Author Archives: David Truss

A tidal wave of spam

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Head of products at Twitter/x.com, Nikita Bier, said this on February 11th, 2 months ago today:

“Prediction: In less than 90 days, all channels that we thought were safe from spam & automation will be so flooded that they will no longer be usable in any functional sense: iMessage, phone calls, Gmail.

And we will have no way to stop it.”

Anthropic’s newest AI model, called Claude Mythos, is not being released to the public due to concerns about its ability to uncover high-severity cybersecurity flaws in major operating systems and web browsers. But make no mistake, this AI version and more (some privately owned and some free and open source) will be available in the next month. With this will come a tidal wave of security breaches, identity theft, and corporate as well as personal blackmail crimes.

The fact is that these AI models are professional lock pickers put in the hands of anyone who wants to use them. Almost no skill needed. Unlike the movies where the people doing a heist needed to recruit that one-of-a-kind safe cracker with crazy skills, now a 15 year old in his parent’s basement can do it without leaving the house.

This wave of ‘safe crackers’ is going to be let loose soon. But something else is headed this way and that’s the scammer coming for you and me via our phones, laptops, and social media accounts. These used to show up in poorly written emails, or broken English texts and phone calls that made them easy to detect. Now three things have fundamentally changed:

1. The quality of the messaging is flawless;

2. The ability of spammers and scammers to target you and share enough information to seem legitimate;

3. The sheer volume of spam coming our way. 1 spammer used to mean 1 phone call at a time being followed up with a real person. But with AI agents, one command could unleash wave upon wave of simultaneous emails, phone texts, and messages across many social media platforms.

The biggest problem with AI in the next 5 years isn’t what AI can do on its own, but rather what people with bad intentions can… and will… do with AI. It’s bad faith actors who will be our nemesis. Ultimately, the tidal wave is coming, “And we will have no way to stop it.”

Mental gymnastics

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I know it’s a very small percentage of people in the world that think the world is flat, but this group fascinates me. You’ve got to be a special kind of stupid to live in 2026 and think that every scientist and millions of others are all conspiring to fool you. The mental gymnastics needed to ignore blatant evidence and then double down on thinly veiled lies and poorly contrived talking points has to far exceed the effort to actually look at the obvious evidence. How much must it hurt to admit you are wrong to continually have to fight logic, facts, and data that contradict your beliefs?

Meanwhile, the rest of the world can marvel at Artemis II, travelling to the moon and back , and sharing incredible photos of this pale blue marble that we all live on. There is so much we still don’t know about the universe we live in, mysteries still to be solved… and here is a group of people who not only fight science with oblivious imagination, they hide from the enjoyment of seeing our globe from angles we have not enjoyed in decades, at resolutions we could not have previously imagined.

Maybe Artemis II will be the thing that has flat eathers ‘come around’ to the global reality… but stupidity defies logic, and I’m afraid the mental gymnastics will continue to work against people dedicated to sharing their ignorance in a loud, proud, uninformed, and uneducated way.


So easy to cheat

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We aren’t far away from contact lenses that can do the same. The article, ‘Smart Glasses for Exam Cheating: Best Models, Prices and Risks in 2026’, shares multiple options that can provide AI delivered test answers, in seconds, via a small ear piece or even projected text answers which can only be heard or seen by the user. Banned? Of course. Easily detected? Not all models, with more sleuth and hidden models being developed every day. And as mentioned, what happens when these are as invisible as contact lenses?

Make no mistake, cheating has been around as long as tests have. In some respects this is not new. But most methods of cheating demand guessing what questions will be on the test in advance. Methods like these are responsive to every question asked. And the speed of responses are natural. While you are still reading the question, a response is already headed your way. No need to shift your eyes from the screen or test paper. No hidden notes to conceal, and no wrong answers unless you are choosing to get less than a perfect score, to not seem suspiciously smart.

I remember a friend telling me about him and his friends getting hold of their ethics exam a couple days before they had to write it. The irony of cheating on an ethics exam is not lost on me. They memorized the questions and answers, and all chose different ones to get wrong, while still achieving high ‘A’s. Then on the day of the test my friend was horrified when his friend raised his hand 30 minutes into a 3-hour exam, and shared a typo on a question that no one should have gotten to in such a short time. Despite this poor choice, they all got their ‘A’s.

That’s going to be the new challenge in cheating, how to not do too well to bring attention to yourself. A good problem to have for a cheater.

So here we are in a new era of cheating. Prescription glasses, hidden cameras and microphones, and curated wrong answers. And in all honesty, less and less opportunity for detection. Ultimately, it’s the tests that will need to change.

