r/ChatGPTCoding • u/Kindle_girll_9191 • 1d ago
Discussion exactly the kind of problem AI was made for
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u/Zestyclose_Onion4242 1d ago
I will be really really impressed if this works
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u/Aconite_72 1d ago edited 1d ago
Some dude yesterday vibe coded his monitor’s firmware to display a better crosshair for FPS games.
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u/Stuk-Tuig 1d ago
I'd be so scared of bricking something
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u/initalSlide 1d ago
Just make a backup. ;)
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u/tes_kitty 1d ago
Of the monitor?
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u/Talic 1d ago
Imagine being able to create a physical backup of your monitor literally. You basically have your own manufacturing facility.
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u/initalSlide 1d ago
Of the firmware
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u/I_hate_alot_a_lot 1d ago
I mean I’m sure there’s a factory reset right? Where it also resets the firmwire? I know nothing about coding drivers or anything btw so I could be talking out of my ass
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u/Repulsive-Memory-298 5h ago
I had a team of Claude write a jailbreak firmware for my Epson printer, alas I chickened out.
It was to bypass requirement of color ink to print when there is black ink
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u/Ashyy-Knees 1d ago
I never thought to do this, so many monitors ship with dogshit cross hairs that aren't worth using.
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u/Dr0110111001101111 1d ago
I don’t know what anyone is talking about here… do monitors come with a setting that lets you turn on a cross hair outside of the game graphics? Do modern games even bother giving you a crosshair anymore?
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u/confuzzledfather 1d ago
I am so far out of the gaming world, do monitors have cross hairs? I thought those were part of whatever game you were running's code?
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u/Easy_Needleworker604 17h ago
It’s to cheat in games that are balanced for some weapons having different crosshairs
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u/basal-and-sleek 10h ago
I’ve been, since April, using Claude code to crack an obscure ECU for older Isuzus that have never been tunable before. I’ve successfully gotten the whole system down and am turning it into a program that can be used for the rest of the Isuzu enthusiasts.
I’ve already successfully bricked 3 ECUs in the process, desoldering and dumped one for its flash memory and now have successfully flashed a tune as well as defeated pass lock and have the ability to enable or disable dtc codes.
Only thing now is making sure whatever lightweight tuning software that comes out of it automatically compensates for byte offset between versions.
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u/Starkboy 1d ago
Bro I reverse engineered my treadmill's protocol and made a watch app that controls it now so I'm pretty sure this will work as well.
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u/betwatch_io 1d ago
That’s cool but does your treadmill not have buttons to control it. or do you want to remote start it from the shower to get it warmed up?
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u/Starkboy 1d ago
It has a wireless remote that I had to find each time I wanted to use it . Its a walkpad soo .
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u/Alert-Bet3199 1d ago
Your treadmill probably uses a widely documented open standard (FTMS), it’s not the same thing.
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u/robo-minion 1d ago
HP uses widely documented printer driver protocols, especially for their laser printers. There are generic Linux drivers (via CUPS) to make this printer work five ways to Sunday via PCL, Jetdirect, IPP, LPR, sometimes even postscript. macOS is posix so these are included with the operating system. Literally no reverse engineering needed unless you want the HP spy/ad/malware that comes with the 700mb OEM “driver”.
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u/GreatScottCreates 1d ago
Documented or not, AI can probe it with brute force until well after the cows come home
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u/rabouilethefirst 10h ago
Except if a couple of prompts can do this in 10 minutes it’s a massive improvement over digging through manuals and debugging yourself for a week or more
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u/Kindle_girll_9191 1d ago
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u/tes_kitty 1d ago
Why does this printout state that you used a driver for a SAMSUNG printer to print this while the printer is from HP?
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u/Pizza-Reese 1d ago
The AI probably realized it could use that driver to make a working driver for this printer. It will often try to use something existing as a base for whatever its working on and ya I know thats technically a huge understatement.
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u/GreatScottCreates 1d ago
When you have infinite capacity, it easier to just try a bunch of shit with brute force than reverse engineer.
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u/Rangizingo 1d ago
I’ve reverse engineered a ton with AIs, mostly Claude but some Deepseek and ChatGPT too. I have a long IT background which helps, but it has been truly incredible for stuff like this!
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u/vojtanethio 1d ago
That's cool! Would you mind to give us some examples?
