugged it into an ethernet jack in my router.

I reset the default settings on the DVR and did a network setup allowing it to error again when it could not connect to the internet.

Once I verified that the network settings were correct (as provided by the new router) I went to the second TV to verify the connection. Everything works.

You need to make sure the DNS server given by your router is on the same subnet (192.168...) or else it will not work. I originally had mine setup to use OPENDNS which was causing other issues (The box needed to connect to the internet to resolve the Box Name).

Problem solved. I hope this helps someone else.

Are you pulling your hair out trying to figure out why a new JS object is not updating your view model?

I was pulling my hair out and I even went to the extent of forking the Knockout.js mapping extension so that I could create a pull request with a new "bug" that I just found.

Was it a bug?? Well no more of a misunderstanding.

If you read the directions here it seems very easy to update an existing view model.

And I tried it, for many hours, with no updates to my view model. I was convinced it was a bug in the mapping library.

It was NOT. I choose to create a view model on my page just like this:

var viewModel = {
serverTime: ko.observable(),
numUsers: ko.observable()
}

This exact sample is used on the mapping page so why should you expect any issues when you update your model? The problem is that the property "__ko_mapping__" does not get added to the viewModel because fromJS was not used originally.

Why is this an issue and why should I care?

If you look at the source for fromJS you will see this code

if (arguments.length == 2) {
        if (arguments[1][mappingProperty]) {
            target = arguments[1];
        } else {
            options = arguments[1];
        }
    }

Since the property does not exist, it assumes your hand crafted viewModel is an "options" object and not your target object.

You can do one of two things to fix your issue.

Instead of creating the view model as seen above, give the value a temp name and call

var viewModel = ko.mapping,fromJS(tempViewModel);

Or you can pass an empty object object when you update

ko.mapping.fromJS(data, {}, viewModel);

I ended up using the first option.

All I can say is if I were a more seasoned JS dev, I may have caught this earler, but this is the fix.

If your instance is stuck in Initializing or Stablizing Role, you most likely have a missing dll reference.

It took me a few deploys before I finally got fed up and walked the references with Reflector.

Since your Azure deployment requires every dll that will be used by your report, you need to make sure you have a reference to every reference listed here:

• DevExpress.Charts.v11.1.Core
• DevExpress.Data.v11.1
• DevExpress.PivotGrid.v11.1.Core
• DevExpress.Printing.v11.1.Core
• DevExpress.RichEdit.v11.1.Core
• DevExpress.Utils.v11.1
• DevExpress.XtraBars.v11.1
• DevExpress.XtraCharts.v11.1
• DevExpress.XtraEditors.v11.1
• DevExpress.XtraPivotGrid.v11.1
• DevExpress.XtraPrinting.v11.1
• DevExpress.XtraReports.v11.1
• DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.v11.1
• DevExpress.XtraTreeList.v11.1

You must also mark every dll to copy local as seen here.

Notice that a node exists, <Private>True</Private>.

I am not an insider. These predictions are solely based on my 10 years of working with .Net with a little gut instinct thrown in.

In 2000 Microsoft announced this really cool technology called .Net. It was going to revolutionize the way we write software. ASP.NET was this cool strongly typed concept that was going to allow VB 6 developers to learn how to program for the web. What they seemed to forget was the million or so asp developers that write script and not this new ASP.NET thing. There was no upgrade path for the asp developers to continue to write websites. They were stuck in the old COM world wondering when they would have to abandon Microsoft. I have to wonder how many of these developers were forced into PHP and JSP.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because my hope is that Microsoft learned from the gigantic mistake of turning their backs on the dedicated Microsoft developers as they did in 2000. There has been tons of hype since the Windows 8 video was shown combined with the statements that HTML 5 and JS were the only way developers were going to be able to achieve true cross platform support of their applications.

Prediction 1

Xaml is not dead. This includes Silverlight and WPF.

