Dear Duke Energy (and your web guys)
Dear Duke Energy,
I would like to activate my account online, as I very much cherish the wonderful utilities that you bring to me in my daily life. However, in your quest to make your website “Web 2.0″ cool, with Wizbang Ajax, you have managed to make me and every other Firefox and Safari user, unable to achieve our goal of SIGNING UP FOR YOUR SERVICE! Look, I understand that you’re a Microsoft shop, and making Microsoft powered websites look and act “Simple” is a really really hard - but for the sake of everyone, at least make your registration work on non Microsoft browsers.
Dear Duke Energy Web Guys,
Please don’t try to resize my browser window, I understand that it might be for some really really important reason (to you) - but just stop. You do not have permission to get my properties of my Window.resizeFrame, so stop trying. While we are on the topic, it’s also breaking your dynamically loaded County selector.
But lucky for you, you left the old way in the code, so it will be easy to go back. (while you’re at it, get rid of those tables, it’s a simple form! Oh yea, I forgot - Microsoft shop… Sorry 
Line 227: http://imcltebizt.duke-energy.com/Content/SAS/new_service_location.asp
<div id="CountyLabel" style="visibility: hidden;"> Please select your County: </div> .... <div id="CountyList" style="visibility: hidden;"> <select name='cboCounty' onchange='inputChanged()' size='1'><OPTION value=''> </OPTION><OPTION value='Bartholomew'>Bartholomew</OPTION><OPTION value='Benton'>Benton</OPTION><OPTION value='Boone'>Boone</OPTION>....</select> </div>
Sincerely,
Brandon Corbin
Geek is in the Genes
I am happy to say that my daughter officially launched her own blog using Wordpress.com http://maddyc.wordpress.com Good job Maddy!
Indy Tech Spotlight: MyFlyerCreator.com
Product: MyFlyerCreator.com
Summary: MyFlyerCreator allows distributors of Norwood.com promotional products, the ability to create highly customized “Online Flyers” to promote any number of given products.
These flyers are then Emailed out to a list that you provide as well as saved as a “landing page”, you can see the one that I created here
Technology Used: PHP, MySQL, Javascript
Target Market: Promotional Product Distributors
Number of Users: 200
First Released: January 1st 2006
Company Location: Camby, Indiana
Price: FREE to use for Distributors
Brandon’s thoughts on MyFlyerCreator
MyFlyerCreator feels and looks like a Web 1.0 app, but while the product might be missing a few of the polished design features that a “consumer” driven product usually contains - this is hands down one of the best marketing tools that a Promotional Products business (that is driven by distributor sales) could employ.
I absolutely love that you build your entire flyer without ever having to hop around multiple pages, screens, wizards or popups. I give the development team - props on getting everything that needs to be there in one “simple” screen.
As I have a tendency to always gravitate towards consumer end of things - I personally think that It would be really interesting if MyFlyerCreator made a consumer affiliate program that would give profit driven consumers (not full distributors) the ability to create and easily embed the flyers on their blogs/websites and get a cut of the revenues that are generated.
Want to learn more about MyFlyerCreator? You can email Shelby M. here.
Indianapolis Developers - Showcase your Web App
In hopes to show that Indianapolis contains some great minds and killer technology - I am starting a Spotlight on local Indianapolis technology companies, thought leaders, technologist and their products.
Do you have a product or web app you would like to showcase? The only requirement is that the product and/or the company be based in Indianapolis or surrounding areas.
Click here to fill out the WebApp Spotlight Form ( - thanks FormSpring! - Speaking of killer web apps from Indy)
iTake an iPhone screenshot
Want to take a screen shot of your iPhones screen?
Press and hold the home button then hit the lock button in the top of your phone.
The screenshot will be saved in your Photos on the phone. Pretty slick.
Vollyball with maddy.
Ethan kickin it old school
First day of soccer practice.
Thanks peanut free planet!
Props to peanutfreeplanet.com for giving my son Ethan the ability to enjoy some dark chocolate!!!
The new appendant office
The 8 Truths of Marriage
My best man speech from Toby and Alissa Hamer’s wedding.
When Toby asked me to be his best man, I said no. Thinking that my current life situation would not allow me to deliver what Toby ultimately deserved in a “best man”. But in true form of Toby and I’s relationship (since age 3), he said “To bad, you are doing it”. And for that Toby, I will be forever grateful, and as usual you were right and I will cherish these last few days forever.
So tonight, instead of getting up here and giving the cliche drunk best man speech about how Toby and I ignited the night sky of Carmel Indiana with a 40 foot fireball – or blindly stating how great your marriage and future will be, I wanted to offer a few insights and truths in to marriage, that I wish someone would have said to me when I was married over a decade ago. After talking to all of my happily married, miserably married and divorced friends, here is what I feel are the most important 8 truths of marriage.
1. Every single human strives for 4 basic emotional needs: the need to be loved and to love, the need to have a sense of purpose in life, the need for a positive self image and the need for personal space. But understand that expecting your partner to fill those needs is completely unfair – as those needs can never be met by anyone other than yourself. Putting those demands on your spouse is to setup the relationship for failure.
2. We often forget that there is no past, and there is no future – there is only the present moment. Hanging on to past baggage or striving for some future moment that is better than the current one, offers no real value in life or marriage. So forgive each other for your past hurts and be willing to surrender to what is. If you both can learn to completely live in the present moment, you will find that it is virtually impossible to stay upset or feel let down.
3. You cannot change your partner, you can only change yourself – and hopefully your partner will follow.
4. When you are wrong, admit it. When you are right, shut up.
5. Love is the ideal things, marriage is the real thing. When you first fall in love, you fall for an illusion, a mental picture, a fantasy. But the real marriage beings when that illusion ends and you start to discover and accept your spouse for who they truly are – a beautiful and unique individual.
6. The qualities that first attracted you to your partner will be the ones that drive you the most crazy. However, in the end you will find that those annoying qualities are the ones that are missed the most when they leave this earth.
7. Even in marriage you will still have periods of loneliness and pain – but both can be dramatically diluted by continually putting your partners needs in front of your own, focusing on falling in love multiple times, and continually forgive to a point where it becomes habitual.
8. As you venture down this exciting, scary and often bumpy road – rest assured that no matter how bad things get, or how hard things my seem – you will always be able to take one another’s hands and without saying a single word, know that together you will be able to make it through this things we call life.
“To love a person is to learn the song that is in their heart, and to sing it back to them when they have forgotten it”. - anonymous quote.
Toby and Alissa, I cannot express enough how happy I am that both of you have decided to take this journey together and to learn the songs in each of your hearts. It won’t be easy, but it will be absolutely worth it.
Einstein explains E=mc2 [Video]
President Bush to Pardon himself against potential war crimes
This is almost unbelievable - The House just passed President Bush’s Bill that will change the definition of “War Crimes” - which deep inside the document ultimately Pardons Bush and his cabinet from any wrong doings…
Iraq, One Soldier’s Tale - Must Watch [Video]
John McCain cannot use a Computer [Video]
