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

  • 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…

  • Hungry? Check out seasonalfeast.com

    I love to eat. I can’t cook. Even microwaved Velveeta on Ritz is well beyond my gastronomic capabilities. I am quite content to sit at home all day Sunday, watch football all day and consume embarrassingly large quantities of things the FDA has no labeling standards for. Still, I have a lot of respect for…

  • Bank of America marketing: how to lose customers on a grand scale

    Well, growing a business ethically continues to defy Bank of America. First, it duped shareholders by concealing girnormous losses at Merrill-Lynch last year — then it agreed to paying ML’s brokers astronomical bonuses, all apparently in exchange for an extra $50B in TARP funding. Next, it pissed off a Federal judge who wouldn’t let BofA…

  • Dear Michael Steele and the Republican Party: Please leave me alone

    Dear Chairman Steele, Last November, I made a $25 contribution to your party’s candidate. I also made a $25 contribution to the Obama campaign. Then, I wasn’t sure who would have been the better president. Now, after months and months of non-stop invective from you and your party against President Obama, I am sure I…

  • Guess what I am doing at Oracle OpenWorld next week in San Francisco

    Those of you who know me may remember Revit’s 2001’s “shelf present” or 2002’s infamous treadmill pr stunts. If you do, you won’t be in the least surprised to see images of the front and back of a card actors in prison uniforms are going to be handing out next week at Oracle OpenWorld in…

  • Choose one: New FTC blog post guidelines a) protect you b) kill free speech

    Well, this is one of those times when the government acts and you get to chose your reaction. On the one hand, the emergence of the ‘net as the definitive source of reviews for everything from software to celery has become a bonanza for the shills of the world who review products for filthy lucre…

  • GM: May the Most Misleading Car Company Lose

    OK, so we’ve all been reading about how the “new” GM is going to put customers first. And how the “new” GM isn’t building drek like my 1973 Chevy Vega (which came with a free case of oil in the hatch) and my 1986 NUMMI-built Chevy No-Go…er…Nova…which was designed to stall whenever the accelerator was…

  • You drive, you text…you die. Just try not to kill me, too

    Every day for nearly 17 years I’ve commuted on the Mass Pike between my home and workplaces in Cambridge, Boston, Burlington and, now, Waltham. Drivers on the Pike have long been deserving of the appellation “Masshole” — you can’t believe what I’ve seen people doing. They eat, they sing, they use bedpans, they trim their…

  • zug.com turns it up to 11 on Verizon over privacy

    Remember the original Spinal Tap movie in which the amplifiers go to 11? Voila! Instant meme. Well, I’ve just read a blog post from zug.com called “The Verizon Prank” in which John Hargrave risks big dogs and angry neighbors to make a point I wish more people were concerned about: lax privacy controls. Maybe we have…

  • amazon.com redefines doubleplusgood for the 21st century

    On the off-chance you haven’t heard about amazon.com erasing Orwell novels from Kindle users’ devices, here’s the coverage from nytimes.com. You really have to congratulate amazon.com for creating new levels of nested metaphor. My Room 101 isn’t rats: it’s DRM.

  • Currensee gets it

    I often use my blog to diss marketing that’s stupid, misleading, dangerous or derivative.  This time it’s my pleasure to share marketing that’s on it…at the top-dead-center of the power stroke…so damn good it’ll make your day. Coffee lovers often talk about the “blend” — a mystical combination of the beans, the roasting and the…