I'm Dan Q (he/him). I've spent the last 26+ years creating and writing online.
I work as a software engineer, and I 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.
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My Polyamory is Boring
A conversation with another openly-polyamorous blogger led us to ask one another why we don't write about our relationship structure more-often. In my case, the answer is simple: my relationships are boring, and that's a good thing! But here's your chance to tell me I'm wrong... Read more →
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I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys
Sometimes keyboards come with a 'Fn' key that allows some of their context-sensitive keys to do particular general-purpose functions. Sometimes these are implemented in careful, considerate and configurable ways... and other times they just make me want to throw the keyboard out of the window. Read more →
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So Unbelievable it Sounds Like you Googled It
DeGoogling is so... 2010s. Let's make the 2020s the decade where we redefine Google as a verb. In the age of AI-first search, "to Google" now ought to give a nod to the accuracy and ethical issues posed by making AI into people's first experience of Web search. Read more →
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F-Day plus 113
It's been 113 days since my house flooded and it's almost time for repair work to start! But first, I've got some repair work of my own to do: to a desk that needs moving and to a laptop that's misbehaving. Read more →
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The "ChangeNames.co.uk" Scam
Today, somebody who's running a scammy personal information collection campaign hidden beneath the veneer of a buggy free deed poll service that competes with my better, ethical free deed poll service... emailed me to ask if I'd advertise theirs for them. Wow. Read more →
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Converting ISO Country Codes to Flag Emojis
Did you know that there's a simple formula you can use to convert from an ISO two-letter country code to the emoji of the flag of that country. I've made an interactive thingy to demonstrate it, and shared some other fun things I've learned while playing around with ISO 3166 and flag emoji. Read more →
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Wikipedia @ 25: Carl Person
As I continue my 25-consecutive-days-of-Wikipedia, today's random article of the day was Carl Person, a lawyer with an interesting history. Read more →
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Wikipedia @ 25: Cirrothauma Murrayi
Today, Wikipedia introduced me to a mysterious deep-dwelling octopus. So cool! Read more →
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A Selfhosted Static Site Editor
Inspired by the way that Nekoweb's editor 'Nekode' works, I came up with a low-effort way to let my eldest get started with HTML and CSS editing, right from her browser, with the results selfhosted directly from the household NAS. Read more →
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More articles →
(articles are traditional long-form blog posts) -
Setting the width of selects to the width of the selected option
Sometimes a new CSS feature comes along and I immediately "get it". Like: that's a cool new feature, I can already see how it'll save me time, or make things simpler, or improve accessibility, or allow me to do something new. Other times... Read more →
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Found GC9P505 Paddington Bear & friends (Leicester Square)
A morning meander around the local (mostly virtual) caches under the guise of checking the condition of the West End Live queue, while the rest of my group enjoyed a lie-in, eventually brought me to take a seat alongside this iconic bear. TFTC! Read more →
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Found GCBJ704 Seven Dials Sundial
Approaching from the West I was foiled by the glare of the rising sun in my efforts to claim this fascinating monument from afar and eventually had to walk all the way past it to line up my photo! Read more →
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Found GC38EQ3 Underground
Initially thought I'd be able to find this one without the hint, but when I couldn't get fix to closer than 8m I took a peep at it and was instantly aware of where to search. Soon the cache was in hand and I was back on my way. TFTC! Read more →
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Found GC240NQ West End 1 - The Beatles
Stood around for a bit reading about David Bowie while I waited for the waitstaff -on their pre-work fag break down the alleyway - stopped their muggling and went inside. Glad I came early while it was quiet here! TFTC. Read more →
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Found GC5E4E Catastrophe, Calamity, Cataclysm Part 4
Can't do the physical today, but scooping a pic with the virtual during a morning walk around the neighbourhood. Read more →
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Found GCAJJCJ Piccadilly Circus (Virtual Reward 4.0) ツ
After nine hours on my feet yesterday queuing for and then attending the first day of West End Live in Trafalgar Square, I somehow decided that the best thing for my poor legs would be to get up early while everybody else slept in, to come walk around and find a virtual or two. Right around the corner from my hotel, this was the first! Read more →
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Star network topologies are more common, but you can still occasionally find these...
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Hanging out in London’s theatreland, attracting double-takes (and a handful of thumbs-ups!) for my t-shirt… × Read more →
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The hours of queuing pays off! Let’s go! × Read more →
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Back of the queue for West End Live. It’s gonna be a long wait, but hopefully worth it! × Read more →
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Off to London for a couple of days of musical theatre fun! Don’t wait up! × Read more →
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125 days since our house flooded, and the damaged furniture fittings, floors, underfloors, and now inner walls have been torn out.Over a third of a year since we had to move out, I’m optimistic that perhaps, at last, reconstruction work is almost ready to begin.It’s a long, slow process. And there’s clearly a way to […] Read more →
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🎶 It starts with sausage, A hot dog in a bun. One simple sausage, Put some mustard on one…Is it just me, or are (sinner) Sir Pentious‘s colours reminiscent of a hot dog? × Read more →
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I guess it’s sweet that the dog has decided that I’m not to leave my home office without her noticing. But when the naps right behind my wheelie chair I worry she’s going to get her paws run over! × Read more →
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More posts →
(of all kinds:
articles, 
checkins, 
notes, 
reposts...)