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.
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On the window sill of the bar at the hotel where Ruth and I are learning to tango... this morning I made a squirrel friend!
At least now I'll have succeeded at something today even if I can't get the hang on not-treading-on-toes!
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A grey squirrel lies against the glass pane of a stone-framed window.
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The bed in my hotel room tonight is made up for not one, not two, but three occupants. Did they... see me and instantly clock me as polyamorous?
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Wide bed with three sets of pillows laid out.
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Firing squad execution to be livestreamed, Pentagon says
The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. I feel physically sick.
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Halifax Leaked My Financial Information... (Again)
For the second time in two years, Halifax wrote to me about my credit card... but sent the letter to entirely the wrong person, leaking my personal financial information.
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Move the mouse across the screen (Weird Web October)
This year, I'm (slightly) participating in Weird Web October. For today's theme, 'skeuomorphism', I implemented a mouse curser... (not a typo)
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That time I got locked-in at the V&A
I just realised that I never shared this anecdote online before -
One time, I got locked-in at the V&A Museum after closing-time. I'd been there for a museums & cultural institutions event and I'd probably had a few too many glasses of champagne before I excused myself to return to my hotel. Unfortunately in my … -
Fuck you Ted Lasso season 4 finale, I hadn't planned on crying today. 😭
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Weird Web October 2026 (Christopher Kennedy-Nuñez)
I love Weird Web October, and Christopher's off to an amazing start this year: well worth a look at his wacky projects for the month (and trying to find the cat in each one: I've managed!) before you go check out what everybody else who's participating is up to. Also... I might be about to join in!
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We are going to kill “unalive”
Anil Dash is unhappy that "unalive" and other algospeak has become so prevalent and mainstream. I, too, am concerned about what this says about our willingness to censor our speech to speculatively appease the whims of corporations to whom we owe nothing.
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Exploiting Fail2ban "portscan" permablocks over HTTP for denial-of-service
On a forum they and I share, Loebas suggested that I should be careful doing portscans in case I hit e.g. fail2ban rules. I counter that such rulesets would be a terrible idea (and are therefore uncommon), and provide a specific demonstration of how an attacker can turn them against the site's legitimate users!
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Geohashing expedition 2026-10-04 51 -2
A pre-dawn walk around East Bristol from a Three Rings event took me to within 16 metres... but not quite all the way to... a geohashpoint.
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A Three Rings development sub-team seems to have developed a habit of making production server changes at in-person events, right before meals are served. On at least one previous occasion this has led to them missing out on dinner as they monitored and maintained at-risk servers when they ought to be eating.
Until the servers are stable, they don't get their food.
They call it the "crash diet".
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Found GC85TVQ Out Of Office
This checkin to GC85TVQ Out Of Office reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. I expected not to have opportunity for a second attempt at this today, but my schedule opened up somewhat when the fire alarm went off at the hotel and we had to evacuate! As hotel guests and …
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Did not find GC85TVQ Out Of Office
This checkin to GC85TVQ Out Of Office reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. I'm spending the weekend in the hotel nearby, for the AGM of a nonprofit I'm involved with. This morning I realised they I had a spare quarter of an hour before a meeting and wondered if I …
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![Scan of book pages with highlighted section reading "Children [who] treat very roughly young birds, butterlies, and other poor animals... with a seeming kind of pleasure... will by degrees harden their minds even towards men and... will not be apt to be very compassionate or benign to those of their own kind.](https://bcdn.danq.me/_q26u/2026/10/locke-john-some-thoughts-concerning-education-1693-1889-edition-pp100-101-978x480.jpg#30378)
Do not build the LLM torture factory
Sean Goedecke puts forward a few arguments why people shouldn't play at 'torturing' LLMs. I disagree with many of his arguments, but I agree with his conclusion because of a different argument: one made by animal rights activists for hundreds of years now: that people who 'practice' abuse are more-likely to go on to commit (further) abuse.