Artificial Intelligence has become one of the most valuable tools behind my DM screen.

Whenever I mention that, people tend to assume one of two things. Either they think AI is somehow running my games for me, or they think it’s a gimmick that produces generic fantasy content.

In reality, it’s neither.

AI doesn’t replace my creativity. It amplifies it.

It doesn’t run my campaigns. It helps me spend less time on administrative work and more time creating memorable experiences for my players.

As both a professional in the cybersecurity industry and a lifelong Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with AI tools. Some have been useful. Some have been disappointing. But over the past year, I’ve developed a workflow that has become a permanent part of how I prepare and run games.

These are the five areas where AI has had the biggest impact on my Dungeon Mastering.

1. Session Recaps and Campaign Memory

If you’ve ever run a long campaign, you know that one of the biggest challenges isn’t creating content—it’s remembering everything that has already happened.

Players forget details.

Dungeon Masters forget details.

That mysterious NPC from six months ago suddenly becomes important again, and everyone is frantically searching through old notes trying to remember who they were.

This is where AI has become an absolute game changer.

For my games, I record sessions and upload the recordings to NotebookLM. It automatically transcribes the audio and produces surprisingly accurate summaries of what happened during the session.

What impresses me most isn’t the transcription. It’s the understanding.

Anyone who has played D&D knows that a four-hour session isn’t four hours of story. There are side conversations, jokes, pizza discussions, technical issues, and random tangents.

NotebookLM does an excellent job separating the signal from the noise.

It identifies the important story beats, character decisions, combat outcomes, discoveries, clues, and roleplaying moments while largely ignoring the table chatter that isn’t relevant to the campaign.

The result is a clean summary that I can reference later.

I’ve also experimented with Claude and ChatGPT for campaign summaries, and both work very well once I have a transcript. However, NotebookLM is currently the only tool in my workflow that allows me to start with the raw session recording itself.

The practical result is simple:

My campaign notes are dramatically better than they used to be.

I can quickly review previous sessions, refresh my memory before game night, and maintain continuity across long-running campaigns without spending hours writing notes after every session.

2. Campaign Planning, NPC Development, and Encounter Design

This is probably where AI saves me the most preparation time.

One of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that it generates creativity.

I don’t think that’s true.

What it does exceptionally well is stimulate creativity.

Every Dungeon Master has experienced creative roadblocks.

You know where the story is going, but you’re not sure how to connect the dots.

You have a villain, but their motivation feels weak.

You have a dungeon, but the encounters feel repetitive.

AI is an outstanding brainstorming partner.

I regularly use it to explore:

• Villain motivations
• Political intrigue
• Faction relationships
• Campaign twists
• Adventure hooks
• Character backgrounds
• Quest complications
• Alternative story paths

The same applies to NPCs.

When players inevitably become fascinated by the one random merchant or tavern owner you never expected them to care about, AI can help generate personality traits, goals, fears, secrets, and relationships within minutes.

Encounter design benefits as well.

Rather than simply asking, “How many monsters should be in this room?” I can explore questions like:

• What tactics would these creatures realistically use?
• How would an intelligent villain prepare for this battle?
• What environmental hazards would make this encounter more memorable?
• What objectives exist besides defeating every enemy?

The final decisions are always mine.

But AI helps me explore possibilities much faster than I could on my own.

3. Handouts, Letters, and Props

One of the easiest ways to increase immersion in a campaign is to give players something tangible.

A letter.

A journal.

A proclamation.

A wanted poster.

A cryptic note discovered in an abandoned ruin.

The problem is that creating convincing props takes time.

AI dramatically accelerates this process.

Need a centuries-old journal entry from a doomed explorer?

A noble’s formal letter to a rival family?

A cultist’s encoded message?

A desperate plea for help written during a siege?

AI can produce a strong first draft in seconds.

I still edit the final result to ensure it fits my campaign, but starting from a solid draft is much faster than staring at a blank page.

For horror campaigns like Curse of Strahd or other Ravenloft adventures, this has been especially useful.

Handouts make the world feel real.

Players engage differently when they’re holding a physical document instead of simply listening to a description.

AI allows me to create more of those immersive moments with significantly less preparation time.

4. Generating Artwork

I love visual aids.

The challenge is that I am a writer, not an artist.

Historically, Dungeon Masters had limited options for custom artwork.

You could draw it yourself.

Commission an artist.

Search endlessly online hoping someone had already created something similar.

Or simply go without.

AI-generated art has changed that.

Today I can create custom artwork for:

• NPC portraits
• Villains
• Magic items
• Cities
• Taverns
• Dungeons
• Campaign scenes
• Adventure handouts

The most valuable aspect isn’t necessarily the quality of the art.

It’s the specificity.

When I create a completely original NPC, there usually isn’t existing artwork available that perfectly matches my vision.

AI allows me to create visuals tailored specifically to my campaign.

That means players are seeing my villain, not a random image pulled from a Google search.

The same applies to locations, artifacts, and story moments.

The world becomes more visually cohesive and immersive because the artwork is built specifically for that campaign.

5. Answering Questions During the Game

This might be the most underrated use of AI.

Players ask questions.

A lot of questions.

Some are rules questions.

Some are lore questions.

Some are questions about events that happened twenty sessions ago.

Others are questions that come completely out of nowhere.

No Dungeon Master can remember everything.

AI has become an incredibly useful assistant for helping answer questions quickly.

Need clarification on a rules interaction?

Need to remember the name of an NPC from months ago?

Need to verify a piece of Forgotten Realms lore?

Need a quick summary of a faction’s history?

AI can often provide the answer faster than digging through books, notes, websites, and PDFs.

That doesn’t mean I blindly trust every response.

Like any tool, AI occasionally makes mistakes.

But as a first-pass research assistant, it has become remarkably useful.

In many cases it helps keep the game moving rather than bringing the session to a halt while everyone searches for information.

The Real Value of AI for Dungeon Masters

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from using AI is that it doesn’t replace the role of the Dungeon Master.

It removes friction.

The creativity still comes from me.

The storytelling still comes from me.

The worldbuilding still comes from me.

The emotional moments, dramatic reveals, and memorable victories still happen between real people sitting around a table.

What AI does is eliminate some of the busywork that gets in the way.

It helps me remember more.

Create more.

Prepare more efficiently.

And ultimately deliver a better experience for my players.

That’s why AI has earned a permanent seat at my gaming table—not as the Dungeon Master, but as the Dungeon Master’s assistant.

I regularly track developments in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure, and geopolitical competition.

Most of these stories disappear into the daily news cycle.

A few feel different.

A few reveal where technology is heading, how conflict is changing, and what tomorrow’s risks might look like.

These are the signals that have captured my attention recently.

Signal #1: AI Is Becoming an Operational Security Tool

The conversation around AI often focuses on productivity and automation.

The more interesting development is operational decision-making.

Organizations are increasingly using AI to triage alerts, investigate suspicious activity, summarize incidents, and assist analysts during security operations. At the same time, attackers are experimenting with AI-assisted reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, and social engineering.

The race is no longer simply human versus human.

It is becoming machine-assisted defenders versus machine-assisted attackers.

