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Why on earth would you use an AI-generated image [1] (let me be clear: POOR AI IMAGE) for the banner of this project? If you're going to use genai, you need to
by vunderba 6mo ago
Why on earth would you use an AI-generated image [1] (let me be clear: POOR AI IMAGE) for the banner of this project?
If you're going to use genai, you need to make sure it actually looks acceptable. Do at least one careful pass over it before publishing. Just look at the details:
- The text on the book spines doesn’t even spell “Microsoft” correctly.
- Dartmouth is spelled "Darmouth". SIGH.
- The screenshot on the CRT monitor doesn't remotely resemble any version of Visual Basic I’ve ever used and I’ve been using it since Visual Basic for DOS.
Using an image like this sets the tone and impression for the entire book going forward. Right now, that first impression isn’t good.
[1] - https://evilgeniuslabs.ca/uploads/content/2026/05/6fd5a7b3274b436fbae1139adefcda97.png https://evilgeniuslabs.ca/uploads/content/2026/05/6fd5a7b327...
- aaronbrethorst 5mo agoMICROSOFT MARL was definitely my all-time favorite product from Microsoft.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- vunderba 5mo agohahaha. IIRC Microsoft MARL is good friends with Microsoft BLOB. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob
- selimthegrim 5mo agoThe little-known predecessor to the Xbox and Surface, except for landscape architecture.
- andrelaszlo 5mo agoI enjoyed programming |fsuAI Bact1lon|, but I only got started with version 5.
- PolygonSheep 5mo agoI was more of a MCOSOFT ΓΛAX guy myself. Never could quite wrap my head around MARL.
- jszymborski 5mo agoIt won't be long before people realize that having poor AI images looks worse than having no images, in the same way that having a reaction GIF every other paragraph of a blog post fell out of style or deeply generic and unillustrative clip art or stock photos of puzzle pieces or featureless-white-3D-figure-with-hard-hat-holding-question-mark. I sympathize with the motivations behind it, but it does look cruddy and cheapens the end result.
- aaronbrethorst 5mo agoGuy_pointing_up_saying_this.gif
- teddyh 5mo ago<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this>
- PolygonSheep 5mo agoI'm at the point now where if there's an AI slop image at the top, I'll just hit the back button.
- booleandilemma 5mo agoGet used to it. This is the future we've created for ourselves. It's only going to get worse as people everywhere try to use AI to distinguish themselves. Expect everyone to be an artist, everyone to be an author, everyone to be a programmer. Slop. It's what's for dinner.
- hnlmorg 5mo agoThe problem isn’t the use of AI. It’s the lack of editorial effort to use AI well. Modern image generation models can handle text fine. Or the author could have left those artefacts blank and added the text themselves in “post production”
- eapriv 5mo agoThe problem is the use of AI. It’s a reliable indicator that the author doesn’t actually care about the quality of the work, so I shouldn’t bother to read the text.
- hnlmorg 5mo agoUsing AI to generate an image isn’t any different to embedding a generated meme or grabbing a stock photo. Plus the image isn’t even part of the article content. It’s ostensibly just a front cover to it. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” ;)
- hnlmorg 5mo agoTo the people who downvoted me, care to explain what was factually incorrect? I get there’s a lot of hysteria around Gen ai but as someone who’s worked in publishing I can tell you I’m not in the wrong here.
- queenkjuul 5mo agoStock photos are (generally) made by professionals, memes impart some social context. Can't say either about an AI image. So i absolutely hold an AI image in less esteem, especially when someone clearly just used the first draft spit out by the model where all of the text is wrong and the image doesn't even resemble what it purports to illustrate.
- wrs 5mo agoMy first impression was that the text style is dismayingly like either an AI wrote most of it or (to be charitable) the author’s writing has been heavily influenced by the current generation of LLM output. So the image style goes perfectly with it.
- bluedino 5mo agoI'm scared of the floppy disk used to load Visual Baction
- pimlottc 5mo agoThat computer (and chonky-boy floppy disk) look so unlike any real computer from back in the day that it honestly makes me question if the author knows anything about what that era was like.
- VimEscapeArtist 5mo agoThese AI images are an absolute plague these days. I’m glad more people think they’re genuinely awful. To me they’re absolutely disgusting. I think I’d honestly prefer Macromedia Flash ads over this.
- hnlmorg 5mo agoHaha wow you weren’t kidding. That image is so bad that it looks like it was generated using 3 year old models. The computer screen I can forgive, but if they author genuinely doesn’t have access to modern image generation tools then they could have at least loaded that image up in GIMP, Paint.NET or even just MS Paint, and added the text themselves.
- FartyMcFarter 5mo agoThicc floppy disk. The "Oomerd" button is probably the debugger by the sound of it?
- bigtech 5mo agoNot that the author needs my defense, but that image says to me, 'hey, I'm just a guy who wrote a book and there's no budget for art' -- which fits a DIY aesthetic in 2026
- vunderba 5mo agoNot to me it doesn't, to me it says, "Hey I couldn't be bothered to put in the bare minimum of effort to look over an image that is going to be the LITERAL face of my upcoming book". Took me 10 minutes to do this with an equal "budget" and the freeware graphics program Krita. Still has problematic issues (the curvature on that CRT looks like its suffering from bloody glaucoma), but it's vastly better than the original. https://mordenstar.com/share/vb-history-book https://mordenstar.com/share/vb-history-book
- bigtech 5mo agoThis does look better! :)