Dan Q

I'm Dan Q (he/him). I've spent the 26+ years creating and writing online.

I work at Automattic and 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. Don't be an arse.

Photograph of Dan, his ponytail hanging over the shoulder of his black t-shirt, smiling from behind his beard and waving to the camera.

  • Feed Readers Beat Doomscrolling

    If you're dodging news media because the alternative is catastrophic doomscrolling... perhaps you ought to be using a feed reader? It's a much healthier way to keep up with the Web. Read more →

  • WebDX: Does More Mean Better?

    I like the work that the WebDX Community Group have been doing, but I find myself asking: are we at risk of implying that giving the Web 'more' features invariably makes it 'better'? Read more →

  • Work Slippers

    Last month, the dog ate my slippers, and in the week it took me to replace them my work productivity took a dip. Coincidence? Nope! They were my 'work slippers', and it turns out I needed them! Read more →

  • A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

    Right after I finished A Psalm for the Wild-Built, I began reading its sequel A Prayer for the Crown-Shy and... it's also wonderful. It takes a different-but-similar approach to the philosophy of identity and purpose, and the story provides a deeper look into Dex's world, but it's still a familiar-feeling continuation of a beautiful story that's comforting and sweet. Read more →

  • AI vs The Expert

    Inspired by an 11-year old comedy sketch, I asked a GenAI to solve an unsolvable programming problem... and (for at least some models) it failed in exactly the way I anticipated: claiming to be able to solve it and delivering code that just... didn't. What does this teach us about AI trustworthiness for problems that might be solvable, but for which the human operator doesn't have sufficient comprehension to verify? Read more →

  • A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

    While I've been ill I read A Psalm for the Wild-built by Becky Chambers, which had been on my reading list for a while. It's a comforting and compelling story about purpose and identity in an environmentally-conscious utopia, and it's flipping awesome. Read more →

  • OpenStreetMap rocks (especially on foot)

    OpenStreetMap blows Google Maps out of the water for walkers and also for if you're trying to find a particular-named house in a rural area. I'm not saying never to use Google Maps (there's plenty of things it's the king at): but maybe consider giving OpenStreetMap a go next time you need a digital map? Read more →

  • The Blind Piemaker

    Ruth and I spiced-up this week's date night with a challenge from a mysterious book: Ruth, blindfolded, baked pies while I instructed her only in non-verbal ways. It was challenging, stressful, and... pretty fun! (Also we got to eat pie.) Read more →

  • WordPress to ClassicPress

    A few weeks ago I switched this blog to ClassicPress, a fork of WordPress. Here's a deep dive into how (and why) I did it, as well as a look into what my experience so-far has been with this (mostly-)cut-down version of the world's most popular CMS. Read more →

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  • Kebab Menu Accessibility

    Hanging with my team at our meetup in Istanbul, this lunchtime I needed to do some accessibility testing... Read more →

  • Found GCB3FAQ The Grand Bazaar fossils

    I’m visiting Istanbul to meet with colleagues, but we took some time off from our meetings and work this afternoon to come and get lost in the Grand Bazaar. While browsing the amazing diversity of stalls I found myself staring at the floors, which are made of the same kind of limestone as my kitchen […] Read more →

  • Post: Istanbul

    Istanbul is… sprawling. I stood on this footbridge, over the water, to try to comprehend the scale of the place, but it’s just massive. The hills, which help the tall buildings to tower over you no matter where you stand, only serve to exaggerate the effect. Quite the spectacle of human settlement. × Read more →

  • Did not find GC4Z033 WOW - Walking On Water

    Gave up after an extended hunt, aided by the spoiler photo. All that’s hidden here is a discarded one food container. Hoping to find one of CO’s other nearby caches during my time here in Istanbul, this week. Read more →

  • Note #26131

    Next stop, Istanbul!*

    * not actually next stop; I've got a bus, a walk, a bus, and a plane left on this journey yet! Read more →

  • Note #26129

    Good morning, Oxfordshire! A freezing-fog farewell for me, this morning, as I get up early to catch a series of buses to the airport. × Read more →

  • There are few moments of self-satisfaction so great as accidentally running a bath to both the perfect depth and the ideal temperature, after forgetting you'd started drawing the water at all. Read more →

  • Post: Dog Tired

    Woke up. Had a walk. Now it must be time for a well-earned nap. 💤 Read more →

  • Post: More castles and mazes

    Made a little progress on the game idea I'd been experimenting with. The idea is to do find a series of orthogonal (like a rook in chess!) moves that land on every square exactly once each before returning to the start, dodging walls and jumping pits.

    But the squares have arrows (limiting the direction you can move out of them) or numbers (specifying the distance you must travel from them).

    Every board is solvable, starting from any square. There'll be a playable version to use on your device (with helpful features like "undo") sometime soon, but for now you can give them a go by hand, if you like this kind of puzzle! Read more →

  • Post: Cherry blossom

    When I was a child, we had a cherry blossom tree in our garden. In late Spring, as the flowers began to wilt, I'd enjoy shaking it to make flutters of pink confetti rain down around me.

    This tree, though, spotted on the school run this morning, is very early in its bloom. It feels like a happy reminder that Spring is beginning.

  • I noticed that automated emails from Steam weren't doing alt-text very well. Some image links had no or inadequate alt-text. (Note that Steam don't support opting for plain text rather than HTML emails.)

    I'm fortunate enough to depend upon alt-text never-to-rarely. But I prefer not to load remote images, so I still benefit from alt-text.

    I filled out a support request to Steam layout out the specific examples I'd found of where they weren't doing very well, and stressing why it's (morally, legally, etc.) important to do better.

    And you know what: they quietly fixed it. When I received an email today telling me that something on my wishlist is on sale, it had reasonably-good alt-text throughout. Neat.

  • Voice of America

    In light of Trump's attempts to axe Voice of America, because it is, he claims, "anti-Trump" (and because he's so insecure that he can't stand the thought that taxpayer dollars might go to anybody who disagrees with him in any way, for any reason), I've produced a suggested update to the rules of Twilight Struggle for the inevitable 9th printing.

  • Found GCAP4MF Church Micro 15127...Curbridge

    I had an errand to run in the Windrush Place estate on the other side of the A40, and the geopup needed a walk, so I opted to park the car over in Witney so my four-legged friend and I could walk the remaining way over to Curbridge and find this cache. Read more →

  • Post: Castles and mazes

    Possibly I'm a little late for the "casual daily puzzle game" party. (Did Wordle already get invented in this timeline; I forget?)
    I think there's something in an idea I've been toying with. Bring on the weekend, when I can throw some brainpower at the frontend code!

  • It's not cheating if you write the video game solver yourself

    Robert Heaton wrote a solver to help him crack a puzzle in a video game, and I'm 100% behind this as a valid approach to playing single-player games, if it's more fun for you than the alternatives. Read more →

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