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Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

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Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

#351

Post by lynnharry »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #230
pixl97 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, it's amazing how people have already forgotten exactly how terrible older ML translation was.

The "terribleness" is a feature. It means I can be confident that the meaning of fluent output corresponds to the meaning of the input: I'm capable of hand-translating any passages the computer can't, but I'm not capable of proof-reading all the translations to spot fluent confabulations.

LLM can translate in the style you want them to. You can make them translate more creatively or just translate word by word. I even think you can make them explain their choice of translation and help you proof-read the result.

Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

#352

Post by Vincent_Yan404 »

the_af wrote: post #324
Vincent_Yan404 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I posted this in Chinese first.And use AI translated.

Why did it take you 8 years to repost it in English? It's not because of AI, because other translations existed before LLMs and were more than adequate.

Cause I've never thought it before, and now I'm in Canada,I want to try whether this can be related in western country.

Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

#353

Post by Vincent_Yan404 »

ctchocula wrote: post #348
the_af wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did it take you 8 years to repost it in English? It's not because of AI, because other translations existed before LLMs and were more than adequate.

+1 The long gap between 2016 when the original article was written in Chinese and 2025, the fact that the Substack article does not cite the original Zhihu article (until someone other than OP linked it in this thread), not linking previously English translations of this article, and the financial incentive of the LLM-translated article being on Substack make OP's claim of authorship of the Chinese article very sus.

The first comment can answer your question, go and check whether I am OP https://www.zhihu.com/people/yan-mou-ren-63/posts

Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

#354

Post by Vincent_Yan404 »

ctchocula wrote: post #348
the_af wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did it take you 8 years to repost it in English? It's not because of AI, because other translations existed before LLMs and were more than adequate.

+1 The long gap between 2016 when the original article was written in Chinese and 2025, the fact that the Substack article does not cite the original Zhihu article (until someone other than OP linked it in this thread), not linking previously English translations of this article, and the financial incentive of the LLM-translated article being on Substack make OP's claim of authorship of the Chinese article very sus.

You can see 553 条评论，And click “最新”

Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

#355

Post by chaostheory »

fn-mote wrote: post #273
chaostheory wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m going to guess that the dash gave it away. What a lot of people don’t see to understand is that using an LLM for translations is better than using vanilla translate. The traditional translation apps lose a lot of context and subtly, and they sound even more artificial.

I'd just ask writers to be up-front about it. "English isn't my native language, so this is processed using an LLM." Even the replies in HN comments scream "LLM".

The guy grew up in mainland China and is still currently in mainland China.

Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

#357

Post by Vincent_Yan404 »

jpgvm wrote: post #36

You are a great writer. Would love to hear what came next and eventually how you found your way to HN. :)

I asked AI where should I publish my article, it said Medium at first. I submitted to illustration and 10 days later, the article is still pending review right now. So I ask AI again, what should I do? It says HN is the best but also toughest, it's hard to show in the front page. After I tried, I think I kinda made it.

Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

#358

Post by Vincent_Yan404 »

tsoukase wrote: post #301

First thank you for the sincere description. Second aren't you afraid that the government doesn't run after you? Is this event officially declassified? You certainly provide only childish memories but... you know. I am glad to know there was a third place besides USA and USSR preparing nuclear stuff during the cold war.

I published this in China, they didn't bother me, so I hope it's fine here.

Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

#359

Post by flybit »

oofbey wrote: post #157
allan_s wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks a lot, I really first thought "404" was just a geek reference and not the actual code name ! I have some very good friends which are Chinese but are not able to read English, do you mind if I do a AI translation, and if you can check it to see if it translate what you're trying to convey ? (I propose that as I think it would be too much to ask to ask to redo the text in Chinese) Edit: haha I see you actually d…

Is it just a coincidence that the HTTP code for “not found” became the same as the code name for this city?

[dead]

Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

#360

Post by jibal »

schoen wrote: post #233
Vincent_Yan404 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can personally guarantee that this piece is 100% non-fiction.My course also focuses on narrative writing techniques.Does 'Storytelling' have to imply fiction?In Chinese "story(故事）" just things happened, it can be real or fiction .

There are a lot of subtleties about connotation here. I would say that "storytelling" traditionally primarily meant fiction, but some modern uses also include narrative technique generally, including nonfiction and also marketing. There may also be older traditions of nonfiction storytelling, but that has some connotation of a ritualized or formalized activity (e.g. children sitting in a circle listening to a recitat…

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