in the content pan, how can I have two column with modules?

e,g., in the left, put a HTML module, second column, an accouncement module?

I am thinking:

1.skin

2.container...

is it possible, any ideas?

It looks like for the front page of DotNetNuke.com, it's a single pane with a Text/HTML module which then has formatted and styled HTML inside of it, creating the look of 3 columns. 

However, AFAIK you can only have modules displayed vertically within a pane, to get them to render side-by-side would probably need quite a bit of source / css manipulation which will no doubt cause many Cross-browser headaches.  Now, I will also say I haven't gotten much of a chance to play with 5.x so maybe this has changed but the last time I checked, in order to lay out modules in a column layout, you'll need a set of panes arranged as such.

The bottom is obviously implemented using 3 panes side by side.