Published Articles
I’ve written many many articles for business publications over the years. Here is a sampling of a few where I received positive feedback.
It Seems Digital but We Live in an Analog World
Published in the Chronicle Herald, December 10, 2012
The other day, I had lunch downtown with my brother Nil. We got caught up on all the usual guy stuff – football, hunting, stock car racing, and analog versus digital.
Nil told me he is an analog man, and my jaw dropped. How could a modern man actually prefer analog over digital? I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
We often use the saying “living in a digital age”. What exactly does that mean? And what age did we live in before?
Well, we lived in the “analog” age. Analog means “continuous flow”, something that varies and you can measure but it never really stops moving for very long. When we measure and control things in the analog way, we use needles and dials and such.
A digital age world is a lot more precise. Take watches for example. It used to be when you asked someone the time, you got an answer something like “quarter past” and that was close enough. I noticed a while ago that if I asked the same question to my daughter, she’d say something like “eight fourteen.” A lot more precise, and, to be honest, somewhat annoying until you got used to it.
Which leads us to another question: what was so wrong with the analog age that we needed to move to a digital one? The first answer is having the ability to replicate something exactly.
Think of a phonograph record. You placed a needle in a groove and amplified the vibrations to get a sound. You also got a lot of static because the groove got dirty or scratched, and when you made a recording of the contents of the record on a tape, those scratches were transmitted with the music along with some hisses and static - electronic “noise”. Then if you copied from one tape to another, you picked up more noise.
This impairment of a work as a result of successive copying is known as generational entropy. The same thing happens when you photocopy a page from a book, and then make a copy of the copy, and so on. You’ve seen these final copies, where you can barely read the original work because of all the black dots that cover it.
The other reason we’re in a digital world is that we now have the means to store huge amounts of data, and transmit it at tremendous speeds. This means that large works can be converted to a series of bits that are either 0 or 1, on or off. In this format, they can be replicated and transmitted very fast, and without any generational entropy.
So why would an educated man like Nil actually prefer analog? The example he used is woodworking, where you cut and shape and plane and it’s all very real. Every piece of work has its own unique character. The brush strokes of the artist, the notes of the musician, they all start out as analog. And in fact they all end up as analog as well, because our senses are analog. That’s the difference between a human and a robot (so far).
So we have to be careful when we say we live in a digital world, because we don’t really. We live in an analog world and we temporarily transform certain elements to digital for expediency. Even a piece of artwork on a web site that has only ever been stored in digital format started off in analog form, even if only in the mind of the designer and the movement of her hand on the computer’s mouse. The beauty in it is analog, the storage of it is digital.
And I guess maybe that’s the point. Beauty is analog, expediency is digital.
Blockchain Demystified
New technology could revolutionize commerce
Published in Business Voice, March 2018. Also published in The Beacon, the newsletter for the Maritime Exchange in Philadelphia.
At first, it seemed to be all about online monetary transactions and in the very early stages of adoption. But suddenly it’s here, now, and likely in your industry. So, you’d better start paying some attention.
What exactly is blockchain technology? First of all, it’s not magic. A blockchain is physical storage of data, just like any other data storage, but what is unique is how it is being done. Basically, information is recorded in blocks of data that are linked together, then replicated multiple times across a network of users, called “nodes.”
Think of a blockchain as an association, and the nodes as its members. There is no central authority dictating the rules of conduct, only whatever governance the association puts in place. It is an ideal technology to ensure trust among trading partners without having to rely on some higher authority or neutral third party. Plus, for the reasons I’m going to list below, it is hard to hack and it easy to detect if anyone is attempting to do so.
In short, it is highly secure and it is decentralized.
There are two types of blockchains—public, like the online currency known as Bitcoin, and private, like most business usage. It is the unique properties of these blockchains that make them very appealing as a means of direct communication among trading partners:
- Resilient distributed network. The fact that data gets replicated across the nodes means that the entire system is peer-to-peer, where communication is decentralized and each machine has the same capabilities as any other. There is no central server to be compromised, and all records are public and verifiable by authorized individuals. Also, it is very robust, because if one part of the network goes down, other copies will take over.