Why It Matters

For the first time, cyber conflict is beginning to scale beyond purely human decision-making.

The side that can accelerate decisions fastest may gain a significant advantage.

Organizations that learn how to effectively combine human judgment with machine speed may find themselves far better positioned than those relying on either one alone.

Now Picture This…

A nation-state launches a coordinated cyber campaign against multiple critical infrastructure providers.

Human analysts cannot keep pace with the volume of alerts.

Both attackers and defenders rely on competing AI systems making real-time decisions.

At first, everything appears normal.

Then one of the defensive AI systems begins making recommendations nobody fully understands.

The analysts face a terrible choice:

Trust the machine—or turn it off.

Signal #2: Supply Chains Remain the Soft Underbelly

The largest organizations in the world continue to invest heavily in cybersecurity.

Attackers increasingly look elsewhere.

Software vendors, contractors, managed service providers, and cloud partners remain attractive targets because compromising one trusted organization can provide access to hundreds—or thousands—of others.

The strongest front door in the world matters little if someone leaves a side entrance unlocked.

Why It Matters

Modern societies depend on invisible trust relationships.

Most people never see them.

Attackers do.

As organizations become increasingly interconnected, the security of one company becomes dependent upon the security of many others.

Now Picture This…

A small software company wins a contract supporting critical government infrastructure.

The celebration lasts exactly one day.

Unknown to everyone involved, the company was compromised eighteen months earlier.

The vendor was never the target.

The contract was.

The attackers simply waited patiently for the right door to open.

Signal #3: Critical Infrastructure Is Becoming a Battlespace

Electricity, transportation, communications, water systems, healthcare, and logistics networks are increasingly viewed through a national security lens.

Governments around the world continue investing in resilience, redundancy, and incident response capabilities.

That investment is occurring for a reason.

Modern economies depend on digital systems that were never originally designed to operate in a contested environment.

Why It Matters

The distinction between cyber attacks and real-world consequences continues to blur.

The question is no longer whether systems can be compromised.

The question is what happens when digital disruptions begin producing physical effects at scale.

Now Picture This…

A regional power outage initially appears to be an equipment failure.

Three days later, investigators discover similar incidents occurred across multiple jurisdictions over the previous six months.

Each event was small.

Each event was explainable.

Each event was ignored.

Viewed together, however, a disturbing pattern emerges:

Someone isn’t attacking.

Someone is rehearsing.

What’s On My Radar

• AI-enabled cyber operations
• Critical infrastructure resilience
• The expansion of cyber competition between major powers

Most cybersecurity headlines focus on individual incidents.

The larger story is the gradual normalization of cyber conflict as a persistent element of modern competition.

For thriller writers, strategists, and anyone interested in the future, that may be the most important signal of all.

Build something 100 people love, not something 1M people kind of like. – Brian Chesky

This quote from Brian Chesky, Airbnb co-founder and CEO, is similar to Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans mantra. I’ve hesitated with my creativity in the past, worrying that too many people would judge me. But the truth is, even the most successful endeavours draw criticism. So instead of focusing on the haters and hiding, focus on the few who appreciate what you are putting out there and grow and flourish instead.

Who remembers the Intellivision?

That question is an easy way to separate the Boomers and Gen X’s in the audience from the youngsters who came after.

I remember the Intellivision fondly. It was THE only gift I wanted from Santa one Christmas when I was little. I wanted one really really bad. And lucky for me, Christmas did not disappoint! That said, this photo from that Christmas still makes me laugh: there’s me, waiting for a turn on my fancy new video game system while my mom was playing instead.

And, here’s another pic from later that day or the next day, showing more of the same… “Hey mom, when do I get a turn?!?”

That Intellivision disappeared years ago. I don’t even remember what happened to it now. It’s old 16 bit graphics were fancy for the time but they are downright archaic when you put them beside a modern Xbox or Playstation. It’s ridiculous to even try and compare the Intellivision to today’s graphics cards, but for starters, modern cards are at least 256 bit, plus a bunch of other fancy tech to accelerate their performance even further.

But even though the tech is grossly outdated, I jumped as soon as I heard it was being re-released. Atari bought the rights to Intellivision and have now launched the Intellivision Sprint. I ordered one for my mom for Christmas (from Amazon here in Canada – they offered a much cheaper “Canada delivery” option than trying to order from Atari in the USA). Note that amazon.ca is now showing it as Currently Unavailable. I kinda feel like I got away with something because I can’t find anywhere that will deliver it to Canadians right now. I ordered it well in advance of Christmas (sometime in November, if I remember correctly) with a promised delivery date of mid-December. Unfortunately, Amazon didn’t get it here by Dec 25, but it did show up between Christmas and New Years.

As soon as it arrived, I delivered it to my mom, set it up, and then proceeded to make up for all of the Intellivision beatings she gave me when I was just a helpless little kid. First up was Astrosmash – this was an Intellivision staple back in the day. Immediate nostalgia when this game fired up. Next up, we played Baseball – she begged for the mercy rule to come into effect shortly thereafter. And then we got stuck on Snafu – she is still twitching from the beatings she got in that game. So much fun!

This was a great reminder that you don’t always need the latest tech to have fun. This decidedly low tech game system will likely never entertain anyone under the age of 40, having already been spoiled by the likes of Super NES and more. But for those of us who aren’t as spry as we once were and who try to argue that their grey hair is just a sign of “experience” and not old age, well… this is a great trip down memory lane that is bound to transport us back to some great childhood memories.

Speaking of childhood memories… The Angry Therapist wrote this week about how “the parts of you that feel most alive are often the first parts you’re told to lock away.”

This was so timely for me. I’ve been enjoying a renaissance existence over the last year or so after rediscovering Dungeons & Dragons. I used to play as a kid. I loved D&D. I collected all of the books and adventures. I used to play with my friends at school every day. It was so much fun. I felt so alive – imagining myself as the various characters that I had created and acting out these adventures around a table with my friends.

But then, I did something I am not proud of. I got caught shoplifting D&D books at the local Coles bookstore. My punishment was that I had to give away all of my D&D books and supplies, and I was not allowed to play D&D anymore. That immediately ended my relationship with D&D.

Over the next few years, I saw newspaper and magazine headlines that accused D&D of allegedly promoting Satanism, witchcraft, suicide, pornography, and murder. (Dungeons & Dragons controversies – wikipedia) And, D&D and the like have historically been associated with geeks and nerds.

My initial rogue-based thievery, combined with ongoing societal stigma, kept my childhood enjoyment at bay for way too many years.

But over time, numerous touchpoint helped bring me back. Lunchtime board game sessions with my co-workers at Postmedia reintroduced me to the joy of games and group play – that group showed me a ton of new games and styles of play that I had no idea existed.

The Big Bang Theory raised awareness and showed the fun of gaming, even while it grappled with the tension between the cool kids and the nerds.

But finally, it was a suggestion by a friend of mine, who suggested that I give D&D another chance – “What’s the worst that can happen? You might waste a few hours checking out a game store or two. But it could open up a whole new world of enjoyment to0. You’ve got nothing to lose.” (I”m paraphrasing, but that was the gist of the message.)

