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OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and Smarttube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fucked. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes.

  3. take it in for repair (good luck with that).

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did for this project, figure out what’s wrong now and fix it, or tell me it’s broken.

If it looks like the brownout caused corruption, factory reset, stream-install the backup APKs directly, sign in my accounts, get it back up and running.

Failing that, if it’s looking like a hardware issue, push a diagnostic tool, test the TV and tell me which parts I might need, as well as likely costs using eBay or Amazon. I’m happy to spend $50 on this shitbox and not one cent more. If the fix looks like it’s more than $50, find me a TV of this size under $200. Prefer local shop X or Y.

Present everything as markdown in the usual folder, using house style. Ping me on my phone if you need me to authorise anything or when you’re done with the TL;DR.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests, checks the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Turns out this p.o.s doesn’t have a RTC back up battery.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It syncs the date and time with my location. Boom, everything comes back.

Now, could I have twigged it myself?

Yes - eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reset the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a project - jailbreak my tcl. Over time, I’d stored enough context of what I had done in the LLM and its tools, so that it could do what I’d do (and more), faster, based on the constraints I had put in place.

People that call these things “spicy autocorrect” are demonstrating either a skill issue or a lack of imagination.

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and Smarttube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fucked. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes.

  3. take it in for repair (good luck with that).

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did for this project, figure out what’s wrong now and fix it, or tell me it’s broken.

If it looks like the brownout caused corruption, factory reset, stream-install the backup APKs directly, sign in my accounts, get it back up and running.

Failing that, if it’s looking like a hardware issue, push a diagnostic tool, test the TV and tell me which parts I might need, as well as likely costs using eBay or Amazon. I’m happy to spend $50 on this shitbox and not one cent more. If the fix looks like it’s more than $50, find me a TV of this size under $200. Prefer local shop X or Y.

Present everything as markdown in the usual folder, using house style. Ping me on my phone if you need me to authorise anything or when you’re done with the TL;DR.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests, checks the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Turns out this p.o.s doesn’t have a RTC back up battery.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It syncs the date and time with my location. Boom, everything comes back.

Now, could I have twigged it myself?

Yes - eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reset the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a project - jailbreak my tcl. Over time, I’d stored enough context of what I had done in the LLM and its tools, so that it could do what I’d (and more), faster, based on the constraints I had put in place.

People that call these things “spicy autocorrect” are demonstrating either a skill issue or a lack of imagination.

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and Smarttube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fucked. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes.

  3. take it in for repair (good luck with that).

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did for this project, figure out what’s wrong now and fix it, or tell me it’s broken.

If it looks like the brownout caused corruption, factory reset, stream-install the backup APKs directly, sign in my accounts, get it back up and running.

Failing that, if it’s looking like a hardware issue, push a diagnostic tool, test the TV and tell me which parts I might need, as well as likely costs using eBay or Amazon. I’m happy to spend $50 on this shitbox and not one cent more. If the fix looks like it’s more than $50, find me a TV of this size under $200. Prefer local shop X or Y.

Present everything as markdown in the usual folder, using house style. Ping me on my phone if you need me to authorise anything or when you’re done with the TL;DR.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests, checks the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Turns out this p.o.s doesn’t have a RTC back up battery.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It syncs the date and time with my location. Boom, everything comes back.

Now, could I have twigged it myself?

Yes - eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reset the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a project - jailbreak my tcl. Over time, I’d stored enough context of what I had done in the LLM and it’s tools, so that it could do what I’d (and more), faster, based on the constraints I had put in place.

People that call these things “spicy autocorrect” are demonstrating either a skill issue or a lack of imagination.

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and Smarttube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fucked. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes.

  3. take it in for repair (good luck with that).

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did, figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the TV.

If it looks like the brownout caused memory corruption, factory reset, stream-install the backup APKs directly, sign in my accounts, get it back up and running.

Failing that, if it’s looking like a hardware issue, push a diagnostic tool, test the TV and tell me which parts I might need, as well as likely costs using eBay or Amazon. I’m happy to spend $50 on this shitbox and not one cent more.

Present everything as markdown in the usual folder, using house style. Ping me on my phone if you need me to authorise or when you’re done with the TL;DR.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests, checks the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Turns out this p.o.s doesn’t have a RTC back up battery.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It syncs the date and time with my location. Boom, everything comes back.

Now, could I have twigged it myself?

Yes - eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reset the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a project - jailbreak my tcl. Over time, I’d stored enough context of what I had done in the LLM and it’s tools, so that it could do what I’d (and more), faster, based on the constraints I had put in place.

People that call these things “spicy autocorrect” are demonstrating either a skill issue or a lack of imagination.

My next project (after wiring up the solar) will be to make a DIY robot lawn mower, tie it into the house brain and take one more shit job off my to-do list.

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and Smarttube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fucked. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes.

  3. take it in for repair (good luck with that).

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did, figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the TV.

If it looks like the brownout caused memory corruption, factory reset, stream-install the backup APKs directly, sign in my accounts, get it back up and running.

Failing that, if it’s looking like a hardware issue, push a diagnostic tool, test the TV and tell me which parts I might need, as well as likely costs using eBay or Amazon. I’m happy to spend $50 on this shitbox and not one cent more.

Present everything as markdown in the usual folder, using house style. Ping me on my phone if you need me to authorise or when you’re done with the TL;DR.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests, checks the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Turns out this p.o.s doesn’t have a RTC back up battery.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It syncs the date and time with my location. Boom, everything comes back.

Now, could I have twigged it myself?

Yes - eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reset the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a project. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the LLM and tools so that it would do what I would have done, faster, and taken the next logical steps based on my constraints.

People that call these things “spicy autocorrect” are demonstrating either a skill issue or a lack of imagination.

