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Nerdsnipe confirmed :) Claude Opus came up with this script: https://pastebin.com/ntE50PkZ https://pastebin.com/ntE50PkZ It produces a somewhat-readable PDF

Nerdsnipe confirmed :) Claude Opus came up with this script: https://pastebin.com/ntE50PkZ https://pastebin.com/ntE50PkZ It produces a somewhat-readable PDF (first page at least) with this text output: https://pastebin.com/SADsJZHd https://pastebin.com/SADsJZHd (I used the cleaned output at https://pastebin.com/UXRAJdKJ https://pastebin.com/UXRAJdKJ mentioned in a comment by Joe on the blog page)

pests 8mo ago
So it was a public event attended by 450 people: https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2012/dubin-breast-center-holds-inaugural-gala https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2012/dubin-breast-... https://www.businessinsider.com/dubin-breast-center-benefit-2012-12 https://www.businessinsider.com/dubin-breast-center-benefit-... Even names match up, but oddly the date is different.
- elmomle 8mo ago
  Your links are for the inaugural (first) ball in December 2011; OP's text referred to a second annual ball in December 2012.
  - pests 8mo ago
    You are right my first is incorrect but the second does seem to be from 2012.
    - sorbus-25 8mo ago
      DUBIN BREAST CENTER SECOND ANNUAL BENEFIT MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2012 HONORING ELISA PORT, MD, FACS AND THE RUTTENBERG FAMILY HOST CYNTHIA MCFADDEN SPECIAL MUSICAL PERFORMANCES CAROLINE JONES, K'NAAN, HALEY REINHART, THALIA, EMILY WARREN MANDARIN ORIENTAL 7:00PM COCKTAILS LOBBY LOUNGE 8:00PM DINNER AND ENTERTAINMENT MANDARIN BALLROOM FESTIVE ATTIRE
      - Groxx 8mo ago
        Since it looks like this got flagged (probably because out of context at a glance it looks like insane babble that somewhat frequently occurs here), some context: this is appears to be text recovered from the pdf, in the links up-thread. Though there's more text than that link shows, and I'm not entirely sure why it's posted in this specific thread, though it's relevant-ish at least.
        sorbus-25 8mo ago
        It's from a contemporaneous reference to the very same event listed in the PDF. I found it online and archived it: https://web.archive.org/web/20260206040716/https://what2wearwhere.com/dubin-breast-center-2nd-annual-benefit/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260206040716/https://what2wear... It includes screenshots of what looks like an expanded document for the event. Why relevant? I found it by searching the archive for "DBC". There were references to "Dubin", then I found the rest online easily. All that extra text could have helped with decoding the base64 text
- nialv7 8mo ago
  looks like we have it. in the end it's pretty mundane...
  - klustregrif 8mo ago
    Which begs the question why was it censored?
    - lanyard-textile 8mo ago
      Distraction.
    - mikeyouse 8mo ago
      Likely because the named list is a bunch of Trump appointees and mega donors and they're illegally trying to spare them the embarrassment.
    - pbhjpbhj 8mo ago
      Mighty be they censored all pages mentioning keywords, this one says "Breast" ... perhaps they censored all sexual content?
      - klustregrif 8mo ago
        At the risk of repeating myself. Which begs the question why?
        mmastrac 8mo ago
        To protect the people in power, as always.
        redeeman 8mo ago
        what is insane is that everyone just accepts it, knows that this happens, and dont go lynch the ones in charge immediately. There was a time when the guy making the cannon had to sit on top of it for the first shot. Perhaps this kind of policy could be adapted to other situations aswell. Take the job to guard epstein? take the consequences when things go wrong. Protect criminals? take the very real consequences if found out
- turtlesdown11 8mo ago
  interesting, Eva Dubin was highlighted today for offering Epstein her 15 year old daughter and her friends. She's a medical doctor, who became amnesic when on the stand for Maxwell's case >Pressed about gaps in her memory, Dubin told the court: "It's very hard for me to remember anything far back and sometimes I can't remember things from last month. My family notices it. I notice it."
notpushkin 8mo ago
> It produces a somewhat-readable PDF (first page at least) with this text output Any chance you could share a screenshot / re-export it as a (normalized) PDF? I’m curious about what’s in there, but all of my readers refuse to open it.
- dperfect 8mo ago
  Screenshot: https://imgur.com/eWCfYYd https://imgur.com/eWCfYYd
the_real_cher 8mo ago
This is cool!
dperfect 8mo ago
Letting Claude work a little longer produced this behemoth of a script (which is supposed to be somewhat universal in correcting similar OCR'd PDFs - not yet tested on any others though): https://pastebin.com/PsaFhSP1 https://pastebin.com/PsaFhSP1 which uses this Rust zlib stream fixer: https://pastebin.com/iy69HWXC https://pastebin.com/iy69HWXC and gives the best output I've seen it produce: https://imgur.com/itYWblh https://imgur.com/itYWblh This is using the same OCR'd text posted by commenter Joe.
- daveguy 8mo ago
  > which is supposed to be somewhat universal in correcting similar OCR'd PDFs Xerox would like a word. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29223815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29223815 Point being, "correcting" to "correct looking" may be worse than just accepting errors. Errors are often clearly identified by humans as a nonsense word. "Correcting" OCR can result in plausible, but wrong results that are more difficult for the human in the loop to identify.
  - dperfect 8mo ago
    That's true if we're correcting OCR of actual output text. In this case, it's operating on the base 64 text, trying to produce chunks that form valid zlib streams and PDF syntax so the file can be intact enough to be opened. "Just accepting errors" would mean not seeing any content in the file because it cannot be read. So yes, the "fixed" output has errors, but it’s not hallucinating details like an LLM, nor is it trying to produce output that conforms to any linguistic or stylistic heuristics. The phrase "correcting similar OCR'd PDFs" should have been "correcting similar OCR'd base 64 representations of PDFs".

