[Checkin] Dan Q found GCAP4MF Church Micro 15127…Curbridge

I had an errand to run in the Windrush Place estate on the other side of the A40, and the geopup needed a walk, so I opted to park the car over in Witney so my four-legged friend and I could walk the remaining way over to Curbridge and find this cache. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 1 day ago

[Article] Work Slippers

Last month, the dog ate my slippers, and in the week it took me to replace them my work productivity took a dip. Coincidence? Nope! They were my 'work slippers', and it turns out I needed them! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 1 day ago

[Note] Castles and mazes

Possibly I'm a little late for the "casual daily puzzle game" party. (Did Wordle already get invented in this timeline; I forget?) I think there's something in an idea I've been toying with. Bring on the weekend, when I can throw some brainpower at the frontend code! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 3 days ago

[Article] It’s not cheating if you write the video game solver yourself

Robert Heaton wrote a solver to help him crack a puzzle in a video game, and I'm 100% behind this as a valid approach to playing single-player games, if it's more fun for you than the alternatives. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 3 days ago

[Note] Coaching in the Library

I decided to take my meeting with my coach today in our house's new library, which my metamour JTA has recently been working hard on decorating, constructing, and filling with books. The room's not quite finished, but it made for a brilliant space for a bit of quiet reflection an … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 4 days ago

[Note] Engagement

I’ve been trying to comment more on other people’s blogs. It’s tough, because comment forms continue to wane in popularity, and it’s not always clear who’ll accept Webmentions, but there’s often the option of a good old-fashioned email or a fediverse ping. It occurred to me that … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 4 days ago

[Repost] It is as if you were on your phone

When you use your phone to play this game, it really does look indistinguishable from being on your phone. Weird! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 6 days ago

[Note] Horny and Silly

This year it'll be 10 years since webcomic A Softer World ended its 12-year run. If you missed it, you can still go back and read them all. But in the meantime, here's one of my very favourites. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 6 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q did not attempt GC3KQKM RRR12 2nd tree downstream

This checkin to GC3KQKM RRR12 2nd tree downstream reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Did not attempt to find, today: an angler was sitting almost right at the GZ, enjoying the peace and quiet that my geokid would have quickly disrupted! So we moved … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 7 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q did not find GC4B6QJ RRR 13 Not that Alder – incy wincy!

This checkin to GC4B6QJ RRR 13 Not that Alder - incy wincy! reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. No luck here for the geokid and I. He speculates that perhaps “down came the rain and washed the container out.” | Continue reading


@danq.me | 7 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC4B6QP RRR 14 Put that Rod Away!

This checkin to GC4B6QP RRR 14 Put that Rod Away! reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. A quick and easy find in a brilliant hiding spot. I was helped by the geokid with the reaching. Lovely spot for a great hide, FP awarded! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 7 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC3KQK8 RRR11 Pillow talk!

This checkin to GC3KQK8 RRR11 Pillow talk! reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. My partner Ruth is, by installments, attempting to walk the entire Thames Path. Today, I’m on transport support so I’ve driven ahead of her to Culham Lock and the dog and … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 7 days ago

[Note] Rewilding Slay

I've been playing Sean O'Connor's Slay for around 30 years (!), but somehow it took until today, on the Android version, before I tried my hand at "rewilding" the game world. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 7 days ago

[Note] Elon’s Musk

Somebody’s doing a kickass job with these adverts on the Tube. Found via https://bsky.app/profile/strictlychristo.bsky.social/post/3ljobtnidrk2s; there are other examples in that thread. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 8 days ago

[Note] Dan Q 88×31

My love of the yesterweb forced me to teach myself just-enough Blender to make an animation for a stupid thing: an 88×31 button representing “me” (and, I suppose, my blog, whenever I next end up redesigning its theme). | Continue reading


@danq.me | 9 days ago

[Note] Dawn Chorus

How do birds hear the calls of species of bird other than their own? Is it like background noise that they can talk (sing) over, filtering out everything but the calls of their own kind, like how you can talk over the murmur of a cocktail party until the second somebody says your … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 9 days ago

