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Reposted by Alistair Shepherd

Scott Riley @scott.is · 1d

there are basically only two positions in the debate about AI.
1. i do not use it to generate things that strip the humanity out of anything that could bring joy
2. i use it. i am a big fuckin baby living in fear of epiphany and I suck at everything i am a huge baby and i am a sad little baby man

Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 1d

There are basically only two positions in the debate about AI.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.

Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 5h

This is great fun Alex, you killed it. The Cursor pointing and grunting! 🔥

Looking forward to the next one!

Reposted by Alistair Shepherd

🐴 Alex Trost @trost.codes · 22h

This is the most personal project I’ve made in years.

I launched a new show called The Callback. It’s weekly web dev news with my dumb humor sprinkled on top.

If this pilot does well I get to make more, so watching, liking, and sharing would be DEEPLY appreciated 💜

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMOD...

Remix needs to fix this…

YouTube video by Prismic

www.youtube.com

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 1d

"ChatGPT told me we should replace our robots.txt with this when I asked it why it wasn't recommending our business"

"Our AI SEO company wants you to implement this schema for forums on our product pages"

How about you get a bucket for all the brain leaking out your ears?

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 1d

It's been a great — and by great I mean fucking appalling — day for clients taking SEO advice from AI and trying to implement all sorts of crap with no critical thinking 🥴

(examples in reply)

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Reposted by Alistair Shepherd

Piccalilli @piccalil.li · 4d

It's here. JavaScript for Everyone is now available to…everyone!

The amount of effort and experience packed into this course is unbelievable and we know you're going to love it.

Get yours for £189, down from £249, for 2 weeks and super-charge your career prospects

piccalilli.link/js4e-launch-...

JavaScript for Everyone

A high quality, expansive written course that will elevate your JavaScript skills to a level you never thought was achievable.

piccalilli.link

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Reposted by Alistair Shepherd

Dave Letorey @letorey.co.uk · 5d

Great words by @matthiasott.com, someone I'm delighted to call a friend

> the Web isn’t just a bunch of servers and websites. The Web is the people building it. The Web is community.

matthiasott.com/notes/the-li...

The Lifeblood of the Web · Matthias Ott

Matthias Ott is an independent user experience designer and web design engineer from Stuttgart, Germany. He also teaches Interface Prototyping at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design.

matthiasott.com

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Reposted by Alistair Shepherd

Katie Fenn @katiefenn.bsky.social · 8d

Hey #WDC2025, if you want a talk to watch on the way home, my talk from @heypresents.com was published today!

I make some Daft Punk with a MIDI controller and a web browser.

Hey! Presents @heypresents.com · 8d

Not only that, but we managed to interrupt a movie playing in the screen next door with the volume of the demo. It certainly woke us all up before heading off to the social. It sounded incredible! Watch the talk and find out more here:

heypresents.com/talks/around...

Around the wwworld: Web MIDI, Web AUDIO and what the web does best

So, you don't use the Web Audio and Web MIDI APIs in your day job - does that mean they have nothing important to tell us about the nature of the Web? Think again! Katie Fenn takes us on a tour of the...

heypresents.com

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · 9d

I'm down in Bristol over the next couple of days for Web Dev Conf! Super excited for it and looking forward to seeing all my web pals! ❤️

I'm there from 7–8pm this evening if anyone is also around and wants to grab food/a drink together?

webdevconf.com
@webdevconf.com
#webdevconf

WDC2025 - October 10 2025, Watershed, Bristol, UK

WDC is the web conference based in Bristol, taking place in autumn each year. With great speakers and attendees alike.

webdevconf.com

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Aug 17

I too wish ill on JK Rowling, I hope she keeps accidentally stepping on upturned plugs.
And that Bluesky mods pull their heads out their arse.

(would encourage others to do the same)

⭐️ Fio the Wah! ⭐️ 🔜 FWA @fiofirefox.com · Aug 16

Oh, good…

Nice to see how the “new” Bluesky Moderation is being handled.

A screenshot of a Community post from Jessie Gender.

“Gotta laugh to keep from being pissed - my Bluesky account got suspended - presumably because I did a post saying "I also wish ill to JK Rowling" in response to and solidarity with another trans person getting her account suspended for saying the same. So that's the state of things on Bluesky nowadays. It's ok though, JK Rowling can still actively use her money to harm trans people and also get a multibillion dollar tv series, don't worry!”

