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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Favourite Firefox Four Feature FAIL!
I've been playing about with the beta of Firefox 4 for a little while now, and I wanted to tell you about a feature that I thought was absolutely amazing, until it turned out that it was a bug and they "fixed" it. This feature is made possible by a handful of other new tools …
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Googling for Suicide, Part II
You may remember that earlier this year I wrote a letter to Google suggesting that they ought to publicise the number of Samaritans to people searching for suicide-related topics: sort-of like a free Featured Link, but just advertising the phone number of a support service that, in particular, provides emotional support to those who are …
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A Video Game Movie I'd See
Video game movies are notoriously bad, no matter how awesome the game that inspired them. Wing Commander took a classic video game series and completely ruined it. Doom was incredibly dull, even though it was based on one of the most popular game series that have ever exited. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time …
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Skinheads
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to hear a reading of a fantastic piece of erotic literature, Skinheads, by a friend of mine, Jacqueline Applebee. The story isn't just wonderfully naughty, it's also full of edge-of-your-seat apprehension on behalf of the protagonist as she explores a terrifying taboo. This week I was delighted …
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Ruth & JTA's Stag/Hen Party Weekend, Part III
With their wedding just around the corner, Ruth and JTA had a combined stag/hen party weekend, a couple of weeks back. You've probably already seen part one and part two - here's the finale! Click on pictures if you want to see them larger.
Sunday
A Simpler Breakfast
Compared to the big fry-up of … -
Ruth & JTA's Stag/Hen Party Weekend, Part II
With their wedding just around the corner, Ruth and JTA had a combined stag/hen party weekend, a couple of weeks back. I wrote a little about it already - here's the second of the three parts. As usual, click on pictures to embiggen.
Saturday
A Mighty Fry Up
Matt, Paul and I kick-started everybody's … -
On This Day In 2009
Looking Back
On this day in 2009 I'd just announced that Claire and I had broken up after our seven year relationship. I attacked Virgil's omnia vincit amor (love conquers all), countering that our love for one another was not sufficient to prevent the difficulties we'd been having. That the breakup was among the most structured, … -
Ruth & JTA's Stag/Hen Party Weekend, Part I
With their wedding just around the corner, Ruth and JTA had a combined stag/hen party weekend, a couple of weeks back (yes, I know it's taken me a while to blog about it. Here's some of the highlights. As usual, click pictures for bigger versions.
Friday
Jordans
Most of the party was to take … -
It is Windy in Aberystwyth
We don't get wind in Oxford: not wind like this, anyway. The air is passionate and angry, full of bitter sea salt and wild energy. It smells like Aberystwyth... and still a little like "home".
But this time I'm here as a visitor, of course. Just another tourist: and that's a very strange and alien feeling, … -
I'm Proud of the BBC!
I'm Proud of the BBC! [YouTube] It's just this (and lousy weather) that keeps us together. With thanks to Katie for sharing.
Well, that'll be stuck in my head for a while. Full write-up (and photos) from this weekend's fun and games coming soon. -
Traveling In Time(zones)
Just when you think you've got them figured out (and the application you're working on is coping correctly with daylight saving time), something comes along and blows your little mind. Like this, for example:
Suppose you're chilling out in Hawaii on some lazy Sunday. Cocktail in hand, you check your watch - it's midday. Midday on … -
Parsing XML as JSON
This morning, I got an instant message from a programmer who's getting deeply into their Ajax recently. The conversation went something like this (I paraphrase and dramatise at least a little):
Morning! I need to manipulate a JSON feed so that [this JSON parser] will recognise it.
Here's what I get out of the JSON feed … -
Found GL4JAPX1 University Challenge 8 (Brmm Brmm)
This checkin to GL4JAPX1 University Challenge 8 (Brmm Brmm) reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. A few pints in pacifist049 and I, and stumbling around in the dark, we were still able to find this little cache on the way back from the pub. Nice hide! TFTC
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On This Day In 1999
Looking Back
On this day in 1999 I sent out the fourth of my Cool Thing Of The Day To Do In Aberystwyth e-mails. I wasn't blogging at the time (although I did have a blog previously), but I felt that it would be nice to do something to help keep in touch with my friends and … -
Roman Typesetters
When ancient Roman typesetters or web designers were showcasing a design, and didn't want the content of the (dummy) text on their mock-ups to distract the client... what did they use for their lorem ipsum text?
These are the kinds of things that bother me most when I'm doing typographic layout. That, and Internet Explorer's consistently …