It’s become somewhat of a HN “flex” to call something out as AI slop, and it almost always comes across as preachy and just plain wrong
Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
51–60 of 77 posts
Re: Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
#52I know the guidelines make this a faux pas but I’m just here to say that was a great read. Very informative, well structured and compelling story of how we have networks and how they work. To those saying it’s the work of an LLM: if it is I don’t care. It’s good.
> To those saying it’s the work of an LLM: if it is I don’t care. It’s good.
It hit me when I woke up and I made a (human) haiku (well, sorta) about it:
"We already had Klingon and Elvish. Now we have LLMish."
Re: Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi, author here. Sorry, you felt that way. I did put lot of effort in communicating my understanding, and used Claude only for review and visualizations.
Oh come on. Just seven days before this 60-page essay, you apparently cranked out another 40-page one: https://fazamhd.com/mental-models/software/ That's 100+ pages of in-depth technical writing in a matter of days. Amazing, really amazing. Also, not something that a human can do. And FWIW, Pangram classifies vast swathes of "your" article as entirely AI-generated. Yes, I know the tool is not perfect, but between you…
Short publication intervals. That's the heuristic you're going with? I have dozens of such unpublished long form articles on fundamental topics, just waiting for me to carve some time to polish. I expect that on a sabbatical I could finish and post them in quick succession. It's an unreliable indicator to determine AI-writing.
Re: Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
#54Writing out my nod of appreciation to counterbalance some of the negativity. I do enjoy the effort and thought you into this essay. I didn’t read the whole thing, just a few sections from the beginning, and I think you do a great job explaining how these concepts evolved from simple beginnings.
You’ve condensed down a lot of concepts I learned through research and trial-and-error over my career as a SWE.
Thank you for sharing Faza. Please continue putting in the effort and sharing these essays!
Re: Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
#55I don't understand. Even if this post is long and has some repetitive parts, isn't it still written by a human? There are way too many comments acting like everything is bad just because one animation widget was made with AI. I actually like this post. It looks good, the explanations are clear, and the AI-generated animation widget actually helps me understand things. What's the problem exactly? Is using AI for visua…
> What's the problem exactly? Is using AI for visualization considered a bad practice? Some people just assume that anything "AI" has touched is automatically "slop" because ... AI! Probably at least partly due to how much actual "AI slop" is out there produced by people "holding the tool wrong". When used judiciously and properly, some of these language models can really be a useful tool and help create some quality…
Yes, when someone takes advice from a tool with a proven reputation of outputting lies and embellishments, with zero fact checking of its training data, and encourages people to use it almost no matter what, the sane and rational thing is to assume it is slop.
Re: Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What's the problem exactly? Is using AI for visualization considered a bad practice? Some people just assume that anything "AI" has touched is automatically "slop" because ... AI! Probably at least partly due to how much actual "AI slop" is out there produced by people "holding the tool wrong". When used judiciously and properly, some of these language models can really be a useful tool and help create some quality…
Yes, when someone takes advice from a tool with a proven reputation of outputting lies and embellishments , with zero fact checking of its training data, and encourages people to use it almost no matter what , the sane and rational thing is to assume it is slop.
Aren't you just treating people like they're too stupid? You can't catch every hallucination from AI, but there are still things you can spot. I'm a programmer too—I can tell the difference to some extent.
Honestly, I think formalism is strange. People also exaggerate and spread false information. Even famous programmers on Hacker News sometimes give incorrect programming advice. In the end, there's always some amount of misinformation in any source. You read it while cross-checking with your own knowledge. Saying that all of it is useless is just an emotional response.
Is 'rational' really about insulting others? Reason seems pretty cheap these days. Then I'll just be an emotional person
Re: Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems that author didn’t check vibe coded result. Mobile version has tiny text even even smaller… :) At HN, there should be some tag explaining the project is vibe coded.
Hi, author here. Sorry for the bad experience. I'll put more effort on the design and reading experience
Issue is LLM itself. For design and typography it needs precise instructions otherwise you get output that it is information-heavy but churn rate is high as ppl can’t use (read) it.
I have to control output everytime but after 25 years in magazine layout I know what has to be controlled.
Tailwindcss has typography plugin named prose. And shadcn/ui recently published typeset package as well.
Emilkowalski/skills is good too.
Just add something more specific into prompt and the result will be much better. Cheers.
Re: Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, when someone takes advice from a tool with a proven reputation of outputting lies and embellishments , with zero fact checking of its training data, and encourages people to use it almost no matter what , the sane and rational thing is to assume it is slop.
Aren't you just treating people like they're too stupid? You can't catch every hallucination from AI, but there are still things you can spot. I'm a programmer too—I can tell the difference to some extent. Honestly, I think formalism is strange. People also exaggerate and spread false information. Even famous programmers on Hacker News sometimes give incorrect programming advice. In the end, there's always some amoun…
> In the end, there's always [at least the potential for] some amount of misinformation in any source. You read it while cross-checking with your own knowledge [and the knowledge gathered by others].
I wish they still taught this in grade-school like they did when I was a kid. Clearly research skills are not so common these days. "Common sense" is not common.
Re: Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
#59i hope this was vibe coded, because I'd hate to think that tiny dark-gray text on a black background was a conscious choice
Hi, author here. I didn't vibe code this and have put considerable amount of effort in explaining the ideas. I have used Claude for review and help with visuals. My aim was just to help others understand these concepts easily. Thanks for your feedback, i'll improve the design and reading experience.
This is a great article. The current knee-jerk reaction to AI is nothing but human negativity bias. There is a colossal amount of information here akin to what you might find in an intro to computers class. I appreciate seeing things like this.
Re: Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
#60I know the guidelines make this a faux pas but I’m just here to say that was a great read. Very informative, well structured and compelling story of how we have networks and how they work. To those saying it’s the work of an LLM: if it is I don’t care. It’s good.
That first animation should include the servers hosting the messaging platform. Or use a peer to peer application for that example.
It does include the app's data center