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bkazez

221 karma · joined March 21, 2012

Ben founded Mobiata, creating travel apps that topped bestseller lists for five years and were featured by major news outlets, Google, Apple, and Steve Jobs. In 2009 Businessweek named Ben among America's Top 25 Best Young Entrepreneurs. In 2010 Ben sold to Expedia, where he was Sr Director of Mobile Product. He now builds independent projects, including absurdlyoptimized.com.
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bkazez··on Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)
Having just spent a few months reading circadian entrainment papers for a circadian rhythm app I just finished,[1] I wonder if this effect might be about circadian amplitude[2] (rather than phase, which has gotten more attention).

[1] https://www.impulsearc.com/wavelength/

[2] e.g. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41540-023-00300-w

bkazez··on Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration
You might find some benefit from an app like Wavekength[1] that uses iPhone camera to coach your light exposure, based on current+desired circadian rhythms.

Disclaimer: I made the app.

[1] https://www.impulsearc.com/wavelength/

bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Thanks a lot!
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
I made them again this morning and took a new photo that's not overcontrasted from iPhone's built-in photo contrast. I'll get my fancier camera out like a real food blogger next time!
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Thanks - I used to have this but decided checkboxes were less useful for properties that don't require dynamic recomputation, so I added this as options. In the writeup I mention that avocado oil contributes no flavor, so it's very predictable but doesn't add flavor (which may be fine!).
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Added!
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Ah, I know about these big tall pancakes! I've had something like that in the Netherlands and grew up eating something like it too.

I'll soon add a fluffiness slider back in so that at the lowest end, it tries to produce something close to crêpes, and you can tell me if it is like the Swedish recipes. Thanks for the international perspective!

bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Love it, thanks! I used to have a "fluffiness" slider that I could bring back to power this. I haven't researched Swedish pancakes yet but are they leavened at all?
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Hilarious, thanks for pointing me to that!
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Haha, just for you - check out the new checkbox at the bottom of the form:

https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/recipes/pancakes/?have=&eg...

I'll leave the rounding of the absurdly precise ingredients to you. :)

bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Thanks a lot! Good idea re bread - can you link me to your favorite more general recipes that show all the extremes/variables? I've skimmed some bread textbooks re enriched doughs and have made some Italian breads with sourdough starters, enriched doughs like challah, and once tried the NYT Dutch oven bread, but I don't make bread as often as I make pancakes.
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Thanks! The layout was inspired by the way my mother recopied her recipes. When I first saw how most recipe books wrote recipes, I was so confused! As for baseline ingredients, it's basically (any liquidy dairy) + (everything else in the recipe). I'll think on how to present this better, thanks for the feedback!
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Thanks, I'm working on this next - stay tuned or join the mailing list (will send a very occasional message about new recipes)!
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Haha, already researched the thermometer but haven't pulled the trigger yet! https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/cooking/ir-thermometer/
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Good to know - I used to have a crispness slider but I removed it since I loved the pancakes at the current crispness. Contrary to the overcontrasted photo, they actually have just a very fine bit of crisp layer. That said, I know that typical American diner pancakes are very soft through, which means people must enjoy them that way too. I can bring back the crispness if other people like their pancakes soft!
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Hahaha, glad you're enjoying it as much as I did! I will have to add a crispness slider and then validate it with expensive audio equipment.
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
I feel your pain - dealt with a lot of those calculations so the calculator could avoid powders!
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Added! Let me know how it turns out! https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/recipes/pancakes/?have=lab...
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Good idea, added! If you have only vegan dairy checked, it'll go for vegan butter too. :)

https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/recipes/pancakes/?have=soy...

bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Done, let me know how it turns out! https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/recipes/pancakes/?have=pla...
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
For sure - if you check "milk" and "lemon" and select maximum tang, you'll get nice tangy pancakes. I opted away from vinegar due to taste but would be curious to hear if someone tests vinegar vs lemon!
bkazez··on Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
Thanks! It's entire chunks of fat from a Berkshire pig. Lard works too and is what you get when you render pork fat, but the rendering removes some flavor. I'll update the recipe.
bkazez··on The Synology End Game
I do video postproduction and am trying to archive/backup 100-250GB of large files per month. Ended up very slowly rsyncing to Synology NAS, confirming checksums with another script, using Synology onboard stuff to backup to AWS, and dealing with all the totally random hard drive noise.

If I want to work on one of these old projects, I have to download it locally so 4K editing works.

Meanwhile my old projects back when I used different software are impossible to open.

I have spent days setting up all this junk, HATE the Synology UI, and regret it all.

What’s the better solution? Just a bunch of RAIDs that I connect to with USB??

bkazez··on Why is zero plural? (2024)
“Sans personne” means “without anyone” and has no “ne”.
bkazez··on The Tsunami of Burnout Few See
> Burnout isn't well-studied or understood. It didn't even have a name when I first burned out in the 1980s.

Check Wikipedia: “Staff Burnout: Job Stress in the Human Services” was published in 1980, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory was published in 1982.

> We don't bother collecting data on why people quit, or why people burn out, or what conditions eventually break them.

A quick search of academic literature shows this is not true.

bkazez··on Music and Geometry: Intervals and Scales
This is not true.

Singers and violinists can and do adjust intonation so each chord sounds (justly) in tune. The exception is if they were trained with equal tempered instruments (which is common nowadays - see Duffin, “How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony”) or if they are playing with pre-quantized (fretted/keyed) instruments, in which case they would match the existing temperaments.

So the linked article, while it shows some beautiful shapes linked to 12s, has nothing to do with actually (justly) in tune music.

Source: master’s degree in the topic; am a professional singers specializing in music written before equal temperament was invented

bkazez··on I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code
Charge for engineering support and hire someone to do it for you!
bkazez··on UI elements with a hand-drawn, sketchy look
Pencil and paper also has a hand-drawn, sketchy look, and you don’t have to write code!
bkazez··on SN Pro Typeface
Why does SN request my first name, last name, email address and username, and optional photo, and then have a 6+-step tutorial that you can’t escape early? Seems a bit much just for some notecards.
bkazez··on After 34 years, someone beat Tetris [video]
Why do they use a loop - does the 6502 not have a multiply instruction?
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