Digital Superpowers, a free book highlighting various FOSS tools
I wrote this intermediate-level book as a showcase of various FOSS, mostly command line tools. I'm a nuclear engineer and found myself teaching other nuclear, mechanical, and electrical engineers these tools again and again, so I wanted to package them into book form. I attempted to make it even broader interest, so it's not just about engineering. In the end, it's a fairly eclectic set of topics. Anyway, after selling for a few years, I just decided to release a slightly updated version of it in full for free. You'll find full HTML, PDF and ePub versions (all built with Sphinx) at the link.
Digital Superpowers, a free book highlighting various FOSS tools launched on March 9, 2024 with 91 votes, #869 of 4,270 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 2 years on.
In plain words
Digital Superpowers is a free intermediate-level book showcasing open-source command-line tools for engineers and general audiences. Written by a nuclear engineer who repeatedly taught these tools to colleagues, the book covers an eclectic mix of topics beyond engineering. Previously sold commercially, it is now available in full at no cost in HTML, PDF, and ePub formats.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
A book explaining how your computer can upgrade your productivity and creativity at work and play.
This book describes and demonstrates powerful but harder-to-discover features on your computer. You'll experience the magic of pattern-driven find/replace, the command line. You'll write a few programs in Python, and glimpse under the hood of a web app. It was originally motivated by undergraduate engineering students asking a technical engineering manager for career advice. All examples use open-source software freely available on Macs, Windows, and Linux, meaning you can get started right away. The book explores computational elements of photography, publishing, music, podcasting, graphic design, movie production, and animation, for both the engineer and the artist. You already own a…from digitalsuperpowers.com
Does a similar job
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Looking to get some feedback from the Hacker News community. I wrote the book with a focus on penetration testers and red teamers, but there are great examples for network admins, developers, and blue team defenders as well. You can pick up a copy for free here through May 19, 2019: https://gumroad.com/l/the_cyber_plumbers_handbook/hackernews... Please note, because it's hosted on Gumroad, it does require an email. If you don't want to give out your actual email, check out an anonymous email service. I give it away to students for free, so if you know of one that…
Free e-book about WebGPU Programming2024 · shi-yan.github.io · ▲471I am excited to announce the launch of my e-book on Graphics/WebGPU programming! This project has consumed much of my spare time, during which I developed various tools to facilitate the publishing process, including a code playground and a static site generator that can reference sample codes. However, I'm feeling burnt out and ready to call it finished, even though it may not feel completely done. Avoiding another abandoned side project has been my primary motivation in reaching this point.
Superpowers2016 · superpowers-html5.com · ▲62D+3D game making for indies. Free and open source, finally.
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Source: Show HN post ↗
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