Dan Q

I'm Dan Q (he/him). I've spent the last 26+ years creating and writing online.

While I'm considering a new paid role, I continue to 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.

  • 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 →

  • Please Fix This Site? Okay!

    PleaseFixThisSite.com is a funny web-based take on that XKCD comic about extorting graphic designers who hate your design choices. But you don't actually need to pay the extortionist to "fix" their site. Just have your userscript manager run a few lines of my code, and the effect is much the same. Read more →

  • The Local Historian

    This week I (again) helped share my knowledge about a nearby stone circle and henge with a group of children from the local school. And I was overjoyed to receive the most-delightful handmade 'thank you' card from the class. Read more →

  • Firstup Recruitment

    I'll soon by starting in my new role at Firstup, after a rollercoaster of a recruitment process that rocketed through all the usual tech job steps... but in barely over a week. What a rush! Read more →

  • The Huge Grey Area in the Anthropic Ruling

    The court ruling that declares Anthropic's use of (purchased) books as training material leaves a curious sorites paradox. If we assume that an LLM trained on only one book (and so only capable of producing content directly inspired by that book) would necessarily be copyright-infringing, at what number of books does that cease to be the case? Read more →

  • Smug Interview Moment

    Recently, I got to answer a technical interview question with "Coincidentally, I implemented exactly what you're describing two weeks ago. For fun. Can I show you the code and the blog post I wrote to explain my design choices?" Read more →

  • Scarecrows

    As part of the Village Festival, there's a scarecrow competition around my way with a televisual theme. I love that my local community works so hard to carve out an individual identity and personality for itself! Read more →

  • Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella

    I recently read Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella. I guess it's got a 'werewolf'. It barely feels 'gay'. It certainly left me 'bored', at times. Turns out that it's a very middle-of-the-road story about Gen Z folks growing into their identities, using sexuality and lycanthropy as loosely-fitting framing devices. Read more →

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    (articles are traditional long-form blog posts)

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  • DOGWALK

    DOGWALK is a free, open-source Godot game for Windows, MacOS and Linux, produced and given to the world by Blender Studio as a way of showcasing some of their video lessons. And it's adorable. Read more →

  • Adding a feature because ChatGPT incorrectly thinks it exists

    ChatGPT lied about the functionality of Adrian Holovaty's software tool, Soundslice. So rather than try to get ChatGPT corrected, he just... implemented the feature it had claimed he already had. Is this the first time in history that this has happened? It could be! Read more →

  • Zip It - Finding File Similarity Using Compression Utilities

    I really enjoyed Computerphile's video about how ZIP tools can be used for abstract tasks that you might initially think were way outside their scope... like working out how close the genetic relationship between two species is, or which human languages are most similar to one another! Read more →

  • Dan Has Too Many Monitors

    My new employer sent me a laptop and a monitor, which I immediately added to my already pretty-heavily-loaded desk. Wanna see? Read more →

  • Off to my first day at Firstup. Gotta have an induction: get my ID badge, learn where the toilets are, how to refill the coffee machine, and all that jazz.Except, of course, none of those steps will be part of my induction. Because, yet again, I’ve taken a remote-first position. I’m 100% sold that, for […] Read more →

  • Post: Hotdog Among the Trees

    As the UK’s heatwave continues, the dog and I were delighted that this morning was sufficiently overcast that we could manage a proper walk without completely melting. Her breed copes badly with the heat and we’ve lately had to keep her indoors or in the shade more than she’d like, so a chance to run […] Read more →

  • Post: Waves Hand Car Wash

    I know how I’m SUPPOSED to read it, but when I see this I can’t help but imagine a conversation like…“What shall we call our car wash?”/waves hand/ “I dunno.” × Read more →

  • Post: Person Rowing Boat

    Ruth and I sometimes send one another the 'person rowing boat' emoji when no other emoji seems to fit, and I can't even remember why we started. Read more →

  • Doxxing an Imaginary Person?

    This morning, Google pulled a video from YouTube belonging to my nonprofit Three Rings. This was a bit of a surprise.
    Apparently the video - which is a demo of some Three Rings features - apparently fell foul of Google's anti-doxxing rules. I'm glad that they have anti-doxxing rules, of course. But in this case, the person we 'doxxed' lives on Some Street, Somewhereville. Which I'd like to imagine is clearly a made-up address, but maybe not! Read more →

  • Found GCA6CCW Purple door

    It’s possible that cycling this path wasn’t the wisest idea, I realised, as I dodged brambles on both sides. So focused was I on riding safely that I forgot which GPSr I’d brought with me and listening for the beep it gives when I get close to my target… only realised 120m after the fact […] Read more →

  • Found GCADCWF Treasure island

    After an appointment in Witney I opted to divert my cycle home to find this and the other cache on the same path. Read more →

  • Historical Tech Tree

    Étienne Fortier-Dubois's excellent Historical Tech Tree is fun and informative, and worth an explore. Read more →

  • Post: Unrepentant Blep

    The unrepentant bleppy face of a dog who, without fail, steals the warm spot I’ve left behind on the sofa within like three seconds of me standing up.× Read more →

  • Post: All The Pondweed, So Many Pondweed

    Have I posted this joke before? It's all a Blur. Read more →

  • Post: Founder at WordPress viewed your profile

    "Founder at WordPress viewed your profile."

    Sometimes LinkedIn's approach to anonymising who looks you up isn't very effective.
    I wonder who THAT could be? 😂 Read more →

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