I am building another DotNetNuke website with the wonderful Flex2 skin. My client asked that the Search field have some sort of label to make it more clear what the function was. I wanted to to do what the "cool kids" do: put the text "Search" in the field when it is "empty" and then automagically remove the text when the user clicks in the box.

Since this is a DNN 5 site that has jQuery support built in, I could use a slightly modified version of this simple jQuery code from Brian Reindel (that I tucked into the skin's drnuke-height.js file that is already loaded by the skin):

/* Doctor the DNN Search field to display the word "Search" when it's "empty" and remove this text when the user clicks in the field. jQuery code compliments of 5 JavaScript Tricks Made Easy with jQuery jQuery JavaScript Samples by Brian Reindel http://www.reindel.com/five_javascript_tricks_jquery/ */ $(function() { swapValues = []; $("#dnn_dnnSEARCH_txtSearch").each(function(i){...

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Blogs Knowledge Base

I thought my mission was an easy one:

Code sign an existing MFC application (Metafile Companion) setup installer

I should have known better. :-) I was successful and it really isn't that hard once you find out what to do. But there's the rub - the web is full of options that end up being dead ends. Below are some of the lessons I learned.

Lesson 1: You really can pay $99 for a one-year signing certificate from K Software.

There are other more expensive Certificate Authorities (e.g. VeriSign and Comodo) that charge more than this. But the K Software certificate (issued by Comodo) seems to work just fine. I would recommend using either Firefox or Internet Explorer to place your order and later downloading your certificate so it is added "automagically" to the system certificate store. Also, follow their export instructions so you have a backup of your certificate.

Lesson 2: To see what certificates are on your system, run "certmgr.msc". 

This is how you can be assured...

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Blogs Knowledge Base

Last night was the Frontier Regional Winter Concert. Joe was definitely one of the stars of the show. He had a nice solo, was inducted into the prestigious Tri-M Music Honor Society and looked quite dapper in his holiday "chapeau".

You can see more photos of the concert.

I do admit to feeling a little sad that this might be the last Winter Concert with one of my kids in it.

After Laura's boyfriend Jim traded in his "clunker" (a beautiful late-model Mustang) for an even newer Honda Civic, that got me thinking. Would the U.S. Government give me $4500 for my 1995 Mercury Villager with over 148,000 miles on it? Is the "Cash for Clunkers" program (aka the "CARS program") for real?



This answer is a resounding YES. And I have a brand new 2010 Prius III to prove it!



I do want the world to know, my old Villager was not a clunker! It took me all over this country - even back and forth to Florida just a few weeks ago. I'll miss it (but have a pleasant distraction to ease the "pain").

...

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 Joe has been practicing hard on both the alto and tenor saxophones. He's in the high school band as well as a separate Jazz Band. The day of his Cabaret Night debut this past Thursday, he got a shiny new Keilwerth alto sax from his mom:



You can watch Joe perform Take Five at Cabaret night on YouTube:



 

...

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My JanSport backpack and I have travelled everywhere together - all across the United States, Germany, Scotland, Italy and right here in lovely Sunderland, Massachusetts. I use it a lot as a ride my bicycle around town to do work and run errands.

I often throw a laptop, a few folders or some boxes to be mailed into my backpack and pedal wherever I need to in our little town. So I was quite sad when the zipper on the pack started to give way. After a while, it could no longer be trusted to hold everything reliably. What to do?!?

Go out an buy another JanSport backpack, of course! I loved my old one, so I went online and found a new one similar to it. I couldn't find my favorite burgundy color, so I settled for green (my other favorite). It arrived quickly and looked great. As I was unpacking it, I noticed that the JanSport information said simply that all JanSport backpacks come with a lifetime product warranty....

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Blogs Moment by Moment

I've been using Outlook 2003 for a long time. A couple of days ago, Outlook no longer filtered junk mail into the special Junk Mail folder. All the spam just accumulated in my Inbox. Since I have public email addresses, I get literally hundreds of spam messages an hour. I rely on the Junk Filter working properly.

I am suspicious that this behavior began right after I installed the trial version of Microsoft Publisher 2007 (so I could view a .pub document someone sent me). I'm my search for a solution to the problem, I did see some other reports of people suspecting Office 2007 (and other Microsoft updates) affecting Outlook.

I stumbled on the solution that worked for me in a forum article titled "Junk mail filter stopped working". This solution is very simple:

1. In Outlook 2003, select Help > Detect and Repair from the menu.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions.

After this, I restarted Outlook and the Junk Mail filter started working again!

Blogs Knowledge Base

Here is a problem experienced recently... and a solution!

 

Using Plesk 8.6.0 for Windows, I removed an SSL certificate from a domain and then added a new one back. When I went to Server > IP Addresses > 208.109.105.22, I saw the message:

 

Warning: The Plesk database is corrupt. Please launch the Reconfigurator utility to fix it

 

I also did NOT see the new certificate I had added in the combobox of certificates.

 

I launched Reconfigurator and ran all the fixes, but the problem still persisted. I rebooted the server a number of times and that did not help.

 

This problem has been reported by three other users in the thread The Plesk database is corrupt.

 

There is a Plesk Knowledge Base article about exactly this problem titled [FIX] Plesk database corruption warning on IP address management page. 

...

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Vickie and I had a nice Christmas dinner with Laura and her boyfriend Jim. We feasted on lasagne (both traditional and vegan), sautéed spinach and garlic and a loaf of braided bread (that Laura braided) made with stone-ground wheat flour and topped with sesame seeds. The green casserole dish (for the veggie lasagne) was a Christmas present from Sarah and Jarett that was put to immediate use!