datameta

  Location: Brooklyn, NY
  Remote: Yes (US), Hybrid (NYC)
  Willing to relocate: No
  Availability: Full-time / contract
  Technologies:
    Languages:  C/C++, Python, TypeScript, Kotlin, Java, VHDL, SystemVerilog
    Embedded:   STM32, ESP32, PowerPC, ARM, iCE40UP5k, Artix 7
    ML/AI:      TFLM, PyTorch, LiteRT, ExecuTorch, ONNX, OpenCV
    Wireless:   BLE, WiFi, LoRa, MQTT
    Agentic:    LangGraph, CrewAI, RAG, MCP, A2A
    PCB:        Mixed-signal, RF
  Resume: https://datameta.info/Daniel_Melnikov_Resume.pdf
  Portfolio: https://datameta.info
  Email: dm@datameta.info

Hi, I'm Daniel, R&D engineer at the physical/sensing/compute/inference boundaries. Freelance since Jan 2025: most recently an agentic pipeline for a healthcare startup that adheres to HIPAA and is deterministically prevented from accessing restricted data.

Sole inventor on a pending patent for an indoor localization system with SoTA estimation accuracy in GPS-denied and off-grid environments, where nothing is sent to the cloud.

Before that, IBM: memory controller firmware for POWER servers, and chip-op firmware and bringup/test software for the Z17 mainframe processor. That included a chip-op that cut scanchain verification time by 17% in AWAN simulation. Earlier: a Python computer vision backend for shelf sensors, live at the CVS Manhattan flagship in 2019/2020, and an embedded C++ environmental sensor package still running in several NJ warehouses since 2017.

Personal project: Movement Voltage turns hand pose into control voltage. Stereo camera tracks a hand, an RPi4 turns the landmarks into distances, and 0-5V comes out through an I2C->DAC->jacks board I designed and soldered, into a eurorack synth. Full writeup and photo on the portfolio.

I wonder how different the outcome would be if the idiom used was not help but "instructions", as in, what portion of users did not want to admit they needed assistance?

I'm not refuting the fact that people seldom read, but this seems like an interesting additional vector to explore.

Right, and often the tested depth isnt maximum. So you slowly acclimate to worse and worse code practices if the effort needed to undo it is the same as doing.

If Russia's economy is kept afloat after 4 years of full-scale war... Why would one year of Trump 2.0 do us in? Don't get me wrong, a whole lot of problematic actions have been taken in that time-frame but that pales in comparison to 1.25 million casualties and about the same number having left the country (and our population is almost triple theirs) on top of infrastructure destruction.

We're not trying to characterize typical use, but rather pathological levels of supplemental hormone

I was never in webdev, per se. I switched from "fullstack" (which included backend+frontend as well as mobile/firmware/ML) to hardware eng at IBM, and then widened back out again to R&D Engineering at a startup to work on a patent. I had always wanted to be closer to hardware/embedded and anything that involves sensor-laden and/or RF-enabled systems so it was a natural progression for me.

USA REMOTE | NYC HYBRID

  Languages: C/C++, Python, JavaScript, Kotlin, VHDL, SystemVerilog
  Hardware: PowerPC, ESP32, STM32, iCE40, ECP5
  ML: TFLite Micro, PyTorch, ONNX, OpenCV
  IoT: BLE, WiFi

  Resume: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18mjB1tIH5s-ZmiET_smUxbMo3FaiC637aW_us8P0U5I/edit?usp=drivesdk
  Email: dm@datameta.info

Hi, I'm an embedded systems engineer/architect bridging the full compute spectrum of ultra-low power IoT, edge systems, and HPC.

My latest projects have been in full-stack edge ML R&D, memory controller firmware dev for POWER servers, and chip bringup/testing for Z mainframes.

I'm passionate about modular synthesis and tinkering with all sorts of analog circuits and DSP. Currently upskilling in analog PCB design and refining my abilities in FPGA development. Also WIP on a 3D-printed robot arm to practice control systems and actuation.

I was a proponent initially of CLI when Claude integration with VSCode required a WSL instance, but now that it is integrated directly into VSCode I feel one grouping of tooling hiccups is now ruled out in my workflow. The only (major) nitpick I have is that it wont let you finish typing and cuts you off when asking whether/how to proceed.

Oh how I wish we could know what Iain M. Banks thinks of the LLM revolution...

Maybe it even is happening but will never reach us from their local observable sphere.

Very impressive stuff. I used to frequent the JS demoscene, mostly dwitter - but this is on a whole other level.

Oh shit, this prompted me to check and turns out TinyTapeout is back to life! https://tinytapeout.com/

Accurate. Systemic perturbations are typically bad for most "old money".

"Protect and Serve" (the State)

So, to make sure I understand what you are saying - any person whose life is gripped by intense interest in something and simultaneously they are irreligious is lesser or on the wrong path?