My first stop was at Mecha Games in St Catharines. From there, I bought a couple of D&D books, then a couple more. Then found startplaying.games. Then found a local once a month one-shot. And then I bought a few more books. Then some kickstarters. And now I’m over run with more paraphernalia than I know what to do with.

And boy is it fun. I haven’t felt this stimulated creativity-wise in years. And I’m finally ready to write. I’ve had some projects tucked away in my head and in various notes for years. But this new creative surge has got me moving and typing and creating in a way that I haven’t done in years. It’s pretty awesome.

So yeah… I found myself nodding my head repeatedly as I read The Angry Therapist’s post this week. His story had a similar arc. And his call to action couldn’t be more timely for me – but also for all of us:

What Part of You Have You Locked Away?

Maybe it’s your creativity. Your playfulness. Your curiosity. Your fearlessness. Your ability to laugh without apologizing for taking up space.

Whatever it is – it’s still there. Waiting for you to remember it exists.

You don’t need a complete reinvention. You need a reunion.

With the version of you that existed before you learned to play small. Before you decided being responsible meant being boring. Before you locked away the parts of yourself that felt too risky, too much, too alive.

Feel free to share in the comments below… What part of you have you locked away? And why don’t you revisit it?

Here are the speakers and their session titles:

Brandon Aubie: “The Kaminsky Attack of 2008” or “It’s always DNS.”
Todd Dow: “InfoSec Hamilton 2025 Year in Review”
Danielle Morris: “Cybercrime Supply Chain”
Othman Alamoudi: “Securing Google Drive”
Don Mallory: “Setting Rules of Engagement for Information Sharing”
Elena Kolomeets: “My InfoSec story”

And, we also had a year in review discussion where we recapped some of the great things that happened in 2025. We also conducted a live poll where we asked the group to provide their feedback on the year. Here’s a summary of the discussion:

2025 sessions:

And here are the Slido summaries from the live poll (9 slides in total):

Plenty of helpful info from those slides. We’ll be using the feedback from those slides to help make Infosec Hamilton even better in 2026.

Did you attend the event? Are you going to attend in 2026? Let me know in the comments below!

Well… more than a minute…

3,424,320 minutes to be exact.

And we didn’t have ChatGPT to give me that number the last time I posted was way back in 2019. We had to calculate it the old fashioned way: use google to find a time calculation website, then go there and plug in the numbers and wait for an answer. And before that, we had to do it the old old fashioned way which involved a bunch of work including calculating the number of days (don’t forget leap years!) and then mathing it all together.

So much more has changed between 2019 and now. And who knows if we’re better or worse off than we were back then. We can only really know the answer to that question when we look back at it far into the future.

I’ve been meaning to get this site moving again for a while and I’m thankful that I have the main bones of toddhdow.com already sorted out. I guess that’s one thing I can say I’m grateful for today – thanks past Todd for all of the work you did a long time ago to set up this website. And thanks to WordPress.com as well for building a platform that is so resilient that my website is still just as stable and operational today as it was 6 years ago!

So yeah… I’ve been busy over the last six years and I’ve got plenty to write about and share. Here’s just a little of what you can expect over the next while:

Cisco XDR – I’m a Sales Engineer by trade and this is the product that I currently sell. (XDR = eXtended Detection and Response) It’s a pretty cool product and I might want to share some content with you from time to time.

InfoSec Hamilton – I host a monthly in-person InfoSec group. You should check it out!

Dungeons & Dragons – I played D&D a lot as a kid and I’ve rediscovered this as an adult. You can expect lots of D&D-related posts here.

Cryptogeddon – An original TTRPG I’m developing. Think D&D but set in the world we live in now.

So yeah… lots going on and I’ve got plenty to share. Welcome to 2026 – stay tuned and check back often!

Todd

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” – Jean-Paul Sartre

Do you ever get to the grocery store and forget all of items you came to get, or miss a step in something you’re doing, or do repetitive work and sometimes lose your place? The results are inconvenient, but not catastrophic. It’s a far different story when you’re test piloting a brand new state-of-the-art airplane or landing on the moon. The Simple Genius of Checklists, from B-17 to the Apollo Missions provides a brilliant articulation of the importance of checklists. If even surgeons (who are pretty smart) can use a checklist to help improve patient safety, why would anyone think them a waste of time?

Have you read the privacy policies behind your favourite websites like Facebook, Google and the like? Me neither. And you know what… we’d probably struggle to read them even if we tried. In We Read 150 Privacy Policies. They Were an Incomprehensible Disaster, Kevin Litman-Navarro from the New York Times provides some great visuals to help articulate the readability of the privacy policies from 150 major tech and media companies. Not surprisingly, the bulk of these privacy policies are a mess that only a PhD could understand. Welcome the a world in which everyone needs to CYA.

Oops for this week: Hacked forensic firm pays ransom after malware attack. As The Guardian and BBC report, “Britain’s largest private forensics provider [Eurofins] has paid a ransom to hackers after its IT systems were brought to a standstill by a cyber-attack.” Eurofin “carries out DNA testing, toxicology analysis, firearms testing and computer forensics for police forces across the UK.” It’s probably bad for business when a company who does work for the police gets hacked and held for ransom. On the other hand, if companies associated with law enforcement can get hacked, what chance do people like my mom have?

Enjoy the heatwave and have a great weekend!

Todd

“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.” – Rabindranath Tagore

And this one came into my inbox last minute and had to include it this week as well:

“I will have to remember ‘I am here today to cross the swamp, not to fight all the alligators.’”
— From The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander

He Cyberstalked Teen Girls for Years—Then They Fought Back – excellent reporting (as always) from Wired on the dangers of cyber stalking and the dangers that teens face in the never ending attempts by creeps to extort over nude selfies. Kids shouldn’t have to feel this way:

“Any type of security thing can happen,” she said. “They can hack anything.” Her shoulders slouched, and she directed her voice to the table where we were sitting. “I just never envisioned that, and it’s just … We shouldn’t have to live in a world where we don’t know if people are real or not.” She folded her arms around herself and bit her lip to stop herself from crying.

Parents need to be better informed about this and they need to equip their kids to be safe online.

Oops: Personal data of 2.7 million people leaked from Desjardins (more coverage). A rogue employee took the data with him/her. This is difficult to prevent. As an infosec pro, I know firsthand just how difficult it is to find a balance between security and business productivity. In many cases, companies err on the side of convenience and ease of access to data. Unfortunately, we continue to see the results of not locking down data sufficiently. That said, there is lots that can be done.

Oops – part 2: TD Bank internal files found online in ‘keys-to-the-kingdom’ cloud data exposure (more from ZDNet) This one is simply shameful: “Attunity, a company that manages and safeguards data, left internal files exposed on the internet for clients including Ford and TD“. “Exposed data includes passwords and private keys for production systems, employee details, sales information.” “A company that manages and safeguards data”? Wow. It’s one thing for a non-security company to bungle access to their data, but it is quite another when a company who specializes in safeguarding data does it. I suspect Attunity sales / technical reps are fielding calls from their major clients today to discuss the status of their data and their contract renewals.