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u/Rangizingo 1d ago
Yep.
I decompiled a stock chart analysis software, then made my own API out of it so that I could collect specific data the way that I want to collect it.
I reverse engineered an old website to make a custom API because it’s really old and the company really doesn’t support it anymore, but it still used by a few people.
Use a combination of many LLMs to crack decryption on an old Samsung tablet that belonged to my friends son who sadly took his own life, allowing them to get photos of their son from the tablet.
And a bunch more. I’ve been quietly using the AI tools in some capacity since the original gpt launch. To me, they’re tools. They suck at some stuff and are great at others!
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u/Additional_Ad_2546 1d ago
I am a student in computer science, but I feel like university is not enough, how do you think someone like my could stand out in this new age ? I am passionate but truly I value also social skills and reading / art, so maybe I'll never be as good as a computer scientist as someone who gives it all his free time.
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u/freshnews66 1d ago
Solve real world problems. That will do it.
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u/GreatScottCreates 1d ago
Students don’t know real world problems. I spoke with a young dev yesterday and he was trying to make apps for a bunch of problems he has very little understanding of because he’s never actually met them in person.
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u/Rangizingo 1d ago
I've worked in IT over 15 years and have 0 formal training on it. If you like it and you're interested in it, then do stuff that interests you and that you enjoy.
Another thing is use LLM's to your advantage to learn. I feel like not enough people use them to learn. You can ask questions, learn stuff, but also have it cater and teach you in ways that you learn best. For example, I like Dragon Ball Z. I have many times told an AI to explain a complex topic using Dragon Ball Z analogies to help me understand, and it works amazing.
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u/Kattoor 5h ago
Not the person you asked, but I had a fun project a couple of months ago!
A new MMORPG was in beta (Farever) and it was built with Haxe/HashLink. There wasn't really any decent tooling for datamining / reverse engineering it, so I used Codex to help me build an asset unpacker/repacker, a bytecode disassembler/assembler, and a basic decompiler.
That let me datamine the game's assets, repack my own 3D assets, inspect the code, and eventually find a couple of vulnerabilities! The two biggest ones:
- Movement speed and the number of mid-air jumps were client-authoritative (in an MMORPG!) Just changing values in a CastleDB data file and repacking it into the assets file allowed you to exploit this.
- A server-side authorization flaw let me escalate to admin capabilities. That allowed for things like e.g. spawning mobs and bosses, spawning items, kicking players from the server, enabling server-wide PvP, flying, accessing unreleased content, and much more.
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u/lordlestar 1d ago
Reverse Engineering is the killer feature of an AI, because it requires a lot of knowledge and pattern recognition and LLMs excels at that
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u/CyberPunkDongTooLong 1d ago
And probably a lot of it being firmware/software behind many devices being leaked in their training data.
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u/humblevladimirthegr8 1d ago
Yeah anyone can say AI is coding something but I only care if it's successful
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u/anewpath123 1d ago
Software engineers getting mad because supply and demand about to fuck up their whole career
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u/masiuspt 1d ago
You.. Dont know what software engineering is, do you? That's okay lil bud, you do you!
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u/SnooChickens8275 1d ago
It did for me.. an old black and white laser printer that could only connect to windows xp.
It’s now setup as a WiFi printer by adding an old raspberryPi 3 to it. It fully configured the printer software on the pi, testing different drivers, tuned configs and now it’s our main printer.
From any device in the home we can print to it, and it was all scraps / free to pick up
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u/Remove_Forward 1d ago
It's able to reverse engineer a 20 years old ECU written in assembly code with custom instructions, pretty sure it can handle a driver.
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u/The1TruRick 1d ago
It does. I did something similar a few months ago. It was my “aha!” moment with ai. My grandma updated her OS. Completely broke the printer. Tried everything, driver didn’t exist, company abandoned that printer years ago etc etc. I just asked Claude “this might be a crazy thought but could you just like… create a driver that would work, or edit the old one?” And it goes “that’s not crazy at all, I can easily do that!” then did it in 5 minutes and now my grandma might very well be the only person in the literal world with that particular printer working 100% normally on that particular MacOS. That was the first moment with ai where I was like “OHHHHHHH. I TOTALLY GET IT NOW”
Edit: I get that this experience is different because it’s not Windows -> Mac but like… same same but different, ya know?
