iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 03/10/2026

@fronteers.bsky.social dark mode was absolutely *excellent* yesterday. It was a fantastic conference with great vibes, talks and wonderful people! I'll be back next year I hope! Also holy shit why did no one tell me how stunning Dordrecht was, wow!

Looking down a canal in Dordrecht, Netherlands. It's stunning, tree lined, old buildings, large gothic church.
What a beautiful city!

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 02/10/2026

Journey to Dordrecht, NL for @fronteers.bsky.social dark mode begins! (I think I shall be quite tired this evening lol)

Night shot of a bus stop in north Edinburgh, lit by streetlights, with Newhaven lighthouse and the lights of Fife in the distance. It's a giving "fuck it's early"

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 31/08/2026

Edinburgh Fringe review #20 The Bob Ross Effect — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Omg this was DELIGHTFUL. A beautiful hour of creativity, Bob Ross appreciation, sharing joy with those around us, and art. This show spoke to me deeper than any other and I love it so much for that #EdFringe www.edfringe.com/tickets/what...

Sarah-Louise Young dressed up as Bob Ross recording a painting show in the style of Bob, live on stage. It's amazing how accurate it looks on the overhead screen!

A self portrait of me done 'blind' with a crayon. It's kinda charming and cute, although my ears are offset about 3cm to the right

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 30/07/2026

film you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. hard mode: no star trek, star wars, lotr, marvel, disney, or ghibli.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 10/07/2026

I don't need to hear this but 100% agree! This was Newhaven Harbour across to Granton and the bridges a couple nights ago

Beautiful sunset looking across from Newhaven Harbour in Edinburgh to Granton. It's a very clear sky with a lovely dark blue to soft orange gradient with clouds catching the light on the horizon. The forth has slightly waves but is fairly calm, reflecting the sunset. You can just about see the Forth bridges in the background if you zoom

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 02/06/2026

Even Outlook is sick of receiving spam emails from Outlook — they've blocked their own IP range for spam lol

Info about an undeliverable email from outlook.com to a business ugin outlook.com for email hosting. The error is "Service unavailable. Spam abuse detected from IP range"

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 28/05/2026

Adam Cafolla on Masto tried it with 'Alistair' and got something even more cursed wtf ohai.social/@adaliabooks...

A screenshot of Google search for the query "how many p's are there in Alistair".

Google's AI overview response is:
There are 2 'p's in the name Alistair:

A - l - i - p - t - o - p

Wait, no! There are actually no 'p's in the name "Alistair" at all.

Let's spell it out:
A - L - I - S - T - A - I - R

There are no 'p's in the word.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 28/05/2026

As I looked upon the screen, a sorrow filled me. For web search was no more, cannibalised by the short-sighted stewards who could not see the damage they caused. As it filled me, a short utterance escaped my lips. "what the ever loving fuck is this" - Alistaiplin Shepepherp, May 2026

Google search for "how many ps are in shepherd". The AI overview responds "There are 3 "p"s in the word "shepherd" (s-h-e-p-e-p-h-e-r-p)."

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 25/05/2026

My coworker today seems to mostly be focusing on biting my toes — I'm not sure what KPI this is improving but she does it very effectively.

A very cute ragdoll cat sitting on a table starting at the camera. She's got incredibly blue eyes, is very fluffy, has dark brown colouration on her head and ears but from the mouth down is white/a light brown

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 16/05/2026

Nice break from the screen for some 🏄

A pro surfer catching a wave at a wave pool near Edinburgh

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 11/05/2026

@viewportconf.org Got a wee typo in your og:description description there! 👀💩

head source code of viewportconf.org, showing the og:description and the fact it has a typo "Liverpoo"

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 08/05/2026

Of course the main reason I go to conferences is to see @letorey.co.uk, the talks are a good bonus!