New Raspberry Pi 4: I love these tiny computers (buy now!). My only problem is that I don’t have much time to tinker anymore. Probably a good thing or I’d have a whole army of them around the house. HackerNews doesn’t disappoint with a crowdsourced list of plenty of interesting (or not) things to do with a Pi.

Wanna do a start up? I’ve tinkered with starting my own business for years, but find it difficult to make the leap when I have been fortunate enough to have an interesting career working for other people. That said, I’ll always be a dreamer. My latest trigger article: Startup idea checklist. Such a good sanity check on building a business. And, some motivational reading as well: How I bootstrapped my side project into a $20k/mo lifestyle business (and my new indie business motivation website)

Speaking of startups, I stumbled across this book online: Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business by Paul Jarvis . It looks similar to The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business: Make Great Money. Work the Way You Like. Have the Life You Want by Elaine Pofeldt, which I loved. Tons of great tips and motivation on building a sustainable, profitable one person business. We are all experts at something and we’ve all got something to sell. I haven’t purchased Company of One yet, as my backlog of books to read is huge, but I suspect I’ll pick up a copy soon to motivate me while distracting me from actually doing the work of building my own side hustle.

I missed last week’s post, but had this queued to go out, so I’ll still keep this in this week’s post: The big news last week: Libra – a Facebook-led digital crypto-currency. Plenty of press on this one. The best quick summary I’ve read thus far is by the entertaining writers at The Hustle. Hard to say how well adoption will go – government oversight (boosted by financial industry lobbyists, no doubt) could yet hobble it. But, if they make it easy (embedded in existing systems like Facebook and the gang), secure and stable (the lack of a financial bubble a la bitcoin), then I suspect it’ll take off.

Key findings from the Internet Trends report (as reported in The Idea’s June 17 email):

Mary Meeker released her latest annual Internet Trends report at Recode’s Code Conference. Below are some of the findings most pertinent to the news media industry:

• 15% of all retail sales are now though e-commerce. E-commerce is growing at 12.4%, and regular retail is growing at just 2%. (Ed note: look out for how publishers continue to capitalize on this growing industry through affiliate links.)
• Digital ad spending grew 22% in 2018
• Google and Facebook still dominate the digital ad market, but Amazon and Twitter are growing
• 62% of all digital display ad buying is of programmatic ads, and that number is growing
• Customer acquisition costs are increasing, sometimes exceeding customers’ lifetime values for digital subscription companies. Meeker suggests that free trials can be a cost effective way to alleviate that cost.
• Time spent with digital media is still going up. Americans in 2018 spent 6.3 hours a day, 7% higher than the year before. More than 25% of U.S. adults are “almost constantly online.”

Note: the above stats were all taken from Atlantic Media’s The Idea June 17 email – I don’t want to claim any credit for the summary presented above! If you are interested in the media industry, I highly recommend subscribing to their mailing list.

I think that’s it for this week. For my Canuck readers, enjoy the long weekend!

Todd

“It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover.” ― Henri Poincaré, French mathematician, theoretical physicist, and engineer

I recently watched Cherynobyl (five part miniseries from HBO). I kept hearing buzz about the series and it did not disappoint. It was really well done and it definitely instilled a healthy respect for nuclear power and has made me want to read more about the discovery and development of nuclear power. There have been many nuclear accidents over the last century, but saying “oops” and ignoring them is an impossible response as the fallout from a nuclear event will stick around long after we are gone (can you say Fukushima). The SL-1 experimental US military reactor accident in 1961 clearly demonstrates the scary power and unforgivable reactions that nuclear power can deliver:

During the accident the core power level reached nearly 20 GW in just four milliseconds, precipitating the steam explosion.

[…]

The spray of water and steam knocked two operators onto the floor, killing one and severely injuring another. The No. 7 shield plug from the top of the reactor vessel impaled the third man through his groin and exited his shoulder, pinning him to the ceiling.

With great power comes great responsibility. There are quite a few books on the advent of nuclear power (Dark Sun and The Making of the Atomic Bomb are highly rated). I’d love some recommendations to help me winnow down my choices. I’d love your feedback on what’s worth reading!

We all know that online shopping allows retailers to manipulate us and extract as much money from us as possible. How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All really brings it home to us, highlighting the many ways that we really don’t have a chance in today’s increasingly data-driven economy.

Here’s a great in-depth series on our lack of privacy online:

• Part 1: How Google Tracks Your Personal Information
• Part 2: How Google Marketers Exploit Your Discomfort
• Part 3: How Marketers Use Redirect Ads to Deceive You

Key quote from this series:

For as long as you’ve been using Google, Google has been building a “citizen profile” on you.

Watch for subsequent parts in this series from Patrick Berlinquette at Medium in the near future.

Think about what that means… Google knows pretty much everything about your online behaviour. Some of it is innocuous: age, income, gender, parental status, relationship status. But it can quickly get creepy:

• Your voice search history
• Every Google search you’ve ever made
• Every ad you’ve ever seen or clicked on
• Every place you’ve been in the last year
• Every image you’ve ever saved
• Every email you’ve ever sent

I remember being told when I was little that God knew everything we did, everywhere we went, everyone we talked to and everything we thought. God was all knowing. Sure seems to me like Google is becoming God-like and our cell phones are the primary conduit to that reality. In today’s hyper-connected world, even atheists can no longer avoid an all-knowing, all-seeing entity in our midst.

This week, I’m wrapping up with a question and a complaint:

Question: What media do you regularly read and how do you read it? For me, I read (and in some cases pay for) a bunch of stuff regularly: NYTimes, The Economist and The Athletic are at the top of my list. I use Feedly for tracking my RSS feeds. And I use Instapaper to save long reads for times that are more convenient. What do you do?

And my complaint: Why can’t we easily transfer music playlists from one music service to another? (yes, I know this is also phrased as a question!) I am on Google Play music but I’d really like to try out Apple’s Music service. But, I’ve built up a ton of playlists that won’t port over. Why the hell not? It’s just data! How hard can it be to build a migration tool for playlists? (this is my highest priority consumer feature request at the moment!)

Thanks for reading and enjoy the weekend!

Todd

“You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.” – (fake?) Warren Buffett

(I couldn’t actually attribute this to WB. I suspect it’s not from him, but, can’t say for sure. Regardless, I love the quote, so here it is.)

Men’s Health is running a series on men’s mental health. Such an under-discussed topic, even in this era of self awareness and self care. Men don’t shouldn’t need permission to think and feel how they want, but, here goes anyways:

“It’s okay to not have your shit together. It’s okay to feel depressed. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to be anxious. It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to not have everything figured out, to feel a wave of uncertainty come crashing over you and not know which way is up, or when your next gulp of air will come. These are perfectly normal feelings that every man experiences. And it’s okay to talk about it.” (link)

I’ve been pretty vocal with a few close friends about my challenges over the years – I am lucky to have had friends I can go to when things get tough. Thanks friends – you know who you are. And for any of my friends who need someone to talk to, I’m here. Reach out. To me. Or someone else. But do it. Talk. It’s an important first step.

