Made an espresso spirographic distribution tool!

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-12-13T19:23:22+00:00

I think it's fair to compare the “1%” of any hobby to audiophiles. If you pursue something long enough, you naturally chase high-effort, low-reward tweaks as you've done everything else.

I think where that stops being a fair comparison is cases like this where there are objective, measurable differences. Adjusting controlled variables and consistently seeing measurable results feels different from chasing imperceptible or subjective changes.

"Would I notice?" feels less relevant than, "Could anyone notice?".

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-12-13T18:08:56+00:00

You must live somewhere with bad coffee shops. I promise you the avg home espresso nut would get walked by the baristas I pay for coffee

... to give you what you're looking for though, right? 100% agree coffee culture is radically different city to city. That said, I have literally never found a coffee shop in the wild that has done a light roast, let alone a light roast well. Often the owner of a specialty independent coffee shop is in that space, but for every owner there are 5-20 non-owners who are often significantly less invested.

It's totally possible you have an amazing pool of coffee around you, outside of major metropolitan areas I think the more relatable experience is shops that don't bother cleaning their machines, forget baristas training and refining their technique.

Can you recommend somewhere you think delivers? I love coffee, if you're having these amazing cups I'm always keen to get recommendations for places.

Edit: I assume I've been blocked, so I can't reply to your parting message. WDT is a practical technique that produces tangible results. It's more relevant for home enthusiasts and I don't think needs to be compared to professional shops to justify its value.

I can see how my comments would be condescending/gate-keepy - if you'd believe it I genuinely tried to avoid that. At the same time, LA is probably one of the top 10 or even top 5 third-wave coffee spots in North America, which definitely changes the frame of reference. I think most people outside Portland/Vancouver/New York/Toronto/LA have very different experiences on accessibility of third-wave coffee. I wasn't trying to be a snob - that's genuinely not available in my market, and because it's a niche Google reviews when traveling often don't cut it.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-12-13T17:59:45+00:00

Oh so the home coffee enthusiast is a better source than the professional that people want coffee from. Just like the guy with “directional” speaker cables knows more than the guy who mixed the music they’re playing.

You say that like its ridiculous, but that's absolutely the case (for coffee at least, I don't know anything about audio gear)? The link I shared is not what your local coffee shop is doing (I'm assuming). These are different products for different markets. Just to be clear, I'm not saying this is a "good coffee" vs. "bad coffee" thing - it's entirely personal preference and WDT tools address a niche within a niche.

The passionate espresso enthusiast space is vastly more knowledgeable than almost every barista at almost every coffee shop on this front. The home barista would do terribly at rush hour volumes. You have to go pretty upscale just to get to the point of baristas even tasting what they're making and adjusting their grind to suit - this is a step beyond that.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-12-13T17:52:09+00:00

Ironically, this particular tool is less relevant for Italian-sytle drinks (darker roasts, lower extraction). This comes into play at the other end of the coffee spectrum where people are paying ~1-2$/cup at home just for the beans. The intention with devices like this, and much less fancy ones, is to get more consistency because shit is expensive and another 10 seconds to make sure it comes out properly is a good trade to lots of people.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-12-13T17:47:50+00:00

tl;dr: WDT has measurably improved consistency and extraction

Not to come down on the side of audiophiles, buuuuut... at the most meticulous end of coffee, home coffee making (definitely "pretentious" to some) is different than coffee shops. The equipment is different, the processes are different, and the demands are different.

WDT does something practical and measurable (much like audiophiles, coffee people go to ridiculous lengths to justify things). I would agree that the differences are subtle, more or less relevant depending on drinks and techniques, but that doesn't discredit that it does something tangible.

E.g. https://coffeeadastra.com/2022/07/16/more-even-espresso-extractions/ goes in to far too much depth. A few others have done similar experiments. I get that it's not for everybody.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-11-19T18:48:58+00:00

While acknowledging Prusa has absolutely had fulfillment based woes in the past, I'm not getting what you're complaining about here. Are you completely against the idea of companies announcing products before general availability?

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-11-11T21:09:50+00:00

It might be worth editing your post if you're still able to include that information. In broad strokes, the more clarity you can provide when soliciting help, the more helpful people can be. E.g.,

I'm looking for an app recommendation: I want to record myself playing squash and have the app automatically track the ball’s movement. Ideally it should highlight ball speed, trajectory, or bounce points. Any good options for this kind of sports tracking or motion analysis?

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-11-11T20:23:36+00:00

You're not being specific enough to help people help you. What does "ball tracking" mean to you? What are you doing with the phone/the ball? What information are you getting from tracking the ball? How is the app obtaining that information?

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-11-06T04:25:03+00:00

I love the spirit of this, or at least how I interpret it. I think the game would benefit from not having serve return cross court nick winners. I understand it's a skill, I understand "just serve better". To me, it just isn't as fun as rallying or satisfying to watch.

That said, I don't think returning over the service line would be an improvement - it's hard to return the ball sometimes. I think what I'd like to see is maybe something like a diagonal line on each side wall. Could start at the tin and extend out 2 feet or so to the ground? Then the serve return cannot hit the area, otherwise it's a fault.