- “Immutable” transactions. That means that transactions can only be added. The technology does not allow for changing or deleting information once it is placed on the blockchain, leaving a clear audit trail. If anyone tries to change an existing transaction, it will be easily detected. Since only one part of the chain has been compromised, the node where the block resides will simply replace it with a block from another node.
- Cryptographically secure. Every digital asset and block goes through a cryptographic one-way “hashing” algorithm that further ensures they cannot be tampered with. The hashing yields a unique result called a digest, and someone modifying a block and correctly guessing the input that produced the digest is highly unlikely.
- Transactions only allowed by consensus. Network participants must agree on the rules of business, which are embedded in “smart contracts” that are programmed right into the blockchain.
- Accessible via web services. Participants use the Internet to participate in the blockchain.
Blockchain technology can be used for transmitting many types of transactions and other digital assets such as mortgages, video content, and shipping bills of lading. Although banks and federal authorities are studying this technology, it may be a while before it gets widely adopted, these organizations having already spent billions of dollars on existing secure systems. Also, blockchains are extremely resource-intensive due to their security algorithms, something that has to be improved upon before it gets to be mainstream, and the legality of “smart contracts” is something that is still up for review.
Regardless, blockchain technology has the potential of vastly reducing the cost and complexity of online commerce, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going away. In fact, blockchain has been described by some as being even more important than the internet itself!
Visiting the Master Studio Was Music to my Ears
Published in the Chronicle Herald, April 18, 2011
Ever since I installed Windows 7, whenever my computer comes out of sleep mode I swear I hear the first two notes of the B.J. Thomas song Hooked on a Feeling. And then there’s the computer at the lottery booth in my building that, whenever an instant-win ticket loses, it goes into the opening riff of Spirit in the Sky. “Da-dowwwng”.
I sort of expect it to continue with “Da-dowwng da-dowwng-dowwng-dong.”
Taking Care of Business
You see, back in university I was a disc jockey, and music seems to always rattle around in my head. So I recently decided to rekindle old memories by visiting Ted Hyland and Steve Lunn who are taking care of business every day at Newcap Radio in Halifax.
Headquartered in Dartmouth, Newcap holds over 75 licenses throughout the country. What I toured was actually two radio stations in one: Kool 96.5 FM and Q104. Newcap’s facility on Kempt Road, with two master studios and three production studios, is less than two years old. It has the latest in state of the art equipment, having transitioned from analog to being totally digital.
General Manager Hyland explained that this “audio over IP” technology provides capabilities not previously available, such as downloading and storing material on a computer, stitching radio program segments together, and having the station run automatically from their computer room. They can also bring in feeds via Skype or patch in audio clips from the Internet, and can automatically stream their shows to their web site.
The Heart of Rock and Roll
Director of Engineering Lunn walked me through their two main components: an “Automation System” by a company called RCS, and a “Control System” by a company called Axia. The Automation System manages the content and controls the schedule. Its main screen looks like a scheduling calendar, with songs and other content pre-scheduled. Every so often you see a red stop sign, and when that point in time arrives, the system pauses and lets the broadcaster take over.
The broadcaster talks and then presses a green Start button and the system takes over again. The calendar is continuously being programmed, with some of their material pre-programmed for up to five days. In fact, the studio is unattended every night, yet the heart of rock and roll keeps on beating. The automation system even keeps track of Canadian content.
The Control System controls and digitizes all input and output, and provides the switching required to accept different feeds, such as microphones, telephone call-ins, and the Internet. What you see is basically a big sound board.
Hello Darkness My Old Friend
Besides the sound board, the only equipment in the control room are microphones, computer screens and keyboards. All the processing is being done in the server room, on computers running on a Microsoft platform. Each studio has its own computer, and every computer has a redundant failsafe system.
