LinkAngel.com » Business Ethics

RBRC: Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation and Recycling Used Batteries

Ranjan Chari — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:38:45 +0000

If you’re like me, you probably feel bad about tossing batteries (or anything recycleable) into the dustbin. I actually have plenty of lithium ion, cadmium and various other batteries collected in a jar from various appliances including cameras and cell phones. I collected the lot hoping that one day I’d find some place to toss it and hopefully have it recycled. We’ll that day was last week thanks to the “Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation”.

From their website, I found a drop off location at a local RadioShack and was able to get a bunch of dead batteries off my chest – literally.

So collect all your batteries and find a drop off location at: http://www.rbrc.org/

Recycling is the right thing to do.

CNN spoof email: Spammers employ creative copy and design techniques

Ranjan Chari — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:31:18 +0000

For the last two days, I have received about 5 spam emails with a suggestive subject line like “CNN – The daily top”. 10. While I am used to spam and while they get blocked (mostly) by my spam filters, this spam campaign has been unusually successful in getting their emails to me.

I did bother to open one of the emails and while I knew instantly that the server they were linking to (beta.wwf.it) could not be sending out a CNN email, I found the copy compelling. Oddly enough the headlines were written by someone who would be quite uniquely aware of the US current affairs and the email template design looked quite like a real CNN email.

Every subsequent email uses a different server to host the content that these emails link to and also a different return email address. Clicking on any link within these emails takes you to an ActiveX download message which I did not bother to mess with.

I would be quite interested in knowing how these people actually make any profits engaging is such an activity. Put into legal use, skills used in spamming could be utilized by almost any corporation reaching out to a large audience. So I fail to understand why someone would take so much creative interest and risk incarceration to spam.

Here are some screenshots:

A Thomas Friedman/Discovery Channel look at high tech outsourcing to India

Ranjan Chari — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:00:41 +0000

A Thomas Friedman / Discovery Channel look at high tech outsourcing to India
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

The Fall of Bear Stearns

Ranjan Chari — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:37:45 +0000

JP Morgan and the Feds bailed out Bear Stearns over the weekend. But is this really a bailout? Looking at the early morning trading figures of the company stock, I can well imagine the plight of the shareholders. This sub-prime mess and all the collusion of BS that’s been created by the financial industry is now harming those who invested in a secure future with a once well respected company. I suspect that the repercussions of the financial instability in the US have yet to truly unravel and there is going to be a deep distrust of the financial sector for a long time to come.

Network Solutions engages in Unethical and Unfair Business Practices by placing a ‘Hold’ on domains checked on their website.

Ranjan Chari — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:37:09 +0000

Network Solutions was once the pioneer of the internet domain registration process. Many years later, the company does not have a domain business monopoly that it once did. Neither are their prices the most competitive. Now if you search for a domain at NetworkSolutions.com and if the domain is available, Network Solutions will place a “client lock” status on the domain which will prevent you from booking this domain from any registrar on the internet except at NetworkSolutions.com. This lock will be in place for about 4 days after which if you still have not booked the domain from Network Solutions, you may be able to purchase it from any other registrar.

What this practice amounts to are the following:
1) Providing a supposedly confidential service to check for domain names and then capitalizing on this knowledge that someone is looking for a domain name and placing a lock on it. It’s your idea and someone now is using that knowledge to capitalize without ever letting you know that this is the accepted business process at Network Solutions.

2) This lock is placed by the registrar without anyone paying any money for it. Which means that the registrar is giving preferential treatment to people who purchase a domain from them rather than following an equal opportunity mechanism for registering domains. What Network Solutions is doing here is illegal in my opinion as Network Solutions has no right over a domain till the time it is purchased and right now is abusing its powers as a domain registrar.

3) By placing a lock on a domain, Network Solutions exposes your idea to people in the domain squatting business and you may never get the domain because by the time you finish your research, the domain could already have been purchased.

Following are screenshots for a random domain booking process performed today over a 2 minute time period – See how NetworkSolutions rips you off:

1) Search for a domain at any registrar. It is available!

2) Now go over to NetworkSolutions.com and search for the domain. It is available!

3) No go back to the previous registrar. It’s Taken! And you’ve not even paid any money for it. Now you are forced to buy this domain from Network Solutions. I think a class action lawsuit is sure to follow.