Dale Begg-Smith photo by Mike Ridewood/Canadian Freestyle Ski Association
I’ve been in a battle of Olympic proportions lately. And the Canadians are kicking my ass.
That’s the Canadian Online Pharmacy, to be exact. It is spamming the bejesus out of my humble little Ning network. And I might add that Ning has offered about as much assistance in combating this menace as a rogue Zamboni carving ruts in the speed skating fast track.
Then Bob Costas introduces me to Canadian-turned-Australian mogul phenom, Dale Begg-Smith, who bounced his way to a silver medal the other night in Vancouver. Turns out the turncoat made his fortune, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, in the “malicious software” spam business as an internet prodigy in the same foothills where he’s now competing for gold.
Coincidence? I think not.
It’s quite a commentary about these over-packaged Olympic games when the human interest story behind the guy standing in the starting gate focuses on how he helped proliferate the Wide World of Spam. “Spam Man Wins Gold in Olympic Moguls,” was the title in an article following the Turin Olympics.
So is it the digital DNA of “Spam Boy” behind Darrel, Samantha, Laurence, Seymour and the seeming cast of a thousand vacuous names propagating the Great White North Online Pharmacy on my Water Conservation and Social Media Ning network? Am I bitter at Dale? Well, not really. Just disgusted at what he stands for, especially as he’s prepping for his conquest of the mogul run that’s supposed to be as Olympic-pure as the driven snow.
So back to Ning. Does anyone out there know how to shut down the attack? Ning apparently doesn’t. Is that a particular weakness in the platform?
I want to be like Alexander Bilodeau, who bested Begg-Smith for Canada’s first gold as the host of the Winter Olympics. Only my triumph will come in a much colder environment: On the web.
