About

I hate introductions, so I'll keep this short...

These days I'm Stuart to a fair number of people, but those who can wrap their heads around the concept call me Denyer, which is my preference. It leads to much less confusion in groups of people, stuck in secondary school and hey, it works for Endeavour Morse.

Likes: quotes, tea, music with guitars, books, comics, server side code, Transformers, soixante-neuf, science fiction, language, natural redheads — most especially Alyson Hannigan.

Dislikes: the vast majority of poetry, religious fundamentalists, ignorance, bigotry, TV, schedules, people who are artificial and/or superficial, closed file formats, cold weather.

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About this site...

Nothing particularly unusual, although I don't use prefab software for blogging. I'd say I'm reasonably aware of standards and accessiblity issues, whilst far from being an expert. The site's been around in one form or another since 1999, domained since 2003.

I like PHP, which can be a horribly insecure scripting language if you're unaware of some common pitfalls, but lends itself to rapid prototyping and is by now ubiquitous on hosts.

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Things people have said about me...

It should go without saying this is a thoroughly random and rather biased selection.

From leaving books, etc.

"make sure you call me when you're a millionaire." —Sally McCann, 1992

"stop staring at me cos I'm not that strange!" —Rachel Jones, 1992

"Denyer! Still not talking to you. I love Pete." —Catherine Barrett, 1992

"Good luck and burn in hell you smart arsed git." —James Houghton, 1992

"you're a twat really aren't you!" —Vicky Portman, 1997

[randomly over several pages] "For fuck's sake, Denyer!" —Pete Williams, 1997

"Trouble." —Sarah-Jane Homer, quite a lot

"You can have the apple back in Jan—you'll thank me when next we have a fire drill!" —Gemma Bell, 1999

[left on a PDA] "u r v sillie 2 leev ziz in ze rooom wair Ie iz." —Ellie Ames, 2003

"I will always remember your huge collection of animal t-shirts, your claim that I have hair like a Thundercat, and how much you look like Zorro." —Jenny Kelly, 2003

"Ma n pa are questioning how you managed to break your glasses. Your cover story is you were attacked by a bear, got it?" —my sister, 2007

Feedback from university essays

"Your prose style is sometimes rather too condensed and self-enclosed—I am sure that you know what you mean, but your meaning isn't always clear to another reader."
—Lyn Pyckett

"while the discussion is generally focused and insightful, you have a tendency to make enormous, complex and sometimes controversial claims without explicitly showing how and why you arrive at your conclusions." —Christoph Lindner

"you are dangerously near to sententiousness." —Patricia Duncker

"you need, now, to filter your desire to say everything, at once, in all sentences"
—Shaun Matthews

That last quote's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received. Structure is good.