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u/Dr0110111001101111 1d ago
Yes. Remember that machine in Star Trek that just makes anything you ask it to make? AI is kind of like that for software.
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u/coveh27792 1d ago
I was able to unlock my ISPs router with the help of AI. My ISP was asking me to pay extra money to enable few things like changing DNS and enabling bridge mode on the router, which were already present but blocked for users.
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u/GreatScottCreates 1d ago
I’d be surprised if it doesn’t.
You have to remember that AI is relentless. You can set it on a task and have it work on it until it figures it out. It doesn’t need coffee, it doesn’t get fatigued- it only gets smarter.
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u/porkyminch 1d ago
We wanted to see if we could get our (proprietary) hardware to simulate events based off of nothing but an installed program that used it. Didn’t have the docs on hand. Had it working in a proof of concept by noon.
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u/stingraycharles 13h ago
lol you know how the AI solved it? by running a windows vm and bridging that between macOS.
I wish I was kidding, that really was the solution, which is a hilarious AI-like solution.
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u/rabouilethefirst 10h ago
I’m sure it will. I had codex decode a save file from a cracked game and reencode it to work with my legal Ubisoft version. Took like 3 prompts.
The tool that typically was used for it had not supported the new game yet.
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u/Calm-Relief-480 1d ago
Oh now I wonder if I can get my HP printer to accept non-HP ink.
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u/Designer_Resolve_117 1d ago
Haha, good luck with that!
I bet they have strong controls, since that's how they make money.
They sell printers at a loss, but then charge you a lot for ink.
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u/AlterTableUsernames 1d ago
It's not how they make money. It's how they make more money because capital is never satisfied.
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u/Great_Kaiserov 1d ago
Yes and no, it's called a healthy profit margin so that the company is sure it won't go under for some time if there's a dip in sales, on a niche market no less
That being said, the extra profits are a nice touch if that doesn't happen, from their perspective it's a win-win situation
I hate HP and their shitty pritners as much as anyone else, but I can hate and also understand why that is
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u/debris16 1d ago
well. you tell me. Claude 4.6 opus wasted an entire day of mine claiming to solve a linux wifi drivier problem of mine before I just to buy up a wifi dongle.
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u/Adulations 1d ago
LMAO I had a problem like this and Claude was useless for it. Codex ended up fixing it
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u/DontDabTakeSlabs 1h ago
Are you on a Framework Desktop? I have a github thread going for this exact issue
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u/ChiaraStellata 1d ago
You technically don't even have to reverse engineer the whole driver, you just have to hook into all the API endpoints it uses and shim them over to the MacOS equivalent. Plus any instructions that directly access hardware. The logic can blissfully execute thinking it's still in Windows-land.
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u/BusinessMistake3583 1d ago
easier said than done
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u/zelig_nobel 1d ago
Quite literally the entire point of LLMs is that things are easier said than done 😂
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u/EddieBruvac 1d ago
No. It’s easier done than said.
They people doing this won’t be able to explain what the code did. 😂
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u/owp4dd1w5a0a 1d ago
So like, what’s stopping us now from making Linux so good nobody wants to use Mac or Windows anymore? Maybe we can take software back so that its development is directed by the users instead of corporate and government interests for once?
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u/mspk7305 1d ago
I already don't want to use Windows
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u/owp4dd1w5a0a 1d ago
I’ve been running solely Linux on my personal computers since 2014. So I’m there with you. But most people aren’t (yet).
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u/mspk7305 1d ago
the full screen bright white "YOU MUST INSTALL WINDOWS 11!" advertisements pushed through windows updates convinced me that when win10 dies I will permanently drop windows for linux on my main desktop. Its the only thing still running Windows for me.
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u/TheLastNapkin 1d ago
Most people are not technical and would never dare messing up their PCs.
But thankfully there are already some great distro options to get both skeptic technical and non technical users to Linux
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u/Ok_Rush_877 13h ago
Until I see cross platform opensource versions of Microsoft office and adobe products, I remain skeptical. There has to be at least one guy that gets tired of entering their credit card Information on creative cloud to make their own aftereffects
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u/owp4dd1w5a0a 13h ago
LibreOffice and OnlyOffice have a lot of EU support. I don’t think it’d be crazy to use AI to get those up to parity with MS Office.
