Skynet Blog

Mootools DatePicker Update

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:54:00 -0400

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 introduces Creative Suite 6 and Creative Cloud

Thu, 03 May 2012 09:56:01 -0400

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

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:03:16 -0400

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

Perfomance Issues; Inactive Terminal Server

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:01:47 -0400

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)

Can't we all just get along?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:01:03 -0400

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

An Easy Solution to Remote Support – joinme.com

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:46:03 -0400

I’ve been consulting and supporting corporate IT infrastructure for several years now. Lately, much of my work has been in remote desktop and network support, from walking remote users through program operation to installing software and devices. Remote support tools are necessary for almost any IT pro.

I’m sure many of you have used Microsoft’s RDP client to connect to systems. RDP is great for management of servers and systems where there is very little direct user access to the desktop. In my experience though, having access to the user’s desktop and sharing what the user sees is instrumental in solving problems. RDP is hindered in this due to the fact that when you RDP into a machine, the user cannot see the session on their monitor. RDP is also limited to professional versions of Windows and Windows specifically. In a lot of cases, I do not have complete control over the provisioning of systems, and supporting home versions of Windows and also OSX is a must.

This is where joinme.com comes in. It creates a connection to the active console session of the user’s computer, be it any flavor of Windows or OSX. Simply type in joinme.com into your browser of choice, and then have your user do the same. The user will need to click the share option on the joinme.com website. Depending on the browser and browser settings, it will prompt to download or run the joinme program. At this point, have your user run and then click allow to any UAC prompts. When it’s done installing, the joinme toolbar will be displayed at the top of the screen. Simply request from the user the 9-digit number displayed in this toolbar. Type this number into the join field on joinme.com on your computer and click join. Your remote user’s desktop will be displayed inside the browser. If you want control of the user’s desktop?????????? You now have the ability to manipulate their system.

One small caveat to note is UAC enabled systems will freeze the joinme connection anytime a UAC prompt is displayed on the remote user’s computer. If you expect to encounter UAC prompts during your remote session, you can do one of two things. Direct the user to respond to the UAC prompt, and the joinme connection will reestablish. You may also disable UAC which will avoid the freezes completely. Joinme is a free to use service for non-commercial purposes. They do have a pay for service option that among other things offers a more robust application to connect to users’ desktops instead of running inside the browser. Hopefully this helps those of you that are looking for an easy solution to remote support.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Dustin Fry

If You Build It – They Will Type It in Wrong.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:00:05 -0400

Everybody has heard the phrase “Garbage In – Garbage Out”. The developer is the first line of defense against the garbage going in. Although a developer cannot safeguard against items like a misspelled name or inverting two numbers within a telephone number, there are many things he or she can do.

The general rule should always be “If you can perform a validation to ensure accuracy and not allow bad data into your application, then do so.”

Dates are much easier now than in the old days when you had to validate that a date was really a date and in the proper format, but there are still date validations you can do. If your application requires a birth date, you should always make certain the date entered is not a future date. There won’t be anybody born in 2062 that needs to be entered into your system today. If you also have an employment start date and end date, you should ensure that the start date is not greater than the end date (if the end date exists), and that the start date entered is not earlier than the employee’s birth date.

Phone numbers can be checked to ensure they are the proper number of digits and all numeric. Email addresses can be validated to ensure they are formatted properly. If it is extremely important to your application, you can make them enter it twice or email them a verification to be completely certain it’s been entered correctly.

If you have a field like state code or country code – always use a drop down or validate the keyed entry against your master table.

If it is important to the organization using your application to use titles for their customers like Dr., Mr., Mrs., etc, and you are also capturing the gender, it might be wise to ensure gender for Mr. is always male. This could save you, your company, or your client from sending an invoice to Mr. Tiffany Tidwell.

You should keep in mind that depending on who is keying information into your system – they may not even be looking at the screen while typing. If they are typing from a list or stack of forms, their eyes will be on that list or a stack of forms, not the screen. If you write the code to validate your data properly once – you can stop erroneous data from entering your system hundreds or thousands of times.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By DJ Burrup

Network Activity Indicator for Windows 7

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:34:00 -0400

Ever wonder why Windows 7 got rid of the network activity icon on your tool bar? Follow this link on the MSDN website to see what the official word is for removing this function.

No Network Activity Indicator in Windows 7: But Why?

Microsoft got rid of a “Techie” utility that is really useful for some people. Well here is the answer.

Network Activity Indicator for Windows 7

This little utility (Takes up about 1.1MiB of space) will give you a Windows XP style icon on your task bar to show you network activity.

This little utility was written by a guy named Igor Tolmachev.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Tony Purkey

Topaz Webinar with Joel Wolfson

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:30:06 -0400

This past week, I attended a couple of webinars put on by Topaz Labs that featured some of their plug-in software for Adobe Photoshop.