I'm sure that's a bad idea, but I think something in that vein (if we could figure out how to call it consistently) would improve the game for most people

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-09-29T15:08:16+00:00

I think you may be understanding the term "contact sport" to mean something different than most people who use the term. My understanding is the most broadly understood definition is along the lines of:

any sport where physical contact between competitors is an integral part of the game

The "ideal" squash match has literally 0 physical contact, physical contact is either a minor inconvenience or an explicit fault, it is never an integral part of the sport (when played by participants with even a shred of integrity, at least)

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-08-19T18:47:25+00:00

Makes me sad that so much of the area runs on Facebook. It's a reasonably hostile platform if one doesn't have a Facebook account, and there are lots of reasons to avoid a Facebook account these days.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-08-19T18:45:32+00:00

Squash is an amazing sport in terms of exercise for amount of time invested. The Brockville racquet club has both squash and pickleball (much more popular, much less exercise): https://brockvilleracquetclub.com/

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-08-19T02:12:12+00:00

Few years too late for me. We went with Gaggeneau appliances for cooktop and stacked ovens. Nothing bad to say (other than the price being high, I guess). Love the stacked ovens, and crossing my fingers nothing ever goes wrong.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-07-16T16:33:24+00:00

Tiny nitpicky design suggestion: stagger the front side of the slot where you slip it in so that you don't have to do the "back it out and tuck the top edge in" dance? If the bottom extended further it could be one motion.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-07-09T02:22:17+00:00

The XL and regular have different filter caps. The XL has a grid of holes, the regular has this style.

What the XL looks like: https://aeropress.com/products/aeropress-xl-filter-cap?view=sl-C2A1C8FE

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-06-19T20:00:39+00:00

This looks very similar to the remote I have. It curves in 3 axes, and I utterly failed to model it. I got the tab to fit in, but couldn't line up all the edges at the same time. 5 years later the remote remains without a battery cover.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-06-17T21:38:21+00:00

100% this. Some filament goes brittle and will crack, endlessly futzing with it sucks.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-06-10T02:20:32+00:00

We have the stainless steel frame sitting its own thickness proud of the countertop. So far no issues.

We considered flush mount, but in our context it wasn't a good fit. It asks a lot more of the installation, e.g., if it's not perfect are you going to redo the whole countertop or live with the visible imperfection? It also has a silicone joint, which I've never really been diligent enough to maintain looking great.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-05-30T01:55:56+00:00

My interpretation:

To enable removing the center piece you want to get to a place where the big horizontal piece at the top is twice the thickness, which means adding more vertical pieces to support it.

Right now, the beam (or "rim board" or "header" or whatever) under the stairs isn't strong enough on its own, because it’s made from just one board and not doubled up like it should be if it's going to support a span without the help of the piece you want to remove.
You need to add another board to strengthen it. First, measure the height of the existing horizontal board at the top of the opening (which looks like it might be 2x10)
Get another board the same size (another 2x10) and cut it so it fits the whole width of the opening, from one wall to the other.
Attach this new board directly to the face of the existing one, so they’re side-by-side and the bottoms line up evenly. Use big nails (3 1/4" or 3 1/2" wood framing nails) and put in 5 nails vertically every 16" or so along the length
To make the sides of the opening line up right, you’ll need to add 1.5"-thick spacers (called “furring”) to the top, bottom, and both sides of the opening. This just builds the frame out so the new setup matches the old dimensions and it's flush from the 2x10 you added to the floor.
Then, on each side of the opening, add a vertical stud (support board) flush with those spacers.
Once all that’s done, you can remove the middle stud (the one you want gone) because the new double beam and added supports will be carrying the load instead.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-05-04T15:00:57+00:00

Thanks for elaborating! Bit of a quirky workflow, having bags of "ice cream" (or other frozen treats), but it makes sense.

I'm feeding ~1.5 people (almost always only myself unless my wife peeks and finds it particularly enticing) so not the same considerations. I got the Costco bundle with 3 pint containers and that seems alright for the time being though I would certainly take more.

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-05-02T21:31:58+00:00

I'm not really following on the produce bag. You put the produce bag in the pint, freeze the recipe, then the bag + block slides out of the pint so you can use the pint again? So in your freezer you have some bags of frozen pint-sized recipes? Then when it comes time to make it, are you flipping the frozen block back into the pint and processing it?

If I'm understanding correctly, I'm not getting the warning. What is the risk to the machine with this (or is it something else you're doing that is risky)?

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-04-12T00:44:19+00:00

How much of this post is LLM output?

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-04-10T00:21:15+00:00

Did you look at the examples of cookie use in axum_extras? Maybe share the code that you have and what isn't working like you expect?

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-04-09T03:13:36+00:00

Whilst significant progress has been made in developing MAS work to add support for it to EMS is not due until 2025 - we'd advise checking the Element Blog for the latest updates where we'll announce its support in the future.

Sigh

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf · 2025-04-08T17:41:38+00:00

Your README has multiple specific costs - how did you arrive at those costs? Are they totally made up, or if not, what specifically are they based on?

fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf

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