I really don’t want to get into the abortion debate and I am not going to take a stance in this post, but this article really struck a chord with me in terms of articulating government policy priorities pertaining to abortion: “So, Sam Oosterhoff, you want to make abortion ‘unthinkable’? Here’s where to start” Sam Oosterhoff is clearly playing to his base (conservative Christians), but there are clearly much more pressing issues that he could be focusing on. Thanks Julie MacLellan of Burnaby Now for this great article.

Apple made the news this week (what else is new). Lots of cool new toys released at their annual WWDC. New Mac Pros, lots of OS upgrades (all new Mac Pro, iOS 13, iPad OS, watch OS 6, and a Pro Display XDR with optional stand.) The new tech does look really cool and I’m excited by the new iPad OS and watch OS improvements. As much as I want to be a digital minimalist, it’s my Apple Watch that most keeps me tethered to my digital life and I just can’t bring myself to want to part with my silent wrist partner – my watch really has made me appreciate the benefits of cyborg-type tech. However, Apple is losing the plot a bit when they sell a monitor stand for $1,000! This clearly reminds us that Apple has always been and always will be a premium play, but it is still insane to see this kind of cost for… a. monitor. stand.

And what would my weekly update be without a mention of privacy: “A Brief History of How Your Privacy Was Stolen – Google and Facebook took our data — and made a ton of money from it. We must fight back”. Thanks to the NY Times for their ongoing privacy coverage in The Privacy Project. Awareness is key.

But more important is what we do once we are aware? There is no shortage of advice and best practices online for protecting our privacy. The only real way to stay private is to stay off the grid – but that isn’t realistic for most. So, in the absence of that, here are some tips (and this is by no means exhaustive – watch for future blog posts. I’ll put together something more exhaustive in the near future):

• Mozilla’s Firefox browser has some awesome privacy features built in. Here is some advice straight from the dragon’s mouth: When it comes to privacy, default settings matter!
• And, an interesting article from Fast Company offers some suggestions with this scary first person account of what info the ad industry has on us (hint: pretty much anything our phone does is theirs for the taking): I left the ad industry because our use of data tracking terrified me (make sure you read to the bottom to the suggestions under the section titled “HOW TO UNWIND THIS SURVEILLANCE ECONOMY”.

So put your involuntary spy device (phone) down for a bit, get outside in this beautiful weather and have a great weekend!

Todd

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” – Lao Tzu

I’m a huge security and privacy proponent. Stumbled across this great visual example of ways we all expect privacy in our everyday lives – and it highlights why our digital privacy should be no different:

And it helps that it’s an Apple ad. I’m a huge Apple fanboy. I’m a big Google user too though, so I’m really a fan of both. Especially when I see optimism in Google making strides towards better privacy protections as well. #GoPrivacy

My kids love our Springfree trampoline. Next time they say they are bored, I’m gonna go through these lists (one idea I hadn’t thought of: Make a laser course on the mat out of yarn and try not to touch it) :

• 50 Ways to Use your Springfree Trampoline
• 20 Fun Ideas To Do When Kids Say “I’m Bored”

Suck it up buttercup: Forget Your Feelings (summary: There’s no meaning attached to feelings)

And, a bit more privacy related goodness: Here are all of the ways that Google tracks you (I am doubtful this is ALL of the ways, but it sure looks like a good start). And here’s a great primer on removing your info from the web – mainly focused on mailing lists a la “do not call lists”.

And, I’m a bit bummed because I don’t think I’ll be able to attend my local Wordcamp Hamilton this weekend. I bought my ticket, but life sometimes gets in the way. (In this case, it’s my son’s birthday – and family comes first!)

Have a great weekend!

Todd

“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.”  — Bruce Lee

Some interesting stuff that I stumbled across over the last few days:

Yes, This Photo from Everest Is Real – What happened to the days when Everest was the achievement of a select few? Now it looks like an assembly line of rich people all jockeying to get up and down the hill before they die.

Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think (Taming the Mammoth) – So much of what we do in life is predicated on the decision making of “what will other people think?” This is a great treatise on living on your terms in a way that minimizes the unfound fear that prevents so many of us from pursuing things that can bring us more happiness in the limited time we have.

You should have a personal web site – I’ve been meaning to get back to blogging for a while. This little article caught my eye and prompted me to dust off my blog and get writing again. Thanks Mark!

Incognito no more: Publishers close loopholes as paywall blockers emerge – I used to work at an online newspaper and I led some of our paywall integrations. I was always discouraged by the technology because I immediately saw the flaws and workarounds that could be used to skirt them. But seems I’m an outlier. As this article argues, the vast majority of website visitors aren’t tech-savvy enough (or couldn’t be bothered) with trying to go around paywalls (I suspect quite a few just give up and miss out on good content once they hit the end of their free viewing period).

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? – I haven’t read the whole article yet, but I was directed to this story while reading Digital Minimalism. Really interesting arguments to be made for limiting screen time, especially for kids. I’m still working through the book, but my fav quote so far: “Regular doses of solitude, mixed in with our default mode of socialite, are necessary to flourish as a human being.”

I’m always interested about what you read this week too. Feel free to share what you’ve been reading in the comments below.

Talk soon!

Todd

And I have found some time this weekend to sit and catch up on some of my reading. I’m always reading something, but my magazine pile tends to stack up over time as it is always my last priority given that my iPhone, iPad and Kindle are almost always within arms reach. I don’t know if it is the influence of Digital Minimalism, which I am working my way through on my Kindle, or if it is just the chance to sit on the back deck in the sunshine and relaxing lay flip through a magazine, but either way, I chipped away at my magazine pile a bit this morning.

Side note: Is it ironic that I am reading Digital Minimalism on my Kindle? It is a digital device, but it is a purpose-built digital device designed to allow for uninterrupted reading. I’ll go with the later, but am curious to hear your thoughts too!

In the June 2019 issue of The Walrus, Jessica Johnson, in the Editor’s Letter (sorry… I couldn’t find a copy of her letter online so you’ll have to find the paper copy if you want to read the whole thing), Jessica provides an overview the business model of writing for pay in journalism (from the 1929 Saturday Evening Post to Apple News+ and everything in between!). The decline in revenue in the newspaper space has been well documented over the last two decades. The Internet set out to make information free, yet the free model cannot sustain quality and accuracy.

The tide is starting to turn though. As Jessica says, “The good news is that there are pivotal conversations taking place in government, in boardrooms, and in newsrooms about the role of journalism in our society”. We are seeing the hashtag #PayForJournalism more often. And Jessica’s call to show our appreciation for quality journalism via our wallets is an important reminder of the need to support quality journalism.

I’ll leave it to Jessica to wrap up this post with her parting words from her Editor’s Letter:

If you read a free article – or ten – online today, please make a donation or subscribe to The Walrus or the independent journalistic outlet of your choice.

In this case, the person that hooked my mom didn’t do any real damage. But it inconvenienced her and I for a few hours this week. And that really sucks. And, if it was worse, it would have taken me a bunch of hours more to rebuild her computer from scratch and get it reconfigured to the point where I wouldn’t have to field tech support calls from her for the next two months asking me where her missing icons or browser shortcuts have gone.

