So, Richard McManus asked me about how ActivityPub supports cross-server usage. As an example use case, let's say a user with the account eric@social.example wants to comment on a photo by dionne@photos.example. In this scenario, Eric would go to the page https://photos.example/users/dionne/photos/1 and enter a comment. How would that work? I can talk about how … Continue reading Cross-server Interactions in ActivityPub
Bytedance: Add ActivityPub to Tiktok Notes
Bytedance yesterday launched a social app called Tiktok Notes in Canada and Australia. I tried it out, since I live in Canada. I was able to log in using my Tiktok account to log in. The user interface has preview blocks. It was pretty easy to upload a couple of photos and add some text. … Continue reading Bytedance: Add ActivityPub to Tiktok Notes
Responses to Rabble on ActivityPub
My friend Evan Henshaw-Plath wrote recently about some concerns with ActivityPub. I want to go over his concerns one by one and give some assessment of how accurate and important I think they are. Rabble's words in italics; my responses in just normal text. User identities are tied to a server. This is only partially … Continue reading Responses to Rabble on ActivityPub
Cover Animal For ActivityPub Book
One of the first things people ask you when you say you're writing a book for O'Reilly Media is: "What animal is going to be on the cover?" O'Reilly books are famous for their lovely animal drawings, in rich detail, either in black-or-white or colour. Books are sometimes referred to by their cover animal, like … Continue reading Cover Animal For ActivityPub Book
Tiktok and the Fediverse
Today, the United States House of Representatives voted to require the Chinese company Bytedance to sell its stake in the popular service Tiktok. If the company does not comply, the bill would ban the use of Tiktok in the US. The bill still needs to pass the Senate and get delivered to President Biden's desk, … Continue reading Tiktok and the Fediverse
Early Access to O’Reilly Media ActivityPub Book
So, I've had two good pieces of news for the ActivityPub book from O'Reilly Media. The first one is that I finished the 6th of 7 chapters this week (on using and creating ActivityPub extensions). It was a gruelling chapter that I had to reorganise a couple of times to clarify, but I'm so happy … Continue reading Early Access to O’Reilly Media ActivityPub Book
The Gamliel Plan
On October 7, 2023, fighters from Hamas invaded Israel and killed around 400 soldiers and around 800 civilians. They raped, injured and kidnapped hundreds of others. By October 13, the Intelligence Ministry of Israel had produced a plan for how to deal with these attacks. Led by the Likud Party member Gila Gamliel, the document … Continue reading The Gamliel Plan
Another chapter done!
Just a few minutes ago I sent my development editor Sarah the news that I'd finished another chapter of the ActivityPub book I'm writing for O'Reilly Media. This was the hardest one so far -- the one on the ActivityPub federation protocol that connects different servers on the fediverse. I'm now at 5 out of … Continue reading Another chapter done!
Taking sides in a genocide
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire collectively blamed the millions of Armenians in their territory for attacks by Armenian resistance fighters. Around 1M non-combatants were killed by the Ottoman military -- in many cases, by forced marches through the Syrian desert without food and water. Denouncing this genocide doesn't make you an Armenian resistance … Continue reading Taking sides in a genocide
Leave the World Behind
I've been prompted by the Netflix algorithm pretty aggressively to watch Leave the World Behind, the 2023 apocalypse film -- it said I was a 98% match for the movie. I've taken it in over the last couple of days, and I have to grudgingly admit that the algorithm was correct; I really liked it. … Continue reading Leave the World Behind
Evan Prodromou's Blog 