I'm Dan Q. I've spent the last 25+ years creating and writing on the Internet.
I work at Automattic and volunteer with Three Rings. I live with my partner, her husband, two kids and a dog. I can sometimes be found out geo*ing, cycling, or performing magic.
I believe in open source, open relationships, and opening doors to marginalised groups.
![Photograph of Dan, his ponytail hanging over the shoulder of his black t-shirt, smiling from behind his beard and waving to the camera.](/_q23t/wavey-dan-480.webp)
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The Elegance of the ASCII Table
ASCII, a standard whose legacy defines to this day how most of the letters and numbers in your computer get encoded into ones and zeroes, is elegant and beautiful. Via lessons in computer history, punched tape, and typewriters, I'd love to share some of its logic with you. Read more →
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Good Food, Bad Authorisation
(BBC) Good Food has started adding "premium" content for which you have to install their app and pay for a subscription. Except the paywall they've put in place is so weak that I fell through it without even meaning to. It's a great - and relatively harmless - example of how front-end-first development is undermining the development of secure Web systems. Read more →
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Vmail via FreshRSS
It's been a while since I shared a recipe for enhancing your FreshRSS experience with some XPath Scraping, so I guess it's that time again! Today I'm fetching issues of Vmail, vole.wtf's community-driven newsletter. Read more →
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A Pressure Cooker for Tea
I'm told that black tea brewed at 90℃ is bad, but brewed at 100℃ is good. What if we built a specialised pressure cooker that released tea into superheated water at, say, 110℃? Could that be... even better? Read more →
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Building a Secret Cabinet
As part of efforts to build myself a new bedroom in our attic, I expanded my carpentry, electronics, and Python skills by building a remotely-triggered secret cabinet in my bookcase! Read more →
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Ladybird Browser
Y'know how I predicted that we'd never again see a new fully-featured Web browser engine after the death of EdgeHTML? It turns out that maybe, just maybe, I was wrong. And that's brilliant. Read more →
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Science Weekend
It was a weekend full of science, starting with a visit to the excellent open day at Harwell Campus and a trip to the Diamond Light Synchrotron, and finishing with a series of medical tests on my lungs and why they're not working as well as they ought to. With graphs! Read more →
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A Stupid Joke About Elephants
It was too hot to sleep, so I learned about how to differentiate species' of elephant from one another instead. And then I thought of a really, really stupid joke, which you now get to experience too... Read more →
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Special Roads
Today I learned why some British roads have seemingly-unnecessary speed limit signs, e.g. "70" signs on something that appears to be a motorway. Read more →
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More articles →
(articles are traditional long-form blog posts) -
Where Should Visual Programming Go?
Niki has some great thoughts on the future of visual programming. I consider that maybe the IF community are already getting ahead of the curve. Read more →
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Derpy McBlepsleep, diligently guarding the front door just in case somebody comes by with treats. Read more →
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Write Websites
Enbies and gentlefolk of the class of ‘24: write websites. Sara Joy reinvented Baz Luhrmann reinventing Mary Schmich, adding an IndieWeb slant, and it's brilliant. Read more →
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Remind me, do I live in "United Kingdom" or "United Kingdom (the)"? 😂 Read more →
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SkiFreeeeeeee
Rob wants to play Solitaire, but I want to play SkiFree. Read more →
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The Eyebrow Painter
Take a guess what kind of pottery the unknown ancient Greek decorator of plates known as "the Eyebrow Painter" made. Read more →
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Wrote note for GC9EXXX Church Micro 14129...Sutton
With thanks to Lydford Locators for their recent log, the hint has been improved. Read more →
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Ranking Every Elevator in the Myst Series
Part of the joy of the collaborative Internet is that people can share their passion. Today's example comes from this YouTuber who's made an hour long video demonstrating and ranking the 35 elevators in the first five games in the Myst series. Read more →
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Humans invented Wikipedia, which made accessing information highly-convenient, at the risk of questions about its authenticity.
Then humans invented GPTs, which made accessing information even more-convenient at the expense of introducing hallucinations that can be even harder to verify and check.
Is humanity's long-term plan to invent something that spews complete nonsense that's simultaneously impossible to conclusively deny? Read more → -
llswater Steamers and the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway have introduced a season ticket for dogs. And it's called the "Rover" ticket. 😘🤌 Read more →
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Power's out yet again at my house (though not for the last reason nor because of our weird wiring: this time it's for tree trimming), so here I am in my favourite coworking-friendly local cafe with The Signal And The Noise (which I've talked about before) in my ears and a whole lot of sprint planning at my fingertips.
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Awtomattig
If Automattic had been founded in Wales instead of the USA, it'd probably be called Awtomattig. Read more →
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This young lady's so proud of herself! This morning, she was up in time to catch in-the-act the burglar who visits us three times a week and steals the empty glass bottles we leave on our doorstep. Read more →
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Performed maintenance on GC9GTV3 Drive Slowly; Fox Crossing
Checked in on this cache; found it wide open with the log book removed from its bag and thrown on the floor. Looks like minor vandalism. 😢 Gonna have to keep a closer eye on this one for a bit.All fine for now. Read more →
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Enabled GC9Z37B Friar's Farm - Legal Limit
Cache container replaced and ready to find on a diversion from this morning’s school run. The dog was not pleased at having to go for an additional walk in the drizzle! Read more →
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More posts →
(of all kinds:articles,
checkins,
notes,
reposts...)