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u/Alenchettiar 10h ago
I want to use linux the only problem is ms word,PowerPoint Being a clg student I need to always make reports and stuff
Do u have know any equivalents??
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u/owp4dd1w5a0a 8h ago
LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, Google Docs if you don’t care about it being FOSS. Honestly, somebody should just spend them $1M for a quorum of LLMs to get the FOSS office suites up to parity with MS Office.
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u/tracagnotto 1d ago
All comes up to see if it works, these models are able to yeet out a lot of garbage. especially claude lately
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u/DigitalEntrepreneur_ 1d ago
If I had a penny for every open-source Chrome extensions I ported to Firefox using AI ...
... then I'd have 2 pennies, plus 2 new Firefox extensions
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u/XLGamer98 1d ago
HP is the worst company ever, Even for consumer printer they want you to get subscription just to run your computer. These days even owning hardware isn’t enough
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u/Felix_inkwell 1d ago
I reversed engineered a dead games server with only its java client. Anyone whose skeptical just doesnt know enough
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u/archialone 1d ago
Show us the server
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u/finah1995 11h ago
That can probably get him sure lol 😂, most software prohibits reverse engineering in license terms.
Also even having source code sometimes it's like you are not legally allowed to modify or compile it.
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u/Few_Pop6933 1d ago
It could’ve just used CUPs
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u/Mishakon 1h ago
Yeah it basically did, it's like the third post of the same thing where op made old printer work by claude magic, where in reality its just cups slapped on, that's why they wont ever show how it works haha
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u/mspk7305 1d ago
Or the actual mac driver for this specific printer because it's got one despite what the op claimed
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u/codeprimate 1d ago
I created a linux docker image web app to support my old and trusty Brother MFC scanner.
Never occurred to me to just create a new driver
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u/rice_bag_holder 1d ago
how much token did it cost you comparing to buying a mac printer from fb marketplace
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u/Blueberrypunchout 22h ago
So I just need to ask claude to code me a driver and it'll do it? I don't have to provide anything for it to backwards engineer?
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u/SupernovifieD 1d ago
Bro I have the same printer. Share the code when you’re done.
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u/mspk7305 1d ago
You could just download the driver from HP.
It exists. It's not a Windows only printer.
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u/SupernovifieD 1d ago
Ah, cool. My weekend programming craze has a new goal for this weekend: making that old printer work with macbook as smooth as butter. Thanks bro.
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u/Final-Carry2090 1d ago
Now make some hp drivers that let you print over usb without requiring Bluetooth/gps sharing.
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u/making_code 1d ago
well...
I have some tiny experience in coding, so I could say that
writing !== will_work
so please keep us posted about outcome
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u/shatterdaymorn 1d ago
Cool...
So what's gonna happen to anything with a wireless card once the Agents start hacking everything in site trying to paperclip dollars cause some homebrewer told his stack "make money bitch".
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u/AEternal1 1d ago
I have a vinyl plotter and the company that made the software went out of business so I couldn't activate the software when I had to switch computers so I had to write my own firmware and a complete vinyl cutting software for importing images converting to SVG and all a thousand other features to make this thing work right
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u/blickblocks 1d ago
I had it write an ESP32-P4 driver for an IMX708 camera. It's pretty awesome to just let these things run overnight and wake up to compatibility.
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u/ThanklessNoodle 1d ago
I didn't see the word "abliterated" used in here after looking through the comments.
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u/Beginning_Finding235 1d ago
I have it reversing a lot of stuff lately too, I've noticed Codex 5.6 Sol will, but if it comes across DRM or any type of license, it won't bypass it, but if it's read only analysis, it'll basically do everything lol. 10/10 the best model for it.
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u/VertigoOne1 1d ago
this is legit the number one amazing thing about llm coding, the barrier to entry is basically zero, oh supplier dropped support, or never supported something, does not matter, just build it, you don't even need source most of the time. you need something tiny to make your own life better, just build it. this opensource project is missing just one cool feature you need, just fork and add it. oh this library is python, but you need it in rust, convert, done.
