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Kind: Articles

Traditional long form content: a post with an explicit title and body.

  • Dan, wearing a black t-shirt with the words "Let's make the web a better place" on, sits with his back to a standing stone. Four more standing stones can be seen stretching away into the bakground, atop a flowery meadow and beneath a slightly cloudy but bright sky.

    Local Expert

    This week, I spoke to a school group about the history of The Devil's Quoits. Perhaps I should be more-willing to share what I've learned in-general, even in areas where I'm still learning?

    Read more - about 4 minutes (850 words)

    • Article
    • posted 1 July, 2023
  • The word "SILO" in a stab-serif font, black on a yellow background.

    How cool are Silo's credits?

    New TV series Silo's pretty good, but its credits sequence is just... excellent. Let me take it apart bit-by-bit for you.

    Read more - about 9 minutes (2106 words)

    • Article
    • 4 comments
    • posted 14 June, 2023
  • Dan, wearing a purple shirt with a WordPress logo and a pride rainbow, waves to the camera in front of a hotel with pride rainbow banners hanging from its pillars.

    WCEU23 - Day 2

    Today was the first second full day of WordPress Europe 2023 in Athens. It was... busy. And intense.

    Read more - about 9 minutes (2042 words)

    • Article
    • 7 comments
    • posted 10 June, 2023
  • Dan, smiling, wearing a purple t-shirt with a WordPress logo and a Pride flag, hugs a cut-out of a Wappu (itself hugging a "WP 20" balloon and wearing a party hat).

    WCEU23 - Day 1

    My first "full" day at WordCamp Europe 2023 was busy and intense, but I loved networking and learning about WordPress history and security and what's worth knowing about design and typography.

    Read more - about 13 minutes (2959 words)

    • Article
    • 5 comments
    • posted 9 June, 2023
  • Dan takes a selfie from a round table covered in laptops, with people hacking at them.

    WCEU23 - Contributor Day

    Today was Contributor Day at my very first WordCamp. I hacked code for WP-CLI and met some awesome people.

    Read more - about 3 minutes (503 words)

    • Article
    • 7 comments
    • posted 8 June, 2023
  • In front of the Colosseum in Rome, Dan - wearing a rainbow-striped bandana atop which his sunglasses are perched - takes a selfie. Behind him stand a man with dark hair and a closely-trimmed beard wearing a purple "woo" t-shirt, a woman with long brown hair wearing beads and a multicoloured dress, a man wearing spectacles and a dark t-shirt on which the number "23" can be made out, and a man in sunglasses with a ginger beard, wearing an open blue shirt.

    Have Fun with Missions, Visions, and Values

    My team and I recently used a deck of Dixit cards to playfully work on refining our collective idea of our identity and our values. It turns out we're a D&D-like party of heroic adventurers!

    Read more - about 3 minutes (495 words)

    • Article
    • 2 comments
    • posted 30 May, 2023
  • A modest-sized backpack in blue and yellow, with a WordPress logo stiched on, sits on an airport departure lounge bench. Alongside it is a burgundy-coloured British passport.

    Travelling light

    Lately, I've taken to "travelling light", and it feels carefree and liberating.

    Read more - about 3 minutes (582 words)

    • Article
    • 7 comments
    • posted 21 May, 2023
  • Dan, wearing a black jumper, sits on a green chair in a brightly-decorated bedroom. On his chest, a 2-year-old girl has fallen asleep, clutching a woolen yellow blanket and with her thumb in her mouth.

    Normal for Children

    The natural state of a child is to assume that their upbringing, their family, and thier community is representative and normal, so we all end up growing up with learned "quirks" that we don't discover until they're challenged. How many do you still harbour?

    Read more - about 4 minutes (818 words)

    • Article
    • 1 comment
    • posted 20 May, 2023
  • Four humanoid silhouettes fling themselves off the side of a floating city, which is chained to a desert hellscape below.

    Nightmares & Noggins

    I had a nightmare last night in which I was underprepared for an upcoming D&D session. Because I am underprepared, I guess, but mostly because I was ill and sleeping badly anyway!

    Read more (340 words)

    • Article
    • posted 11 May, 2023
  • Fabricated screenshot from Microsoft Edge, browsing 3r.org.uk: a "privacy" icon in the address bar has been clicked, and the resulting menu says: About 3r.org.uk. Connection is secure (with link for more info). Privacy and Cookies (with link for more info). Cookies (3 cookies in use) - Strictly necessary (2 in use), dropdown menu set to "Default (accept, delete later)"; Optional (1 in use), dropdown menu set to "Accept for this site". Checkbox for "Treat third-party cookies differently?", unchecked. Privacy (link to full policy): Legitimate interest - this site collects username, IP address, technical logs...; Consenmt - this site collects email address, phone number... Button to manage content. Button to "Exercise data rights".

    How a 2002 standard made 2022 bearable

    Somewhere, in another timeline, the P3P standard is alive and thriving and saving us from cookie/privacy popovers.

    Read more - about 6 minutes (1377 words)

    • Article
    • 9 comments
    • posted 24 April, 2023
  • Dan asks: "Tell me about the blogger who runs DanQ.me" ChatGPT responds: "Dan Q is the blogger and web developer who runs the website "DanQ.me". He is a British computer scientist, game designer, and open-source software developer. DanQ.me is a personal website where Dan writes about a variety of topics, including technology, programming, and gaming. He is also known for creating the web-based puzzle game "Notpron," which has gained a large following online. In addition to his work on "DanQ.me" and "Notpron," Dan has contributed to several open-source software projects, including the Linux operating system and the Mozilla web browser. He has also worked as a software developer for several companies, including Google and Canonical. Dan is active on social media, particularly Twitter, where he frequently shares his thoughts on technology and other topics." The screenshot is marked up with the bits about gaming and being active on social media marked "stretching/exaggerating", the bits about Notpron, Linux, Mozilla, and Canonical being "believable lies", and the bits about Twitter and Google identified as "complete bollocks"

    AI is lying to you

    Despite how much of DanQ.me is tokenised by ChatGPT, it still outright lies when asked about it. Why is this, and what does it mean for our use of LLMs?

    Read more - about 3 minutes (687 words)

    • Article
    • 2 comments
    • posted 20 April, 2023
  • Screenshot showing new content from The Far Side in my FreshRSS reader.

    New Far Side in FreshRSS

    In response to a recent comment, I've written a recipe for getting "new" Far Side content into FreshRSS too.

    Read more - about 3 minutes (646 words)

    • Article
    • 10 comments
    • posted 29 March, 2023
  • Screenshot showing RSS feed items: recent Forward episodes including their numbers, titles, and publication dates.

    Subscribing to Forward using FreshRSS's XPath Scraping

    FreshRSS's XPath scraping continues to be a "killer feature": here's how I'm using it to follow webcomic Forward.

    Read more (347 words)

    • Article
    • 10 comments
    • posted 28 March, 2023
  • Image representing post: Solving Jigidi... Again

    Solving Jigidi... Again

    The Jigidi jigsaw solver I wrote a year and a half ago stopped working, so I made another one (it's not as good).

    Read more - about 4 minutes (814 words)

    • Article
    • 28 comments
    • posted 20 March, 2023
  • Installing Listmonk on Unraid

    Frustrated that nobody on the Internet has solved my problem for me, here's my guide to configuring Listmonk on an Unraid server.

    Read more - about 3 minutes (621 words)

    • Article
    • 6 comments
    • posted 16 March, 2023

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