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 →

The Obelisk Gate

I finished the Obelisk Gate today; it's book 2 of NK Jamison's Broken Earth series. I want to write some notes here about the book to cement them in my mind. Spoilers ahead. I mentioned on Mastodon that the series had been pretty striking for me. It's the story of a future (probably) world in … Continue reading The Obelisk Gate →

Two more chapters

I finished two more chapters this week in my book about ActivityPub. Chapter 2 is about Activity Streams 2.0, the social network data standard we use for ActivityPub. Appendix 1 is a reference for all the types in Activity Streams. Next up is Chapter 4, federation protocol, and Chapter 5, extensions. I'm on a tight … Continue reading Two more chapters →

Big Fedi, Small Fedi

As I often do, I made a poll on the fediverse about two concepts I am interested in: Big Fedi versus Small Fedi. Although I think these are interesting topics, I couldn't come up with exact summations of what the "Big Fedi" and "Small Fedi" positions are. So, I wanted to write down what I … Continue reading Big Fedi, Small Fedi →

First two chapters turned in

After a couple of months of deep writing, I've just turned in my first two chapters for the ActivityPub book for O'Reilly Media. Finn the Human from Adventure Time saying Yussssss It's been a really tough process for me. I've never written a book, or really any text of this size, before, so learning how … Continue reading First two chapters turned in →