A podcast nobody asked for about things only Dan cares about. A spin-off of the blog of Dan Q, who's been making random stuff on the Internet since the 1990s.
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Based on an original blog post at: https://danq.me/2026/08/06/jpeg/ Fighting about the correct way to pronounce GIF is so last decade. Let's fight about how to pronounce JPEG. 00:00 Intro 00:25 GIF 01:25 JPEG 02:43 Outro
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) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys 12:31 Outro
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 Outro
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 skateboarding trick) 04:38 A history of skateboarding technology and tricks 07:50 Mākaha, Kāne’āki Heiau and other heiau 09:04 Necker Island 12:13 Outro
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 Omul and Raskolotka 03:52 Baikal Deep Water Neutrino Telescope (BDWNT) 05:15 Outro
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 wine-drinking party 05:20 Ancient Greek yo-yos 05:47 The modern yo-yo 06:50 The Eskimo yo-yo and other articles 08:15 Outro
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 War 05:09 What caused the USS Maine to sink? 06:26 Declaration of War 07:13 The (Mock) Battle of Manilla 09:00 Aftermath 10:03 Outro
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 old... 05:13 When I start a new Ruby project, I feel like I'm eleven years old... 07:45 When I hear "In Yer Face", I feel like I'm thirteen years old... 13:23 When I see a personal Web page, I feel li
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 almost two decades DOES appear my birth certificate. Fuck the haters. 00:00 Intro 00:26 Actually, Yes! (that IS what my birth certificate says) 04:59 Outro
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 Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, extract from Chapter 2 03:17 1979: The price of a pint of beer 05:12 1990: The price of a pint of beer 06:17 1998: The £2 Coin, or Original Beer Token 08:00 2023: Beer
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 it in Google Search results. WTF, Google? 00:00 Intro 00:31 Google shared my phone number! 00:53 [Self-ad!] Plug for volunteering opportunities at Three Rings CIC 01:08 Unexpected phone calls 02:06 "W
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 slippers 04:28 My 100th blog post of this year! 05:07 Outro
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 might be solvable, but for which the human operator doesn't have sufficient comprehension to verify? 00:00 Intro 00:21 AI versus The Expert 02:45 gpt-4o's attempt 04:52 Claude 2.7 Sonnet's attempt 06:2
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 Psalm for The Wild-Built 05:20 Outro
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 First Christmas 04:17 The Meteor Strike of Bethlehem 04:27 Adviser #1 05:09 Theological Absurdity 06:17 Biting on and not letting go 06:51 Thrown out of class 07:09 Outro
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 liveblogging, plus a few extra thoughts. 00:00 Intro 00:31 International Volunteer Day 02:31 Bugfixing mail merges 04:08 Code reviews 04:45 New server infrastructure 06:16 Sorting the post 07:09 Cont
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... 04:28 Discovering that Fiona is mildly claustrophobic 04:51 "...something beginning with N." 05:34 "...something beginning with S." 07:03 Three hours later, and the arrival of our rescuer 07:46 A secon
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-completed short story 03:50 My influences 04:37 My intentions 05:05 How conspiracy theorists ruined my concept by making it not-funny-anymore 06:52 Outro
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 Monster Munch already, right? 02:36 Restating the Theory 03:23 Worst ASMR Audio You Ever Heard 03:50 Results 04:10 Outro 04:31 Post-outro sounds of Dan continuing to eat a packet of crisps