So… here’s what happened:

She ordered some stuff from Amazon.ca a few weeks ago and her order was taking forever to be delivered. She wanted to call amazon to inquire about her order. So, she opened a web browser and typed amazon.ca phone number in the default search bar. When she pressed enter, she received a google search results page that showed a bunch of options for amazon.ca customer service. This included a malicious (bad) customer support website. Unfortunately, my mom clicked on this link, and that’s where the fun began.

The link she clicked on was a phishing page (as per wikipedia: Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.). The link she clicked on went to a compromised website. The website had been designed to look exactly like amazon.ca and it had a blurb on the page with their phone number.

Unwittingly, she called the number on the malicious webpage. The helpful customer service rep (let’s call him Nedry, named after the inept hacker from Jurassic Park) that answered informed her that her amazon account had been red flagged. Nedry said someone else was trying to get into her account. He said not to worry though as he could help find out who it was and clear it up for her.

Nedry then instructed her to go to a website (citrixonline.com – a legitimate website with a legitimate app) and download an app so that they could connect to her computer. This first app wouldn’t install on my mom’s super old computer. This almost stumped Nedry, as he had to call on his supervisor to help up his game and keep my mom on the hook. His supervisor suggested using LogMeIn123 instead (another legitimate website and app). Luckily for Nedry, this second effort kept him in the game.

Once my mom downloaded and ran LogMeIn123, she connected with Nedry and gave Nedry control of her computer. LogMeIn123 provides the ability for you to share your screen with someone else and then that person can do anything on your computer.

And this is where Nedry really got to show off his stuff. Here’s what he did:

1. He opened a terminal window and continued to show my mom what was wrong with her computer by typing these commands:
   1. ping http://www.amazon.com
   2. top
   3. netstat -n
   4. ifconfig
   5. All of the above commands spit out a bunch of fancy stats and other confusing data to the uninitiated. Nedry showed my mom some of the data and explained that it was the virus taking hold and making a mess of things.
2. He told her that she had a bad virus on her computer. He said she had something called Torpig. He opened a web browser and went to the Wikipedia entry for Torpig. He read enough of that entry to my mom to really scare her.
3. Then he used google to search for a website called “geektyper”. He then opened the site directly: GEEKTyper.com – Hacking Simulator. The tagline for this website is “HACK LIKE A PROGRAMMER IN MOVIES AND GAMES!” It has a subsite (geektyper.com/scp) that looks SUPER legit if you’ve ever seen a scary hacking movie.
4. He even showed her THE GUY that was doing this to her computer!
5. The he told her that this virus was so bad that it was everywhere in her house: it was on her computer, it was on her TV, it was on her ipad – it was on EVERYTHING!

Quick side note: I’m actually really impressed with Nedry so far. As far as social engineering goes, this guy is making all the right moves… If you’re trying to hack my mom.

And this is where things went downhill for Nedry. He had been laying things on really thick up to this point. He had my mom convinced that something bad was happening. He had ratcheted up the drama sufficiently to scare my mom. But now he had to go in for the close. This is the part of the scam where he brings home the bacon.

He explained that my mom would have to take her equipment to a local computer repair shop. But not just any shop would do. Nedry told my mom that she would need a “Level 6 Certified Anti-Hacking Network Professional”. (This sounds pretty serious! I work in IT security and I’ve never heard of these guys! They must be really hardcore!) Luckily, one of these technicians is located quite close – in Ancaster! However, my mom would have to take all of her equipment to him – her computer, her TV, her ipad, EVERYTHING. This was really stressing my mom out.

But then, like a white knight, Nedry offered to come through in the clinch: he said, but wait! There’s another way. Are you over 45? My mom said yes. He said you’re in luck! He has an offer for people over 45. He can help you remotely to fix your problem and you won’t have to take your equipment anywhere. (what a guy – this Nedry certainly seems like a super hero, doesn’t he!)

And it was at that point that my mom made me proud (kinda, even though she’d already given up control of her computer to this goon): she said, “no, I will get my son to look after it.” As soon as she said that, he got nasty and said, “I’m not helping you. I’m done.” My mom asked him to take all of the stuff off of her computer and Nedry replied, “Turn it off. I’m done.” Then he hung up.

Poor Nedry… he thought he had caught a live one and was just reeling her in. But at the last second, she cut the line and escaped. He must have been pretty pissed because he had spent so much time reeling her in. I almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost.

That’s when my mom called me. At that point, I told her to unplug the computer from the wall and I’d come by and see what had happened.

I stopped by today and replayed what happened to my mom based on her story and the evidence on the computer (web browsing history, system logs, diagnostic info, etc.). I was able to restore her computer without a great deal of effort, but I’m still debating on rebuilding her computer from scratch just in case Nedry did or installed something that I didn’t catch in my analysis.

Regardless, Nedry certainly messed up my mom’s week (no computer from Monday until Friday as she waited for me to come check out the damage), and it messed up my Friday night too to take care of this mess. So yeah… thanks Nedry, wherever you are.

Is there a lesson to be learned from this? For sure… there are at least three:

1. Be careful where you go on the internet: Make sure the sites you visit are legitimate. Check the URL in your browser – if you’re trying to find amazon.ca’s customer service phone number, make sure the URL of the site is amazon.ca.
2. Don’t let people you don’t know connect to your computer: No matter what! When in doubt, everyone knows someone who is computer savvy and who can help out in a pinch (spouse, cousin, grandkid, neighbour, etc.). Even if you have to pay some kid in your neighbourhood $20 to check it out, that is money well spent if it helps you avoid being scammed.
3. When in doubt, walk away: If you find yourself stuck in the middle of an uncomfortable scenario like the one I described above, just walk away. Hang up the phone, turn off the computer and call your local tech-savvy friend to help you out. And, if you’re worried about offending the person, just mention that your <friend, son/daughter, neighbour, etc.> knows this stuff and you want to check with them. I’m pretty sure the person on the phone will get belligerent, which is a great indication that you’re talking to someone you shouldn’t be.

And note that this scam also occurs as a cold call from time to time. Someone will call you claiming that they know your computer is infected. Don’t fall for that one either! Again, use common sense and don’t let these scammers into your computer. If you’re nervous, call on your local techie to talk it through with you.

These people are relentless. They succeed with their scams often enough that it is a very lucrative trade for these scammers. And they can be quite convincing. But the best defense against them is awareness and common sense. That’s why I’m sharing this – I battle this kind of scammer every day in my day job and I’m getting really tired of it. Their techniques are so low tech and they aren’t even very good – they simply circle the pack and pick off the naive people using smooth talk instead of using sophisticated hacking skills. Awareness is a great defense and this is part of my way of fighting back against these folks.

So yeah… it was a bit of a wasted night for my mom and I. I would have rather sat with her for the evening and visited. Instead, I spent three or four hours piecing things together and documenting this story to share with you.

But I did get to stop in for a visit and I got a Swiss Chalet dinner out of it so I guess the evening wasn’t a total bust.

How about you… have you been scammed by these people? Did you get caught up in it or did you avoid getting scammed? How’d they affect you? Do tell in the comments below!

