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YouTubeWikipedia @ 25: Yousuf Karsh
Wikipedia is 25 years old this year, and in celebration of that I found my way via a Mercurial crater to the article about Yousuf Karsh, one of the most-important portrait photographers of the 20th century.
Dan Q - The Podcast
The podcast that nobody asked for. Exclusively about things that only Dan Q cares about.
Give your eyes a break and stuff me in your ears! Each episode is an audio version of a post from my blog, so you can listen to me rambling on while you're driving, working, or even (eww!) at the gym.
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Episodes
Wikipedia @ 25: Necker Island
Wikipedia @ 25: Necker Island
Today, thanks to Wikipedia, I learned a lot about a miniscule Hawaiian island with an interesting cultural and archaeological history... after I found my way there from a random page about a hip hop album!
Wikipedia @ 25: Lake Baikal
Wikipedia @ 25: Lake Baikal
Today's random Wikipedia article was about a kind of seal that lives only in Lake Baikal in Siberia, which turns out to be a really, really big lake. Like: it's got about a fifth of the world's fresh water in it; that's how big it is!
Wikipedia @ 25: Yo-Yo
Wikipedia @ 25: Yo-Yo
This year is Wikipedia's 25th birthday, and as part of the celebrations I learned who Marcus Koh is... but that wasn't remotely as interesting as learning about the long history of the yo-yo!
Wikipedia @ 25: Rail transport in Indonesia
Wikipedia @ 25: Rail transport in Indonesia
Wikipedia is celebrating its 25th birthday, and today I'm celebrating by discovering what the Argo Wilis is, along with a dive into a rabbithole about rail transport in Indonesia!
Wikipedia @ 25: Wesley Merritt
Wikipedia @ 25: Wesley Merritt
Wikipedia is celebrating its 25th birthday, and somehow as a result I ended up reading about Wesley Merritt, who was the shortest-lived Governor-General of the Philippines!
Nostalgia, Music, and Computers
Nostalgia, Music, and Computers
It turns out that I get nostalgic about technology in the same way as I get nostalgic about music. Here's some things that take me right back to being nine, eleven, thirteen and fifteen years old.
Why I Am So Tired
Why I Am So Tired
After dusting off and modernising a joke I first read in a chain email from 1996, I can tell you conclusively that the reason that I'm tired is because I'm overworked.
Actually, Yes! (that IS what my birth certificate says)
Actually, Yes! (that IS what my birth certificate says)
There's a certain kind of person who, upon hearing my unusual name, immediately asks whether that's what's on my birth certificate (with an underlying implication that it's not my 'real' name, whatever that means, if it isn't). Well: as of this week, thanks to a quirk in Scottish law, the name I've used every day for almost two decades DOES appear my birth certificate. Fuck the haters.
The Beer Token
The Beer Token
Thanks to the success of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, we can never forget quite how much beer you used to be able to get for a fiver (plus an exceptionally-generous tip). Nowadays, it'll get you one pint, if you're lucky... and that offers us an exciting opportunity...
Hexagonal Cheese Scones
Google Shared My Phone Number!
Google Shared My Phone Number!
When people started calling my personal mobile number with questions about a voluntary organisation I'm involved with, I was confused: we weren't sharing that number. It turns out that Google had decided to take the number I used to verify my identity for Google Business some years prior and start putting it in Google Search results. WTF, Google?
Delivery Songs
Delivery Songs
In the UK, ice cream vans are perhaps the only delivery service with their own jingle. Turkey and India are WAY ahead of us in this regard, and I've got a few ideas about how we fix that...
Work Slippers
Work Slippers
Last month, the dog ate my slippers, and in the week it took me to replace them my work productivity took a dip. Coincidence? Nope! They were my 'work slippers', and it turns out I needed them!
AI vs The Expert
AI vs The Expert
Inspired by an 11-year old comedy sketch, I asked a GenAI to solve an unsolvable programming problem... and (for at least some models) it failed in exactly the way I anticipated: claiming to be able to solve it and delivering code that just... didn't. What does this teach us about AI trustworthiness for problems that might be solvable, but for which the human operator doesn't have sufficient comprehension to verify?