Alistair and Dave grinning like loons for a photo at the front of the All Day Hey venue. Alistair's wearing a loud flowery jumpsuit, Dave's in a SOTB tee and his trademark red hat and glasses thingymajig

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 08/05/2026

Just home from the wonderful #AllDayHey conference! It was a fantastic day, with some brilliant talks, awesome people speaking and attending, and overall an absolute blast! I was so thankful to be able to speak, especially at the last one. SO much love and thanks to the @heypresents.com team. ❤️

Alistair dressed in a loud flowery jumpsuit gesticulating on stage, with the title card "Bill & Ted's Accessibility adventure" in the background

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 07/05/2026

If you're at @heypresents.com today, come find me and say hi! You won't be able to miss me 😅

I'm wearing an INCREDIBLY LOUD jumpsuit with pink flowers, with my All Day Hey lanyard and posing in my hotel room

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 06/05/2026

Brb just got an email from the boss

Email to me (Alistair Shepherd) today, from a random outlook address. It goes:
"Hi ! I'm Alistair Shepherd Are you in the office right now? Thanks, Alistair Shepherd"

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 06/05/2026

Leeds-bound for @heypresents.com! Time for some slide amends 👀

Silly selfie of me grinning and pointing to Leeds on a electronic train board from Edinburgh

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 31/03/2026

This month my project Async Alpine hit 4yrs old, and about the same time 200k downloads! 📈 It doesn't feel like long ago I went for a swim and had the idea for conditional component loading for Alpine.js and threw something together. If you use Alpine.js check it out: async-alpine.dev

Wiring it up:

Now we set up our component within our HTML and let Async Alpine know where to find the component file:

<div
x-load
x-load-src="/components/my-component.js"
x-data="myComponent('message')"
></div>

In the snippet above, x-load indicates this is an Async component and the x-load-src attribute points to the URL of our component file.

Make sure to add your x-data attribute as you would normally with Alpine.js.

Downloads per year chart for async-alpine between 2022-03-22 and 2026-03-31. Total 218,070 downloads.
2022: 2k
2023: 19k
2024: 40k
2025: 99k
2026: 56k (so far)

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 26/03/2026

6 weeks today I'll be speaking at the wonderful All Day Hey by @heypresents.com in Leeds, with my talk "Bill and Ted's accessibility adventure"! 🎸🤘 Come join us for a *most excellent* day, with some great talks and great people! Tickets & more info: heypresents.com/conferences/...

Hey! All Day. Alistair Shepherd, Lightning Talk
Bill and Ted's accessibility adventure: Accessibility testing for developers
Thursday 7th May 2026, 09:00–17:00 BST, Everyman Cinema, Leeds UK

As Bill and Ted discovered in their excellent adventure, it can be easier to learn through hijinks, trials and practice than through reading. How can we learn from their experience to get better at web accessibility?

With the guidance of Bill and Ted we'll explore the ups and downs I went through teaching accessibility, and why focusing on testing works so well.

heypresents.com/ten. Join us for the final time.
In the background is a photo of me in my natural state — standing in a moor, in outdoor kit and a tech t-shirt, grinning like a loon

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 23/03/2026

Oh and just to be clear this is just for a product card, here's my artist impression of the component in question 😂

Product card wireframe. Has product title, subtitle + category, product image, and 2x sets of Feature+Description. Simple stuff really

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 23/03/2026

Tell me you're a JS developer with no CSS knowledge

HTML snippet with a huge number of div elements and crazy CSS classes like `Page_browse_ingredients_boths_innerloops_innerboxs_innercolumn_inneroverlay_innerdetails_innercustom_innerboths_title_new`

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 01/03/2026

My evidence of the evening provided by @matuzo.at!

Low res black and white selfie of Manuel and Alistair on thermal receipt paper! We're clearly having a lovely time and (at least to me) it's pretty clear I've had a few drinks!

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 27/02/2026

My journey begins for State of the Browser! #Sotb26

Selfie of me on an LNER train, smiling and doing a peace sign. I'm wearing a lovely Columbia fleece and look a lil bit goofy

Train signage board at Edinburgh Waverley to London Kings X at 13:00. In the background is a lovely glass roof with some blue sky

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 20/01/2026

As proof I can still do it! (not looking for any input thanks)

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 20/01/2026

I've taken a break from moving house to enjoy the Scottish ski season whilst I can! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ⛷️ Typically for Cairngorm, it was crap weather but the snow conditions were very good! Had an absolute ball and just about remembered how to do it 😅

I grin at the camera taking a selfie with my full ski kit and goggles on. In the background is Cairngorm's White Lady, with the base station and strathspey behind. The run is complete although a little patchy with some brown!

Looking up from the bottom of the west wall poma, which is really steep and rarely open. No one else is there, and the lift disappears into the clouds in the distance.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 19/01/2026

Aviemore, Scotland this evening! The brightest I've seen it this south in a loooong time.

Northern lights and stars across a rural sky. The lights have a vivid slightly neon green with a pinky red light above. The streak from bottom left to top right and fill the sky.

