This checkin to GC9MCDM The Queen Of Mystery reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
After solving the riddle yesterday, my partner Ruth and I came up from the seafront to find this cache today. What a delightful spot to hide the cache, and what a wonderful puzzle (and spot of local literary history) with which to bring us here.
SL, FP awarded. Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK. TFTC!
This checkin to GC10N80 Wye Eye reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
I’m on a family holiday, staying over in Catbrook, and I have a holiday tradition of getting up early (before the kids are up!) to come out on geocaching jaunts.
I very nearly didn’t consider this at all. It’s fake location, nestled amongst challenge caches (which I have no interest in whatsoever), made me initially suspect it would be another of the same. It’s only a lucky coincidence I clicked on it at all!
(Maybe that’s why this cache had no finds in 2025? Such a shame!)
But I’m glad I did. I puzzled over the riddle for a little while before the “odd line out” made me think of something. So confident was I in the resulting coordinates that I didn’t even visit the special web page to double-check, which meant I missed out on the object hint until I was in the field and needed one! This, in turn, was pretty satisfying!
I saved this cache for my second morning’s outing: free one on which I didn’t bring the dog (for whose little legs this hike might have been too intense). This was the right choice. I had to ford a flooded and frozen path by moonlight near Cleddon before a visit to the waterfalls (and the associated cache) then pressed on up into the woods to uncover this cache, which has sat alone and undisturbed for, what… 20 months?
It’s in fine condition and in an absolutely postcard-perfect spot. The sun was at long last creating the hills on the far side of the valley as I signed my name and returned the box to its hiding spot. I really regret that this cache doesn’t see more footfall, and I hope that this effusive log (and the accompanying Favourite Point) might go some way to helping rectify that situation!
TFTC. It’s one of the best I’ve ever found. If I could award it two FPs I would!
This checkin to GC2EFAW The Cairn Cache reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Happy New Year! The geopup and I, on holiday from West Oxfordshire and staying nearby, came out for a morning walk in the ice and snow today.
Our little Frenchie’s tiny legs made the work of climbing the stiles on this path a little challenging, but with persistence we were treated to a wonderful view of the sun broaching the horizon over the valley at the North end of School Wood.
Soon the cairn was in sight, and what a brilliant spot for a cache! Signed log, and dropped a travel bug that’s come all the way from Texas to continue its journey. FP awarded for bringing us out this way.
This checkin to GC1JAWP Sibelius Monument reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
QEF while my family examined the sculpture. What a great spot for a cache, and so well-maintained. FP awarded. TFTC!
This checkin to GCBBVQN Magic of Lapland reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
It’s the final morning of my short visit to Sirkka. Having 90 minutes until I need to set off for the airport, I decided to come out for a quick geocaching expedition first.
This was the first cache on my list, and I was so glad to choose it. A truly beautiful and well-maintained cache in a wonderful spot. FP awarded. TFTC!
[09:55 local time]
This checkin to GC2CWQ7 #036 Just Northamptonshire reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
As a semi-regular at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention who likes to get up earlier then the others I share my tent with, I’ve done my fair share of early morning geocaching in this neck of the woods.
Of course: over the years this practice has exhausted most of tree caches local to Cropredy and my morning walks have begun to take me further and further afield. But this is certainly the first time I’ve walked to the next county in search of a cache!
Coming across the fields from Williamscot via Prescote Farm treated me to gorgeous rolling hills free fields of freshly-harvested corn getting picked at by families of deer, while the red kites above went looking for their breakfasts.
The final hill up to the GZ required a bit of a push for my legs which were dancing until late last night, but soon I was close and the cache was quickly found in the second place I looked.
TFTC. Oxfordshire says hello!
Back in 2021, as part of a course I was doing at work, I made a video talking about The Devil’s Quoits, a henge and stone circle near where I live.
Two years later, our eldest was at school and her class was studying the stone age. Each of three groups were tasked with researching a particular neolithic monument, and our eldest was surprised when she heard my voice coming from a laptop elsewhere in the class. One of her classmates had, in their research into the Quoits, come across my video.
And so when their teacher arranged for a school trip to the Devil’s Quoits, she asked if I could go along as a “local expert”. And so I did.
And so this year, when another class – this time featuring our youngest – went on a similar school trip, the school asked me to go along again.
I’d tweaked my intro a bit – to pivot from talking about the archaeology to talking about the human stories in the history of the place – and it went down well: the children raised excellent observations and intelligent questions1, and clearly took a lot away from their visit. As a bonus, our visit falling shortly after the summer solstice meant that local neopagans had left a variety of curious offerings – mostly pebbles painted with runes – that the kids enjoyed finding (though of course I asked them to put each back where they were found afterwards).
But the most heartwarming moment came when I later received an amazing handmade card, to which several members of the class had contributed:
I don’t know if I’ll be free to help out again in another two years, if they do it again2: perhaps I should record a longer video, with a classroom focus, that shares everything I know about The Devil’s Quoits.
But I’ll certainly keep a fond memory of this (and the previous) time I got to go on such a fun school trip, and to be an (alleged) expert about a place whose history I find so interesting!
1 Not every question the children asked was the smartest, but every one was gold. One asked “is it possible aliens did it?” Another asked, “how old are you?”, which I can only assume was an effort to check if I remembered when this 5,000-year-old hengiform monument was being constructed…
2 By lucky coincidence, this year’s trip fell during a period that I was between jobs, and so I was very available, but that might not be the case in future!
