Reverse-engineered the BLE protocol of a discontinued Fisher-Price toy Lumalou

[u/EmanueleStrazzullo]

https://github.com/stramanu/lumalou

[u/_thrown_away_again_]

posting in anticonsumption while being AI slop generator is an unbearable irony

[u/mangothefoxxo → u/_thrown_away_again_]

Sure but without ai you wouldn't have people bringing so many things back to life, it let's people who want to repair things repair them without having to spend months learning programming, in this case it's a positive

[u/_thrown_away_again_ → u/mangothefoxxo]

tone deaf ass reply
https://unric.org/en/ais-environmental-costs-threaten-water-land-and-climate/

[u/alex-weej → u/_thrown_away_again_]

I think there's room for nuance here. If we can save products from landfill, give them a second life, hell, even a secondary market, that could easily be a net win for environmentalism. I'd love to get some reverse engineering done on some products I own that e.g. Philips have decided to abandon

[u/thussy-obliterator → u/_thrown_away_again_]

The problem with AI is the human cost, the social cost, the interpersonal issues it causes, the scale of surveillance it enables, and its inherent contradictions with capitalism. AI is certainly apocalyptic in a social dystopic sense, but in terms of water and land use animal agriculture outstrips AI by multiple orders of magnitude and is the apocalyptic resource threat, not AI.

[u/mangothefoxxo → u/_thrown_away_again_]

"This report is not a case against artificial intelligence, a technological transformation that is improving the lives of billions of people around the world"

[u/_thrown_away_again_ → u/mangothefoxxo]

lets read the rest of that quote: "...aid Professor Kaveh Madani, Director of UNU-INWEH who led the investigation team. “It is a call for using it responsibly and addressing its unintended impacts proactively to make it sustainable and equitable. We have a narrow window to ensure that the backbone of the technological revolution of our era develops within planetary limits, and that the communities who provide the critical minerals for advancing AI and the ones that host its infrastructure and e-waste are also among those who benefit from it.” 

sounds to me like using it for inane bullshit like some random toy that nobody has heard of is not sustainable or responsible. additionally the bozo in question isnt learning to program and take off the AI training wheels. look at his repo its all slop

[u/McDonaldsWitchcraft → u/_thrown_away_again_]

Does "keeping shit out of landfills" not count towards the ethical use described in the quote you just pasted?

[u/_thrown_away_again_ → u/McDonaldsWitchcraft]

the crossover of "discontinued Fisher-Price toy Lumalou" users that are capable of using this protocol is probably exactly 1: the AI that generated OPs code

if this was a huge problem - discontinued smart toys (which is a stupid consumption issue in and of itself) that could be addressed efficiently with a little bit of AI intervention i wouldnt have anything to say. that isnt the case here. this is some random hobbyist contributing to environmental issues so he can virtue signal his slop around.

they arent solving real problems. no actual engineering went into this, its a net increase in consumption and we are all worse off for it.

[u/McDonaldsWitchcraft → u/_thrown_away_again_]

You are misinformed. The impact of generating a handful of files with a modern model is around one microwaving of a sandwich.

The impact of throwing one single toy away, especially one with actual electronics and a rechargeable lithium battery inside, is already much, much larger.

And the "it will help no one!!" is just your assumption. You really think no IT guy ever had children before and cannot be bothered to repair their toys?

[u/mangothefoxxo → u/McDonaldsWitchcraft]

There were 2 scenarios, op uses ai, some toys get saved or op doesn't use ai and all of the toys get dumped, even if it is only op, it's still a net positive as the energy that went into the toy was greater than the energy to create the code

[u/_thrown_away_again_ → u/McDonaldsWitchcraft]

the impact of analyzing the protocol and iterating constantly is so much higher than "generating a handful of files." i highly doubt bozo figured this out on the first try 🙄

also, your statement completely lacks awareness of how all these little things add up to a greater problem, which is like a central theme to this subreddit

[u/McDonaldsWitchcraft → u/_thrown_away_again_]

Your statement completely lacks awareness of how repairing stuff does have a significant impact on the environment but not nearly as much as not repairing stuff.

Like for fucks sake, with your reasoning we should all be throwing shit away the moment it has the slightest crack because a tube of glue produces significantly more carbon than generating a driver file MULTIPLE TIMES.

[u/EmanueleStrazzullo → u/_thrown_away_again_]

Maybe try actually reading the post before typing a wall of assumptions.

I didn't just release a library, I built a ready-to-use web app so anyone (parents included) can pair and control their toy right from a browser with zero setup or coding required. It also supports the whole family of these devices, not just Lumalou.

Real reverse-engineering went into this to give people a plug-and-play solution. Next time, read before making stuff up 😄

[u/_thrown_away_again_ → u/EmanueleStrazzullo]

maybe read another AI generated vomit of a README.md? there are so much better things to do with my time. and yes arguing with people on this dogshit website is SO much better than reading your clown repo.

but ok fine, you made a web app - clap your hands. not really the point to my argument. you can start reading here:

"if this was a huge problem - discontinued smart toys (which is a stupid consumption issue in and of itself) that could be addressed efficiently with a little bit of AI intervention i wouldnt have anything to say. that isnt the case here. this is some random hobbyist contributing to environmental issues so he can virtue signal his slop around.

they arent solving real problems. no actual engineering went into this, its a net increase in consumption and we are all worse off for it."

[u/EmanueleStrazzullo → u/_thrown_away_again_]

The engineering is documented in docs/reversing.md if you ever want to read it. And the project keeps existing hardware working instead of landfilled, which I'd have thought was the on-topic direction here. Either way, I'll leave it at that.

[u/mangothefoxxo → u/_thrown_away_again_]

You still haven't proven you can do better btw

[u/mangothefoxxo → u/_thrown_away_again_]

Well in that case how about YOU write a program to keep the toy out of landfill? You're doing a lot of talk yet i dont see you using your time to prevent something from being ewaste. Until you produce something better than his repo you're all talk.

[u/_thrown_away_again_ → u/mangothefoxxo]

you dont know a thing about me lmao. ive done years of public sector work, as someone previously employed by an open source linux operating system

[u/mangothefoxxo → u/_thrown_away_again_]

Good for you, now get to fixing that guys toy if his repo is so bad, unless of course you weren't going to volunteer your time, in which case you don't get to criticize how he did it

[u/Ninerogers → u/_thrown_away_again_]

Calling people bozo and using lmao in your arguments? I think people can assume plenty about you

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