Here at Skynet, we use a lovely little date picker script written by monkeyphysics (no real name on his site that I could find). You can find the original script including a donate link for the author and licensing here: MONKEYPHYSICS MOOTOOLS DATEPICKER

All of the sudden, the modern browsers decided to create an issue that caused picking dates in the past to be very glitchy. DJ described it by saying “It really is like one of those whack-a-mole games.”

Honestly, I think the so-called “glitch” should have been a problem from day one. The script renders two different divs at the same time, and it simply just hides the inactive one. I added a z-index so that the visible one would be on top. Without this, it was hit or miss how the click event would bubble.

It was a very easy fix. I added the following lines of code on line 299, pushing what was on line 299 below the added code.

this.oldContents.setStyle('z-index',59);

this.newContents.setStyle('z-index',60); 

You can just add them yourself or download an updated copy here:

MODIFIED DATEPICKER

Source: Skynet Solutions

By: Jed Parmenter

Adobe has released its newest versions of its industry standard software, CS6. To everyone’s disappointment, or at least mine, Adobe Edge is still not a finalized product included in their Creative Suite. Although they have released a great solution called Creative Cloud, a subscription service offering access to all CS6 applications as well as other cloud services. This facilitates the integration of desktop Adobe software with the company’s growing staple of tablet and smartphone applications.Creative Cloud is priced at $49.99 per month for an annual membership, or $74.99 per month on a month-to-month basis. The service is also being offered at a special introductory rate of $29.99 per month for current users of Adobe’s CS3, CS4, CS5, and CS5.5 software. This service can save you a lot of money and time if you use these programs on a daily basis. An annual membership over the span of three years will have paid for an entire Adobe Creative Suite, and we all know it stinks to buy a $3500 program that is upgraded within a year. Having access to all Adobe programs across multiple platforms, and getting automatic updates for all of your Adobe programs as they come out is a win-win situation for me.
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite.html
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201204/042312AdobeCreativeCloud.html

By:Clint Smith

Source: Skynet Solutions

Project Specifications

When scoping out a project, one of the most valuable assets a project manager has will be the end users who will be using the system. These are the individuals who can explain the work flow and the value provided by the software that will be developed. Gathering their input ensures that the software will provide the needed and most convenient functionality. It will also save many hours of effort required to go back and add or modify functions that do not meet their requirements because the developer was unaware of what was truly needed.

The first step in any project development should be to meet with the individuals requesting the project and the users who will be using the end product. If you can get together in one room with an erasable white board to draw pictures, list details and flowchart the data and task flows, you will have a much better chance to make certain that what is being requested is needed, understood, and most importantly, will serve the purpose for which it is being requested.

By: DJ Burrup

Source: Skynet Solutions

Content source: http://blog.skynet-solutions.net

Being an IT Technician, I run into all sorts of technical issues. One of my client’s Terminal Servers needed to be rebooted about once a month, and I wanted to find out why. After doing some research, I found an article on the Microsoft site that gives a description of the problem and a resolution.

There is a known issue with Terminal Server that causes it to keep RDP connections open even after the user disconnects. This creates extra load on the server over time and dramatically slows it down. Here is a link to the article:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2012/03/06/performance-issues-due-to-inactive-terminal-server-ports.aspx

By: Tony Purkey

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

I can remember, when I was a kid, going to my local library and bookstore to get the latest printed BBS listings for my area. In my opinion, Bulletin Board Systems were the beginning of the internet for the general public. I had a 386 or 486 running at a blazing speed of 33MHz with a connection speed of 2400 baud. Excalibur, AOL, and other similar sharing sites came up soon before the dot-com era boomed.

Everything has been fairly steady in the internet world until people and companies started trying to beat everyone to the punch with new browsers and languages. But what has really started a tear in the interweb’s fabric is the premature use and implementation of HTML5.

As it stands now, HTML5 is not a standard, and it is not “supported,” however you still find big names boasting about their compatibility with this non-standardized language. Every big name in the tech field has their own internet browser, and they are using this to their disguised advantage to make the user feel as if they are ahead of the curve. It ends up being a finger pointing contest to what company or browser fails to be the best at something, but all we really want is across the board functionality for all devices.

Who originally proposed the start and development of HTML5? I bet you wouldn’t guess it started with one of the least used browsers, Opera from Opera Software. Since then every big boy on the playground has stripped it from their grips and is claiming it as their own, but there is a catch: you have to use their browser because the language is developed in a proprietary way that only allows viewing with their software. So where is this going? Advertising? Control? Web content monitoring? You can decide for yourself.

Currently there is no date on the final standardized release of HTML5 according to World Wide Web Consortium. There are plenty of supported APIs between browsers, but in the end, this early adoption HTML5 is causing big confusion for people everywhere around the world.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Clint Smith