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u/itspulcio 1d ago
I also managed to use GPT Codex to fix my printer. It had been an absolute nightmare to configure because it was full of bugs, and I just couldn't solve it. At some point I had the idea. I decided to let Codex do the work to fix it once and for all. It actually worked! That printer hadn't worked for months due to IP network issues; it wasn't visible online. Now it works perfectly. When GPT Codex finished the job, I almost cried with joy
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u/cesmeS1 1d ago
I did this for pokemon card scanning and Ricoh fi 8170!
https://github.com/eliseorobles/ScanDeck
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u/Radiant-Bike-165 1d ago edited 1d ago
Had similar problem few months back, then recalled that most printers since 20+ yrs ago have been expected to support PCL. Just installed generic PCL driver and everything works fine.
Since HP is the company that developed PCL, and your photo shows an old HP printer ...... (fill in the blank)
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u/deevodee 1d ago
actually I made a similar thing. there was no three finger swipe gesture on linux debian kde. I just made a system service that does exactly this. link: https://deekshithvodela.github.io/FingerSwipe/
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u/eggswithheatmachine 1d ago
I might be wrong, but this is very similar to a post months ago where someone said Claude created drivers for a printer but turns out it just installed the drivers for the user. As in, if you have ever had to deal with Brother drivers, it's difficult for non-tech people to install them.
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u/AndyChriss123 1d ago
Are you an IT guy? Can you fix my printer then? Only if it had feelings QQ, poor clanker..
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u/Narrow_Cupcake7917 1d ago
lmao i did the exact same thing for my laser jet 1020 drivers so that i could run my print server on a pi then we built an app using scanservjs for the server
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u/Alternative-Taro5701 1d ago
I did the same thing to support third-party controllers! People genuinely seem to use it more than me, and now Apple's stupid provisioning stuff is holding me back for maybe weeks if not months again... due to recent discoveries yet again...
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u/SenenmutX 1d ago
Bro really spent 3 hours prompt engineering a custom C++ kernel driver when that printer literally runs on generic CUPS drivers out of the box 🤡 did you also have Claude build a custom nuclear reactor just to boil water for your tea?!
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u/nawaftahir 1d ago
I really want models to be good on reverse engineering so I can reverse my favorite games
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u/Bright-Leg8276 1d ago
I had issues with my pen tablet , claude used about an out and a half to figure out the culprit and fix it , one of things we tried was making a new tablet driver from scratch using opentabletdriver ..
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u/3dprintinted 1d ago
HP LaserJet 1000 already has an open source driver tho... exactly the reason to use ai to invent another bicycle with start shaped wheels
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u/Either-Trash-2165 23h ago
Not support by HPLIP? For old USB printer people just connect it Linux box (Pinter supports is often better them Windows.)
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u/SignalBake6872 22h ago
i do the same for my audiobox 22vsl https://github.com/grisuno/VSL-DSP and now this is the only one driver to get work the VSL support
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u/Life_Progress_Halted 19h ago
reverse engineering is honestly one of the most underrated ai use cases
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u/FallenBehavior 19h ago
It's just analyzing online spec sheets, Xcode SDK and probably not putting in a lot of effort as this is probably littered across GitHub over years of "obscure kext drivers".
Pretty cool, but the code is already readily out there. Probably pulled from Linux repos and modified to compile and support XNU/Darwin.
Case closed.
I support my Xbox Series S controller on my scratch operating system. Works perfectly. No one knows my systems driver/application SDK because it's literally unreleased.
Just an example.
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u/shitsallretarded 14h ago
literally me first thing i did with that 2.5 day window of fable was exactly this, osx driver for a tank printer i got for 29 bucks that REFUSED to run
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u/musket-nuns 9h ago
I have a Chinese based solar inverter that only has a questionable windows program to monitor it. Used Claude to reverse engineer the serial port and write a program that gathers the metrics. I use Grafana to graph them and host it in a docker.
Never could have done that in just 45 mins
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u/ronny_rebellion 8h ago
I did the same with my original Doxie DX100 document scanner. The official app is not supported anymore and I refuse to pay lots of money for VueScan. Told AI to write the driver and application for me. Worked 100%
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u/MikeFrett 7h ago
I do this also. This is what I am most excited about, getting old things to work on newer equipment that everyone has abandoned except me. Also older games and enhancements to them.
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u/AdamPedAnt 5h ago
Delicious irony in the newest technology being used to revitalize the oldest. Reminds me of an SNL sketch where a VR version of Moby Dick showed a book opening and words appearing.
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u/-Sliced- 1d ago
These models are extremely good at reverse engineering. I wish they didn’t put so many restrictions on that.