Terence Eden
British open-standards and open-source technologist, formerly of the UK Government Digital Service and the W3C Advisory Committee; blogs at shkspr.mobi.
ActivityPub by Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou has the unenviable task of making the whole ecosystem easy to understand. Thankfully he does that well. Things are logically laid out, there are comprehensive descriptions of even the most obscure parts of the spec, and it builds up nicely from the fundamentals.
on shkspr.mobi · 1 Sep 2026
An Immense World by Ed Yong
This is a funny, heartfelt, and (perhaps overly) thorough book. It will gleefully send you down rabbit holes
on shkspr.mobi · 21 Aug 2026
Coding Literacy by Annette Vee
This is a disappointing and frustrating book - not least because it so nearly hits the mark. The subtitle is "How Computer Programming Is Changing Writing" - but it never gets close to discussing that topic, let alone deeply examining it.
on shkspr.mobi · 13 Aug 2026
The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error' by Sidney Dekker
This is such a useful book. It makes the case that there's no such thing as "human error" - instead most catastrophes are caused by system issues, misaligned incentives, and unrealistic processes. You are not the custodian of an otherwise safe system that you need to protect from erratic human beings.
on shkspr.mobi · 3 Aug 2026
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
It is mostly pretty good fun. The tropes are goofy, the gore is splattertastic and only rarely ventures into torture porn, the villains are suitably campy, and the wisecracking sidekick doesn't become too annoying.
on shkspr.mobi · 26 Jul 2026
A City on Mars by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith
They excel at making the dull delightful. There are a lot of big and serious facts to get through, but they have a gift for communicating them simply and eloquently. I just wish they'd've come to a different conclusion.
on shkspr.mobi · 18 Jul 2026
The Great When by Alan Moore
It is an epic tale full of rogues and reprobates. The story is excellent even though the plot follows a fairly basic structure. Although set up to be a series, it is a satisfying stand-alone tale.
on shkspr.mobi · 18 Jun 2026
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