Épisodes

  • The Beer Token

    The Beer Token
    Sep 4 2025
    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 now more likely to be £5 than £4
    08:30 An opportunity
    09:10 The £5 Coin, or a New Beer Token?
    10:20 Would a politician support this?
    10:45 Outro
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    11 min
  • Hexagonal Cheese Scones

    Hexagonal Cheese Scones
    Aug 28 2025
    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
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    2 min
  • Google Shared My Phone Number!

    Google Shared My Phone Number!
    May 21 2025
    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 "Where did you find this number?"
    02:33 Finding myself on Google
    03:25 How Google first got my phone number
    04:47 The second time this month a company leaked my PII!
    05:02 "Did I click the wrong button on a popup?" and sarcasm
    05:42 Outro
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    6 min
  • Delivery Songs

    Delivery Songs
    Mar 29 2025
    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
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    7 min
  • Work Slippers

    Work Slippers
    Mar 14 2025
    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
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    5 min
  • AI vs The Expert

    AI vs The Expert
    Feb 28 2025
    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
    06:25 What's the point of all this?
    08:16 Outro
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    9 min
  • A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

    A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
    Feb 27 2025
    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
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    6 min
  • God’s Adviser

    God’s Adviser
    Feb 6 2025
    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
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    7 min