[Article] A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

Right after I finished A Psalm for the Wild-Built, I began reading its sequel A Prayer for the Crown-Shy and... it's also wonderful. It takes a different-but-similar approach to the philosophy of identity and purpose, and the story provides a deeper look into Dex's world, but it' … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 10 days ago

[Note] Bean chilli breakfast pizza

Breakfast today will make use of leftovers to produce a bean chilli pizza. This'll work, right? | Continue reading


@danq.me | 14 days ago

[Note] Coffee dogs

What's the equivalent phrase to "hair of the dog", but for caffeine? I've always been pretty sensitive to it, and while I'm less-so now, it was still definitely a mistake to eat several portions of tiramisu right before bedtime. So now I'm going to need more caffeine, this mornin … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 16 days ago

[Article] AI vs The Expert

Inspired by an 11-year old comedy sketch, I asked a GenAI to solve an unsolvable programming problem... and (for at least some models) it failed in exactly the way I anticipated: claiming to be able to solve it and delivering code that just... didn't. What does this teach us abou … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 16 days ago

[Article] A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

While I've been ill I read A Psalm for the Wild-built by Becky Chambers, which had been on my reading list for a while. It's a comforting and compelling story about purpose and identity in an environmentally-conscious utopia, and it's flipping awesome. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 16 days ago

[Note] Getting better!

After most of four days spent primarily in bed with what’s probably a norovirus infection (or something like it), this afternoon I got up and went outside. 🎉 It felt like a huge achievement, even if I ran back in to the warmth the very second that the dog I was supervisin … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 17 days ago

[Note] 3-day streak

Using WordPress internally at Automattic as a productivity tool is great… until you have to call in sick three days in a row and Jetpack treats your “streak” as an “achievement”! 😅 | Continue reading


@danq.me | 18 days ago

[Note] For anybody who could use a break

Third day of being ill with what’s probably a winter vomiting bug, with one child home sick from school… and just having had to collect the other kid who started throwing up on his school trip… I finally got back to my bed and picked up the next book on my pile, Becky Chambers’ A … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 19 days ago

[Note] Fever dreams

Don’t remember the last time I felt so run-down. I’ve been unwell since Sunday with an illness I can only assume I caught from the 11-year-old, who’s been unable to keep food down for several days. In my case, though, I’ve mostly been full of muscular aches and cramps, ocassional … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 19 days ago

[Repost] Generative AI use and human agency

Joanna Bryson's put together an absolutely fantastic list of considerations about the use of AI, and two of her points do a better job than I did at saying what I was trying to, last week. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 20 days ago

[Article] OpenStreetMap rocks (especially on foot)

OpenStreetMap blows Google Maps out of the water for walkers and also for if you're trying to find a particular-named house in a rural area. I'm not saying never to use Google Maps (there's plenty of things it's the king at): but maybe consider giving OpenStreetMap a go next time … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 21 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q wrote note for GC9EXX4 Friar’s Farm – Bisected Byway

Checked up on this cache while the dog and I were nearby. It's in fine condition and ready to find. The latch for the container is beginning to rust, but the whole thing is perfectly serviceable. Go find it! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 21 days ago

[Repost] AI Is Reshaping Software Engineering — But There’s a Catch…

Eduaro Ordax is concerned that less-experienced developers will (be encouraged to) use AI as a crutch rather than learning programming fundamentals. I have similar and related concerns, and I'm still of the opinion that we just don't know how to teach people to program! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 22 days ago

[Note] Goodbye, Slippers

Yesterday, owing to some plot, the dog didn’t get as much outside/walk/play time as she’d like. Today, she let me know how she felt about that by shredding my slippers. 🙄 | Continue reading


@danq.me | 23 days ago

[Note] Wavey Dan

I was experimenting with VP8/VP9 WebM video transparency and I made a stupid thing: a URL that, if you go to it, means you’ll he followed around my blog by a video of me just hanging out in the corner of the page – https://danq.me/?fool_id=06 I’ve added it to my list of “stupid/r … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 23 days ago

[Article] The Blind Piemaker

Ruth and I spiced-up this week's date night with a challenge from a mysterious book: Ruth, blindfolded, baked pies while I instructed her only in non-verbal ways. It was challenging, stressful, and... pretty fun! (Also we got to eat pie.) | Continue reading


