Tag Archives: language

Orange

A variety of shades of orange.

Which orange came first: the colour or the fruit? Dan answers this chicken-and-egg question, and then muses on the abstract nature of colours in linguistics. Continue reading

The Worst Joke I Ever Heard

An opened food tin.

After refusing to share it for over twenty years, Dan performs his first (and only) re-telling of the worst joke he ever heard. Continue reading

Spee Kin Dork Weans Anguish

Darn desk covers eh Anguish languish, you sing eat toucan fusion Hanoi owl office fronds. Continue reading

HDMI Virus, or How I Became An Old Person

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HDMI cables are over-marketed at the best of times. But Dan’s just discovered one that goes one step further, claiming to do the fundamentally impossible. And then, like an old person, he writes an irate letter. Continue reading

The Nontheist Glossary

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Dan talks about what the word “nontheism” means to him, as an umbrella term for a whole heap of other exciting words. He then goes on to criticise how he sees the word “nontheist” used today, in what he sees as further misuse of an already-confusing word. Continue reading

Northern Radio

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While standing in the shower and listening to a local radio station, in Lancashire, Dan considers the impact of moving around the country on his perception of different dialects. Continue reading

Fonts of the Ancients

Man standing on two giraffes.

Dan adds UTF-8 support to the CMS that powers the Bodleian Libraries’ websites, and ponders how he’d justify the scope of Unicode to a (hypothetical) time-traveling scribe from ancient Egypt. Continue reading

The Crack

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Dan defines esotericism for a man who’s repairing his floorboards. That is all. Continue reading

The Week of Balls

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Dan says the word “balls” a lot, statistically speaking, as he deals with a broken boiler (at home) and a disfunctional server (at work). Continue reading

The Modern Programmer’s Dictionary

In the field of  software development, there’s always something new to learn. Whether it’s a new language, framework, API or methodology, your need to study is never through – even if you’re a FORTRAN developer. But one of the more esoteric areas of your education… Continue reading