Thinking aloud: Azure, AWS, DevOps, cars and opinion from Alex Neihaus

  • How to: T-Mobile WiFi calling on Android phones with Verizon FiOS

    Well, another frustrating problem bites the dust. And my solution is documented here for others who have suffered trying to explain to T-Mobile customer support drones that, no, it’s not my phone — I have four of them that do exactly the same thing. And no, our Internet connection is up. And, no, I won’t…

  • What a 1952 Japanese film will tell you about Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster

    I love Kursoawa films. And Netflix on the Roku box makes it easy to dive deeply in this master’s work. Among his less well-known films (and one of the few to be set in modern times) is Ikiru (“to live”) which I watched for the first time this weekend. IMDB has a good synopsis of…

  • I hate Drupal

    The first iteration of www.vuuch.com was in Drupal. That decision doesn’t count among the best we have made. Since last August, I’ve struggled to warm to Drupal. Today, I am coming out of the Drupal-hating closet to tell the world what a mess this system is. It’s impenetrable, unsupportable, slow, awkward, poorly architected and ugly. I’ve…

  • A gadget lover’s descent into Luddite-ism

    I love gadgets. Just ask anyone who knows me. I’m the proverbial heat-seeker when it comes to electronics. And, as we close out 2010 and look forward to 2011, I got to thinking about all the gadgets I’ve used in 2010. Just recently, the four of us in my family upgraded to Android smartphones (G2’s…

  • thomas.gov needs a little more body-building so we can all use it

    We all have leisure activities, right? One of mine is to read the actual text of bills pending in Congress. Hey, I have an interest in the legislative process — and I submit you do, too. The good news is the Library of Congress makes the full text and history of every Congressional action available…

  • The Feds see “leaks,” I see the First Amendment at work

    Absolutely everyone in the media is talking about WikiLeaks.org’s publication of a stunning number of diplomatic cables from the far corners of the American diplomatic world. There’s so much going on here, I don’t know where to begin. First, any student of American history has to be beside himself or herself with joy to have so…

  • It’s OK to suck a tailpipe or yet another moment of Jungian synchronicity

    In today’s Boston Globe Magazine, Clifford Atiyeh’s “The Crusade Against Cars” tackles car lovers’ central dilemma today: “Social responsibility” is the media topic du jour, the latest feel-good narcissism of those leading government, corporations, and other big-mouth organizations. Part of the idea is to give an appearance of top-down restraint – that it’s not OK…

  • Mendacity: lying CEOs

    OK, now that I’ve teed up a 50¢ word like “mendacity,” let me at least tell you what it means. Simply, someone is lying to you. And who hasn’t had the experience of being lied to persuasively? Now, courtesy of researchers from Stanford and a story this morning on NPR that was so fascinating I…

  • Hell hasn’t quite frozen over: I almost learn to love Microsoft

    I started work on a post two days ago that was tentatively titled “Hell Freezes Over: I Learn to Love Microsoft.” I didn’t get far because, as anyone who knows me knows, I have this thing against Microsoft: I am still smarting from the way they competed with Lotus in the 90’s. They were ruthless,…

  • Talking past each other, again

    Geesh…it’s been a long time since I’ve written for my personal blog. The muse left me…for a bunch of reasons. But, she may be back as I felt a strong urge to write about a controversy that matters to…just about nobody. I am a huge fan of hyper-local blogging. It’s everything local newspapers can’t be:…

  • Health care: yes, it’ll cost me more…and, yes, I’m glad we (finally) did it

    Well, the political battle of the (still young) century is over. And, despite the ugly fear mongering of the Republicans — and the very sad racial and homophobic epithets tossed at members of Congress this weekend during the final debate by “Tea Party” activists — the country has shown some political spine and done the…

  • HP machines are far from color blind

    I first heard about this YouTube video on Consumer Reports. As you watch this, note the humor with which the black worker describes the racist HP laptop. I, for one, wouldn’t have been so level-headed if, say, the HP laptop ignored Jewish faces with big noses. The one thing you gotta ask yourself is what…