Personally, I learned on lead-free solder and the rosin core is almost always enough flux for me aside from rework. Always use an extractor/filter either way.

USA REMOTE | NYC HYBRID

  Languages: C/C++, Python, JavaScript, Kotlin, VHDL, SystemVerilog
  Hardware: PowerPC, ESP32, STM32, iCE40, ECP5
  ML: TensorFlow Lite Micro, PyTorch, ONNX, OpenCV
  IoT: BLE, WiFi, MQTT, LoRa

  Resume: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18mjB1tIH5s-ZmiET_smUxbMo3FaiC637aW_us8P0U5I/edit?usp=drivesdk
  Email: dm@datameta.info

Hi, I'm an embedded systems engineer/architect bridging the full compute spectrum of ultra-low power IoT, edge systems, and HPC.

My latest projects have been in full-stack edge ML R&D, memory controller firmware dev for POWER servers, and chip bringup/testing for Z mainframes.

I'm passionate about modular synthesis and tinkering with all sorts of analog circuits and DSP. Currently upskilling in analog PCB design and refining my abilities in FPGA development. Also WIP on a 3D-printed robot arm to practice control systems and actuation.

In an ideal world we function in exactly this way - using LLMs to bootstrap our skill/knowledge improvement journeys.

USA REMOTE | NYC HYBRID

  Languages: C/C++, Python, JavaScript, Kotlin, VHDL, SystemVerilog
  Hardware: PowerPC, ESP32, STM32, iCE40, ECP5
  ML: TensorFlow Lite Micro, PyTorch, ONNX, OpenCV
  IoT: BLE, WiFi, MQTT, LoRa

  Resume: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18mjB1tIH5s-ZmiET_smUxbMo3FaiC637aW_us8P0U5I/edit?usp=drivesdk
  Email: dm@datameta.info

Hi, I'm an embedded systems engineer/architect bridging the full compute spectrum of ultra-low power IoT, edge systems, and HPC.

My latest projects have been in full-stack edge ML R&D, memory controller firmware dev for POWER servers, and chip bringup/testing for Z mainframes.

I'm passionate about modular synthesis and tinkering with all sorts of analog circuits and DSP. Currently upskilling in analog PCB design and refining my abilities in FPGA development. Also WIP on a 3D-printed robot arm to practice control systems and actuation.

I see what you are saying, thanks for going into it. I agree that recency bias leads to adopting frameworks that are a poor overall fit for explaining ongoing (for the foreseeabel future) phenomena.

I'm struggling to extract meaning or message from your last sentence.

I'd also argue the culture of "digital degeneracy" has permeated the internet and is no longer locked away in, say, the bastion of mid/late 2000s 4chan. What used to be violent NSFL liveleaks content is now easily accesible by anyone with a phone. Softcore content is completely widespread on "clean" apps like IG and Tiktok.

If we measure deviance only by the metrics that existed before social media, we will of course find what is expected.

I agree with the sentiment, but that phrase is too strong to be used in an unfamiliar setting and won't land the same way outside of the anglosphere

The more we learn the more I'm unsure of whether it is a wonder anything exists at all or whether considering the scales of time involved (and hypothetical metaverse) whether it was all inevitable.

While your disambiguation is valid, they very much wanted to minimize the potential fallout from individuals staying in, say, a Norwegian hotel and sampling the local culture only to return and speak fondly of said trip "beyond the curtain". Usually this was outweighed by the national prestige (and subsequent propaganda opportunity) from having a Soviet Nobel recepient but the KGB had an extremely heavy hand in deciding who got to go, regardless of scientific breakthrough.

Another point about Soviet scientists: it was very often a career-ending move to accept a Nobel prize unless you were a truly untouchable cult of personality and/or direct friend of those in power. See Andrey Sakharov, who first invented the soviet hydrogen bomb and later dedicated himself to non-proliferation which earned him a Nobel Peace prize. He was however barred from traveling to Oslo to accept in 1975, having already been blacklisted from classified work since 1968.

I wonder to what extent that lead to the curbing of consideration of those behind the iron curtain.

The people they talk about are contemporary to the Babylonions who have already absorbed the urban Uruk civilization that started to peak a millenium prior. The difference isn't biology but resource density and climate favorability leading to higher social organization.

Most likely even Heidelbergensis had "complex grunting" and hand signs so humans in the neolithic are effectively identical to us in language capability.

Until, for example, they are out of style and it functions like a crack in the mask, draining social energy for being perceived a certain way.

I don't recall the exact language but it was rather flame-war-esque in a comment full of otherwise benign discourse. The issue isn't liberals or conservatives being mentioned. In what way do you think I broke the rules? That it wasn't a substantive comment on its own? I didn't feel the pull to silently flag and hoped for GP to elaborate.

I was with you until the last clause of the final sentence, which I believe is against the HN guidelines.