Noah S shared how he used some PHP code to block specific badly-behaved bots from his website. I've got a few suggestions to help him make his block faster, easier-to-maintain, and more-thorough, either using PHP code or webserver configuration.

This checkin to GC3C7FT Woodies reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. After seeking (and finding, surprisingly) the 2026-09-13 51 -1 geohashpoint down in the Brook Hill nature reserve, the geohound and I came to try to find this cache, too. After finding the correct way into the nature reserve (access […]

A successful geohashing expedition to a swampy area near Woodstock, despite an incident during which I was attacked by a wasp whom I'd attempted to squash using my genitals. (Yes, really.)

Miloš Novović's experimental interactive fiction is a silly (but with a grain of truth!) simulation of what it feels like to attempt to use vibe-coding to make small, simple, isolated changes to an established codebase. Go play it!

Earlier this summer Chad Comello's 7-year-old son built a laptop from paint and cardboard and it's got some kickass features that you can't get from anywhere else. Wishlisted.

There's a lot of tech press this morning about the involuntary ousting of my former boss Matt Mullenweg from his CEO position at Automattic. Ernie Smith from Tedium's article is my favourite. Here's my take on why this is good for Automattic (and everybody else!), and why this should be seen not as a power grab... but as an intervention!

Pixel Area (@pxlarea@mastodon.social) launched a couple of weeks ago, and DanQ.me was selected to be one of the initial “seed” blogs that were there at the outset (I’m at https://pxlarea.com/x38y34). I’m… honestly not sure what to make of it. Organising personal websites spatially seems like a strange idea (although there’s a list view available too). […]

That moment when you realise that you forgot your sunglasses but figure you’ll just squint.

Ramkumar Shankar says you should use Firefox, and they're right: you should. Not just because it's a great browser, and it is, but because doing so helps protect the freedom and openness of the Web. Use Firefox.

Needed to renew my driving license. My new one doesn't have an EU flag on it. The sad reminders of Brexit just keep coming. 🇪🇺💔

AI peaked in 2014 with the invention of the Taco Bot 3000. With artificial (taco) intelligence and the latest cheese dispensing technology, it truly represented the summit of human technological achievement the likes of which we might not see again.

Çaki puts forward a political but fair look at the mass-production standardisation of English-language education in British schools. In an effort to make work measurable and objectively assessable, it argues, we're stripping the joy out of the art of writing.

One of the best books I've read so far this year (although my review is about three months late!) was Holly Gramazio's debut novel, The Husbands. A proper page-turner that keeps you engaged through all of its twists and turns, I can't recommend it strongly enough.

Jeff Johnson observes that Google Chrome has AGAIN started ignoring user privacy settings specifically for .google.com domains. This leads me to ask, not for the first time, why are there still so many people using Chrome as their daily driver, when there are so many perfectly-good alternatives that don't feed the beast in the same way?

HTTP status code 204 means "no content". No update. Nothing to tell you. F-Day plus 204 brings the same meaning: a disappointing lack of updates to the efforts to repair our house following getting flooded-out in February.

Michael Lynch uses a tongue-in-cheek metaphor as a vehicle through which to argue against the ubiquity of the term 'content', and I agree: we can do better with a richer and more-specific definition of our arts.

Thirteen years ago, it seems, a DVLA form processor decided that my name must have been a company name, and incorrectly registered my car's keeper as being a non-existent company imagined to share my name. And I only just found out.

Quick check while I was passing, as nobody's logged this cache during our stupidly-hot July or August (and I don't blame them: it's been horrible outdoors!). Anyway: the cache is fine and healthy and looking forward to its next visitor!

I descaled the coffee machine yesterday. We live in an exceptionally hard-water area and this maintenance was long overdue. This morning I turned the machine on and something felt unfamiliar and wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on what, until I realised… …I’d gotten so-used to seeing the “descaling needed” light illuminated that I’d subconsciously […]

My fellow volunteer Oliver Earl has been picking up on his blogging and asks, with reference to my archives... how do people blog for thirty years without running out of things to say? And then he comes to the correct conclusion:

The other month, David Bushell made a tongue-in-cheek interactive simulation of the state of modern desktop applications. It's pretty fun, and I see what he means.

Ava's take on techbro ideas of "privacy", and in particular the situation with "smart glasses", is especially well-written and worth a look.

This checkin to GC9BHWG Watercress beds reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Despite immediately honing in on exactly the right host, it still took me an embarrassingly long time to find this cache. This, despite having found – and even hidden – cache contsibers of exactly this type before! My […]

This checkin to GC8ZWZ3 Letcombe Bridges 1 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. QEF while passing through the village on a circular walk. TFTC!

This checkin to GC4H2MB Church Micro 4008…Letcombe Regis reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Found the grave, but this is now the second offset I’ve found here that’s asked me to double-back on my walk. Nope! I’m just going to save the calculated coordinates for the next time I’m in […]

This checkin to GC9F5YC GIs in Letcombe reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Found the clues and solved the coordinates, but I’ve JUST walked past the final location a while ago and don’t feel like doubling back today! A=How many letters in the word underneath Knoxville? B=A*2 C=Number of letters in […]

This checkin to GC9QWHD Plankton's cache reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Like many before me, from the looks of things, I didn’t find the cache at the published coordinates but about 11 metres away at N 51° 34.086′, W 001° 26.441′. Possibly worth the CO checking if those coordinates […]

This checkin to GC93M2N Segsbury Fort reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. A challenging but worthwhile find during a walk along and around the Ridgeway. My initial attempt to collect the coordinates was way off because I misinterpreted some of the instructions and it yielded a point almost 2km away! […]

This checkin to GC46RY8 It really is about the (2 millionth) cache reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. This morning I came up to explore the Ridgeway and escape from thinking about Life Stuff for a bit. (Although escaping from the rain wasn’t a possibility! It was real wet up […]

This checkin to GC39X1K GH #11 twisted tree reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Found cache contents first, some of which I was only able to identify thanks to the photo in the previous log. Cache container, minus lid, was found a reasonable distance away, but this badly-damaged, nearly-destroyed cache […]