I had the honor of learning about the Xen project that Erik Meijer and his team had built in 2003. Running on the 1.1 runtime, they had generics, union data types, Tuples, and what would become Linq. They also had Xml literals in C#, something that has only made it into VB.NET. This project was way ahead of it's time but it shows that Microsoft can, and hopefully will, port a developer's skill to the new technologies without isolating a good portion of the .NET developers. It would not be hard for Microsoft to convert Xaml to Html5 and convert the event code to JavaScript. My feeling is there will be an announcement at Build that will allow us to develop in a common project type and then we can run it as either a Silverlight or Html 5 application. WPF will also be migrated into Silverlight and they will become one technology.

Prediction 2

Async will be everywhere and it will blow your mind.

Everything will have async abilities out of the box with magic auto scale to a cluster or Azure without having to code specifically to Azure or other technology. Yes I know that async has already been announced but that is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what will come out.

If you look at the Rx.Net project, it is built with async in mind. If you combine that with the parallel extensions built into .Net 4.0 and Linq to HPC, you have what could become the most powerful computing platform in existence.

Imagine if you were to create a Linq expression that behind the scenes could automatically make a determination if it should scale out the work between in house HPC servers and Azure on the fly (based on policies of course). You dont have to think about how to design your call for scalability because the framework could make that determination for you. 

Prediction 3

Visual Studio vNext will be Html 5 and hosted in Azure.

I am just kidding on this one. I think vs.net vNext will simplify the learning curve of Html 5 / JavaScript for the 80% case. My thought is it will extend the WebForms space to support Html 5 but at the same time it will work with MVC 3. I think there will be a switch in the project to make it work in legacy mode or Html 5 best practices mode. Again, Microsoft has learned that they must not abandon the current developers. For as much as I do not like WebForms, it must be supported for the corporate developers creating in house applications. We can't repeat what we had to do in 2001, telling our bosses that we have to throw everything out and rewrite the entire application from scratch and it will cost a million dollars.

Prediction 4

The CLR is not Dead.

Seriously, do we think Microsoft is going to tell us to go learn C++? You will see two million new ruby, php and python developers next week if they even hint that the CLR is going away. The CLR will not be going away. My hope is that a "Compiler as a Service" does make it into .Net vNext. Yes, the vNext way of creating Html 5 applications will change and this will force people to learn a few new skills but we all need to learn new things. If you don't like JavaScript, learn Coffeescript.

Prediction 5

Microsoft will embrace open source.

This is a no brainer. If Microsoft does not embrace open source then the rest of the world will move on without them. Microsoft makes money from licensing. Who would run ruby on IIS for more money? I see Knockoutjs getting a lot of traction in vNext. They hired the guy that wrote it. This brings MVVM style binding to Html.

We will see in a few hours how it all pans out.

Joe

The next fun task of the pocket doors is hanging the drywall. We ended up using 10 sheets to complete the entire job with minimal joints. The 9 foot ceilings required us to hang two full sheets on top with a 1 foot section on the bottom.

We ended up cutting away the drywall above the french doors to reduce the joints. We only have one bad joint to repair (see last picture).

Nice clean drywall on the left in the dining room

Nice clean drywall on the right side of the dining room

We also cut the drywall away to the ceiling in the foyer to reduce joints.

A view of the right side of hte office

A view of the left side of the office

A nice view of the drywall from the french doors to the dining room wall.

Some of the damage left from the old pillars

We were 2 inches short on the office side, so we placed a small piece of drywall and I used the 40 minute powder to fill in the cracks.

The corner also had a big area to patch. I also used the quick set power for this.

I fixed the large holes by covering it with the fiberglass tape and pushing the quick set joint compound into the hole once it was 10 minutes old. You only have 20 minutes to work with this stuff.

There was a large gap left from where the pillar met the wall so I used the quick set stuff for this also.

Next is the project of joint compounding the entire wall and all of the joints.

