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I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2

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Re: I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2

#71
post #66
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched backends a bunch of times because everything I tried (Go stdlib HTTP, Tornado, etc.) kept getting taken out whenever I would hit the front page, either due to CPU overload or some sort of resource leak. I ended up using Warp+Wai+Servant ( https://github.com/yesodweb/wai ) and it has been smooth sailing since then off my $3/mo VPS. It can take thousands of req/sec without flinching (which is higher than wha…

What VPS are you using and can you recommend it?

Vultr. They have been totally solid for me. Nothing fancy - just a reliable cloud VM. Have had no reason to look for alternatives for web hosting.

Re: I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fwiw, in my experience you don't actually need a CDN just to survive HN. It may be enough to just make sure you're not hitting a DB on every request; ideally you'd be caching the HTML output wholesale (via static site generator or otherwise) For reference: with cached HTML, my single Node.js process running on Heroku's cheapest tier has weathered the front page multiple times without breaking a sweat

Right. So a CDN?

A CDN is its own thing- it's distributed across a provider; it can't just be served off a simple box. It requires having or gaining familiarity with a specific provider, as well as other constraints like you have to statically export to the file system (can't just cache responses in memory), and you can't have any dynamic content without standing up a separate server, etc

Makes sense for a lot of things, but it comes with downsides, especially for hobbyists! I've found I prefer sticking with a simple server for my website, and OP might find it's easier to do that too

Re: I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2

#73
post #9

Am I one of the few people who finds these generated pictures really bad? They often have weird and unsettling details when you look closely. I mean, it’s an incredible achievement in AI that we can generate images at this level, but I don’t want them shown to me on a daily basis while I’m reading blogs.

It's not about being perfect, it's about having something that doesn't take time to produce. like the article says, searching google and stock image sites looking for a picture that very few people are going to ingest is a huge waste of time.

Re: I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2

#76
post #22
post #6

You should've invested in CloudFront first because your site isn't loading.

Just curious, is there any general number range for how much traffic a front page post might get? Less than 10k, 10-100,000, 100,000+, etc

Hit the front page twice with two articles in the past.

Total traffic both times was around 60k over the course of 2-3 days.

Re: I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2

#77
post #9

Am I one of the few people who finds these generated pictures really bad? They often have weird and unsettling details when you look closely. I mean, it’s an incredible achievement in AI that we can generate images at this level, but I don’t want them shown to me on a daily basis while I’m reading blogs.

I find the images to be incredible, but it's very unsettling when you focus on certain details like hands, feet, and eyes. The hands and feet that it draws are almost always mangled, and while it does a good job of drawing an individual eye, it doesn't seem to draw two eyes in a well coordinated manner, either one eye is bigger than the other, or there is something weirdly unsymmetrical about the eyes that makes the image look creepy.

Re: I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fwiw, in my experience you don't actually need a CDN just to survive HN. It may be enough to just make sure you're not hitting a DB on every request; ideally you'd be caching the HTML output wholesale (via static site generator or otherwise) For reference: with cached HTML, my single Node.js process running on Heroku's cheapest tier has weathered the front page multiple times without breaking a sweat

At that point, why not just have a static blog hosted on an AWS bucket?

For me: it's less to manage, it's less to learn (AWS is a nightmare from my perspective), and I enjoy other benefits like the fact that one codebase can generate and then serve up the site, and the fact that it's vendor-agnostic (just clone/npm install/run). Also allows easy customization of headers and redirects, allows for the odd dynamic route, and makes local dev/previewing super simple

OP may or may not feel the same! Just wanted to communicate that a simple server can definitely do the job

Re: I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2

#79

When asked about what jobs the robots would come for first, I would have had to say that digital artist was pretty low on my ranking before now.

It's coming for us, too. It won't be long before most software engineer positions are eliminated while some are replaced by software "technicians" with enough expertise to command AI to generate working code. Perhaps the technicians will be tasked with building tests and some automation, but even that stuff can be delegated to AI to an extent. This may seem far off because the present economy is accustomed to paying…

programming is going to get automated with language models in however, I find that my job (SWE) is about 1% programming and 99% strategizing, designing & communicating.

Re: I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2

#80
I take your point about images and increased engagement but I'm so over useless imagery in blog/article content. I think I first really noticed it with Medium. So many pointless header images that very rarely have anything to do with the article. Just visual noise.

My prediction is that a lot of blogs will do what you've done too, and then they'll all look/feel the same. New models will come out I guess, but then they'll proliferate too and everything will look the same again. And then maybe to differentiate, those few that value it/can afford it will make the effort to find actually relevant images or commission artwork.

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