Dan Q - The Podcast

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/06/09/fn-keys/ Sometimes keyboards come with a 'Fn' key that allows some of their context-sensitive keys to do particular general-purpose functions. Sometimes these are implemented in careful, considerate and configurable ways... and other times they just make me want to throw the keyboard out of the window. 00:00 Intro 00:23 I Hate (Most) Ke...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/05/27/wp25-carl-person/ As I continue my 25-consecutive-days-of-Wikipedia, today's random article of the day was Carl Person, a lawyer with an interesting history. 00:00 Intro 00:22 Wikipedia's 25th Birthday 01:01 Carl Person 05:39 Outro

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/05/25/wp25-cirrothauma-murrayi/ Today, Wikipedia introduced me to a mysterious deep-dwelling octopus. So cool! 00:00 Intro 00:25 Wikiedpia's 25th Birthday 01:01 Cirrothauma Murrayi 03:36 Aside: pluralisation of octopus 04:23 Octopus eyes 07:11 Outro

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/05/21/wp25-yousuf-karsh/ Wikipedia is 25 years old this year, and in celebration of that I found my way via a Mercurial crater to the article about Yousuf Karsh, one of the most-important portrait photographers of the 20th century. 00:00 Intro 00:20 Wikipedia's 25th Birthday 01:03 Karsh (crater) 02:33 Yousuf Karsh 04:40 Karsh's life 06:36 Out...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/05/20/wp25-necker-island/ Today, thanks to Wikipedia, I learned a lot about a miniscule Hawaiian island with an interesting cultural and archaeological history... after I found my way there from a random page about a hip hop album! 00:00 Intro 00:34 Wikipedia's 25th Birthday 01:08 Here & Now (Pop Shuvit album) 02:06 Pop Shove-It (the skateboa...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/05/19/wp25-lake-baikal/ Today's random Wikipedia article was about a kind of seal that lives only in Lake Baikal in Siberia, which turns out to be a really, really big lake. Like: it's got about a fifth of the world's fresh water in it; that's how big it is! 00:00 Intro 00:21 Wikipedia's 25th Birthday 01:03 Baikal Seals and Lake Baikal 03:11...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/05/17/wp25-yo-yo/ This year is Wikipedia's 25th birthday, and as part of the celebrations I learned who Marcus Koh is... but that wasn't remotely as interesting as learning about the long history of the yo-yo! 00:00 Intro 00:28 Wikipedia's 25th Birthday 01:12 Marcus Koh and the yo-yo 02:09 The long history of the yo-yo 03:10 An Ancient Greek...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/05/15/wp25-rail-in-indonesia/ Wikipedia is celebrating its 25th birthday, and today I'm celebrating by discovering what the Argo Wilis is, along with a dive into a rabbithole about rail transport in Indonesia! 00:00 Intro 00:25 Wikipedia's 25th Birthday 01:18 Rail Transport in Indonesia 07:00 Outro

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/05/14/wp25-wesley-merritt/ Wikipedia is celebrating its 25th birthday, and somehow as a result I ended up reading about Wesley Merritt, who was the shortest-lived Governor-General of the Philippines! 00:00 Intro 00:25 Wikipedia's 25th Birthday 01:24 Colonial History of the Philippines 02:55 Wesley Merritt 03:57 Prelude to the Spanish-American...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/01/15/nostalgia-music-and-computers/ It turns out that I get nostalgic about technology in the same way as I get nostalgic about music. Here's some things that take me right back to being nine, eleven, thirteen and fifteen years old. 00:00 Intro 00:24 Nostalgia, Music, and Computers 00:46 When I hear "Dawnbreaker", I feel like I'm nine years...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/01/09/why-i-am-so-tired/ After dusting off and modernising a joke I first read in a chain email from 1996, I can tell you conclusively that the reason that I'm tired is because I'm overworked. 00:00 Intro 00:32 Why I'm So Tired 01:59 That leaves... 02:14 History of the joke

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2025/12/18/actually-yes/ There's a certain kind of person who, upon hearing my unusual name, immediately asks whether that's what's on my birth certificate (with an underlying implication that it's not my 'real' name, whatever that means, if it isn't). Well: as of this week, thanks to a quirk in Scottish law, the name I've used every day for almos...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2025/09/04/the-beer-token/ Thanks to the success of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, we can never forget quite how much beer you used to be able to get for a fiver (plus an exceptionally-generous tip). Nowadays, it'll get you one pint, if you're lucky... and that offers us an exciting opportunity... 00:00 Intro 00:37 The Beer Token 01:17 Hit...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2025/08/28/hexagonal-cheese-scones/ A poem about the shape of a scone. 00:00 Intro 00:30 Hexagonal Cheese Scones 01:13 Outro

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2025/05/21/google-shared-my-phone-number/ When people started calling my personal mobile number with questions about a voluntary organisation I'm involved with, I was confused: we weren't sharing that number. It turns out that Google had decided to take the number I used to verify my identity for Google Business some years prior and start putting...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2025/03/29/delivery-songs/ In the UK, ice cream vans are perhaps the only delivery service with their own jingle. Turkey and India are WAY ahead of us in this regard, and I've got a few ideas about how we fix that... 00:00 Intro 00:20 Ice cream vans 01:14 Water, propane, and vegetables 03:37 Other delivery services? 06:34 Outro

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2025/03/14/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! 00:00 Intro 00:21 Work Slippers 00:58 Routines are important 02:19 Work slippers as part of my routine 04:10 A new pair of slippe...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2025/02/28/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 m...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2025/02/27/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. 00:00 Intro 00:25 Micro-review of A Psa...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2025/02/06/gods-adviser/ When I was a young child I took part in a school nativity play, and was so insistent about picking holes in the theological inconsistencies implied by the script that I had to be expelled from the classroom. Here's how it went down. 00:00 Intro 00:23 Nativity Plays 01:51 Adorable or Unbearable 02:48 A Different Spin on The...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2024/12/05/ivd-2024/ It's International Volunteer Day, and thanks to being on sabbatical I got to spend most of the day volunteering with Three Rings. I liveblogged everything I got up to in a series of notes to try to shine a light on what volunteering (in a developer/devops role) with Three Rings can look like; this post is a summary of all that...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2024/11/29/stuck/ About twenty years ago, I spent three hours playing I-Spy in a broken-down elevator. And in doing so, I learned two things about my friend Fiona. 00:00 Intro 00:25 Stuck In A Lift 01:36 How to break/brake a lift 02:08 Getting stuck in a lift with my friend Fiona 03:35 What reminded me of this anecdote? 04:03 A four hour wait... 0...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2024/11/16/fiction/ There's a short story that I tried on-and-off to write, but I've now given up on it. The concepts it makes light of all feel a bit too close-to-home, as conspiracy theorists increasingly migrate from the 'harmless nutjob' to the 'dangerous political leader' category. 00:00 Intro 00:43 Sadder Than Fiction 01:38 My never-complete...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2024/10/24/munch/ I like pickled onions. And I like the vinegar flavouring and the onion flavouring from salt & vinegar and cheese & onion crisps, respectively. So I ought to like pickled onion crisps too. So why don't I... and can I rationally persuade my brain that it's wrong? 00:00 Introduction 00:26 I ought to enjoy Pickled Onion Mon...

Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2024/10/14/firsts-and-lasts/ I was listening to the bats flying silently above me while I watched the Perseids, the other month. When was the last time I was actually capable of hearing their echolocation? I simply can't remember, because it didn't feel significant at the time. 00:00 Intro 00:24 Firsts and Lasts 03:47 Outro