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and Smarttube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did, figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the TV.

If it looks like the brownout caused memory corruption, factory reset, stream-install the backup APKs directly, sign in my accounts, get it back up and running.

Failing that, if it’s looking like a hardware issue, push a diagnostic tool, test the TV and tell me which parts I might need, as well as likely costs using eBay or Amazon. I’m happy to spend $50 on this shitbox and not one cent more.

Present everything as markdown in the usual folder, using house style. Ping me on my phone when you’re done with the TL;DR.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a problem. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the LLM so that it would do what I would have done, faster.

People that call these things “spicy autocorrect” are demonstrating a skill issue.

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and YouTube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did, figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the tv.

If it looks like the brownout caused memory corruption, factory reset, adb stream install the back up .apks, sign in my accounts, get it back up and running.

Failing that, if it’s looking like a hardware issue, push diagnostic tool, test tv and tell me which part/s I might need, as well as likely part costs using eBay or Amazon. I’m happy to spend $50 on this shitbox and not one cent more.

Present everything as markdown in usual folder, using house style. Ping me on my phone when you’re done with the TL;DR”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a problem. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the llm so that it would do what I would have done, faster.

People that call these things “spicy autocorrect” are demonstrating a skill issue.

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and YouTube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did, figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the tv.

If brownout cause memory corruption, adb stream install the back up .apks, sign in my accounts, get it back up and running.

Failing that, if it’s looking like a hardware issue, push diagnostic tool, test tv and tell me which part/s I might need, as well as likely part costs using eBay or Amazon.

Present it as markdown in usual folder. Ping me on my phone when you’re done.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a problem. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the llm so that it would do what I would have done, faster.

People that call these things “spicy autocorrect” are demonstrating a skill issue.

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and YouTube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did, figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the tv.

If brownout cause memory corruption, adb stream install the back up .apks, sign in my accounts, get it back up and running.

Failing that, if it’s looking like a hardware issue, push diagnostic tool, test tv and tell me which part/s I might need, as well as likely part costs using eBay or Amazon.

Present it as markdown in usual folder. Ping me on my phone when you’re done.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a problem. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the llm so that it did what I would have done, faster, and then took the logical step (I’m simplifying this a lot for the sake of brevity, but if you want all the details, I can do that as well).

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and YouTube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did, figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the tv. If brownout cause memory corruption, adb stream install the back up .apks, sign in my accounts.

Failing that, if it’s a hardware issue, tell me which part/s I might need, prep a shopping list and get me approx prices, sourced from either Amazon or eBay. I’m not willing to pay more than $50 to fix this p.o.s, so if the fix is looking expensive, make sure to note that.

Present it as markdown in usual folder. Ping me on my phone when you’re done.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a problem. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the llm so that it did what I would have done, faster, and then took the logical step (I’m simplifying this a lot for the sake of brevity, but if you want all the details, I can do that as well).

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and YouTube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Check prior history of what I did, figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the tv. Additionally, if it’s a hardware issue, tell me which part/s I might need, prep a shopping list and get me approx prices, sourced from either Amazon or eBay. Present it as markdown in usual folder. Ping me on my phone when you’re done.”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a problem. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the llm so that it did what I would have done, faster, and then took the logical step (I’m simplifying this a lot for the sake of brevity, but if you want all the details, I can do that as well).

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and YouTube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. Just weird JSON vomit and then dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the tv”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a problem. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the llm so that it did what I would have done, faster, and then took the logical step (I’m simplifying this a lot for the sake of brevity, but if you want all the details, I can do that as well).

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The yar har har works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and YouTube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. No error. No log. Just dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the tv”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a problem. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the llm so that it did what I would have done, faster, and then took the logical step (I’m simplifying this a lot for the sake of brevity, but if you want all the details, I can do that as well).

Edited

OK, here’s a real life use case, small time as it is, that has nothing to do with anything rarefied.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and YouTube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. No error. No log. Just dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the tv”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with “writing functions”.

I had a problem. Over time, I’d stored enough context in the llm so that it did what I would have done, faster, and then took the logical step (I’m simplifying this a lot for the sake of brevity, but if you want all the details, I can do that as well).

Original

Here’s a real life use case, small time as it is.

I have a TCL Android TV that, after some “unapproved measures”, runs without a Google account - FLauncher as the front end, telemetry blocked, home media streaming, YouTube ad-free. The works.

Two days ago the kids come in. TV’s not working.

Jellyfin: fine. Nova Player: fine. Stremio, YouTube, anything hitting the net: dead.

We’d had a brownout that day, so I figured the router was scrambled. Reset it, re-added the network… and YouTube now launches, plays for 30 seconds, then hard-locks. No error. No log. Just dead.

At that point I’m thinking the TV is fried. Options:

  1. factory reset and reinstall the workarounds - 2-3hrs of pain-in-the-ass fuckery

  2. crawl the net decoding cryptic error codes,

  3. take it in for repair

  4. fall down a TV diagnostics rabbit hole.

Instead, I chose option 5)

I told my local LLM: “This TV is on this IP. This laptop has ADB access. I’ve given you MCP tools with ADB libraries. Here’s the issue, here’s what I tried. Figure out what’s wrong and fix it, or tell me the WiFi is fried so I can repurpose the tv”

The agent ADBs in, pokes around, tests the WiFi, and figures out the brownout had corrupted the date and time.

Wrong clock = certs flagged as invalid = no net.

It reset the time. Everything comes back.

Could I have twigged it myself?

Eventually. But the agent already had the tools, knew the TV’s prior state, and had a record of what I’d already tried.

It could’ve reflashed the TV, sideloaded all my apps, re-signed into my accounts - the whole lot - if needed.

This is not the only time I’ve had real world use of my local, and it had very little to do with