I'm Dan Q (he/him). I've spent the last 26+ years creating and writing online.
I work as a software engineer, and I volunteer with Three Rings. I live with my partner, her husband, two kids and a dog. I can sometimes be found geo*ing, performing magic, or recording the most pointless podcast.
I believe in open source, open relationships, and opening doors to marginalised groups. Black lives matter. Trans
rights are human rights.
Be nice to humans, human.
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The Signal and the Noise is still excellent
13 years ago I reviewed The Signal and the Noise by Pagan Wanderer Lu. Despite being knocked down at least one peg, it still stands among my top ten concept albums ever, and it's now available for free so you should go and listen to it. Read more →
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Ten Pointless Facts About Me
A 'ten questions about yourself' quiz is circulating the blogosphere, and I figured I'd join in (and wear four different hats, in the process). Read more →
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Best Viewed at: Your Resolution!
As the latest in a series of stupid things I've done on or for the Web, I've made a website that dynamically generates 'best viewed at' buttons... for exactly the Web visitor's current screen resolution... Read more →
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Hive's Password Policy Makes Me Cry
Hive's password form can't decide whether you need 8+ or 12+ characters, gives misleading error messages and... requires that you use a 'special character' except most special characters (including most common punctuation) is secretly banned, and gives you a misleading error message if you try to use it. Do better, Hive! Read more →
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Do Contact Forms Attract More Spam than Email Addresses?
David Bushell, Luke Harris, and Kev Quirk all shared how they got less spam from exposing their email addresses on their personal websites than they did through their contact forms. That's not my experience, though, and I think I know why... Read more →
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Impossible Countdown
Are there any tilesets that can be legitimately drawn during Countdown's Letters Game for which there exist no English words? I began writing a program to try to find the worst possible deals, but then found a series of heuristic shortcuts that meant I could find one with just a few minutes thought... because it turns out computers aren't always the right answer! Read more →
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Two Days Offline
This week we lost Internet access for two whole days, and it was pretty disruptive and annoying! Read more →
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The Beer Token
Thanks to the success of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, we can never forget quite how much beer you used to be able to get for a fiver (plus an exceptionally-generous tip). Nowadays, it'll get you one pint, if you're lucky... and that offers us an exciting opportunity... Read more →
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MS Paint-grade QR Codes?
I hand-drew a QR code so it looks like what I did was made a maze in Microsoft Paint. But it works! Here's how. Read more →
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More articles →
(articles are traditional long-form blog posts) -
Found GCAJJP3 Kohtauspaikat - Virtual Reward 4.0
The younger child and I nipped across for a photo while we waited for our tram to come. Read more →
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Found GC1JAWP Sibelius Monument
QEF while my family examined the sculpture. What a great spot for a cache, and so well-maintained. FP awarded. TFTC! Read more →
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Found GC1JA6P Töölön kirjasto
Very easy find for the kids and I after a delightful visit to the Tram Museum. We went to the coordinates and instantly saw the cache! SL, TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK. Read more →
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Found GC8925F SkyWheel Helsinki
A quick photo before the family and I took a ride on the wheel! Read more →
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Found GC76AG3 Hauta - Tomb
Found after an embarrassingly long hunt! After reading the hint I quickly spotted the correct hiding spot, but said to myself "no, it surely can't be there" and moved on. Only on my third time walking past it did I think to actually try it, and sure enough, there it was! SL, TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK! Read more →
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Found GC6TJ54 63# Levin kierros aka CITOn muistopurkki
Third of three finds on this, my final morning here before my flight to Helsinki. Taking a brisk walk/slow jog up to Hotel Levi Panorama, but first, a QEF. TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK! Read more →
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Found GC6RW31 1# Levin kierros
The second of three caches hunted on this, the final morning of my brief stay in Lapland. Found on the second host I tried. Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK. TFTC! Read more →
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Found GCBBVQN Magic of Lapland
It's the final morning of my short visit to Sirkka. Having 90 minutes until I need to set off for the airport, I decided to come out for a quick geocaching expedition first. This was the first cache on my list, and I was so glad to choose it. A truly beautiful and well-maintained cache in a wonderful spot. FP awarded. TFTC! Read more →
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Second “surprising Finnish confectionary” is Vihreät Kuulat Jaffa Cakes. I ran vihreät kuulat through a translation tool and apparently it means “green balls”, which doesn’t tell me much.Knowing it was neither lime nor apple (which were also available in the supermarket I visited) I had to try them, but I couldn’t place the flavour. They […] Read more →
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Buying a bag of Haribo in Finland, I shouldn’t have been surprised (given the country’s love of salmiakki) that the black ones were liquorice flavoured.And yet somehow, when I chucked a handful onto my mouth, I was.(Not in a bad way. But definitely in a surprised way.) × Read more →
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Found GCAC54Z Aquarium
QEF for the elder child and I while on holiday. TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK! Read more →
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Layitout! Terra is a CSS-only implementation of a customisable Transport Tycoon-like terrain generator, and it's left me impressed and confused! Read more →
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Good morning Lapland! × Read more →
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You've got mail
Jo of Dead.Garden wrote a poem, seemingly inspired by a particular variety of spam email, that I really enjoyed. Read more →
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The Reason I Have 12 Birthdays
The ever-excellent Blackle Mori posted this about 18 months ago but I don't think it got the level of attention it deserves. If if you've never experienced birthday inflammation or known anybody who has, it's an eye-opening experience to hear a first-hand account of this unusual and definitely-real condition. Read more →
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More posts →
(of all kinds:
articles, 
checkins, 
notes, 
reposts...)