There are also uninterrupted power supply units and diesel generators in case of power failures. As well, there is a unit that checks for continuous audio, and after ten seconds of nothing but the sound of silence, pagers start going off.
Up On the Roof
Once the audio leaves the computer, it goes through an equalizer, where it is “shaped” for a specific audience. Bass and treble, for example, are set to what Newcap executives have determined to be their audience’s preference. The Q104 output, Lunn explained, is shaped differently than the Kool FM output. From the server room, the signal is sent via cable to a microwave tower up on the roof that sends it to an antenna on Geizer’s Hill in Fairview, where it is transmitted to your radio.
To be CRTC compliant, all radio stations are required to record and keep all on-air content for 35 days. For this, Newcap uses radios tuned to their stations which store this content on computers.
I Can’t Stop This Feelin’
Doing this story was one of my most enjoyable assignments. The server room was really impressive, and must have held about ten times the equipment of ours at Nicom. But I mostly enjoyed the comfortable master studio, with its cool controls, large windows, and its modern lighting hooked on the ceiling.
Which reminded me of the old DJ joke: “You just heard Hooked on a Feeling; which is better than being hooked on a ceiling isn’t it?”. Da-dowwwng!
How to Throw Away Garbage on Prince Edward Island
Published in the PEI Guardian, May 2014
Prince Edward Island is restful.
Peaceful. Serene. Beautiful. “Pastoral,” my wife says.
Whenever we’re in PEI – or should I say on PEI, as they do in the news – we are not in a hurry. We walk. We bike. Sometimes we drive – slowly.
For two weeks every summer, we stop trying to influence our surroundings, and we let our surroundings influence us. The tide stays the same rhythm no matter which pace we adopt. The cottage is as inviting at 9:05 as it would have been at 9. The TV stays off. The newspapers pile up. The meals are an event, not something squeezed between events. The phone never rings.
On PEI, you can be relaxed without being lazy, slow without being plodding, tuned out without being ignorant. I’ve been so relaxed I’ve actually seen the moon move.
For two weeks every summer, we put stress on hold.
Except… when it comes time to throw something away. PEI, you see, is big on waste management, and on doing so “correctly”. I’ve seen as many as five bins in one spot, all for different varieties of trash. If memory serves me, these are: “recyclables”, “refundables”, “paper”, “organics”, and “garbage”.
“Recyclables”, “refundables”, “paper”, “organics”, and “garbage”. It’s quite overwhelming to someone who’s not used to it. Thankfully, the locals, with their proper trash acumen, will provide you with helpful memory tools, like “if it was once living, it’s organic!” Ta-da!
In life, what you want to do and what you feel right about doing are often two different things. And these distinctions change at different times and in different places. Situational morals, I call it. At the airport in Halifax, on the way to a business meeting in Toronto, “Garbage” becomes the indiscriminate bucket. Have a look next time you’re there. Garbage is chubby from overeating while its friend Recyclables is weak with hunger.
On PEI, on vacation, that doesn’t do. You can tell it doesn’t do because you notice the balance in the bins. People – I imagine some of the same people who stuff the garbage bins at the Halifax Airport – take the time when on PEI to decide what goes where in the throwaway department.
It’s hard to figure out what actually constitutes “garbage”, that fifth and final category. What, in two weeks of pastoral living, could I possibly need to get rid of, that isn’t one of “recyclables”, “refundables”, “paper”, or “organics”? I’ve spent a lot of my summer vacation time actually pondering this question and have come up with this: blown-out light bulbs.
That’s it. I used to think used aluminum foil would also qualify but, no, that’s recyclable. A friendly cottage-landlord tipped me off before I got caught.
It’s a good thing I do become unhurried when I’m on PEI, because I’ve on many occasions spent quite a few minutes scratching my head in front of an array of bins such as the ones I’ve just described. Some bins, like those labelled “paper”, are quite easy to figure out. And as if we couldn’t read, those bins have a rectangular slot to provide us with an additional cue.