Now that the beam is in, we had to build the header. This is a perfect example of measure 5 times, cut the 20 boards twice. We took the 3 inches off twice so we decided to just build up the header instead of tearing out and replacing 20 boards. The header is 4 layers of 2 by 7 inches wide. The osb is in place since the beam is only 6 inches wide

Close up of the header.

A wide view of the entire header. We also nailed (with ring shank nails) osb to the boards to reduce the odds of any separation. :)

First look of the hung doors.

Picture of the door pushed to the side.

Left side view.

The completed framing of the doors and pockets.

Side view of the left pocket.

The French door replacing the entrance from the foyer.

Another view of the French doors.

In the next part, We will tackle the dry wall.

Many of you know September 11 as a day of mourning for our nation but, more personally, it is a day of sadness for our family. September 11, 2010 was the day our youngest daughter, Maya, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Instantly our lives and family dynamic changed. This diagnosis means Maya will be insulin-dependent for the rest of her life, or until a cure is found.  Maya continually amazes us and is a blessing to have in our lives as a daily reminder of spirit, humility, and a positive attitude. You can take a peak at Maya's journey through the following link: 

 We are asking our family and friends to help support Maya, and our family, in our journey to help find a cure for type 1 diabetes. We will be walking as Maya's Amazing Miles team. All the information about the walks can be found at the links.

• October 22 to help support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund 

ADA Walk -  http://main.diabetes.org/goto/MayasAmazingMiles

Unfortunately nothing we would have done could have prevented Maya from getting type 1 diabetes. Unlike type 2, lifestyle changes and weight control would not have prevented this life-threatening disease. All we can do is manage it and pray for a cure in the near future.

Thank you for helping our family support Maya, and helping us raise money for a cure. We would be honored to see you at either walk. Our team will be wearing green shirts, Maya's favorite color!

 Warm Regards,

 The Feser Family

Now that I am working out of the house, we wanted to convert the formal living room into an office/den. We have talked about it since we purchased the house and normally it would not be a massive project.

I asked the builder if the pillars in this picture were decorative or not and he stated, yep, they are only decorative, if you want, you can take them down. In the back of my head I always thought, cool I can put in pocket doors just like my grandmother's house on Clifton Ave in Cleveland.

O look, nice (ugly) decorative pillars.

The Demo

Since the pillars were decorative, it should only take a a few hours to take them down. Except for the fact that the builder wrapped the 2x4s in OSB with 3 inch (12 penny) nails. It took about 8 hours to take the pillars down to the studs only to find out the wall was load bearing.

With a ton of help from Joe (my neighbor) we determined that we had to build a new support beam to redirect the load from the middle of the room to the edges so that a 12 foot span could be created for the pocket doors. We decided to go with a double 36 inch pocket door (6 feet total) but to have a 6 foot door, you need 6 feet of empty space in the walls, hence the 12 feet needed.

This is a view of the supports inside the pillars once the osb and drywall is removed.

The Beam

We determined there was no way that we were going to be able to lift the 300+ lb beam into place that we would build it in position. So what we did is build a back support and a shelf one inch down from the final position. The beam consists of 3 2x12s and 2 layers of 3/4 inch plywood to create a 6 inch thick beam.

This is the first 2x12 in position. You can see we had to also build a temporary wall out of 2x6s just to hold up the ceiling as we built the new beam.

Each layer was glued and nailed with 16d nails (250 or so total).

This is the final beam. 3/4" plywood is sandwiched inbetween each 2x12 for strength and remove the risk of twisting.Once the beam was build, we then jacked the beam into position and inserted the support braces as seen below.

We used 2 sets of double 2x4s at the edge and two additional 2x4s 3 inches out to support the beam. That is 12 2x4s to just to support the beam.

Finished view of the support beam.

The other opening leading into the foyer will be replaced with a set of solid pine french doors. I had to tear the wall apart and increase the opening to the correct size due to the building being measurement challenged. The doorway was 2.5 inches too narrow for a 5 foot door even though the opening was build for a 5 foot french door. The doorway is now ready to have the door installed.

This is a picture of the french doors and in the back, the pocket doors.