Category: Support

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 Techi 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

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

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

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

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

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