Northern lights and stars across a rural sky with a handful of houses in the foreground. The lights have a vivid slightly neon green with a pinky red light above. The streak from top left to bottom right and fill the sky.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 01/07/2025

The latest 'official' Shopify theme (Horizon) is such a mess. I've found loads of obvious bugs I've had to patch, and jesus christ the accessibility... yeah just an intentionally empty link here positioned absolutely on top of content. Awful in the year of our lord EAA, Shopify publishes this shit.

Screenshot of a webpage and code sample showing an anchor element with the class 'group-block__link' and no content. It's positioned absolutely above a social media link.
The rest of the code is absolute scenes too, awful div soup.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 29/06/2025

Summer time means homemade strawberry daiquiri time!

Glass of strawberry diaquiri — a red drink with crushed ice — with cocktail making paraphernalia in the background

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 30/05/2025

Fun website mapping what counties in the UK you've been to! Took a bit to try and remember various places I stayed 20 years ago 😅 smstone0.github.io#/uk-map

Map of the UK colour coded by county. The key includes "Lived here", "Stayed here", "Visited here", "Stopped here", "Passed here", and "Never been here". My map is more biased to a big portion of Scotland, and pieces of NI, Wales, Northern England and the South-west. The "Passed here" in the south-east basically is the train lines to London 😅

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 21/05/2025

My copy of the Internet Phone Book arrived and it is DELIGHTFUL! I can't wait to go through and find some cool websites! Here I am under "Play", 📞 81! internetphonebook.net

Close up of the cover of a yellow book: Internet Phone Book. a directory for exploring the vast poetic web. Issue one, 2025

The first page of the "Play" category, centered on "Alistair S.", #81, 163.5kB, alistairshepherd.uk. Description "Absolutely obsessed with mountains"

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 25/04/2025

What a conference venue! My talk at #CityJS isn't until this afternoon but getting prepped now!

Alistair in selfie mode in front of slides and old bookshelves at the Royal Geographical Society!

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 23/04/2025

A little preview for y'all and a bonus sticker for coming to chat after the conf on Friday 😉

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 18/04/2025

In less than a week I'm speaking at City JS conf with my talk "Bill and Ted's Accessibility Adventure"! I'm sp excited for it! It's the debut of a new talk I am so pleased with and a great line-up. Next Friday in London, 30% off tickets: ti.to/cityjsconf-l... #webdev #conference #accessibility

CityJS promo card: "Bill and Ted's accessibility adventure: Accessibility testing for developers" by Alistair Shepherd

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 12/04/2025

Currently listening to live music at the top of Calton hill in the centre of Edinburgh. I've had a rough week but damn this makes it all worth it. So fucking sick 🤘

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 29/03/2025

I'm on my way to State of the Browser, really looking forward and excited for it! Would be great to see folk there, come say hi if you see me! #SotB2025 I also once again have stickers, welcome to anyone who asks! 😅

Alistair grins at the camera. He's a white man with glasses, short broen hair and a beard. He's wearing a colourful blue patterned Patagonia fleece with green highlights

A whole bunch of dev-related stickers. Geese with HTML/JS/CSS flags, floppy disk and broken laptop. Kombucha woman meme React no HTML yes. Git reset undo shit --hard fuck etc. Pirate 11ty. Pride flags as CSS backgrounds.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 06/03/2025

Finally finishing up in Auckland — where I saw a Kiwi!!! Auckland Zoo was great and although I dind't get a great photo it was amazing getting to see Kiwi. I'm so glad I went. I had a day just wandering around the city before my flight home so walked a couple 'domains' and did some museums. (7/8)

View from to top of Mount Eden — a volcano near the centre of Auckland — looking north-east across to Auckland centre, the harbour and the city beyond

A kiwi!!! Not a very good photo mind but it was dark and I had to use long exposure. It's close-up in a dark room at Auckland Zoo with lots of foliage. You can see it's body and beak as it eats but the face is blurred due to movement.

Looking straight up from the bottom of the Auckland Sky Tower to a flawless blue sky. Arty innit

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 06/03/2025

We spent a couple days on the Coromandel peninsula for a beaches and a boat trip snorkelling and to Cathedeal Cove. Then up to Northland, which reminds me so much of Scotland and the hebrides! Bay of Islands, Waitangi treaty grounds and Kerikeri were stops on our way up to Karikari. (6/8)

Cathedral cove in Coromandel, viewed from a boat on the water. It's an archway through a headland with a beach doing through. The water is brilliantly green and loads of people are on the beach and in the cove.

