Digital Lifeline Corporate Web Site

I've been meaning to write a blurb about this for a while as it is a question we get fairly often.  An increasing number of people are learning of the major hazards involved in simply throwing away old electronics and computer equipment in the garbage.  The two biggest reasons are the number of toxic materials found in most electronics and the fact that they basically don't break down in landfills.  Given that electronics permeate every element of modern society, this has become a serious environmental concern.

So what can you do about it?  The good thing is that in most major cities, you have places you can go that do proper recycling of old electronic.  Here in Ottawa, we have Computer Recyclers who are pioneers in the industry and do a fantastic job.  We've brought what is probably truckloads of stuff to them at this point and they've always been great to deal with.  In Ontario, recent legislation has also made it so that you can do all this for free as opposed to previously when you had to pay by weight.  If you have any old electronics you want to be rid of, please take the time to bring it to them or if you are having us do work for you, let us know and we'll bring it there on your behalf.  It's an easy thing to do that can have a massive environmental benefit.

While surfing a forum I frequent this morning, I was pointed to the interestingly named Ninite.  This is a site that has a simple purpose, making it easy to install a bunch of freeware applications easily.  Whether for web browsers, instant messaging, anti-virus or even office products, there are a wide range of options out there that are offered as freeware.  The problem is that when you want to use several of these products and are looking to reload your system or something else that requires you to re-install a bunch of them at once, it can be a pain to go to all the different web sites, make sure you've got the latest installers and then go through the process of setting everything up one at a time.

Ninite makes this process easy by having you simply select the software you want from their large and ever-growing list and installing them en masse.  It will grab the latest versions of everything, set them all up with the most commonly used settings and best of all, it will automatically decline all the toolbars and other paid add-on bundle junk that's becoming frustratingly common lately.  Their site will generate you a custom installer than you download and run once and when you're done, it can be deleted and leaves nothing behind on your system.

This is a great tool to use whether you're building a new PC, upgrading, reloading Windows or just want a quick and easy way to try out some new free software.  It's definitely worth a try!

Man, things have been more than a little crazy around here the last months.  I haven't had the time I want to write about it but a lot of stuff has recently happened so over the next few entries, I hope to share some of them with you and what they ultimately mean.

As many of you know, we are big proponents of Net Neutrality and have been actively involved in the fight to keep big telcos like Bell and Rogers from diluting the Canadian Internet experience in order to keep their obsolete business models afloat.  A core issue of this fight was a recent CRTC ruling that gave Bell Canada interim approval to impose severely restrictive monthly usage limits on third party Internet providers who are forced to use their phone lines to provide service.  The volume of outrage and support against this idea was amazing and the public made it loud and clear that taking us back to the dark ages of the Internet to cure a non-existent congestion problem didn't fly with us.  The CRTC has since made a further ruling on that issue which the ever awesome Micheal Geist has broken down in this Toronto Star article.

So how does this ruling change things for you?  At this point, not a whole lot.  While the CRTC did not give Bell everything they want, they still left the door open for most of it and ignored the majority of the evidence presented which clearly showed Bell's intentions were disingenuous.  Here's a simple breakdown of what they ruled:

• Internet service providers will be required to disclose how they manage traffic on their networks, they have to show necessity for these practices and also how they are minimizing the impact to the customer's experience.  The problem with this is that is requires that customers go through a complicated (and so far undocumented) complaints process for this to happen.  It does not require that ISPs make this information freely available.
• ISPs are not permitted to ever slow down what the commission calls "time-sensitive applications".  This is mainly to ensure that things like tele-medicine or high priority communication traffic doesn't get curtailed by throttling.
• ISPs are permitted to use DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) technology but only for managing traffic on their networks.  Deep Packet Inspection has raised a number of privacy concerns because it can be used to monitor exactly what you are doing with your Internet connection.  The commission made it clear that ISPs cannot use this information for any other purposes, nor can they use general statistical data from it for marketing.

Additionally, there have other rulings on the UBB (transfer limit) issue.  For the time being, the CRTC has said that more investigation into the necessity of it is warranted.  They have not told Bell they can't do it and technically could permit it at any time but for not, it is on indefinite hold.  Bell will also be required to provide a fair amount of notice should the practice be green lit.  It is possible the issue could sit in limbo like this forever but given how hard Bell is fighting for this in order to safeguard satellite television subscriber numbers, I highly doubt this is the end of it.  However, for the time being, third party ISPs are allowed to keep operating as before and given that many of us feared the worst from this ruling, this is definitely a victory.

Momentum for this issue is continuing to build as more and more Canadians learn of it and the disastrous impact it could have on us as individuals and indeed on our country's ability to compete globally.  There is no better time to get involved than right now!  If we keep the pressure on the government and the CRTC, they will have no choice but to listen to what the people want.  That is what they are there for and it is time we make them aware of that.

For those who aren't aware, Stardock Corporation is a software company that provides enhancement utilities for Windows and which also develops, publishes and digitally distributes a number of great PC games.  I'm a huge fan of this company and the way they execute the corporate ideals of their CEO Brad Wardell, ones which include providing polished products that aren't laden with DRM and offering top-notch service that treats their customers like people rather than just buyers.  Many of their values coincide with those we have at Digital Lifeline.  However, what I'm writing about today is a rookie mistake many company executives make and which Mr. Wardell unfortunately made himself lately:  combining your business with your personal politics.

