Dan Q found GLW4F6ZZ SQL-imination

This checkin to GLW4F6ZZ SQL-imination reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Solved the puzzle a while ago (well, I had a spreadsheet do the heavy lifting because, as a computer programmer, I’m fundamentally lazy and won’t do anything that I can make a computer do for me), but only today found the excuse to zip out to the GZ on a lunch break and log the cache. The cache is getting damp and I think the culprit might be a drip right above where I found it: to help keep it dry I’ve moved it about 10cm away from the “corner”, where it should get dripped on a little less. TFTC!

Lucy`s Secret Number puzzle

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

Lucy’s Secret Number puzzle (datagenetics.com)

You are at a party and overhear a conversation between Lucy and her friend.

In the conversation, Lucy mentions she has a secret number that is less than 100.

She also confesses the following information:

“The number is uniquely describable by the answers to the following four questions:”

Q1) Is the number divisible by two?
Q2) Is the number divisible by three?
Q3) Is the number divisible by five?
Q4) Is the number divisible by seven?

I loved this puzzle. I first solved it a brute-force way, with Excel. Then I found increasingly elegant and logical solutions. Then I shared it with some friends: I love it! Go read the whole thing.

Dan Q found GLW489XJ Bird watching

This checkin to GLW489XJ Bird watching reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A quick and easy find on a diversion from my morning cycle commute. A man parked in a van nearby made me think I’d need to use my stealth skills, but he turned out to be asleep. Not sure how this cache will stand up against the winter weather, but for now this is a great spot and I was glad of the excuse to visit. TFTC!

Dan Q found GLW487M0 Curse of the FTF – Oxfordshire #8 – Pond life

This checkin to GLW487M0 Curse of the FTF - Oxfordshire #8 - Pond life reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Took an unusual route to work this morning and as it put me in the vicinity of this cache I decided it was high time I braved the brambles and the risk of damp feet (it’s a bit boggy here right now!) to find this cache. TNLN, TFTC!

How analog TV worked

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

How analog TV worked (datagenetics.com)

Today, just about all monitors and screens are digital (typically using an LCD or Plasma technology), but a decade or two ago, computer displays were based on the analog technology inherited from TV sets.

These analog displays were constructed around Cathode Rays Tubes (commonly referred to as CRTs).

Analog TV has a fascinating history from when broadcasts were first started (in Black and White), through to the adoption of color TV (using a totally backwards-compatible system with the earlier monochrome standard), through to cable, and now digital.

Analog TV transmissions and their display technology really were clever inventions (and the addition of colour is another inspiring innovation). It’s worth taking a look about how these devices work, and how they were designed, using the technology of the day.

After a couple of false starts, an analog colour TV system, that was backwards compatible with black and white, became standard in 1953, and remained unchanged until the take-over by digital TV broadcasts in the early 2000’s.

AMPstinction

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

AMPstinction (adactio.com)

I’ve come to believe that the goal of any good framework should be to make itself unnecessary.
Brian said it explicitly of his PhoneGap project:
The ultimate purpose of PhoneGap is to cease to exist.
That makes total sense, especially if your code is a polyfill—those solutions are temporary by d…

When Google first unveiled AMP, its intentions weren’t clear to me. hoped that it existed purely to make itself redundant:

As well as publishers creating AMP versions of their pages in order to appease Google, perhaps they will start to ask “Why can’t our regular pages be this fast?” By showing that there is life beyond big bloated invasive web pages, perhaps the AMP project will work as a demo of what the whole web could be.

Alas, as time has passed, that hope shows no signs of being fulfilled. If anything, I’ve noticed publishers using the existence of their AMP pages as a justification for just letting their “regular” pages put on weight.

Worse yet, the messaging from Google around AMP has shifted. Instead of pitching it as a format for creating parallel versions of your web pages, they’re now also extolling the virtues of having your AMP pages be the only version you publish:

In fact, AMP’s evolution has made it a viable solution to build entire websites.

On an episode of the Dev Mode podcast a while back, AMP was a hotly-debated topic. But even those defending AMP were doing so on the understanding that it was more a proof-of-concept than a long-term solution (and also that AMP is just for news stories—something else that Google are keen to change).

But now it’s clear that the Google AMP Project is being marketed more like a framework for the future: a collection of web components that prioritise performance

You all know my feelings on AMP already, I’m sure. As Jeremy points out, our optimistic ideas that these problems might go away as AMP “made itself redundant” are turning out not to be true, and Google continues to abuse its monopoly on search to push its walled-garden further into the mainstream. Read his full article…

Taking Stock, Fraud

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

Taking Stock, Fraud Article (Inc.com)

Nowadays, fraudulent online stock-trading schemes are common. But even before the first electric telegraph, two bankers committed the equivalent of modern-day Internet stock fraud.

Nowadays, fraudulent online stock-trading schemes are common. But even before the first electric telegraph, two bankers committed the equivalent of modern-day Internet stock fraud.

Fabulous article from 1999 about how two bankers in 1837 hacked additional data into the fledgling telegraph system to surreptitiously (and illicitly) send messages to give them an edge at the stock exchange. Their innovative approach is similar to modern steganographic systems that hide information in headers, metadata, or within the encoding of invisible characters.

Three’s Company by Natalie Dupille

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

Three’s Company by Natalie Dupille (Oh Joy Sex Toy)

Erika and I did a long weekend in the woods as part of a victory lap/recovery from the Kickstarter. SO GOOD, and SO NEEDED. It's with great thanks that I share this wonderful comic from Natalie on her non-monogamous life. I hope you all like this slice of autobio and honest comic. Drop her a word of

Extract of Three's Company by Natalie Dupille, as republished on Oh Joy Sex Toy

Erika and I did a long weekend in the woods as part of a victory lap/recovery from the Kickstarter. SO GOOD, and SO NEEDED. It’s with great thanks that I share this wonderful comic from Natalie on her non-monogamous life. I hope you all like this slice of autobio and honest comic. Drop her a…

Oh Joy Sex Toy is a fabulous webcomic anyway, but it was especially pleasing to see some poly-representation in a guest comic on the site recently. Especially when that guest comic mirrors a broad part of my own experience of polyamory: that it may look exciting, sexy, scandalous or crazy to other people, but – for the most part – to us it’s pretty everyday, domestic, and mundane.