Dan Q

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.

Photograph of Dan, his ponytail hanging over the shoulder of his black t-shirt, smiling from behind his beard and waving to the camera.

  • 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 →

  • 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 →

  • Details/summary lightboxes in pure HTML + CSS

    For years, I've been using a HTML+CSS-only technique for popover 'lightbox' images on my blog. Now I've come up with a more-semantic way to do the same, and its HTML code is tidier too! Read more →

  • Internet Services^H Provider

    When you signed up with an ISP, you used to get Web space, email, shared FTP access, a nearby IRC node, newsgroups, and a software bundle. Nowadays you get a shit router, a voucher for a free month of a streaming service you didn't want, and crap customer service. Where did we go wrong? Read more →

  • Quesapizza-pizza

    A quesapizza is a quesadilla, but made using pizza ingredients: not just cheese, but also a tomato sauce and maybe some toppings. A quesapizza-pizza is a pizza... constructed using a quesapizza as its base! Watch me make one in a 90-second timelapse. Read more →

  • Heterophonic Homonyms

    On a car journey on which they'd otherwise have been fighting, the kids helped me start a collection of heterophonic homonyms - words that are spelled the same but have different pronunciations and meanings. I've got nine of them now in English, and maybe two in other languages... can you help me find some more? Read more →

  • Clapham South Deep Shelter

    This weekend I once again found myself underground beneath London; this time exploring the Camden South Deep Shelter with the help of the Hidden London folks. And it was pretty damn cool. Read more →

  • Lock All The Computers

    I wanted a button on my desk that, when I pressed it, would simultaneously lock every computer connected to my KVM system. Here's what I came up with. Read more →

  • Buldak

    Based almost-entirely on seeing some folks on Nebula do a blindfold taste test challenge of some Korean ramen, JTA ended up importing some of the same brand and I ate some for my lunch. Here's what I made of them. Read more →

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  • Note #27198

    It’s the Fifth of Bleptember, and our bleppy young lady is enjoying some reassurance that the team of tree surgeons working noisily on the other side of the road don’t pose any threat to her. × Read more →

  • Today, for the first time ever, I simultaneously published a piece of content across five different media: a Weblog post, a video essay, a podcast episode, a Gemlog post, and a Spartanlog post.Must be about something important, right?Nope, it’s a meandering journey to coming up with a design for a £5 coin that will never […] Read more →

  • The Beer Token [Video]

    A vloggy video version of my blog post about Beer Tokens, for those who'd rather watch than listen or read. Read more →

  • Note #27184

    It’s the Fourth of Bleptember, but I couldn’t help but share a photo from the Third, when our dog just couldn’t find space for her tongue and her ball in her mouth at the same time… but soon found a workaround.Photo courtesy Lisa from Muddy Paws.× Read more →

  • Note #27182

    It’s the Third of Bleptember, and this routine-loving pupper is still confused by the fact that the elder child doesn’t come on the school-run morning walk any more, instead leaving early to catch the bus to her new school. Look at those big anxious eyes, poor thing! × Read more →

  • Note #27169

    The Second of Bleptember brought back the morning school run into this doggo’s routine. And while she was glad of the extra walk, she also seemed glad of the opportunity to lie down in a quiet, child-free hallway upon our return home. × Read more →

  • Note #27166

    Bleptember’s upon us once again, so I’ll be attempting to snap a daily picture of my bleppy doggo with her tongue sticking out! This young lady is dog-tired after a long day of running around and playing, this First of Bleptember.× Read more →

  • Railways won’t tell us how their train tickets work - shall we force them to?

    Q Misell and CraftByte are speaking the weekend after next at MRMCD, on the subject of the UK's (and Slovenia's) railway ticket barcodes and how FOIA requests are so-far failing to reveal information (that shouldn't be secret!) about what information they encode. Wish I could be there... Read more →

  • Post: Rabbithole

    The dog came out for a walk with the eldest kid and I, but we couldn’t stop her sticking her head down rabbitholes!(Oh, and the dog kept doing it, too.)× Read more →

  • Developing an alt text button for images on my website

    James has come up with a fun way to do Mastodon-like alt-text-bubbles. I'm intrigued, and am looking forward to expanding on the idea when I get the chance to try implementing it on my own blog. Read more →

  • Note #27145

    Looking forward to the school run starting again next week… so I get a bonus excuses for walks around our beautiful village! × Read more →

  • Post: Hexagonal Cheese Scones

    A poem about the shape of a scone. Read more →

  • Acai plays "Musical Transients" by Psynwav on Clone Hero

    Turns out I'm not quite done obsessing over Musical Transients, and I found a video of YouTuber Acai playing the album on Clone Hero, which was a fun and enjoyable watch-along. Read more →

  • sophie reviews Psynwav - Musical Transients

    After sharing the album yesterday, today I found a review of Musical Transients which 100% echoes my experience of this amazing concept album. Spoiler warning: there are themes in the album that I think are most-fun to discover as you listen to it, but if you already did, or if you're not going to anyway, then you might as well read my and sophie's thoughts about it now. Read more →

  • Will Smith’s concert crowds are real, but AI is blurring the lines

    A recent video by Will Smith gained widespread condemnation for using AI to artificially-inflate his crowd's size. Except that's not what happened at all: a little creative editing by his media team, combined with a secret experiment by YouTube to make some videos look immeasurably more-shit by performing AI upscaling on them, seems to have kicked off this particular round of Internet craziness. Read more →

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