The first webinar was hosted by Nichole Paschal, a Topaz representative, and it featured B&W effect plug-in and Adjust. Topaz Adjust allows you to make Pseudo HDR pictures without having to compile several different exposures into one. Once installed, the plug-in is easy to jump into and use in your normal work flow for photography. The interface is fairly easy to grasp with multiple presets and many sections with individual sliders. Watching someone’s work flow can be informative because there is always more than one way to do something in Adobe Photoshop, and you can benefit from knowing more about how to use Adobe Photoshop. I have already been introduced to Topaz Adjust about a year ago, and so far, it has been a great Adobe Photoshop plug-in.

The second webinar was hosted by an established photographer, Joel Wolfson. He demonstrated a new plug-in for Topaz called Star Effects. This plug-in allowed Joel to amplify lighting effects with ease. As I mentioned before, watching someone’s work flow can be more informative than expected. I watched Joel copy a layer mask to another layer and invert it with some hotkey movements that I had previously been unaware of.

The webinars are only an hour and are well worth it, especially when the event is free! They also have software giveaways for random people in the webinar, and everyone gets a discount code! Check out the Topaz Labs site for more information about their products, or check out their YouTube channel to re-watch a previous webinar.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Clint Smith

Unwanted Emails and Notifications From Facebook

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:42:04 -0400

A friend recently complained to me about all the annoying emails she kept receiving from Facebook (mainly FarmVille). I’m sure we have all heard similar complaints. So here is a quick blog about how to stop the spam from harvesting insanity.

First, let’s stop the emails which is pretty simple to do. First, obviously, log into Facebook. All the way to the right, there is a down arrow you will need to click on, then click Account Settings. On the left menu, click the Notifications button. On this page, you will be able to personalize what notifications that Facebook will email to you. This won’t stop you from being notified on Facebook. You will still get all the normal notifications that you would previously have gotten, however you will not get the emails. Check the boxes you want to receive emails for, and uncheck any boxes you don’t want to receive emails for. Personally, I unchecked every box, and I just visit frequently. While still on this page, you can easily click the Apps button, and then delete any apps you have installed that you don’t use. You can also click on the Mobile button to set up or turn off Mobile Alerts.

Next, let’s block some apps. If you don’t want to know about it every time Polly Peaches harvests her garden, or if you are tired of getting asked to help some mafia clan, this is for you. Start by clicking the Facebook icon at the top left hand corner to get to your newsfeed. Now scroll down just a bit. On the left menu bar, there will be options like Favorites, Groups, and Apps (you may need to click the “more” icon to open the full menu.) Under Apps, there is an Apps and Games option. Simply click this option, and there will be invites from friends. Now hover your mouse over an invite, and an X will appear at the top right of the invite. When you click the X, it will change to show that you have hidden the request, but it will also offer you an option to “Block the Application” or “Block all Requests” from the person that sent you the invite. I usually just block the app not the person, but if you have that one friend that tries every app and always sends you requests, you might think of “Blocking all Requests from Polly Peaches.” Then a “Block App” pop-up will appear. Click okay, and you’re set! You won’t be invited, contacted, or notified about that pesky app anymore. Your friend will not know that you blocked them or their apps.

If you decide later that you want to try out a blocked game, you can find it in this same place. There are options for apps your friends are using, new apps, and “recommended to you” apps. You can also manage blocked applications by going to the same right drop-down and clicking Privacy Settings, and then clicking on “Manage Blocking” next to “Blocked People and Apps.” You can now unblock any apps or people you have blocked requests from.

This whole process can take a little while, but it is definitely worth it.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Ryan Williams

Photo

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:03:06 -0400

Taking your Company Mobile

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:42:30 -0500

Smart phones and tablets alike travel everywhere with consumers. These devices have replaced many analogue tools for consumers and are continuing to grow in usage. Therefore, a company selling a widget or a service needs a mobile site to capture the attention of the mobile consumer. One of the best examples of a company using this to their advantage is Amazon. Amazon sells the Kindle Fire tablet at a loss, just so they can have a channel dedicated to targeting consumers and selling digital media. Now that you know the benefits of having mobile sites, here are two important topics to consider:

Interface:

The interface of the site is as crucial on mobile sites as it is on desktop sites. Some would even argue that it is more difficult to create a suitable mobile site. The interface, or what is commonly known as the look and feel of your site, must have a fluid design. The menus must be simple and quickly navigable to allow for people to easily access the information they are seeking. If your mobile site requires the user to zoom in and out to navigate, most users will become frustrated and leave the site. You have a short time to capture the consumers’ attention and convey the message you want them to see. Not doing this correctly can sometimes even drive users to a competitor’s site that is easier to navigate on a mobile device.

Selecting the appropriate information for your mobile site:

Not every piece of information that is contained on your desktop site is needed on your mobile site. You have to approach this question from the perspective of the “mobile” consumer. What is a consumer looking for on your site while using his/her mobile device? Will they be looking for the history of the company or the price of a product? There is not a “one size fits all” solution to this aspect of building a mobile site. Some companies are completely on the web. Others who have the brick and mortar location may want to list their address with a Google Maps or Mapquest link so the consumer can find their business while on the go.

