FeedCity: Dan Q

Dan Q
23 Oct 13:15 • Dan Q

[Note] Hide and Seek London

Well, it looks like I've committed to playing this on the wettest imaginable weekend. Wish me luck!

Dan Q
23 Oct 01:12 • Dan Q

[Article] Incognito (Weird Web October)

In another Weird Web October contribution, I'd like to introduce you to Incognito Mode for Wikipedia. Yes, it's stupid.

Dan Q
22 Oct 10:42 • Dan Q

[Repost] There isn't an easy exploit for this PHP vulnerability

Elias's experience of the PHP CVE matches mine: it's real, it's serious... but it's not actually that easy to exploit "in the wild" except in conjunction with OTHER exploits, so it's not by-itself catastrophic. Patch your servers, yeah. But calm the fuck down while you do so.

Dan Q
01:12 • Dan Q

[Article] Dem Bones! (Weird Web October)

The hand bone's connected to the cellphone. The cellphone's connected to the website. The website's connected to the puppet. Now shake 'dem skeleton bones!

Dan Q
17 Oct 18:16 • Dan Q

[Article] Inelegant

So elegant. So demure. Much doggle.

Dan Q
17 Oct 12:13 • Dan Q

[Checkin] Dan Q found GC8VFV3 Freeland to Hanborough - Bonus Cache #2

A very quick final find on our walk with Menssana Martial Arts. Thanks for maintaining this series!

Dan Q
17 Oct 12:13 • Dan Q

[Checkin] Dan Q found GCAXYB9 Freeland to Hanborough #04 - Revived

Found in the third candidate place I looked, as the other walkers from my youngest kid's taekwondo school escaped into the woods ahead. Had to jog to catch up after this find! Discovered my kid leading the pack, when I finally got there.

Dan Q
17 Oct 12:11 • Dan Q

[Checkin] Dan Q found GCAF07M Freeland to Hanborough #06 - Revived

A second diversion from the taekwondo group to find a cache just off the beaten track, this gloriously clear morning!

Dan Q
17 Oct 12:10 • Dan Q

[Checkin] Dan Q found GCAXZQ5 Freeland to Hanborough - Bonus Cache #5

A quick find while out with the younger kid on a walk with his taekwondo school. TFTC!

Dan Q
16 Oct 08:42 • Dan Q

[Reply] Re: My Hobby Is Learning

Like me, Kev Quirk's hobby is learning... to the point at which he, like me, picks up hobbies like they're fistfuls of popcorn. I've got some thoughts on what this lifestyle means for me, too.

Dan Q
15 Oct 14:18 • Dan Q

[Repost] Alternate timeline in which all Greek and Latin roots are swapped

Remoteoscope and equigamic are both wonderful words and I envy our alternate-universe buddies. Concavenator has some more.

Dan Q
15 Oct 11:15 • Dan Q

[Article] /pfp - a /slashpage for profile picture history

/pfp is a /slashpage standard intended to showcase a timeline of 'profile pictures' you've used to represent yourself online over the years. I've added one, now, and man do I look young in some of those photos!

Dan Q
14 Oct 15:57 • Dan Q

[Note] Stripping 'sign up now' ads from BBC News feeds

I continue to fight to make BBC News' RSS feeds not-suck, despite ongoing efforts to dilute their value by the BBC themselves. Last month they started injecting ads for their email newsletter-based subscription option into their RSS feed. But I don't need email: I have RSS! The ad initially slipped through the filters because it […]

Dan Q
14 Oct 08:55 • Dan Q

[Note] Origami Dissected

A peep behind the curtain: here's an animation illustrating how I had to learn to dissect/think about origami in order to make origami.danq.dev for my Weird Web October contribution today.

Dan Q
14 Oct 00:12 • Dan Q

[Article] Origami (Weird Web October)

A (well-folded) love letter to the Weird World Wide Web: my entry for day 14 of Weird Web October is "Origami". Go play with virtual paper!

Dan Q
13 Oct 12:06 • Dan Q

[Article] Webpage Copy-Protection is Impossible (and that's great!)

A friend of mine was inconvenienced by an over-eager bit of Web copy-protection JavaScript this week, and it reminded me that more-than-ever, these scripts are both harmful (to legitimate users) and pointless (ineffective at preventing downloading).