Yeah, yeah, I got that one from reading the label, no need to look down your nose at me. Tell me about those other bins. What do I do there? Tell me what to do with that plastic container that held the salad. Is that recyclable or refundable? I don’t want to just chuck it in any bin, then have to run away before the trash police swoop down to ticket me.
I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s recyclable, because it has that little triangle with the number embossed on its bottom.
Oh yeah! The number. If you really want to spoil your island vacation, try figuring that one out. I’ve been told, on pretty good Island authority, that a different number on similar-looking containers having similar looking triangles can make the difference between recyclable and refundable. I’m saving that one for a future visit, safe with the knowledge that most any Island judge would probably let me off with community work for messing up on the numbered triangles.
On our last Island vacation, I found myself in front of the five bins with an ice-cream cone I couldn’t finish. I knew the general vicinity and I gravitated to the right, to the organics and garbage district, while a little voice in my head kept saying “remember, if it was once living, it’s organic.” As I peeled off the paper napkin from the sticky cone and shoved it in the rectangular slot, I started analyzing my trash: Cows ice-cream… Don Cherry flavour… On a waffle cone... With sprinkles…
Was it once living?
Then it started melting, and dripping all over my hand, and I wished I hadn’t thrown away the napkin. I checked for a hidden camera. No, this isn’t Halifax, figure it out. For God’s sake, do the right thing, Man!
Only I wasn’t sure what that was. So I licked my hand and started walking away – slowly.
“I thought you said you couldn’t finish it,” said my wife when I was back at the bench.
“Nah,” I replied. “I just couldn’t see it go to waste.”
Big Data Equals Big Opportunities
Analytics as a career path and business driver
Published in Business Voice, September 2013
More and more we hear the term “big data”, but what does it mean? In a way, we have always been inundated with information when you consider all the conversations we have and the media we read and listen to. What’s happening now is that these conversations are taking place online, so they are being recorded and are readily accessible, and that poses some interesting possibilities.
And interesting problems. In the traditional sense, information technology has been dealing with structured data, information that is somehow keyed with unique identifiers, like account numbers. So it has been easy to organize and put in a report, but what we’ve been getting from this data has been limited.
Unlike traditional information technology, big data also includes data that is unstructured, and not necessarily entered by humans. Every time you tweet, blog, search Google, pass a toll station with a MACPASS, or post an entry on Facebook, information is stored somewhere. It appears to all be quite random, but it isn’t really. Leading IT companies like IBM tell us there is a fortune to be made mining such information and coming up with meaningful patterns. Finding and reporting on these patterns is what analytics is all about.
Big data is big in the sense that there is so much of it. It is also big in the sense that it completely changes how we think of information processing, as a business function, an industry, an economic concern, and an opportunity for our young people.
That is why governments, academic institutions, and industry leaders like IBM are taking it so seriously. The Analytics Centre of Excellence that IBM is building has everything to do with big data. Calvin Gosse, Senior Location Executive at IBM Atlantic Canada, states that their work will lead to “evidence-based decision making”, and “predictive analysis”. In other words, why guess when you can know.
To put it in some historical context, back in the 1960s and 1970s we studied “computer science” and “problem solving”, and machines were mainly scientific devices used in engineering and so forth. Then we learned “data processing”, which enabled us to keep track of business information that prior to that had been kept manually. We then experienced the advent of personal computers, the Internet revolution, and the study of “digital media”.
Each one of these steps was a huge advancement over the previous step, and the next stage in this evolution is analytics. Evidence-based decision making means that we can use this huge amount of information to our benefit for eliminating inefficiencies, increasing sales, and changing the future. Gosse gave as examples fine-tuning power generation to meet anticipated demand, identifying food that gets grown but never eaten, and rearranging police patrol cars to match identified traffic flows and be close to where accidents are likely to happen.