@danq.me | 24 days ago

[Reply] Reply to Vika, re: Content-Security-Policy

Vika shared her frustrations with Content-Security-Policy nonces when delivering pre-generated/cached content. I've had a similar fight, so I've written-up a few of the things I tried and what I learned as a result. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 24 days ago

[Reply] Reply to Blogging for traffic not design

Andy Hawthorne criticised a new website owner for not using a popular CMS, arguing that this would necessarily impact their SEO and so invalidate the point of their website (that point being, Andy presupposes, to attract views). I dispute... almost every single part of that argum … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 25 days ago

[Repost] Get Ready with Me: Techfluencer Edition

WordPress.com's YouTube channel just shared an influencer 'get ready with me'-style video but featuring a techfluencer. It's... weird? But funny? | Continue reading


@danq.me | 25 days ago

[Note] Spring is coming

A lunchtime dog walk was made especially delightful by the growing warmth of the approaching British springtime. It’s really bright and pretty out, this afternoon! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 26 days ago

[Article] WordPress to ClassicPress

A few weeks ago I switched this blog to ClassicPress, a fork of WordPress. Here's a deep dive into how (and why) I did it, as well as a look into what my experience so-far has been with this (mostly-)cut-down version of the world's most popular CMS. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 26 days ago

[Repost] Frustrating At Scale

Large companies find HTML & CSS frustrating “at scale” because the web is a fundamentally anti-capitalist mashup art experiment, designed to give consumers all the power. - Mia, 2019 This is what I needed to be reminded, today. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 26 days ago

[Repost] Queers make the world a safer place

Cat shares the experience of his friend who semi-independently discovered that queer-friendly online spaces are an antidote to patriarchal toxic masculinity. Because duh. A delightful tale. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 27 days ago

[Repost] Bloomberg’s Terms

Chris Messina remarked about the insane terms and conditions that Bloomberg.com require you to agree to in order to read a news article, effectively signing away your rights. Except... I don't see the dialog: I just see the articles. I haven't given consent, and they can't concei … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 27 days ago

[Article] Cleaved

What's got nine working fingers and shouldn't be allowed to own a meat cleaver? This guy! 👉🩸😥 | Continue reading


@danq.me | 27 days ago

[Article] Monday Punday

For almost a year I've been slowly working my way through the archives of Monday Punday, a webcomic which challenges the reader to solve picture-based pun puzzles. Give it a go! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 28 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC2F23P A Road Anarchy – A40 Eastbound to Oxford

This checkin to GC2F23P A Road Anarchy - A40 Eastbound to Oxford reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. No logs here since… 2023!? Mindboggling. The geopup and I were out running some errands this damp afternoon and figured we’d take a walk near here. … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 29 days ago

[Note] Piano Repair

The sustain pedal broke on our upright piano. Normally the insides of the piano are a terrifying place that only our tuner gets to look at. A scary realm whose mysteries I cannot begin to comprehend. But I was feeling very brave, so I popped it open, found this troublesome hinge, … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 1 month ago

[Article] INSULTS.COM

As a kid, I enjoyed a 1983 program that dynamically generated insults. So I found a copy of it, reverse-engineered it, and reimplemented it in Perchance. Who wants to be insulted? | Continue reading


@danq.me | 1 month ago

[Reply] Reply to Ed Catmull on Change

Matt talked about change, and mentioned the history of WordPress. I weighed-in, talking about my (positive) experience of open source in an environment of change, and contrasting it to fighting with Squiz CMS at the Bodleian! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 1 month ago

[Note] Step #1

I have A Plan for today. Step #2 involves a deep-dive into Algolia search indexing, ranking, and priority, to understand how one might optimise for a diverse and complex dataset. So obviously step #1 involves a big ol' coffee and a sugary breakfast. Here we go... | Continue reading


@danq.me | 1 month ago

[Repost] The 55 Words you Can’t Say in Faster Payments

Step aside, George Carlin! Sam Easterby-Smith wants to share with the world the 55 words you can't say in a UK faster payments reference. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 1 month ago