[Note] Istanbul decompression

It wasn’t until I made time for myself to get out into the countryside near my home and take the dog for a walk that I realised how much stress I’d been putting myself under during my team meetup, this week. Istanbul was enjoyable and fascinating, and I love my team, but I always … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 16 hours ago

[Article] Delivery Songs

In the UK, ice cream vans are perhaps the only delivery service with their own jingle. Turkey and India are WAY ahead of us in this regard, and I've got a few ideas about how we fix that... | Continue reading


@danq.me | 23 hours ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC7B9C6 Heykel&Boğaz/Sculpture & Bosphorus- Virtual Reward

As others have observed, this is a bit challenging right now owing to the hoardings that have been erected in the way. But like others, I found a gap in the fence through which I was able to photograph the sculpture. TFTC! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 2 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC6JQAX Rainbow Stairs

Whether or not this piece of art is or was an act of political defiance, it might need to be one once again. Brought my own rainbow so I could be part of it, too. 🌈✊ | Continue reading


@danq.me | 2 days ago

[Reply] Reply to: Is Not Answering the Thing Now?

Marc Thiele asks whether people just don't reply to emails any more. I try to, but I write a response on behalf of everybody who, like me, has failed to do so in the past on account of the awkwardness of replying 'eventually' if you missed the chance to reply immediately. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 2 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC7B79C Kız Kulesi/Maiden’s Tower- Virtual Reward

This checkin to GC7B79C Kız Kulesi/Maiden's Tower- Virtual Reward reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Went over on the ferry. Using my phone as my GPSr and also my camera, so snapped a thumbs up, and my name, and my face, all with the tower visible. … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 2 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GCAJHQ1 The Fountain of Sultan Ahmed III

Two virtual caches in such close proximity! And what a beautiful fountain. As requested, photo shows the fountain and my username, but also me! Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK, and TFTC! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 2 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GCAJG5P The Two Mosques Virtual Reward 4.0

Here with worth colleagues on our "day off" from meetings and code hackathons, we're planning to visit the mosque I chose to photograph behind me. TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 2 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC6VTEG Galata Bridge #3

After lunch with my work team in a delightful restaurant overlooking the bridge I decided to take a diversion on the route back to our coworking space to come and find this geocache, my most-Easterly yet. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 3 days ago

[Note] Geocaching Convex Hull now includes Turkey

Thanks to finding a couple of geocaches here in Istanbul, my geocaching “2D convex hull” (the smallest possible convex polygon that covers an area), which I wrote some code to draw last year, just expanded a little further to the East. 🎉 I’ve got a lot of the world left s … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 4 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC892N8 Galata Tower

My second visit of the day to the tower, has I didn't have a working pen with me on the first. Decided to go all-in on using my working pen by drawing myself holding a sign, showing myself holding a sign, showing myself holding a sign... you get the idea. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 4 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC67ZH1 Karakoy Tunel

QEF after a meeting in a nearby coworking space with some work colleagues from around the globe. A little stealth was required: given what's going on in the city right now, I definitely didn't want to look suspicious to one of the nearby cops! Soon retrieved, signed, and returned … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 4 days ago

[Note] Team Desire in Amsterdam

With visa complications and travel challenges, this is the very first time that my team - whom I've been working with for the last year - have ever all been in the same country, all at the same time. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 4 days ago

[Note] Team Desire in Istanbul

With visa complications and travel challenges, this is the very first time that my team - whom I've been working with for the last year - have ever all been in the same country, all at the same time. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 4 days ago

[Note] Kebab Menu Accessibility

Hanging with my team at our meetup in Istanbul, this lunchtime I needed to do some accessibility testing... | Continue reading


@danq.me | 4 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q found GCB3FAQ The Grand Bazaar fossils

This checkin to GCB3FAQ The Grand Bazaar fossils reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. I’m visiting Istanbul to meet with colleagues, but we took some time off from our meetings and work this afternoon to come and get lost in the Grand Bazaar. While b … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 5 days ago

[Note] Istanbul

Istanbul is… sprawling. I stood on this footbridge, over the water, to try to comprehend the scale of the place, but it’s just massive. The hills, which help the tall buildings to tower over you no matter where you stand, only serve to exaggerate the effect. Quite the spectacle o … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 5 days ago

[Checkin] Dan Q did not find GC4Z033 WOW – Walking On Water

This checkin to GC4Z033 WOW - Walking On Water reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Gave up after an extended hunt, aided by the spoiler photo. All that’s hidden here is a discarded one food container. Hoping to find one of CO’s other nearby caches d … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 5 days ago

[Note]

Next stop, Istanbul!* * not actually next stop; I’ve got a bus, a walk, a bus, and a plane left on this journey yet! | Continue reading


@danq.me | 7 days ago

[Note]

Good morning, Oxfordshire! A freezing-fog farewell for me, this morning, as I get up early to catch a series of buses to the airport. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 7 days ago

[Article] Feed Readers Beat Doomscrolling

If you're dodging news media because the alternative is catastrophic doomscrolling... perhaps you ought to be using a feed reader? It's a much healthier way to keep up with the Web. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 7 days ago

[Note] Perfect bath

There are few moments of self-satisfaction so great as accidentally running a bath to both the perfect depth and the ideal temperature, after forgetting you'd started drawing the water at all. | Continue reading


@danq.me | 8 days ago

[Note] Dog Tired

Woke up. Had a walk. Now it must be time for a well-earned nap. 💤 | Continue reading


@danq.me | 9 days ago

[Note] More castles and mazes

Made a little progress on the game idea I'd been experimenting with. The idea is to do find a series of orthogonal (like a rook in chess!) moves that land on every square exactly once each before returning to the start, dodging walls and jumping pits. But the squares have arrows … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 9 days ago

[Article] WebDX: Does More Mean Better?

I like the work that the WebDX Community Group have been doing, but I find myself asking: are we at risk of implying that giving the Web 'more' features invariably makes it 'better'? | Continue reading


@danq.me | 10 days ago

[Note] Cherry blossom

When I was a child, we had a cherry blossom tree in our garden. In late Spring, as the flowers began to wilt, I’d enjoy shaking it to make flutters of pink confetti rain down around me. This tree, though, spotted on the school run this morning, is very early in its bloom. It feel … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 11 days ago

[Note] Steam Email alt-text improvements

I noticed that automated emails from Steam weren't doing alt-text very well. Some image links had no or inadequate alt-text. (Note that Steam don't support opting for plain text rather than HTML emails.) I'm fortunate enough to depend upon alt-text never-to-rarely. But I prefer n … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 12 days ago

[Note] Voice of America

In light of Trump's attempts to axe Voice of America, because it is, he claims, "anti-Trump" (and because he's so insecure that he can't stand the thought that taxpayer dollars might go to anybody who disagrees with him in any way, for any reason), I've produced a suggested updat … | Continue reading


@danq.me | 12 days ago

[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 | 14 days 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 | 15 days 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 | 16 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 | 16 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 | 17 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 | 18 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 | 19 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 | 20 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 | 20 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 | 20 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 | 20 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 | 20 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 | 21 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 | 21 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 | 23 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 | 23 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 | 23 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 | 27 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 | 29 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 | 29 days ago