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Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

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Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#221

Post by oneplane »

moffkalast wrote: post #193
oneplane wrote: post #108

Wouldn't it have made more sense for Claude to suggest using the existing Linux-Airprint-VM project/product that already does this exact thing? There's even a zero-install method via https://printervention.app where it runs that Linux VM isolated inside a WebUSB-capable browser. That website itself was posted right here on HN not too long ago. I get that the LLM code assistant software prefers writing stuff, but cons…

Are you sure that approach would work? Usually I find these sort of projects end up not working just for the specific device I happen to have, which is always unsupported lol.

It usually does, in this case as well since it's SPL.

Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#222

Post by brailsafe »

cracell wrote: post #133
antihero wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we either in a dangerous time where we'll run out of people that have weeks to months, and the resolution/boredom/ability to figure this sort of thing out? Or are we in a really cool time where we've solved everything so much so many times we can focus on other things? Tertiary question: If answer two, what the fuck is that?

More the second. For programmers this is the equivalent of when accountants got spreadsheets. We can just tell the machine what to do without manually performing all the steps. Some programmers enjoyed the code writing more than the problem solving though.

> Some programmers enjoyed the code writing more than the problem solving though.

Programmers enjoy problem solving and coding, but wishing to have problems solved isn't the same thing and only satisfying if it wasn't something that was going to get done otherwise. Wishing products into existence is more of a PM dream

Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#223

Post by cube00 »

danielheath wrote: post #101
ryandrake wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the technology enough to see why, but LLMs seem unusually skilled at reverse engineering proprietary software.

IMO it's because they don't get burnt out by a lack of results. After 5-6 consecutive approaches fail, I need a reason to think the next one might work out to stay motivated. Claude will keep burning credits trying new approaches until something sticks. That's a huge advantage in a field where most of the things you try don't go anywhere.

> Claude will keep burning credits trying new approaches until something sticks. That's a huge advantage in a field where most of the things you try don't go anywhere.

Unless you're on consumption billing.

Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#224

Post by marethyu »

ryandrake wrote: post #76

I was able to (through heavy Claude use) successfully reverse engineer a golf cart motor controller that is programmable over USB, but only was supported by a Windows application. Claude walked me through using ILSpy on the .NET assembly, using Wireshark to capture the protocol over USB, and to completely map out all of the functionality in the Windows application. The output was a portable C library and CLI program…

ChatGPT 5.6 helped me to fully reverse engineer save file format for a relatively-known game, and write a working serializer/deserializer to edit in-game currency. Reverse engineering is something I've always wanted to learn but now I am starting to question if it is worth learning manual reverse engineering at this age when AI can do it for us.

Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#225

Post by josephg »

jsjdjdndn wrote: post #217
josephg wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last week I had Claude add support for aac audio to davinci resolve on Linux, just by patching the binary. It did almost exclusively with gdb and objdump, patching about 5 functions over an hour or two. I only got it to the proof of concept stage. The patch adds aac but breaks flac support in the process. And it only works for aac in mp4 container files. But I’m sure with a bit of time we could make a patch which wor…

"I only got it to proof of concept.... I'm sure with time" this is AI psychosis. LLMs by design product plausible output -- it ALWAYS seems like you just need a little more time. That's why the junkies are up all night playing with these things, and yet the next industrial revolution has NOT arrived. if this is the singularity where is my clothes folding bot, my cold fusion, and my cure for all cancers? Please do not…

The proof of concept works. You can use aac audio in resolve on Linux. It hasn’t been polished or productised, but it’s demonstrably working. If I got to this point on my own, I’d be very satisfied that I could finish the job.

Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#226

Post by kragen »

josephg wrote: post #225
jsjdjdndn wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I only got it to proof of concept.... I'm sure with time" this is AI psychosis. LLMs by design product plausible output -- it ALWAYS seems like you just need a little more time. That's why the junkies are up all night playing with these things, and yet the next industrial revolution has NOT arrived. if this is the singularity where is my clothes folding bot, my cold fusion, and my cure for all cancers? Please do not…

The proof of concept works. You can use aac audio in resolve on Linux. It hasn’t been polished or productised, but it’s demonstrably working. If I got to this point on my own, I’d be very satisfied that I could finish the job.