Dan Q
12 Oct 17:06 • Dan Q

[Note] Oh, Aviva

Last time I made a dental insurance claim, Aviva insisted on sending me a cheque. So I asked them via live chat if I could claim via bank transfer. Yes, they say, although apparently I have to ask every time because "they can't store bank details". Sigh. Fine. At least they'll pay this one by bank transfer.

Except a few days later they emailed to say they'd lost my bank details and could I provide them again. They asked me to add it to my claim, but their website won't let me do that because the claim is already agreed to pay-out. So now my claim's stuck in limbo.

Back into live chat I go. I give all the details and we're getting there but then... I suddenly get cut off from the human and I'm back with the robot.

The robot says live chat closed at 6:30pm so I'll need to come back tomorrow.

But it's only 5:45pm.

Is the whole world going mad, or is it just me?

Dan Q
12 Oct 13:48 • Dan Q

[Article] What Argentine Tango is like...

A series of metaphors about what tango feels like, to me. Like improvising music. Like spinning tops. Like an flock of birds. Or something like that.

Dan Q
11 Oct 16:03 • Dan Q

[Note] Hanley Swan

Ruth and I stopped at Hanley Swan for a picnic lunch on our way home from our weekend of Argentine Tango classes. Within seconds our lunch had attracted a large flock of ducks from the little duck houses on the village's adorable duck pond. But better yet: I managed to catalogue like eleven memorial benches […]

Dan Q
10 Oct 17:45 • Dan Q

[Checkin] Dan Q found GCB19MJ St Ann's Well

This checkin to GCB19MJ St Ann's Well reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. There's some kind of foot race going on today and the well area is heaving with people: spectators lining the roadside are cheering and whooping as the runners barrel past. My partner Ruth and are only in […]

Dan Q
10 Oct 10:18 • Dan Q

[Note] Squirrel Friend

On the window sill of the bar at the hotel where Ruth and I are learning to tango... this morning I made a squirrel friend! At least now I'll have succeeded at something today even if I can't get the hang on not-treading-on-toes!

Dan Q
09 Oct 19:51 • Dan Q

[Note]

The bed in my hotel room tonight is made up for not one, not two, but three occupants. Did they... see me and instantly clock me as polyamorous?

Dan Q
09 Oct 10:42 • Dan Q

[Repost] Firing squad execution to be livestreamed, Pentagon says

The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. I feel physically sick.

Dan Q
09 Oct 08:30 • Dan Q

[Article] Halifax Leaked My Financial Information... (Again)

For the second time in two years, Halifax wrote to me about my credit card... but sent the letter to entirely the wrong person, leaking my personal financial information.

Dan Q
08 Oct 00:48 • Dan Q

[Article] Move the mouse across the screen (Weird Web October)

This year, I'm (slightly) participating in Weird Web October. For today's theme, 'skeuomorphism', I implemented a mouse curser... (not a typo)

Dan Q
07 Oct 18:30 • Dan Q

[Note] That time I got locked-in at the V&A

I just realised that I never shared this anecdote online before - One time, I got locked-in at the V&A Museum after closing-time. I'd been there for a museums & cultural institutions event and I'd probably had a few too many glasses of champagne before I excused myself to return to my hotel. Unfortunately in […]

Dan Q
07 Oct 14:18 • Dan Q

[Note] Ted Lasso S04E10

Fuck you Ted Lasso season 4 finale, I hadn't planned on crying today. 😭

Dan Q
06 Oct 10:27 • Dan Q

[Repost] Weird Web October 2026 (Christopher Kennedy-Nuñez)

I love Weird Web October, and Christopher's off to an amazing start this year: well worth a look at his wacky projects for the month (and trying to find the cat in each one: I've managed!) before you go check out what everybody else who's participating is up to. Also... I might be about to join in!

Dan Q
06 Oct 10:27 • Dan Q

[Repost] We are going to kill “unalive”

Anil Dash is unhappy that "unalive" and other algospeak has become so prevalent and mainstream. I, too, am concerned about what this says about our willingness to censor our speech to speculatively appease the whims of corporations to whom we owe nothing.

Dan Q
05 Oct 18:57 • Dan Q

[Note] F-Day plus 234 [RSS Exclusive!]

234 days since we got flooded out of our house, and it sometimes feels like we'll never get to move back in. Delay after delay, problems with the construction, disputes over the quality of the repair work... and then yet more delays for good measure. Last month, the insurer...