Hacker News: ijustlovemath

New comment by ijustlovemath in "Cloudflare Quick Tunnels"

ijustlovemath — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 16:22:31 +0000

I think they're talking about market capture risks

New comment by ijustlovemath in "Developing provably correct Rust code with Verus"

ijustlovemath — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:28:11 +0000

It generates additional code that's fed into an SMT solver. Poor compiler performance is a top issue developers have with Rust, which they're working to solve. I think adding this layer into every piece of code (which is probably impossible since inferring the invariants is essentially inferring your business logic) would eat away gains they've achieved.

I also think the functional style, typestate, and borrow checker is enough for writing correct code across many business domains, so there's no need to add this to your toolchain. We are a med device company building a class III (really 3 class II) device, and Verus is making our verification story extremely compelling.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "Developing provably correct Rust code with Verus"

ijustlovemath — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:26:00 +0000

What exactly is your objection? Rust doesn't solve the halting problem? You can absolutely prove bounded resource use with eg SmallVec and arenas

New comment by ijustlovemath in "Developing provably correct Rust code with Verus"

ijustlovemath — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:18:48 +0000

I'd rather have all the unsafe code scoped and the safety invariants explained than the alternative. You still can't do a whole class of scary things in an unsafe block; common misconception

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 01:08:18 +0000

The latest CGMs are definitely not cheap on the R&D side. The obvious implementation is really susceptible to interference from common drugs, which is a really expensive thing to fix. They're also trying to get wider adoption in the hospital which requires fixing similar issues with many different compounds. FDA is still quite tough on biocompatibility. They definitely are taking a good profit though.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 03:05:44 +0000

I'll be showing my bias here, but you're probably referring to NICE-SUGAR, which I think suffered mainly from having a pretty uninspired control algorithm. We built and simulated it and several other clinical protocols and it had the widest spread of performance, but it lost a ton of points to hypoglycemia performance, which is where you get into increasing mortality. The NICE-SUGAR protocol [1] has no notion of weight based dosing, and even has some completely missed edge cases. There have been similar studies in Japan with a better algorithm and they showed the expected benefits.

[1] - https://www.glycemiccontrol.net/NICE/StudyDesign/NiceALGORIT...

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 01:17:32 +0000

oof, that's what I get for commenting late! I was thinking of that 23% number.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:56:40 +0000

Recall that GLP-1s were originally designed as next-generation long acting insulin modulators; they're a form of passive control. The CGM gives you data to act on, or at the very least observe. I find, from my experience wearing them as a person without diabetes, they give really interesting insights into my own life by giving numbers to stressful moments, which can be good insight to have. That's called stress induced hyperglycemia. Everyone has a unique and continuously evolving glucose system, so YMMV.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 23:23:27 +0000

Drug interference (with the sensor chemistry) and perfusion (which the sensor needs to function) are two major problems that a hospital presents that are not present in ambulatory (outside the hospital) use. Also the FDA has not approved any systems yet; the software is actually quite difficult to get right.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 23:20:32 +0000

If the large studies are to be believed, you could save hundreds of thousands of lives and many billions in excess expenditure, because stable blood glucose shortens length of stay. People with diabetes alone account for 60% of hospital expenditure, so improving their care improves the system in a big way.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 23:17:51 +0000

I've had the fortune to work with several CGM OEMs behind the scenes as part of our work developing an artificial pancreas, they all have a secret lactate signal!

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:53:00 +0000

None have been approved for hospital use as of yet, which is the next frontier.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:41:04 +0000

Ah yes, I see what you mean! Ketones are not inherently bad, just the accumulation of them w.r.t having diabetes. Should have made that more clear.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:24:33 +0000

Lactate's available in the internal engineering data of these sensors, just not something that anyone has wanted to spend the time or money to qualify with the FDA. It essentially comes "for free" due to the chemical reaction the sensor uses.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:21:36 +0000

It can happen in people with uncontrolled T2D as well. My cofounder is a pediatric ICU doctor who has treated hundreds of DKA patients.

Also there wasn't really a relationship of the keto diet to the rest of my post, just using it to contextualize a technical term with one that might be more familiar.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:04:21 +0000

Cardiac surgery, burn units, ICU, neuro come to mind. All have been studied to show mortality and complications improvements with AGC, but unfortunately the commercial technology has not materialized yet.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:00:58 +0000

There are 6 month implantable CGMs, they're just quite expensive.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 20:58:38 +0000

Lactate actually comes for free with blood glucose when you measure it with a chemical sensor, it's just not something that's usually asked for. I definitely think it would be considered a form of doping to use it in competition, but I think recovery is where it would make more impact anyways. You also wouldn't want to use it before a race, as you'd run the risk of reduced pancreatic function.

AGC will find its main application in surgical and inpatient uses, eg in cardiac, neuro, burn, ICU, and people with diabetes in any hospital setting.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 20:28:30 +0000

There is a major IP holder in the space who is asserting their ownership, so even if they could solve the technical challenges, they might not be able to come to market.

New comment by ijustlovemath in "FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels"

ijustlovemath — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 20:14:39 +0000

The difference is that these only measure blood sugar, while the new system also measures ketones, of keto diet fame, which are leading indicators of a really dangerous situation called diabetic ketoacidosis. It's treatable with a hospitalized IV insulin drip, but can be avoided if you have some advance notice.