Below her text is a partial screencap from BlueSky moderation which reads:

Hi there,
A Bluesky account you control (@jessiegender.bsky.social) has engaged in activity that violates our community guidelines for violent or threatening speech. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
• Threats of violence or physical harm: This includes threats or encouragement of violence against individuals, groups, institutions, or the general public.
• Incitement of self-harm or suicide: Content that encourages self-harm or suicide.
• Wishes of harm: Expressions of a desire for harm directed at a specific person or group.
In addition, users may not use Bluesky to break the law or cause harm to others. All users must be treated with respect.

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Reposted by Alistair Shepherd

Katie Fenn @katiefenn.bsky.social · Jul 26

The first reported effects of the bill was the de-listing of LGBTQ+ resources from the Reddit search.

Not only are they trying to stop queer kids from growing up, they’re doing it in the name of our “safety”. The subtext is that trans kids don’t get murdered for being trans if they’re cis.

FreeLinkophant sHELLey B Woke - Living Saint of Purity🏳️‍⚧️🖤💜🤍 💛 @shelleybwoke.bsky.social · Jul 11

It absolutely guts me that one of the "faces" of the UK censorship act is a trans girl who was murdered for who she was.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Brianna Ghey’s mother hits out at potential watering down of Online Safety Bill

Bill could reportedly be softened as part of US-UK trade deal

www.independent.co.uk

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 25

For anyone in the Edinburgh area next Tuesday I'll be at the Edinburgh IndieWeb meetup: events.indieweb.org/2025/07/home...

We meet the last Tuesday each month, and discuss the web, personal sites, blogging and tech in general.

It may just be me as we've got a few absences this month, come chat!

Homebrew Website Club Edinburgh

events.indieweb.org

Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 25

I'm on on the Ubiquity UniFi system — got one of their routers and a few WiFi nodes.
It's a bit technical to set up compared to other systems but once you do it's rock solid. I've never had to restart any of them in the 5 years I've had them!

Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 23

Update: I missed out details about where the image was hosted, so have added a section about that.

I definitely did have it at some point but must have accidentally cut it through the editing process, oops!

In short: hosted via a 3rd party cache, not by me!

alistairshepherd.uk/writing/open...

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 23

Oh oops! Back to 199 then, damn!

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

In the UK there is "fair dealing" which is similar to the US "fair use", but it has no explicit exceptions or much detail. It could well fall under that given the circumstances but I never found any previous cases that were web-based and similar enough to make me sure.

So yeah, perhaps!

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

That's a good point, perhaps I should have reached out to them for support.

Honestly I have no clue where that sits legally — of course they don't even link to the images directly either!

I guess they get away with it by being big and scary enough that no one challenges them.

Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

Of course I say meaningless, likely not to a judge determining wilfulness, damages etc. But in B&W the law doesn't care.

Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

Yep! My non-lawyer reading of copyright legislation and previous UK cases seems to suggest that doesn't matter at all though. Where it's hosted is meaningless, what matters is I displayed it.

More here:
bsky.app/profile/alis...

Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

The specific language in the emails were around my "use" of the image, no reference to hosting at all!
And displaying an image from an external site you don't have the rights to is a well established infringement so doubt that would have changed anything.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

The specific language in the emails were around my "use" of the image, no reference to hosting at all!
And displaying an image from an external site you don't have the rights to is a well established infringement so doubt that would have changed anything.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

It's so sad, but the world we live in. I just hope others can learn from these lessons and avoid similar!

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

I'm dubious whether those circumstances are functionally different from a legal standpoint. 'Hotlinking' images have long been established as copyright infringements and referencing the original OG URL would be functionally similar.

Whether that would have changed things I don't know though.

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

Yeah I just realised I didn't go into that detail, I think it was in an earlier draft and I cut it.

Tweetback uses the 11ty open graph API, which requests the image, caches and optimises it. 'My' site referenced this API directly, which hosted the image.
www.11ty.dev/docs/service...

OpenGraph Image

A docs page for Eleventy, a simpler static site generator.

www.11ty.dev

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

In short — playing it as far as I possibly can on the side of being careful because I'd rather not say anything than have to deal with these folk again! :P

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Alistair Shepherd @alistairshepherd.uk · Jul 22

Yeah, it feels like there should which is why I was as astonished as you that I couldn't find any!
I have no idea how to search court cases really so obviously there's a good chance I missed stuff but at least with standard search engines I couldn't find any cases nor it even being discussed!