Talk soon!

Todd

A recent article on Medium.com by Lydia Polgreen, Editorial Director, NYT Global, entitled “Why people pay to read The New York Times“, mentioned the following:

We used Facebook to push stories out to potential readers, to get people to sign up for our Spanish-language newsletter, Boletín, and to drive traffic to our home page. Just as it does for so many other businesses, Facebook helped us find our true fans.

This is spot on with my talk, where I mentioned that you should use social media to drive traffic to your home page and to get people to sign up for your newsletters. Social media is a fantastic generator of eyeballs. The key is to use it to drive traffic to your site. Be wary of building audience on someone else’s turf (like Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat or <insert flavour of the moment here>).

And, almost on queue, Facebook popped up today to say that they are going to change the behaviour of content delivered to people’s newsfeed on Facebook. Facebook is going to fine tune your feed so that “friends and family come first”. This means less of a focus on publisher’s content and more focus on status updates and photos and videos from your friends. (additional commentary from NYTimes here)

It’ll be interesting to see how this alters the dynamic between the Social Network and its publishing competitors/partners as they continue their courtship dance in the online world.

And, let this serve as yet another reminder to build your own home and foster community where you can control it.

That’s it. G’night!

Todd

• Attended the CARSTAR Walk to Make Cystic Fibrosis History charity fundraiser (this was in late May, but I consider it part of my recent blur of activity) – Team Katie raised $10,000 this year to help in the battle against CF!
• SC Congress IT Security conference – I attended this conference.
• Wordcamp Hamilton – I presented at this conference (video of my session).
• http://wordpress.tv/2016/06/25/todd-dow-how-to-find-your-1000-true-fans/
• Great Wolf Lodge with my family
• 2 Washington Nationals baseball games (against the Phillies and the Cubs – Washington won both games!)
• 
• Gartner Security & Risk Summit in Washington
• Built a firepit in our backyard
• Attended a 4 hour Blue Jays baseball clinic with my son
• Worked full time
• Parented full time
• Maintained my marriage full time

No wonder I feel like this month has been a blur! So yeah… that’s why I haven’t posted in a bit. I haven’t forgotten about my blog. I will be writing more in the coming days and weeks.

One of the upcoming highlights on my blog will be a copy of my Wordcamp presentation and an ebook version of the same (How to Find Your 1,000 True Fans). These two items will be available to subscribers of my mailing list. If you’re not yet a subscriber, now’s the time to sign up so that you’ll be among the first people to receive a copy of these two items.

Upcoming posts include a technical summary of my maintenance of toddhdow.com over the last 10 years, some commentary on what I’m most proud with my 10 year old blog and then I’m going to talk about the tools that I use for writing. My tool talk will be a 5 part series and it should be lots of fun.

And, I’ll be fitting in some time to work on the work I want to publish in the near future as well. I’ll update you on my progress shortly as well.

So yeah… stay tuned for more!

Todd

SC Congress is coming up fast. The conference is next week! If you don’t have your ticket yet, I’m here to help. The team at SC Magazine has given me a unique opportunity to pass on to you:

• free Expo Only VIP Passes ($150 value) – simply register using promo code “DOWEXPO”; and
• a chance to win one of five VIP Two-Day Full Conference Passes ($1,295 value);

Here’s the deal:

Each free Expo Only Pass provides you:

• Network with 1,000 cybersecurity luminaries and peers
• Learn valuable insights for safeguarding your organization during our five Keynote Addresses
• Attend one additional session of your choice
• Visit leading brands in our Exhibit Hall
• Participate in SC Congress’ signature Passport to Prizes program: network for a chance to win a hot, new gadget
• Earn up to 5 CPE credits – just for attending our sessions

Also, SC Magazine has given me five VIP Two-Day Full Conference Passes to give away. To be entered to win one of these five tickets, here’s what you need to do:

1. Register for a free Expo Only VIP Pass before next Monday morning (May 30); and
2. Tweet the following: “Got my free Expo Plus Pass to @SCCongress Toronto June 1/2. Get yours & chance to win a VIP pass at toddhdow.com #infosec” (We’ll accept a similar shoutout on Facebook if you aren’t on Twitter); OR
3. Sign up for my newsletter here at toddhdow.com (link);
4. Email me at toddhdow [at] gmail. [dot] com to let me know that you’ve completed the above steps;

And yes, if you have previously registered for an Expo Only pass and you want to upgrade, just tweet or share on Facebook or sign up for my newsletter and you’re all set.

So don’t delay… register today!

And, while you’re at it, sign up for a complimentary digital subscription to SC Magazine.

Are you going to SC Congress 2016? Let me know in the comments!

Talk soon!

Todd

10. I had cancer… Wait… what?
I’m a bit surprised that this post made the top 10 as I just posted it a month ago. But, it was a pretty alarming story and a lot of my friends and family were aware that I was sick, but they didn’t know all of the details. So, this summary post was shared far and wide. (and, everyone loves a good story of doom and gloom, right?)

9. Dawkins Part 4: The Objective Roots of Morality
My Dawkins series has received a lot of traffic over the last few years. Atheism is a popular topic and my objections to Dawkins’ The God Delusion have received a lot of traffic (and hateful comments). And, my book The God Solution has generated a fair amount of traffic as well. It is no surprise that some of my Dawkins writing has made the top 10.

8. Should atheists have children?
This is the most controversial post on my blog. I am not surprised that it made the top 10, but I am a bit surprised that it wasn’t higher on the list.

7. Is there any difference between pacifism and nonresistance?
This post was a response to a reader comment. I do get a fair amount of referral traffic from search engines, and I suspect that this is the source for a lot of the traffic to this post. (I haven’t done an exhaustive analysis of the relationship between referrers and my posts so I can’t say for certain).

6. Dawkins Part 7: The Slippery Slope of Abortion
This is a perfect storm of traffic generated by an interesting blog series (I had plenty of readers during the time when I ran this series) and great SEO. I regularly see high traffic to this post due to the popular keywords associated with this page: Dawkins, abortion & atheism.

5. AGAPE – unconditional love
Here’s where things get interesting. I am constantly surprised by the amount of traffic that my series on love has generated over the years. Although it wasn’t the intent, these posts continue to be huge SEO traffic generators for my site. My site consistently gets listed in the first page of search results for search terms like “philia love”, “examples of eros love”and “types of philia”. I see plenty of traffic to these posts on love on a daily basis.

4. The Atheist Delusion – Why I don’t agree with Richard Dawkins in 10 parts
I dedicated a great deal of time writing a response to Dawkins’ book, “The God Delusion“. I even wrote a book on this subject! Therefore, I’m relieved that my Dawkins posts are listed in the top 10 for my blog.

3. Dawkins Part 3: Problems with Organized Religion
Organized religion is an easy target for atheists and theists alike. There is lots of common ground in this discussion. Thus, this post really resonated with a lot of people. And, I do regularly see some SEO juice via Google referrals coming to the site by people searching for “problems with organized religion”.

2. EROS – romantic love
SEO generates a lot of traffic for this post. I’m the top beneficiary of this search query: “examples of eros love”, which appears to be a very popular search term.