I took a business trip to St. Louis last month, and after I got checked into the hotel, I was hungry from traveling all day. I also needed to get my suit steamed at Men’s Wearhouse. So I got on my phone and looked up the closest location, put it into the navigation on my phone, and headed out from the hotel. While waiting on my suit, I looked at restaurant reviews, menus, and pricing on my phone. I settled on a place, got some dinner, then headed back to my hotel. Ten years ago, this process would have required more help from the hotel staff; however with current technology, I was able to seek out and find exactly what I wanted, and I never had to pull out my laptop or ask the concierge. I was a consumer in a market that I was unfamiliar with, and I needed services. The services I found had the mobile presence which enabled me to find them and become one of their customers. The information I needed was easy to find, and I used one tool that a growing portion of the population uses: my smart phone with a data connection. Had the restaurant not been online, I would not have been able to find them, nor would I have been able to determine if their menu was in the price range I wanted.

When you become ready to create your mobile site, enlist the help of a reputable company that has the team you need on your side, developing not only your web presence, but your mobile presence as well. Here at Skynet, we have a world-class team that will get your company noticed by the consumers you want. Contact me anytime via email. I can also be reached through our contact page.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Joe Hart

Photo

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:05:05 -0500

JavaScript Dates

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:11:00 -0500

JavaScript gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to date functionality. You can easily pull out any segment individually with just a simple function call. However if you want to format a date, you’ll either need to use the built-in format function, or do a long string concatenation which makes your code look messy.

In my spare time, I made a Server Side JavaScript function for Classic ASP. The source and an example is posted on my personal blog. This function allows you to format dates similar to how PHP’s Date function works. I decided it would be amazing if I could just go ahead and tweak this to work with JavaScript on the client side, so I went ahead and modified my current script to extend the JavaScript date object. Here is a quick peak at how to use this.

console.log(new Date(2012, 1, 25, 10).formatDate('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
// 2012-02-25 10:00:00
console.log(new Date().formatDate('l, F jS, Y'));
// Monday, February 27th, 2012
console.log(new Date().formatDate('r'));
// Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:03:40 -0600

Download formatDate.js

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Blaine Schmeisser

Windows Compatibility

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:31:00 -0500

Recently, while trying to make a Win95 program run correctly in Windows 7, the UAC (User Account Control) was giving me problems. After searching high and low for a solution, I finally found this on the Microsoft Website. Here’s a little text from the page about this software. “The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 5.6 contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Windows 7®, Windows Vista®, a Windows Update, or a new version of Windows Internet Explorer® in your environment.” I was really impressed with the size and ease of use.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Tony Purkey

Photo

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:03:00 -0500

Should you worry about Non-JavaScript Users?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:22:00 -0500

This is a very common question, and the answer varies upon what you are doing. For instance, what is the site’s intention? Who is your target audience? How far can a user without JavaScript get into your website? These are a few of the questions you should consider before building a website.

Less than 2% of users disable JavaScript or don’t have support. This number is rather low, but does that mean they aren’t worth considering? I’ll try and put that into perspective. Let’s assume you have an eCommerce website and sell $10,000/month of product. If you decide to make users have JavaScript in order to check out, you could be losing $200/month or $2,400/year!

I’m not saying you should always make your website plain and boring with no fade in effects or fancy JavaScript rollovers, because users love things like that. However, crucial parts like registering for the website, checking out, emailing support, and other crucial items should all still work without JavaScript.

Yes, you can still make the contact box fade in when they click “contact,” but make sure there is a fallback for users without JavaScript, so they can still contact you. This is easy to accomplish by making the default link go to the real contact page, but use JavaScript to attach a click event to the link. You can still have fancy JavaScript form validation, but make sure you validate on the server and display appropriate error messages as well.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Blaine Schmeisser

Photo

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:28:00 -0500

Cannot Update Android Market App

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0500

So I clicked on the Android Market icon on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 only to see “Client is out of date, an update will download shortly.”

I clicked OK and waited for this magic update. Unfortunately, nothing happened. So I went and consulted the almighty Google, only to find outdated posts and similar issues from back in 2010.

I did confirm there was a recent Android Market update on January 25^th 2012. I found out that my tablet that was brand new in November of 2011 shipped with version 1.0.28!!

I emailed Google and have yet to get a response. I started searching for Android Market APK and found tons of links to MultiUpload.com. Unfortunately, they have been shut down due to the wonderful new version of Internet Censorship.

Good news though; I did find a semi-recent version of the APK here:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/11/19/download-updated-android-market-v3-3-12/

This is not the newest version of the Android Market. The most recent version is 3.4.4. I downloaded the above version, and it updated itself after that.

I did hunt down another link that is for version 3.4.4, and it is not hosted by MultiUpload.com or BtJunkie.com. You can download it here:

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/12/14/download-new-android-market-version-3-4-4/

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Jed Parmenter

Does your Company Need a Mobile Site?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:03:00 -0500

Your website is your company’s face on the web. It is the avenue through which you either sell your products, or it can be a source of information for your potential customers. Either way you want to put your best foot forward and make the best impression possible. This means you must have not only current, meaningful content, but you must also have a fresh look and feel. All companies that want to maximize their exposure need to have a mobile site. Mobile web browsing is growing at a rapid pace due to increasing smart phone and tablet usage.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Joe Hart