None of this is easy, because of the sheer volume of this data, the rate at which it is being generated, and the fact that it is so unstructured. That is why a whole industry is evolving to deal with this, and therein is the opportunity.
IBM recently made a presentation to would-be graduates of the Nova Scotia Community College. The NSCC is taking a leadership role in all this by looking at including analytics in their course load, and five Nova Scotia universities are also working on this.
Dalhousie University recently announced the creation of the Institute for Big Data Analytics, under the leadership of Dr. Stan Matwin, the first such institution in the country. Matwin states that the Institute plans on working with other Dalhousie departments as well as industry on data-intensive problems, starting with marine and medical data. As Matwin says, Dalhousie has “the algorithms, the computers, and the knowhow to answer big data questions.”
Where this is all headed is that Analytics is fast becoming a career path. Already, IBM has 9,000 business analytics consultants and 400 mathematicians focused on big data, and is committing more than $100 million on new big data technologies.
It seems to me like it might be something for kids to look into, just like Computer Science was for me way back in the early 1970s. It’s the next big thing.
Technology Over the Years
Published in the Chronicle Herald, December 28, 2009
Woody Allen used to say that 80% of success is showing up. I’d add that the remaining 20% is staying there long enough.
I was first introduced to Information Technology when I was in high school, back when the Apollo program was going on and the Foundations were singing “Build Me Up Buttercup”.
I am a member of a very small group of people around town who studied “Computer Science” 40 years ago and stuck with it ever since. I enjoy being at industry roundtables when we go around the room introducing ourselves and stating how long we’ve been in the business. I’m often the granddaddy of them all.
So naturally, over the years I’ve come to see all kinds of technology come and go and I thought this month I’d summarize the ones I think were truly revolutionary.
Stored Programs. During my first year at Acadia University I learned how to write Fortran programs and punch them out on 80-column cards. A few years prior to this, people had to hardwire computers to do their tasks and every new job required rewiring.
When people started actually storing programs in computer memory for execution, this was a huge leap in technology. That was quickly followed by storing the programs for later recall, first on punched cards, then on hard drives much like the ones we still use.
COBOL. This language was invented in 1959 and is still used in millions of computer applications today. It stands the test of time. Companies used to buy time on mainframe computers, timesharing we called it, and many of the applications they ran were written in COBOL.
Personal Computers. In the early 1980s computers became increasingly smaller in size to the point that they could sit on a desktop. No longer did you need to go to the steno pool to get a letter written, or logon to a mainframe to do any sort of calculation.
Macintosh’s. These had a revolutionary user interface, borrowed heavily from work done at Xerox labs, still in use today. The mouse that roared.
Novell Networks. The problem with personal computers was that they were, well, personal. Everyone became an island. Local area networks came along, with Novell being the dominant player, and permitted us to be linked to one another for sharing files and devices.
FoxPro 2.6 for Windows. In the early 1990s, large corporations were struggling to convert their applications to the new Windows platform. Meanwhile small firms like ours were using tools like FoxPro to do just that, including multi-user networked applications and a built-in shareable database. The 2.6 version was the one that really started enabling slick user interfaces much like the ones we still use today.
The Internet. In 1991, I was asked by an organization called the “Nova Scotia Technology Network” to try out this thing called the Internet. For a month, a dozen colleagues and I tested out email and other communications tools. My conclusion: “This technology is going nowhere”. It’s possible I may have been wrong.
SharePoint. So here we are now with the power of mainframes on our desktops, networks to connect them together, and the Internet to allow us to tap into vast resources. But in all of these gains was lost the ability for organizations to enable their employees to collaborate in a secure, centralized, robust fashion. SharePoint changes all that; no wonder it’s the top selling Microsoft server software of all time.
Portable Devices. These are the Palm Pilots, CE devices, and smartphones we see everywhere. By the way, don’t use these while driving unless you have a hands free adaptor; I got away with a warning last month and pointing this out in my column is the atonement for my transgression.
