Hacker News: mrsvanwinkle

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "AI software for smart glasses wins £1M prize for helping people with dementia"

mrsvanwinkle — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 03:12:29 +0000

Just joined the "family member battling neurodegenerative disease" club and plunged into resigned frustration when I could not find even some vibecoded assistant that does the simplest critical dementia caregiving tasks proactively, and ChatGPT and Gemini voice subscriptions dont have that capability yet. My mom thankfully still has at least perhaps a 1 hour attention window. It's enough for her to read an old, long letter I wrote about her life for mother's day reminding her about how she lived her life sacrificing for her family and how she always worried for everyone else but herself (to a fault). She lives with my sister but she is closest to me and I still have a lot to learn on how to deal with this illness from her psychiatrist especially the acceptance part. I have been spending most of my free time face timing her. Grateful for anyone who could share existing solutions that are already available.

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Ask HN: Got cancer, a new job,new boss in less than a year What do I do now?"

mrsvanwinkle — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 22:14:10 +0000

Was hoping to find that good end in your story and found it, happy for you. I'm thankfully healthy but found myself in an adjacent circumstance as the child of a newly diagnosed dementia patient who forgot who I am. I was able to reintroduce myself and she has not forgotten again so far but she is at the point where she will believe anything without ground truth as basis. I find myself clamoring for time with her, pioritizing FaceTime calls with her over anything else, as each time I talk to her I can sense her drifting away. I don't mind her forgetting about me, which finally convinced the psychiatrist who said she didn't have a problem the previous year that yes she is in stage 5-6 dementia after all. She woke up once not knowing who she is, and that is something I can't have her forget. This is the closest I've experienced something like what you've survived through and what op is going through, something that puts Everything in perspective. So I'm thankful for threads like this on HN especially given this point in history where everything is happening all at once, which makes this Total Perspective Vortex (HHGG) thing all the more epiphanic (the TPV in HITCHHIKER'S was meant to destroy you by showing you the evident infinitude of your insignificance, but the reality of mortality just shows an indifferent universe being equally, coldly, largely ignored)

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Modern wealth is a parlour game played by the well fed"

mrsvanwinkle — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:20:43 +0000

Agreed, but I'm mainly informed by the r/personalfinance article that I don't have on hand right now, which lays out the exact details of the evidently tangible difference in material reality jumping from a low ten million net worth to 100 million and beyond (low 8 figs to low 9 figs), the most significant being material wealth translating into political/social clout, where the author worked as a director for such estate and was responsible for these big name correspondences. Even something as casual as a dinner invitation will get an audience with someone in the 10 figures. The common ideas of "ultra rich" perks are attainable and peak at 8 figures, such as having your personal pilot (this surprised me) above the usual payrolled estate of assistant + personal chef/nutritionist.

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Lego's 0.002mm specification and its implications for manufacturing (2025)"

mrsvanwinkle — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 03:52:59 +0000

Okay this lit up my life for the day

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Magical Mushroom – Europe's first industrial-scale mycelium packaging producer"

mrsvanwinkle — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:33:10 +0000

Like real mold on fiber or

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Seeing Theory"

mrsvanwinkle — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 17:58:23 +0000

Yes, reminds me of Proce55ing in its prime, used for complex webviz like this. I love this so much.

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Flock CEO calls Deflock a “terrorist organization” (2025) [video]"

mrsvanwinkle — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 12:04:51 +0000

Agreed with other comment thanks so much for posting.

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Douglas Adams on the English–American cultural divide over "heroes""

mrsvanwinkle — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 05:33:45 +0000

As an American I'm a huge fan of HHGG and Rowan Atkinson (not just his Bean character). I'm also a huge fan of Conan O'Brien and his Harvard generation's work for The Simpsons. Would be far ahead of Adams' time. Though while I find them _okay_ I never laughed so hard that my face and stomach hurt from laughter when watching Monty Python anything, not even Black Adder. For other American comedy what made me really, really laugh so hard was Kenan & Kel and The Lonely Island's work for SNL.

