Hacker News: kvmet

New comment by kvmet in "The history of cataract surgery"

kvmet — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 13:21:23 +0000

I did some of the controls software for an automated IOL manufacturing line roughly 8 or 9 years ago. It's very cool technology, I was proud to work on it.

One problem at the time (at least from my understanding) was actually that some people needed a second round of surgery since people are living longer and cataracts are getting corrected earlier. Last I heard, the rate of complications for a repeat surgery is significantly higher, but I assume it is improving all the time.

A fun fact: UV protection can be put directly into the lens to protect your retinas even without sunglasses (I assume this depends on the polymer type though). Also the lenses are usually tinted a slightly yellow color since our natural lenses shift color as we age. Patients tend to find it jarring if the lens is perfectly clear.

New comment by kvmet in "Precision Clock Mk IV"

kvmet — Sat, 31 May 2025 21:16:11 +0000

I assume they are referring to the channel timing? Cellular frequencies are segmented into time segments where each channel is allowed to be used by only some devices when it is their "turn" to transmit (this allows multiple phones to share the same frequency at the same time).

New comment by kvmet in "The Hierarchy of Hazard Controls"

kvmet — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 23:34:24 +0000

Elimination is not the same as separating someone from the hazard. Edit: elimination is (re)moving the hazard and a control is adding a barrier or moving the person

Elimination is completely getting rid of the hazard. (In the case of x-ray it would be just not doing an x-ray at all)

New comment by kvmet in "Used Meta AI, now Instagram is using my face on ads targeted at me"

kvmet — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 01:52:33 +0000

Phased array speakers can focus sound in a specific direction. The visuals I don't have a good answer for but the sound part could definitely be done with existing technology

New comment by kvmet in "Why is it so hard to buy things that work well? (2022)"

kvmet — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 19:19:44 +0000

Another big benefit of these older devices is customizability and repairability. I am working to refurbish an MPC1000 right now (drum machine) and the fact that it is repairable at all was a big factor in choosing to sell a newer, nicer device in favor of an older one that wasn't fully working.

Not everything can be treated that way, like a phone or a laptop I would prefer to be no more than 5 years old. But so many things don't need to be terribly modern in order to work well.

New comment by kvmet in "U.S. math scores drop on major international test"

kvmet — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 21:46:41 +0000

Phonics certainly doesn't _feel_ like the best way to teach English, but hopefully we now have enough data to show that it is at least acceptable. A big factor too is "can it be taught at scale". You don't only have to teach the students, you have to teach the teachers how to teach the new methods. Much like NCLB, these changes are well-meaning but we really need to stop rolling things out nationally only to find out they harm outcomes.

New comment by kvmet in "Contradictions in photography advice"

kvmet — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 14:50:56 +0000

Totally right. I shoot almost exclusively with a 50mm prime and make heavy use of cropping. I get to carry a very light, small, and FAST lens that works in many different situations without needing a flash. Modern cameras have such high resolution that the output still has good quality even after significant cropping.

There are some situations where "zooming with your feet" is the right answer and others where it is impossible. Try everything.

New comment by kvmet in "Working from home is powering productivity"

kvmet — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 22:14:11 +0000

Is this actually happening? I have seen this idea thrown out a lot online but it always feels like a conspiracy theory to me (akin to "fine art is a tax write-off")

New comment by kvmet in "Preventing app removal on iOS"

kvmet — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 12:16:02 +0000

I have an alarm clock like this and still use it almost daily. The one that I use has an alternate dismissal method for anything fixed to a certain location. (Barcodes, etc.)

My sleep has gotten consistent enough over the years that I could probably get by without it, but it did help significantly with building the habits in the first place.

New comment by kvmet in "I have 2000 old VHS tapes in my garage and don't know what to do with them"

kvmet — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 06:02:28 +0000

Did you misspeak? Animals are generally living things

New comment by kvmet in "Tesla Transport Protocol over Ethernet (TTPoE)"

kvmet — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 13:26:50 +0000

Licensing probably?

CAN (or one of its more modern variants) are historically more common in automotive. However with 2-wire Ethernet connections becoming more commonplace I do think you're right that more and more cars will be moving to ethernet fieldbus.

EtherNet/IP is not as robust for many applications as its competitors (PROFINET, EtherCAT) since it is not fully deterministic. EtherCAT is my personal favorite.

New comment by kvmet in "Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles"

kvmet — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 11:44:47 +0000

I think porn prefers open tooling so that it is less likely to be banned. Going inside Apple's walled garden is probably more risky in that regard and also there's only a small consumer base.

There are plenty of VR apps in this category available for PC-connected headsets. You can find tons of them on Steam or Patreon.

New comment by kvmet in "Zero regrets: Firefox power user kept 7,500 tabs open for two years"

kvmet — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 19:55:11 +0000

If you close it normally, restart it, and then do "reopen last closed tab" (cmd/ctrl+shift+t) it will open the entire last window you had open. Press multiple times to open all previous windows.

New comment by kvmet in "Empathy for the user having sex with your software"

kvmet — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 12:18:46 +0000

It really helps to test these kinds of products internally.

New comment by kvmet in "Zettlr: One-Stop Publication Workbench"

kvmet — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 11:51:03 +0000

I use Zettlr somewhat often. Honestly my favorite features are just:

- inline markdown preview

- VIM Keybinds (with some issues, as many implementations have)

- mermaid and LaTeX math support built in

(Notice that 2/3 of these are easily done on many other editors via plugins/extensions)

It has some other nice things too but I find it to be kind of slow and clunky. Still I come back for the way markdown works there because it feels like WYSIWYG but without so much mouse clicking. I have minimally used the pandoc and other publishing features but wasn't blown away by them vs just using pandoc

New comment by kvmet in "The Mythical Non-Roboticist: Wouldn't it be great if everyone could do robotics?"

kvmet — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:45:40 +0000

Yeah and industrial robots are generally pretty easy compared to other parts of automation. They are pretty much turnkey and have a bunch of options for integration. That's not to say that they don't take any skill, but if you're doing material handling or welding or something you can often just buy the entire package from and apply power and it works. It does all of the advanced kinematics math for you; you will be better at robots if you understand the math but it isn't a requirement and the vast majority of people programming, maintaining, and working alongside them don't know the math behind it.

It always bums me out when people just want to look at a pretty robot drawing a line or picking up a heavy thing and ignore much more complex and difficult parts of factory automation.

New comment by kvmet in "UI elements with a hand-drawn, sketchy look"

kvmet — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 01:31:20 +0000

I don't think they were saying you were unappreciative. They were just adding on that finishing a project is worth celebrating.

New comment by kvmet in "Rents are rising faster than wages across the country"

kvmet — Fri, 17 May 2024 17:02:45 +0000

That graph is awful. What is it showing aside from "bigger arrow more bad"? Does color mean anything? What variable does arrow size actually represent?

New comment by kvmet in "I discovered a critical exploit in ZeroMQ with mostly pure luck"

kvmet — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 20:55:05 +0000

This is why teams need both. Relentless, obsessive people are great for the things that need it. Most stuff is usually fine to just do the lazy way though and move on.

New comment by kvmet in "Mistral AI Launches New 8x22B MOE Model"

kvmet — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 02:23:09 +0000

It's gotta be either perceived value or training data/licensing restrictions.