pests 8mo ago

So it was a public event attended by 450 people: https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2012/dubin-breast-center-holds-inaugural-gala https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2012/dubin-breast-... https://www.businessinsider.com/dubin-breast-center-benefit-2012-12 https://www.businessinsider.com/dubin-breast-center-benefit-... Even names match up, but oddly the date is different.

elmomle 8mo ago
Your links are for the inaugural (first) ball in December 2011; OP's text referred to a second annual ball in December 2012.
- pests 8mo ago
  You are right my first is incorrect but the second does seem to be from 2012.
  - sorbus-25 8mo ago
    DUBIN BREAST CENTER SECOND ANNUAL BENEFIT MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2012 HONORING ELISA PORT, MD, FACS AND THE RUTTENBERG FAMILY HOST CYNTHIA MCFADDEN SPECIAL MUSICAL PERFORMANCES CAROLINE JONES, K'NAAN, HALEY REINHART, THALIA, EMILY WARREN MANDARIN ORIENTAL 7:00PM COCKTAILS LOBBY LOUNGE 8:00PM DINNER AND ENTERTAINMENT MANDARIN BALLROOM FESTIVE ATTIRE
    - Groxx 8mo ago
      Since it looks like this got flagged (probably because out of context at a glance it looks like insane babble that somewhat frequently occurs here), some context: this is appears to be text recovered from the pdf, in the links up-thread. Though there's more text than that link shows, and I'm not entirely sure why it's posted in this specific thread, though it's relevant-ish at least.
      - sorbus-25 8mo ago
        It's from a contemporaneous reference to the very same event listed in the PDF. I found it online and archived it: https://web.archive.org/web/20260206040716/https://what2wearwhere.com/dubin-breast-center-2nd-annual-benefit/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260206040716/https://what2wear... It includes screenshots of what looks like an expanded document for the event. Why relevant? I found it by searching the archive for "DBC". There were references to "Dubin", then I found the rest online easily. All that extra text could have helped with decoding the base64 text
nialv7 8mo ago
looks like we have it. in the end it's pretty mundane...
- klustregrif 8mo ago
  Which begs the question why was it censored?
  - lanyard-textile 8mo ago
    Distraction.
  - mikeyouse 8mo ago
    Likely because the named list is a bunch of Trump appointees and mega donors and they're illegally trying to spare them the embarrassment.
  - pbhjpbhj 8mo ago
    Mighty be they censored all pages mentioning keywords, this one says "Breast" ... perhaps they censored all sexual content?
    - klustregrif 8mo ago
      At the risk of repeating myself. Which begs the question why?
      - mmastrac 8mo ago
        To protect the people in power, as always.
        redeeman 8mo ago
        what is insane is that everyone just accepts it, knows that this happens, and dont go lynch the ones in charge immediately. There was a time when the guy making the cannon had to sit on top of it for the first shot. Perhaps this kind of policy could be adapted to other situations aswell. Take the job to guard epstein? take the consequences when things go wrong. Protect criminals? take the very real consequences if found out
turtlesdown11 8mo ago
interesting, Eva Dubin was highlighted today for offering Epstein her 15 year old daughter and her friends. She's a medical doctor, who became amnesic when on the stand for Maxwell's case >Pressed about gaps in her memory, Dubin told the court: "It's very hard for me to remember anything far back and sometimes I can't remember things from last month. My family notices it. I notice it."

notpushkin 8mo ago

> It produces a somewhat-readable PDF (first page at least) with this text output Any chance you could share a screenshot / re-export it as a (normalized) PDF? I’m curious about what’s in there, but all of my readers refuse to open it.

dperfect 8mo ago
Screenshot: https://imgur.com/eWCfYYd https://imgur.com/eWCfYYd

the_real_cher 8mo ago

This is cool!

dperfect 8mo ago

Letting Claude work a little longer produced this behemoth of a script (which is supposed to be somewhat universal in correcting similar OCR'd PDFs - not yet tested on any others though): https://pastebin.com/PsaFhSP1 https://pastebin.com/PsaFhSP1 which uses this Rust zlib stream fixer: https://pastebin.com/iy69HWXC https://pastebin.com/iy69HWXC and gives the best output I've seen it produce: https://imgur.com/itYWblh https://imgur.com/itYWblh This is using the same OCR'd text posted by commenter Joe.

daveguy 8mo ago
> which is supposed to be somewhat universal in correcting similar OCR'd PDFs Xerox would like a word. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29223815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29223815 Point being, "correcting" to "correct looking" may be worse than just accepting errors. Errors are often clearly identified by humans as a nonsense word. "Correcting" OCR can result in plausible, but wrong results that are more difficult for the human in the loop to identify.
- dperfect 8mo ago
  That's true if we're correcting OCR of actual output text. In this case, it's operating on the base 64 text, trying to produce chunks that form valid zlib streams and PDF syntax so the file can be intact enough to be opened. "Just accepting errors" would mean not seeing any content in the file because it cannot be read. So yes, the "fixed" output has errors, but it’s not hallucinating details like an LLM, nor is it trying to produce output that conforms to any linguistic or stylistic heuristics. The phrase "correcting similar OCR'd PDFs" should have been "correcting similar OCR'd base 64 representations of PDFs".