In living satire

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A few years back I heard someone say that we are living in the timeline that is the laughing stock of all other timelines, and I’m routinely reminded of this.

I read a quote from the leader of the most powerful nation in the world today, shared in a social media post commenting on it, and my BS detector went off. This had to be fake… satire to anger those not intelligent enough to get the joke! So I went onto the web version of this man’s social media propaganda machine that bears the word ‘Truth’, (again this screams satire), to see if the quote actually came from the horse’s mouth.

It did.

He actually said this ridiculous statement. I know what you want to ask. I know I’m being too vague, and you are wondering, ‘What did he say this time?’ But here’s the sad truth: I could have written this a week ago, a month ago, a year ago… the only thing that would be different is the quote itself. Not the fact that it’s so obtuse that it is offensive. Not that it’s a disgrace to the office he holds. Not that it’s so off colour that you’d think it was satire if you didn’t read it at its source.

So here we are in living satire. Living in a joke of a timeline, where we can’t distinguish the difference between the truth and what is satirical, fake news shared on ‘The Onion’. And here I am writing a post that will be just as relevant a week, month, or year farther into our comical, if not sad timeline.

…and rest!

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The one area of my life that most needs fixing is sleep. While I don’t dwell on the numbers, (that would stress me out), my Garmin watch averages my score at 48/100 over the last 4 weeks. That is by no means something to be proud of, especially when half of that time was when I was on holidays.

I have a few strategies in mind to improve this, but I’m also keenly aware that worrying about my score is not a way to improve it. Still, if there is an area of my life that I know can improve my health and longevity, better sleep is probably my highest priority.

Another related area is rest between workouts. My discipline and dedication to fitness has not necessarily been all positive. After all, it was extended rest (with accompanying massages and physiotherapy) that finally rid me of months of sciatic pain down my leg. Then I came fully back into working out and today I could feel my pecs, my lats, my triceps, my quads, and my hamstrings, which are all a little sore. Yes, it’s a good kind of ‘I worked these muscles well’ sore, but that’s a lot to feel all at once. So today I rest.

After writing this, and before bed, I’ll meditate and stretch. I need to remember that giving my muscles a rest is as important as giving both body and mind a rest during sleep. It doesn’t matter if I’m working different muscle groups on different days, I still need to put full gaps in between workout days.

I thought I was being smart, not yet going back to weekly sprints to work on my Max VO2, and giving my legs and back a little longer to recover. This week I was also working with slightly lighter weights, not getting near my maximum weight on any sets. But my body still told me that I’d done more than enough. That said, 6 months ago I would have made this a cardio day instead of a full rest day. Maybe I’m learning.

Maybe I’ll go beyond listening a little more closely to my body, giving it needed rest when it tells me. Maybe I’ll integrate rest as a regular part of my routine. Thats my new plan. It starts today with a stretch and meditation to end a very mellow and exercise-less day.

A new groove

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It wasn’t that hard getting up on Monday morning at 5am to get to the gym. Coming back from a two week break didn’t hurt that much. But getting back into the routine of writing before I got to the gym at 6am has been a struggle.

It’s almost 11pm now and I’m laying down on my couch rattling this off to keep a commitment to myself to write every day.

The thing I am most looking forward to with retirement is time to write. The idea that I can schedule writing time that isn’t rushed excites me. Not having to think up ideas on the toilet first thing in the morning, or while washing my face and brushing my teeth. Not having to edit my work while on a treadmill. Actually sitting at a laptop with a coffee in my hand rather than hunting and pecking away on my phone… these are things I can’t wait to do as part of a daily routine upon retirement.

Before the March break people would ask me if I’m excited about my pending retirement and I’d answer honestly that I haven’t thought much about it. Now, after the break, I can’t say that anymore. I am thinking about it. I’m wondering how to design my days? I’m looking forward to finding a new groove that doesn’t involve a 5am wake up time and rushing to get my whole routine done before starting a long day at work.

The real test will be next September, when everyone is back at work and I’m home. I’m confident that I’ll build a routine that works. I’ll find my groove.

Persistent and annoying

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Three Sundays ago, at the start of the March break, I felt a cough coming on. The timing was awful since I was hopping on a plane to visit my mom & sister the next day. I spent 10 days away and had the cough the entire time. I’ve been home for 5 nights now and the cough still persists. The good news is that I did see my doctor and it’s not in my lungs. The bad news is that I coughed a lot last night and this isn’t going away.