I’ve been in a lot of interviews over the last two or three weeks. But there’s a moment that stands out and that I’ll remember forever as the most-smug I’ve ever felt during an interview.
This particular interview included a mixture of technical and non-technical questions, but a particular technical question stood out for reasons that will rapidly become apparent. It went kind-of like this:
Interviewer: How would you go about designing a backend cache that retains in memory some number of most-recently-accessed items?
Dan: It sounds like you’re talking about an LRU cache. Coincidentally, I implemented exactly that just the other week, for fun, in two of this role’s preferred programming languages (and four other languages). I wrote a blog post about my design choices: specifically, why I opted for a hashmap for quick reads and a doubly-linked-list for constant-time writes. I’m sending you the links to it now: may I talk you through the diagrams?
Interviewer:
That’s probably the most-overconfident thing I’ve said at an interview since before I started at the Bodleian, 13 years ago. In the interview for that position I spent some time explaining that for the role they were recruiting for they were asking the wrong questions! I provided some better questions that I felt they should ask to maximise their chance of getting the best candidate… and then answered them, effectively helping to write my own interview.
Anyway: even ignoring my cockiness, my interview the other week was informative and enjoyable throughout, and I’m pleased that I’ll soon be working alongside some of the people that I met: they seem smart, and driven, and focussed, and it looks like the kind of environment in which I could do well.
But more on that later.
This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.
When I posted to LinkedIn about my recent redundancy, I saw a tidal wave of reposts and well-wishes. But there’s one that I’ve come back to whenever I need a pick-me-up before I, y’know, trawl the job boards: a comment-repost by my big-hearted, sharp-minded former co-worker Kyle. I’m posting it here because I want to keep a copy forever1:
Bad news: I’m among the sixth of Automattic that’s been laid-off this week.
Good news: I’m #OpenToWork, and excited about the opportunity to bring my unique skillset to a new role. Could I be the Senior Software Engineer, Full-Stack Web Developer, or Technical Lead that you’re looking for?
Here’s what makes me special:
🕸️ 26+ years experience of backend and frontend development, with a focus on standards, accessibility, performance, security, and the open Web
🌎 20+ years experience of working in and leading remote/distributed teams in a diversity of sectors
👨💻 Professional experience of many of the technologies you’ve heard of (PHP, Ruby, Java, Perl, SQL, Go, DevOps, JS, jamstacks, headless…), and probably some you haven’t…
👨🎓 Degrees and other qualifications spanning computer science and software engineering, psychotherapy, ethical hacking, and digital forensics (I don’t believe there’s a career in the world that makes use of all of these, but if you know differently, tell me!)If this man isn’t hired immediately, it’s a huge loss. Dan is easily one of the most talented engineers I’ve ever met. His skills are endless, his personal culture is delightful, and I don’t think I went a day working with him where I didn’t learn something. Let him build you beautiful things. I dare you.
Incidentally, Kyle’s looking for a new role too. If you’re in need of a WordPress/PHP/React pro with a focus on delivering the MVP fast and keeping the customer’s needs front-and-centre, you should look him up. He’s based in Cape Town but he’s a remote/distributed veteran that you could slot into your Web team anywhere.
This checkin to GCANV4N #12 Longworth Loop reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
After fashioning the requisite tool it still took me a solid 5+ attempts to retrieve the cache – it felt a bit like playing those wiggle-wire fairground games that I suck at so much! Once retrieved, the dog was very disappointed that start I was holding wasn’t a plaything for her. TFTC, FP awarded for the right container, right hiding place, right difficulty.
This checkin to GCANV45 #09 Longworth Loop reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Great container in an excellent spot (have another FP!) but retrieval of this one was a bit of a stretch for my old bones! Amazing route you’ve picked out here, too, CO. TFTC!
This checkin to GCANV2R #03 Longworth Loop reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Searched high and low around the obvious hiding place before sitting down to have a think and immediately spotting another even better hiding place she the cache in pain sight: d’oh! The geopup didn’t want to come all the all the way to it so she waited at the first obvious hiding spot.
Great to see a good sized cache for the environment and in such good condition. FP awarded. Took 4×4 travel bug. TFTC!
This checkin to GC1QR0V Church Micro 605 Almondsbury reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Stopped at the pub nearby for an incredibly late lunch and to recharge the electric car on my journey from Pembrokeshire to Oxfordshire, because I’d much rather get off the motorway and find somewhere nice to sit while the electrons do their thing. Spotted this nearby cache in the yard of this beautiful church, which made for a lovely walk as the well-tended flowerbeds were wonderfully fragrant. Followed a geotrail to find the cache. Amazing, loved finding this so much. SL, TNLN, TFTC, FP awarded.
This checkin to GCB4434 A Road Anarchy - A40 TB Hotel reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
On a diversion from my cycle from Witney to Eynsham I came along the A40 cyclepath to find this cache. And what a cache! An excellent container perfectly suited to it’s hiding place. SL, TNLN, FP awarded for a large and well maintained container, TFTC.
This checkin to GC84F1A Manchester Central Library reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
What a truly spectacular cache. FP awarded, without hesitation. I’ve seen a similar kind in a library before but never with such depth, such a story, so voluminous a container, nor – let’s be honest – so beautiful a building!
The Wolfson room was packed, presumably with people studying for their upcoming exams, but I found a seat there to work out the final location. Once there, I made my way up and found it without difficulty. No trouble with the numbers from me.
I’m going to try to tag one or two more Manchester caches before I catch my train home, but I can’t imagine any will hold a candle to this. TFTC!