That would be a justifiable inference in that case. But you didn't get to this point on your own. You haven't learned the knowledge you would have learned getting to this point on your own. Claude didn't either; generally speaking, it doesn't learn. So it may be misleading to reason by analogy to the counterfactual where you had gotten to this point on your own. Claude may or may not be able to finish the job. You won't know until you try.

Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#227

Post by josephg »

kragen wrote: post #226
josephg wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The proof of concept works. You can use aac audio in resolve on Linux. It hasn’t been polished or productised, but it’s demonstrably working. If I got to this point on my own, I’d be very satisfied that I could finish the job.

That would be a justifiable inference in that case. But you didn't get to this point on your own. You haven't learned the knowledge you would have learned getting to this point on your own. Claude didn't either; generally speaking, it doesn't learn. So it may be misleading to reason by analogy to the counterfactual where you had gotten to this point on your own. Claude may or may not be able to finish the job. You wo…

> Claude may or may not be able to finish the job. You won't know until you try.

Yes, it’s weak evidence. Not proof. That is why I was quite explicit about what it has and hasn’t accomplished.

In my time with it, Claude seems fine at finishing up projects. And I’ve done enough reverse engineering to have a reasonably firm understanding of the outstanding work. I predict that Claude will have no problem finishing this up with some more guidance and tokens. You can of course have your own opinion, but I think it’s a bit much to claim I’m suffering from ai psychosis for having this expectation of its capabilities.

Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#228

Post by vedmed »

topham wrote: post #184
kuberwastaken wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UPDATE: Noted, shifted to a 100% native MacOS version now :D https://github.com/Kuberwastaken/hp-laser-1008a-macos Previous context I shared on X: "Also some clarification on the "he's just using the linux driver in the VM" - not quite This is one of the weirdest batch of printers HP made because it's a rebranded Samsung - it "comes" under HP's unified drivers system but specifically has Samsung's printer language so…

You didn't have what you needed; you asked an AI to help make what you needed. Problem solved. New problem created. New problem? Justifying the use of AI to do something these people act like would magically get done if you were just slightly more patient. Or, if you put in 60+ hrs of time.

Haha perfectly said and reminds me of the time I used AI to fix my neighborhood's comcast outages by correctly diagnosing the issue and there was a guy in the comments thread angry with me for burning down rainforests

Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#229

Post by UqWBcuFx6NV4r »

jsjdjdndn wrote: post #217
josephg wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last week I had Claude add support for aac audio to davinci resolve on Linux, just by patching the binary. It did almost exclusively with gdb and objdump, patching about 5 functions over an hour or two. I only got it to the proof of concept stage. The patch adds aac but breaks flac support in the process. And it only works for aac in mp4 container files. But I’m sure with a bit of time we could make a patch which wor…

"I only got it to proof of concept.... I'm sure with time" this is AI psychosis. LLMs by design product plausible output -- it ALWAYS seems like you just need a little more time. That's why the junkies are up all night playing with these things, and yet the next industrial revolution has NOT arrived. if this is the singularity where is my clothes folding bot, my cold fusion, and my cure for all cancers? Please do not…

This isn’t “AI psychosis”. Stop this. Stop corrupting the definition of “psychosis” by pretending that “AI psychosis” can just be used as a descriptor for anyone that thinks that an LLM can do a thing that you don’t think it can. Any use of the term “AI psychosis” in all but the strictest sense is a huge red flag that someone’s objection is based on philosophical or political grounds, and your objection is a textbook example of that.

Re: Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

#230

Post by toomuchtodo »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #204
mikeocool wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda sounds like you are finally realizing the dream of XML and DTD envisioned 25 years ago.

Exactly! Not to mention the belated realization of the so-called "expert systems" we were promised back in the 80s. Better late than never.

Please consider writing a blog post on this project!
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