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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What Shall We Do For New Year?
Well; it's New Year's Eve tomorrow, and I know that some folks (like Bryn, Matt, and Liz) are back in town - what's everybody want to do to see in the New Year (as good an excuse for merriment as any other)?
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Symantec Warranty
If only we could get away with clauses like this in our warranties:
Symantec does not warrant that the Appliance will meet your requirements or that the operation of the Appliance will be uninterrupted or that the Appliance will be error-free.
In other words: we don't promise that this will do what you want it to, and … -
Bloody Power Cut
For the last two hours, it seems, large chunks of residential central Aberystwyth have been completely without electricity. Anybody know what's going on? Drop me a text.
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Lottery Winners Counter
Did you know that 94% of lottery tickets get no balls, one ball, or two balls - and therefore don't win a prize... the odds of getting three balls (1 in 57) [source: National Lottery: Prize Allocation] is less likely than the odds that recently-reported asteroid 2004-MN4 was going to hit us (widely reported as …
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Dreams Of Escape
Just yesterday, I was commenting to Claire and Paul that I couldn't remember any dreams I'd had, recently (we were talking about their recent dreams), and then, last night:
For some reason, this dream took place mostly in Preston. I was walking around a contorted, 'different'-looking part of the Avenham district, towards Riversway (the dock itself … -
Impact - Certain!
I take it you've all heard about asteroid 2004-MN4, which NASA have been having a field day over, because recent estimates have said that it's chance of impact with the earth (on Friday 13th April 2029) could be as high as 1-in-37 (2.7%)... well; I've just found a well-hidden page on NASA's Near Earth Object …
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A Merry Little Christmas
All in all, that was a fantastic little Christmas Day - less disasters, fights, fires or cats-eating-decorations than a typical Christmas with my family, but no less fun for it.
Our landlords, who run the cafe below our flat, were kind enough to lend us use of their kitchen over the festive period (mmm... catering-grade cooking … -
Santa Hijacked By Elf Qaeda
This story just in: Santa's sleigh has been hijacked by terrorists!
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Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas, and all that bollocks.
Sorry; just wanted to be the first person on Abnib to make a Christmas Day post.
Right... where's the sherry? -
Claire & Paul
Why do Paul and Claire find it so impossible to get along? This evening, Paul's cooking: right now, Claire's preparing some vegetables for him, and they've begun arguing. Paul wants Claire to do things a particular way, and Claire doesn't feel that Paul is giving her enough information to justify doing it. So Paul gets …
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Tequila And Television
Claire went out on a work Christmas bash last night, so Paul and I decided to have a quiet night in with various retro TV shows (thanks UKNova) and drinks. All we had in in the latter category, however, was half a bottle of tequila, half a bottle of white rum, and a handful of …
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The Story Of Apple’s Graphing Calculator
There's a fascinating story behind Apple's "Graphing Calculator" application. Here's an extract:
In August 1993, the project was canceled. A year of my work evaporated, my contract ended, and I was unemployed... ...I was frustrated by all the wasted effort, so I decided to uncancel my small part of the project. I had been paid … -
Playing Lord of the Rings, in The Flat
I've been pulling old videos off of devices I used to use. This came from an early-2000s mobile phone, back when mobile phones were REALLY bad at video. It features Paul M, Ruth V, Matt R, JTA, and Claire M playing a single turn of the Lord of the Rings boardgame (it was a complicated … -
Geekiest Christmas Card Ever
Just recieved this e-card from my mum's boyfriend.
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Conversation Of The Day With A Client
Fictional, of course. None of our clients are actually this stupid, and I wouldn't be silly enough to publish a real event like this on my blog, ever.
A client phones up and asks to speak to me.
Client: "I'm using the 'Data Export' tool in... [part of application I wrote, new version recently deployed to him] …