Mr. Wardell is very conservative in his political beliefs and to his credit, makes no attempt to hide that fact.  He maintains his own blog which frequently details them.  I've got no qualms with him doing that and I'm not writing this to debate his beliefs.  What concerns me however is when he decided to protest a decidedly political issue with elements of the business he is charged with running, published his intentions and then became agitated when the Internet community called him out for doing the very thing he was decrying someone else for doing.  This is becoming an increasingly large problem with business owners and something that I think needs to be curtailed.

First off, a bit of background:  Recently, it was revealed that in protest of the increasing inflammatory rhetoric being broadcast from anchor Glenn Beck on FOX News, the major courier company UPS had pulled all its advertising from the network and possibly from the entirety of FOX Television.  Stardock was using UPS as the carrier for product they physically shipped to customers.  Mr. Wardell did not approve of UPS doing this, stating that "I don't like to see companies trying to push their ideology on others."  The following day, he requested his employees to start shipping with FedEx instead of UPS.  Shortly after doing this, he posted about it on his Facebook page which he thought was private but someone published the comment which was picked up by the gaming press and like many things in the gaming community, spread like wildfire and inspired a lot of anger.  Many who were very loyal customers of Stardock began calling for boycotts, saying that in effect, Mr. Wardell was endorsing the views of Glenn Beck and FOX News by dropping someone who refused to advertise on the network for supposedly political reasons.  UPS has since claimed that they were in fact not boycotting FOX and that new ads are already running on their networks.

My. Wardell has since blogged about this issue and the response from the gaming community.  He claims his comments and actions were overblown and that he wasn't trying to make any major political or moral statement, he was just annoyed and decided to go with another shipper.  His response was calm, thought out and clear to the point that yes, Stardock is his company and choosing another shipper was his perogative, as it was UPS' to pull their ads from FOX in protest, if that is in fact what they did.  All that said though, I do think he made some very poor errors in judgment and he seems to be a bit too eager to pass blame for this onto others.

Mr. Wardell's company operates almost entirely off online commerce.  He is very familiar with how Internet communities work and how they tend to react to things.  It was a gross oversight on his part to think that this wouldn't get found out about and that the reaction wouldn't be significant, particularly since he published the reasons.  He claims that this was published to a Facebook account he tries to keep private.  But two sentences later, he talks about how he has roughly 350 Facebook  friends.  That's an awfully large number of people to have to trust with a controversial subject.  Anyone who is Internet savvy knows that privacy ultimately doesn't exist online.  Mr. Wardell said "I would be the first to agree with the people who said “It’s not good business to publicize such things”. Except I didn’t."  I'm sorry sir but yes, you did.  If you put something up, you are publishing it and there is a very good chance it will be seen by many people, at least a few of which will strongly disagree with you.  If what you're posting is something you aren't comfortable with the world knowing, don't post it.  Decrying the media for doing their job and republishing something of significance which came across their desk is disingenuous in my opinion.

All of these are merely secondary symptoms of the one core issue which Mr. Wardell unfortunately tripped over:  Never mix your personal politics with your business.   He was actively engaging in what he was attempting to decry UPS for, using their business clout to denounce practices by another business they didn't agree with, an irony I'm not convinced that he fully appreciates.  In his blog post, he claims that one shouldn't mix business and politics when that is precisely what he did--without apologies.  I have no formal business training and the necessity of keeping that separation is something I have known from the very beginning.  Aside from one non-partisan consumer issue, I don't preach politically on this blog and this post isn't about whether or not I agree with Mr. Wardell.  But I can say with some certainty that if Stardock was a public company, he would likely be answering some very tough questions from its board of directors right now.  Speaking for yourself is one thing but speaking through the mouthpiece of your business--whether with words or actions--reflects on your entire operation including the staff and the brand which we all know takes far less work to damage than to build up.  It is unfair to those who work for you to paint them with the brush of your own beliefs.  I doubt Stardock will suffer much economically from this controversy but any drop in business affects everyone there, not just the few at the top.

I still think Stardock embodies corporate values that are sorely lacking in today's world and this flap will not deter me from doing business with them in the future.  However, I would like to urge Mr. Wardell and any other fellow business owners who might read this to really consider the value of keeping your personal views on politics or whatever else just that, personal.  It's good to have your own ideals and to express them and fight for the change in the world you want to see.  More of us need to do that.  But your business involves more than just yourself and it is critical to make sure it doesn't end up unintentionally adopting your views as well.  Chances are many of your customers are also your political opponents and politics are never a good reason to push people away.

A new site has been launched by a number of independent Internet Service Providers to make people aware of the current fight for a fair, competitive Internet landscape in Canada that isn't controlled by the big telecom companies who are quickly trying to destroy fairness and competition and are doing so with the blessing of the corrupt shills at the CRTC.

The Campaign for Competitive Broadband gives a central location to find out about the issue, both in detail and in quick bullet point form and an easy, automated way to send a note to the relevant higher-ups in our government.  It will even automatically find your local MP by using your postal code and add them to the mailing.  It's a very slick site that does a great job of making it simple.  We are an official partner of this organisation and are proud to lend whatever small assistance to their efforts that we can.

The CRTC feedback deadline is rapidly approaching, as is Bell's usage-based billing nonsense getting forced down our throats.  There has never been a more important time to do something, even if it's spending just 30 seconds sending a note.  Only by large numbers of people doing this will Harper's Conservative government take their heads out of the sand and realise that Canadians want competition and innovation and that the Internet in this country doesn't belong to Bell Canada!  Please take a moment to add your support.