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Author: Dan Q

Dan Q is a software engineer, a director of a voluntary organisation, a trainee counsellor, a keen geocacher, and an amateur magician. He lives with his partner and her husband in a polyamorous triad, and occasionally finds time to blog.

  • AI-generated EP cover of Built In Obsolescence by PAIgan Wanderer Lu, showing a neon digital outline of Andy.

    Built In Obsolescence

    Pagan Wanderer Lu's released a cover album of his own music, where the cover artist is... AI. Some of the songs have come out quite well, and it gives me cognitive dissonance to enjoy art while disliking what its process represents.

    Read more - about 6 minutes (1312 words)

    • Article
    • posted 15 May, 2026
  • A long train snakes around hillside stepped farms in a tropical and mountainous landscape.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Rail transport in Indonesia

    Wikipedia is celebrating its 25th birthday, and today I'm celebrating by discovering what the Argo Wilis is, along with a dive into a rabbithole about rail transport in Indonesia!

    Read more - about 5 minutes (981 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • posted 15 May, 2026
  • CSS or BS game in progress. The player is asked to declare whether 'view-timeline-name' is a real CSS property or made-up.

    CSS or BS

    Keith Cirkel's made a game where you have to identify if something is a CSS property or a convincing fake. How's your CSS knowledge?

    Read more (85 words)

    • Repost
    • of this original
    • posted 14 May, 2026
  • Fanciful patriotic painting showing flaming wooden Spanish warships being bombarded by the guns of a line of steel American battleships.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Wesley Merritt

    Wikipedia is celebrating its 25th birthday, and somehow as a result I ended up reading about Wesley Merritt, who was the shortest-lived Governor-General of the Philippines!

    Read more - about 7 minutes (1628 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • posted 14 May, 2026
  • The first glimmer

    Zach of The One and I wrote earlier this year about 'glimmers', which he describes as the opposite of 'triggers'. I love both the word and its concept, and I'm going to try to cultivate a better personal awareness of the glimmers in my life.

    Read more (236 words)

    • Repost
    • of this original
    • posted 13 May, 2026
  • Comic showing two croissants. The first is labelled 'almond croissant'. The second is wrapped in spiked metal with eye holes and a grate reminiscent of a medieval helmet and is labelled 'armoured croissant'. The joke is that the two words are near-homophones in some dialects.

    Two Croissants

    I woke up with this in my head and had to draw it.

    Read more - about 1 minutes (13 words)

    • Comic
    • posted 12 May, 2026
  • This plant has sonehow managed to grow through the atrtoturf lawn of our temporary home!

    Life... uh... finds a way?

    Full image of A leafy plant growing in the middle of an artificial lawn.
    Alt

    A leafy plant growing in the middle of an artificial lawn.

    • Note
    • 4 comments
    • posted 12 May, 2026
  • Observation:

    Media franchises attract fandoms, and many get their fair share of character 'shipping (especially of the attractive characters).

    Soccer also attracts huge fandoms... but I don't think I've ever seen or heard of "soccer slash" (even of the attractive players).

    Full image of Four-cell table showing the intersections of Fandoms and Slash with Media and Soccer, respectively. Media + Fandoms is a photo from Comic-Con; Media + Slash is a comic art picture of Captain Kirk and Spock kissing; Soccer + Fandom is a full World Cup stadium; Soccer + Slash just shows a question mark.
    Alt

    Four-cell table showing the intersections of Fandoms and Slash with Media and Soccer, respectively. Media + Fandoms is a photo from Comic-Con; Media + Slash is a comic art picture of Captain Kirk and Spock kissing; Soccer + Fandom is a full World Cup stadium; Soccer + Slash just shows a question mark.

    • Note
    • posted 11 May, 2026
  • Why, when I change the temperature on the thermostat of my Renault Zoe does it change the fan direction, too? Is this a UI affordance for people who want their faces colder but their feet warmer? I don't understand!

    Full image of A white hand turns the thermostat knob in a car from 19℃ to 20℃ in 0.5℃ increments; the untouched nearby fan direction control seems to change of its own accord. Initially blowing towards the user's face it switches on 'towards feet' at 19.5℃ and switches off 'towards face' at 20℃, and reverses the process when the temperature is turned down again.
    Alt

    A white hand turns the thermostat knob in a car from 19℃ to 20℃ in 0.5℃ increments; the untouched nearby fan direction control seems to change of its own accord. Initially blowing towards the user's face it switches on 'towards feet' at 19.5℃ and switches off 'towards face' at 20℃, and reverses the process when the temperature is turned down again.

    • Note
    • 2 comments
    • posted 10 May, 2026
  • Coding Is When We’re Least Productive

    Jason Gorman shares a wonderful anecdote about a workday in which he wrote only three lines of code, but that he considers productive because he took the time to understand the underlying problem he was working on.

    Read more (169 words)

    • Repost
    • of this original
    • 3 comments
    • posted 9 May, 2026
  • Dan, a white man with a goatee beard, sits on a wooden bench in a shady area, alongside a French Bulldog.

    Found GCBPAKM Grab a seat and Take in the View

    Sat in the shade with my panting pupper and almost immediately spotted this clever cache container. A great location and an imaginative container! Definitely worth an FP from me.

    Read more (29 words)

    • Checkin
    • to GCBPAKM
    • posted 9 May, 2026
  • Soft focus photo of a panting fawn-coloured French Bulldog on a gravelled woodland footpath.

    Found GCBPAMZ Not the Twiggist of finds

    A good hiding spot for this type of cache, which the geohound and I found while on a walk this sunny morning. TFTC.

    Read more (23 words)

    • Checkin
    • to GCBPAMZ
    • posted 9 May, 2026
  • Caddy webserver logs, with a highlighted section showing a DNS-01 challenge for *.static.duckling.danq.me repeatedly fail and then eventually succeed, then a certificate chain being installed.

    Dynamically-Deployed Static Site Subdomains on Caddy

    Continuing my effort to find a way to serve my various static sites that meets my need for ease-of-use and low-maintenance, I configured a wildcard Caddy server with webhook-based monitoring of a GitHub repository. Here's how it works...

    Read more - about 5 minutes (1067 words)

    • Article
    • posted 8 May, 2026
  • Image representing post: Thames Path 7

    Thames Path 7

    Ruth's completed yet another stretch of the Thames Path, continuing at what could literally be described as a glacial pace, and she's written another part in what's turning out to be a wonderful blog series to follow-along with.

    Read more (257 words)

    • Repost
    • of this original
    • posted 7 May, 2026
  • Even this self-checkout thinks I'm eating too much chocolate.

    Full image of Self-checkout screen abbreviating a product name to 'Cadbury Giant Butt'.
    Alt

    Self-checkout screen abbreviating a product name to 'Cadbury Giant Butt'.

    • Note
    • posted 6 May, 2026

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