I've tried to find something as funny as HHGG for so long that I've read P.G. Wodehouse as Adam's main inspiration. Also watched Fry & Laurey. I guess Sacha Cohen as British humour? Since he's Cambridge Highlights alum after all. Found his works extremely hilarious though the parody of racism was disgusting.

Here is Conan's best (natural) performance roasting the Google CEO and gOogLers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7TwqpWiY5s

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "PawSense: Catproof Your Computer"

mrsvanwinkle — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:52:36 +0000

this is the best HN thread of this year so far, loving all the comments

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Gundam is just the same as Jane Austen but happens to include giant mech suits"

mrsvanwinkle — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 21:20:48 +0000

laughed and was warmed by the end reveal. i support gushing over literature in HN

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Word spacing"

mrsvanwinkle — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:03:33 +0000

I love that better! I was also just in Italy recently and you made me double take this tablet hanging on a canopy in one of the peregrination churches and they ARE interpuncts but for names only

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?"

mrsvanwinkle — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 06:33:45 +0000

just the fact you instinctively thought of the use case to understand and empathize with this disability better, is very cool of you

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication"

mrsvanwinkle — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 05:16:16 +0000

best HN story ive read in a while. i want a raccoon that eating tinyfist-fuls of cereal steaight from the box it opened, watching TV

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Maybe you’re not trying"

mrsvanwinkle — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:11:34 +0000

"other people's same problem easier" i see, but have never seen messiness as example at least in communities w adhd comorbid with depression. personally the concept of other people cleaning my private mess, even/especially if they are close family/friends is terrifying and already overloads my head and i can only project the same sentiment (and some extrapolation of my own experience helping friends/family with cleaning... it is super hard, we are talking about intruding on what the person values as trash or not trash, and that itself can be a source of great shame i.e. my mother who lived to much worse abject poverty than the children she helped raise with a better life. sorry for being dramatic about an otherwise straightforward point but yes in my experience that "cold" reduction of the problem into something actionable would be key, though people arrive there differently i noticed, e.g. me and my "armchair courage" that any unseen sideeffect is not my problem, for my mom (okay sometimes for me as well) it is about being able to forget that she has problems just by the appearance of having the luxury to give advice

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Whatever Happened to String Theory?"

mrsvanwinkle — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 20:20:32 +0000

big early-Sabine Hossenfelder energy

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Being poor vs. being broke"

mrsvanwinkle — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 20:31:15 +0000

Poverty-sculpted packrat brain here. I believe this specific behavior became a nuanced social issue starting with the Marie Kondo "Cleanliness" movement from years ago to present, at least my experience of this is through the Tumblr commentaries about how tone-deaf the movement was to people in or who grew up in poverty. so for "never-poor" people like you, the specific nuance would be whether you had space to keep these backup parts like an attic or garage or even extra closet space where this behavior becomes a "tidiness/organization" issue otherwise. hope this perspective gives a better picture

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Startups are pushing the boundaries of reproductive genetics"

mrsvanwinkle — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 18:32:16 +0000

This is extremely helpful to me, thanks so much for sharing.

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "The English language doesn't exist – it's just French that's badly pronounced"

mrsvanwinkle — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 04:49:16 +0000

snortèd

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Attention lapses due to sleep deprivation due to flushing fluid from brain"

mrsvanwinkle — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 20:54:50 +0000

I can objectively say your reply minimizes the previous two posts who shared childhood traumas by the objective fact that you are implying (if they are not able to satisfy your Scientific Endeavor) that, if there is no delineation, then their repression of childhood trauma is equivalent and minimized or perhaps exalted if coffee is your religion to the repression of your religious experience of this coffee shop. If you were perhaps a child victim in this coffee shop maybe? You literally erased the trauma part. That is the delineation if you still need to think about this out loud

New comment by mrsvanwinkle in "Attention lapses due to sleep deprivation due to flushing fluid from brain"

mrsvanwinkle — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 20:48:10 +0000

Thank you so much, the parent thread was truly an uncomfortably disturbing read and your post is a necessary contrast to "rational" "objective" "minds" armchairing something so delicate with gross finality.