There are a couple things that I find extremely frustrating. First, I’ve really been taking care of myself, and yet I still catch this annoying cough. My stress at work has been low, I exercise and eat well, and I supplement with vitamins and minerals. I understand that you can be healthy and still get a cough or cold, but I don’t usually have them hold on for so long.

The other frustrating thing is that I’ve been dealing with sciatic pain in my leg since December. It was finally receding a couple days before this cough hit me, and is completely gone now. Don’t get me wrong, this is great news after months of annoying pain that altered my everyday living. The annoying part is that I’m finally pain free, and I’ve coughed every day since.

I feel like I haven’t had a healthy day yet this year… and it’s already April tomorrow! I’m trying to stay positive, but I’m tired of this. Tired of sleeping poorly, tired of coughing fits, tired of throat lozenges kept stuck in my cheek, tired of people looking at me like I’m going to get them sick. Feeling unhealthy has been both persistent and annoying, and I’m really looking forward to feeling healthy again.

Rewatching live performances

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I rarely watch movies more than once. There are a few, like Shawshank Redemption, Princess Bride, and The Matrix that I can’t help but rewatch if they are playing on TV, but there are also many, many shows that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, yet I’ve seen them only once. For the most part, I really don’t like reruns, and seldom choose to watch something more than once.

However, live performances are different, and I could watch them many more times. Last night I watched the play Les Miserables for the third time. It was fabulous. The story is great, but with live performances it’s not just about the story, it’s about the actors and how they play the roles; It’s about their voices, and the music, and the production.

The first time I saw it, the innkeeper and his wife stole the show. They were so funny. The second time I saw it Éponime brought me to tears with her death song, it was hauntingly beautiful. Last night it was Jean Valjean’s voice and performance that made the experience noteworthy.

With every live performance there is the opportunity for a performer to shine, or for the choreography or chemistry between characters to be better than the last time. Each performance can have a nuance to it that alters the experience for the audience, and give the show a unique distinction that makes it feel like a one-of-a-kind experience.

Last night I watched a show both for the third time and also the first. It’s a totally different experience than watching a movie a repeated number of times… and while I won’t race to see it again soon, I’d also choose to attend another live performance of it in a few years, while I’d probably not choose to watch a movie or tv rerun anytime soon. Live performances offer so much more variety to something I’ve already seen.

The best paper (n)ever written

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Anyone who writes regularly understands writer’s block. It is a scary thing to face and when you are in it, it feels like there is no escape. So when I heard of this paper, I had to look it up:

JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 1974, 7, 497 Number 3 (FALL 1974)

THE UNSUCCESSFUL SELF-TREATMENT OF A CASE OF “WRITER’S BLOCK’‘
Dennis Upper

No abstract, and completely blank other than the word ‘REFERENCES’, of which there are none. A foot note mentioning that portions of this paper were NOT presented at a conference, and one more thing that makes this priceless:

COMMENTS BY REVIEWER A

“I have studied this manuscript very carefully with lemon juice and X-rays and have not detected a single flaw in either design or writing style. I suggest it be published without revision. Clearly it is the most concise manuscript I have ever seen—yet it contains sufficient detail to allow other investigators to replicate Dr. Upper’s failure. In comparison with the other manuscripts I get from you containing all that complicated detail, this one was a pleasure to examine. Surely we can find a place for this paper in the Journal—perhaps on the edge of a blank page.”

I can’t decide what I like best about this, the originality of the paper itself, the brilliance of the reviewer, or the fact that it was published.

I wish that I was clever enough to have written this when I was stuck with writer’s block! 😆

Feeling the financial crunch

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I just spent $155 on groceries that probably would have cost about $100 between 2-3 years ago. I know that prices go up, and I understand there are global factors like the price of oil that will elevate prices significantly. I get it. What I don’t understand is how lower middle class families and poor families are making ends meet?

The thing about the price of necessities going up that is often missed is that as a percentage of income, it significantly affects poorer people more. Furthermore, wage increases are negatively affected too. A person working a full time minimum wage job in BC Canada will make less than $40,000 in a year. When wages go up 3% in a year, that minimum wage employee’s salary goes up to $41,200, whereas the same 3% increase for someone that was making $100,000 sees their salary increase to 103,000… that means the higher salary person is making $150 a month more than the lower salary person for that year.

Of course, both of those workers are in a deficit when inflation has sent prices skyrocketing above 3%, but it’s clear to see how this is disproportionately affecting the poorer working class. And so again I wonder, how are these families making ends meet? What sacrifices are they making? What support are they needing that they didn’t need 3 years ago? When the financial crunch is felt, it is felt most by those who have already been struggling.