Today’s Moron: Dick Hardt

Okay, first of all, if your last name is Hardt, you may want to reconsider the nickname. Richard works. Rich works. Rick works. But I digress.

Dick Hardt is a millionaire software developer well-known as an expert on protecting your online identity. He lectures and writes about issues facing Internet users and vulnerabilities they face. He’s in big demand. He’s had his troubles, though: his last company went nuts-up and he’s being sued, and he also has to work for Microsoft now.

It’s clear Dick doesn’t always make the right decisions. Here’s another example.

After he got married, he reportedly posted some, let’s say “adult oriented” photographs of himself and his new bride. Earlier this month, he put them online and apparently tweeted a few close, personal friends about them, with a link to their online presence.

Wait, what? He told his friends “Hey, check out my naked new wife?” Is that what I’m reading here? Apparently so. I should point out that I am not friends with Dick Hardt, so I wasn’t on the invite list, and thus have not seen these photos. But reports indicate they are tasteful, artistic portraits of the newlyweds in the buff.

Anyway, Dick pulled off a classic online dork mistake — thinking he had permanent control over something he posted online — and the link to the pictures went global, almost immediately. And now he’s the butt of many an online joke. This is along the lines of that cop with the top DUI busts who got stopped for drunk driving last month. We love it when people can’t follow their own advice, especially when they have funny names.

I’m writing the opening for Dick’s next presentation on web security: “Hi, folks, I’m Dick Hardt. I’d like to introduce you to this: it’s a photo album. You put your pictures in it and put it on your shelf, and if you want someone to see your pictures, you open the book and they look at it. That way, nobody gets to see your wife’s bum unless you totally want them to. Trust me on this one.”

People: please refer back to my earlier posts about online moronity. It doesn’t matter who you are or how you tweak your settings. If you put a photo on the Internet, and it’s even remotely risque, it will spread ’round the world faster than that fat naked web-surfing guy goes through a bag of Doritos.

Dick Hardt: Nice job.

Edit: Here’s another blog post, with the photos. It’s funnier than mine.

Spotted on Stephen Harper’s Twitter

As you may have heard, Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, is now a Twitterer. Or Tweeter, if you prefer that term. I find this a little scary.

I was at a podcamp last month during which one speaker flashed photos of Harper and Barack Obama on the screen and said “Harper is Web 1.0, and Obama is Web 2.0.” He couldn’t have been more right. Harper, by all accounts a brilliant man, an historian, economist, strategist and political wunderkind, is not exactly known for his embrace of new ideas. Or for having a heart. There’s a famous photo of him dropping his little son off for his first day of school and gravely shaking his hand.

Anyway, these are things you might see if you check out the PM’s Twitter page. Or maybe not.

• I don’t quite understand how this is supposed to work, but McKay says all the youngsters are doing it.
• @jflaherty If you’re going after the Ontario PC leadership again, you have my blessing. And my encouragement.
• I got a great deal on a Super-Nintendo video game thing from one of the interns. Only $100. The kids will be very happy this Christmas.
• Twitter says keep it to 140 characters or less. My caucus has 140 characters, plus me, Baird and that woman whose name I keep forgetting.
• I need a hip nickname like Ignatieff. People call him Iggy. People call me Stephen Harper.
• @jacklayton Thank you, Mr. Layton, but I couldn’t see myself answering to “Harpy.” Your other ideas were also poor.
• I like Steve-O, but when I typed it into that Yahoo page I kept seeing the word “Jackass” and pictures of boys with tattoos.
• People are still grousing about this so-called recession. I personally don’t know anyone who’s out of work.
• Someone has congratulated me on my hundredth tweet, and I don’t know what that means exactly.
• @jflaherty Perhaps I did not make myself clear earlier. Ontario needs you and I don’t.
• @premier_dalton I tried, but he won’t listen. I’ll ask Baird, but he just bought a condo.
• @rona_ambrose Interested in moving to Toronto? There’s a job opening.
• @bev_oda I can see you as provincial Tory leader. Ever considered it?
• @sweet_becki Please tell me more about how to receive the free laptop computer. And you can call me Steve-O.