1. PHILIA – friendship love
It seems that plenty of people are looking for love on the internet. My series on love has generated a lot of traffic to my site, and my post on “PHILIA – friendship love” has generated over twice as much traffic as the second most trafficked post (EROS – romantic love). Searching for “examples of philia love” delivers this post as the top search result on Google. This wasn’t my intent when I wrote these posts, but it has become clear that these posts are seen by Google as great reference sites for these terms. I won’t complain!

Who would have thought that my posts on love would dominate the top of this list? I’ve been watching my traffic over the long term and my posts on love regularly generate a lot of traffic, so I wasn’t surprised that they came out on top. But, without knowing my stats, I would have been very surprised to see these posts at the top of the list.

What do you think? Any surprises? Any questions? And, more importantly, what can I learn and do differently after examining my top 10 posts from the last 10 years?

Todd

My presentation is entitled, “How to Find Your 1,000 True Fans” and here’s the description of the session:

In 2008, Kevin Kelly argued that creators (authors, musicians, artists, photographers, etc.) can make a living if they have “1,000 True Fans”. A creator blog is key to building such a community. In this fast-paced session, Todd will walk the audience through the critical WordPress-related pieces required to build and maintain a dedicated, engaged and responsive audience.

It’s going to be a fun time. I’ve attended (and presented) at previous Wordcamp Hamilton events. It’s low cost (only $20!), filled with plenty of great content and attended by a lot of super friendly and really talented people. (and there will be lots of free swag!)

If you’ll be in the Hamilton area on June 4 and you’re interested in blogging, writing and WordPress, you should not miss this event.

And, if you want to go, be sure to buy your ticket soon – tickets sell out every year.

Are you going to Wordcamp Hamilton 2016? If so, let me know in the comments or on Twitter and be sure to say hi to me on the day of the conference.

See you then!

Todd

June 1 – 2, 2016
8:15 am – 6:00 pm
Metro Toronto Convention Centre

I have partnered with SC Magazine and SC Congress Toronto 2016 for an exclusive discount to my followers for this one of a kind event.

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• Learn valuable insights for safeguarding your organization during our five Keynote Addresses
• Attend one additional session of your choice
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• Participate in SC Congress’ signature Passport to Prizes program: network for a chance to win a hot, new gadget
• Earn up to 5 CPE credits – just for attending our sessions

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Over the years, I have talked about religion, politics and IT stuff (Mac vs PC)… I think I’ve covered all of the main topics that you’re supposed to avoid when talking in polite company.

When I first started blogging, I had already established my IT career. I had spent time working at AOL Canada as a web geek, I had worked in a couple of internal IT departments (at Celestica and Toronto Rehab Institute) and I had recently returned to the online space when I started working at Postmedia (then called Canwest) in early 2006. When I joined Postmedia, I was just wrapping up my undergrad degree from the University of Toronto (in Philosophy and Religious Studies) and I was beginning a masters degree (Master of Divinity) at McMaster University. I have since put my studies aside and continue to focus (and greatly enjoy!) on my IT career.

And here lies the challenge with my blog: my content spans some very different topics. At times, I write about IT – blogging tips, tricks and techniques, summaries of some geek stuff (especially my beloved Kindle!) and a fair amount of content about IT security (which is my primary career focus). Other times, I have written about Cystic Fibrosis Fundraising. My daughter has CF, so this is a cause that is very close to my heart.

But the bulk of my writing over the last 10 years has been about philosophy and religious studies. And I am kind of happy about this. While I do like writing about geek stuff, I think that my writing habits have highlighted where my interests lean more often than not: faith and reason. I love my IT career. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But I am more fascinated with existential concerns: where do we come from, why are we here and where do we go when we die.

I do remember every piece of tech that I’ve ever had, but I am starting to see all of that stuff as tools that we have to replace every two or three years at great expense.

Tools? That’s it? Yes. Some are prettier than others. But at the end of the day, they are tools that we use to communicate. I’m writing this blog post on my wife’s Macbook Air. It’s my favourite writing instrument. It is lighter and faster than my aging Macbook Pro (which I fear may have finally died for good – it’s either got a failed hard drive or a failed logic board). Her Macbook Air has an SSD drive, it’s less than 3 lbs and it has 12 hours of battery life. Oooohhh… Aaaahh… Are you excited yet?

Yeah, me neither. I used to be, but not anymore.

(and this should serve as fair warning to my wife that I might be coveting her laptop on a regular basis until we fix or replace our Macbook Pro)

Nowadays, these things are commodity devices. Most of us just need a web browser. We keep in touch via webmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, . All of this could be done with a Chromebook. If you need MS Office or some other productivity tools, then a full blown laptop is still needed. But Apple has almost replaced laptops with tablets with their latest iteration of the iPad Pro.

But I digress… what was my point here?

Oh yeah – I am happy that my writing is about something other than technology. I can use all that tech that I understand for something outside of the tech community. And I’m really excited about that. That is the dream of the internet, realized. But even bigger than that, this is the dream of technology throughout history: to better our lives and to improve our quality of life.

Or, maybe it was simply to kill other people more efficiently. Yeah, that has been a key driving force for technological improvement over time as well. That and porn.

The internet is this age’s Gutenberg. Anyone with a commodity device is equipped to reach the world. There has never been such a democratization of free speech in history. And I feel fortunate to be able to participate in this free speech.

Looking back over the last 10 years, I’ve shared my thoughts on war and peace, the existence of God, the historical Jesus (did he exist or not?), atheism and more. And this is the important stuff to me. I’ve wrestled with where we came from, where we are and where we’re headed. I’ve interacted with people that agree and disagree with me (and I appreciate both sides of the argument to help me discern my thoughts). And because of this, I feel more centred in my approach to life and in how I continue to live my life.

Do I have more answers because of my writing? Nope. If anything, I only have more questions. But that’s okay. Because I’d rather know what I don’t know than not know what I don’t know (do you remember Rumsfeld’s “unknown unknowns”?).

Does this make me any smarter? Nope. If anything, it makes me feel more foolish for sharing my incomplete and/or inarticulate thoughts with others. But I have made some stronger relationships from my writing. And I have learned how to more clearly state my case as well.

And for that, I don’t regret any of my writing. I’m glad that I’ve done it. If anything, I am sad that I haven’t done more. But, as I said recently, it’s time for me to do more writing. I find it therapeutic, relaxing and fun. So, you can expect lots more of it.

I’m going to spend a couple more posts dwelling on my 10 years of blogging. Stick around. In my next post, I’m going to talk about my top 10 posts from the last 10 years. After that, I’ll geek out a bit and share the technical nuts and bolts for how I’ve maintained my blog over the years (it has been surprisingly simple). And, I’ll wrap things up with a post where I talk about what I am most proud of with my 10 year old blog.

Have you been blogging for a while? Does any of what I’ve said resonate with you? Why did you start blogging? Do you have one topic for your blog or has your focus drifted over time?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

And, let me know if there’s anything else you’d like me to write about pertaining to my 10 years of blogging.

Talk soon!

Todd