The front of a Maori Marae, which is a sacred gathering house with stunning wooden carvings of faces, people and patterns.

An extremely vivid sunset across a beach and bay, with the cloudy sky lit up orange. A few birds and a person are silhouetted in the foreground

Looking up at Wharepoke falls near Kerikeri. The falls are about 7 metres high, have a small amount of water coming down and are framed really nicely by trees

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 06/03/2025

We stayed in Tāupo for a couple days and went to thermal pools on both days — well needed after Tongariro Rotorua and Paeroa were brief stops, seeing the sulphur pools and the giant L&P bottle. L&P is NZ's national drink and I'm a fan! (5/8)

Looking down on Huka Falls from a bridge as it rushes below violently. Absolutely unbelievable speed ad amount of water!

Rotorua hot springs with steam coming off a small blue lake

Alistair hanging out in a hot spring with very blue water and lots of foliage in the background. He's got his shades on, is grinning, and looks daft

Selfie of Alistair drinking a bottle of L&P — the national drink of New Zealand — in front of a giant concrete L&P bottle

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 06/03/2025

One of our big days was the Tongariro alpine crossing — a 21km and 8hr walk between a few active volcanos. It was stunning, and a huge contrast to the lush landscapes of Kapiti! Steam vents all over the place, beautiful craters and mineral lakes. Fun fact: Ngauruhoe (pic 2) was Mount Doom! (4/8)

Looking from the Tongariro summit down across the Emerald lakes, two stunning blue sulphur lakes. The landscape is very stark — sharp rocks and dark gravel ground. In the foreground is a sandy scree slope that is also the path!

A pretty typical-looking conical volcano with grey and brown sides and a huge crater in the foreground. This is actually Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings movies!

A steam vent in the volcanic landscape with steam just pouring out

The back of Alistair as he walks off to a big volcano in the background. Really he's just showing off his new Cotopaxi bag tbh

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 06/03/2025

Zealandia was amazing, and going to a natural reserve to see endemic birds was one of the things I most wanted to do. Kākā (the large parrot) were everywhere, Tūī made weird but cool noises, Tuatara (not pictured) are a very slow native lizard — generally loads of cool unique animals! (3/8)

A Kākā, which is a pretty large dark feathered New Zealand parrot with a red chest, eats a nut with one foot on a branch

A Tūī sits in a bush, it's small and mostly dark blue. A Tūī is a NZ songbird with a very distinctive call — kinda robotic almost like R2D2

A Kākā taking off from a metal feeding station with a nut in it's beak. It's about to wallop Alistair in the head with one of it's wings.

Giant 'Guess Who' but NZ birds. Taken from one side with 4 birds remaining. On the other side Alistair still has 7 up and is looking very confused

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 06/03/2025

My sister lives on the Kapiti Coast near Wellington, so I flew down into Wellington and spent a few days there. Wellington seems like a really nice city — a lot going on but still relatively small and easy to get to nature! It has a bird sanctuary called Zealandia super close, more below! (2/8)

Stunning landscape of the Kapiti coast from high up, with a long curved beach, still sea and Kapiti Island in the distance

Looking down the track of Wellington cable car at the car descending with Wellington center in the background

Dense green forest/bush around a loch in Zealandia

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 09/12/2024

Everything Everything with a brilliant show at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh! Such a sick venue and what a band...

The band Everything Everything during a song. It's a five man rock band, the lighting is really dramatic and red. The shot is framed with them near the bottom, to show the grand and beautiful ballroom roof above

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 09/11/2024

I really do enjoy Codrops — for a long time a great source for cool web effects. But as an accessibility wonk it drives me slightly nuts! I mean jesus, what the hell is this contrast? Equally inaccessible to everyone because it's fucking impossible to read

Screenshot of a Codrops demo on Android with brown text on a brown background

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 08/11/2024

I craft! Currently doing sticker making, geographical pen plotter art, origami and papercraft. I'm very bad at sticking to one thing so switching when I get bored!

Framed pen plotter print showing topographical ridges of the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland

Pen plotter prints of Mars landmarks with watercolour backgrounds

Selection of web-related stickers including pride flags, 11ty, untitled geese, git and react ones

Close-up of Potala Palace papercraft model

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