So what’s the next big thing? As you know I’m not great at predictions, but here goes: probably the next five years will see an explosion of Software-as-a-Service offerings, whereby people pay on a usage basis for computing resources and applications. Timesharing if you will, old becoming new again.
Have a great Holiday Season!
Seven Essential Rules for Owning a Business
Proven paths to success for entrepreneurs
Published in Business Voice, November 2013
I’ve been a business owner for over 25 years, and I am thrilled that the very first bullet on the very first pillar of the Halifax Chamber’s new Strategic Plan says “promote entrepreneurship”. Many people have a misguided notion of what makes an entrepreneur, and often the first thing they offer is that an entrepreneur is someone who likes to take risks.
No, a problem gambler is someone who likes to take risks. An entrepreneur is someone who likes to succeed at something of their own making, and recognizes that risk is a necessary ingredient of doing things your own way.
Over the years of “doing things my own way”, I’ve collected pieces of information from various sources that I can relate to from my own experiences. Here they are, boiled down to seven practical rules that have guided me over the years.
Rule #1. Always keep the big picture in mind. That’s easy at the start, but with time, your organization’s value proposition will change. That’s when you’ll be tempted to get mired in the minutia of the day, to work with what’s comfortable. Resist that. Rather work on finding the new big picture, and develop that even as you work on the day to day. At all times, know what you’re trying to accomplish.
Rule #2. Limit the participants to those who know what needs to be done, and how. Break this rule at your peril, for you neither have the time nor the resources to carry a bloated organization. What you must do is work from a plan that defines a limited set of measurable operational objectives, assign responsibilities for carrying these out, and reward those who can take on these responsibilities. If you don’t do this, you’ll have office politics, HR issues, lack of accountability, and thousands of dollars going out the door. And you’ll have no one to blame but yourself, because you’re the one who set it up that way. Surround yourself with an A-Team; look around, you know who they are.
Rule #3. Never stop working on your personal credibility. It might not seem fair, but you have to constantly keep proving yourself, to your customers, your employees, your bankers, and everyone else you meet. To do this, you have to concentrate on being reliable, honest, disciplined, fair, proactive, on time, prepared, and easy to find. When you do mess up (and you will), forgive yourself, and be quick to make amends to others. Take your business seriously, but yourself lightly. And above all, keep your sense of humour. You can be in business for many years, but only the last two will ever count.
Rule #4. Pay attention to the marketplace. The marketplace is where it all starts, and it is the arbiter that decides whether or not you are doing the right thing. Get out of the office and meet your customers, learn from your sales force and other customer-facing employees, read, research, look at trends, and study industry averages. Listen always. Try to find ways of building your business incrementally from where it is now. There are always new business problems it can solve for others, so keep seeking new things that are natural to add to your core offerings.
Rule #5. Make your company’s brand larger than your own. There are exceptions to this rule, like Ben and Jerry, or Colonel Sanders. But typically, unless you wish to remain a one- or two- person operation, your company will never grow if you insist on identifying it solely with you. You must make your company’s brand be larger than your personal brand. You must let others do their job and let them take credit for what they do well.
Rule #6. Know where you stand financially at all times. You’re no longer in business if you’re no longer making money. For sure, there are cycles of research and development and growth stages where losses are expected, but these must be managed and part of a solid and measurable business plan. Be on top of your cash flow position, which means having a good grasp of your work-in-progress and accounts receivable. No matter what, always meet payroll.
Rule #7. Heed the warning signs. Your instincts are likely what got you started, and these same instincts raise alarms from time to time. Don’t ignore them. Sometimes it’s just old failings coming back to haunt you, but often it’s something real that your intuition is picking up on. Trust your hunches, and check things out.
So there you have it. These are the high points of the business rules that have worked for me.
Pat d’Entremont is a certified management consultant, and a Partner with Nicom IT Solutions Inc.