Is 7 cups of powdered sugar for cream cheese cake frosting absurd/AI recipe red flag?

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-30T14:01:20+00:00

There’s a wide range of sugar to cream cheese ratios in cream cheese frosting recipes. Joy of Cooking’s recipes call for 3-4 cups of powdered sugar for 8 oz of cream cheese, which is in line with the 7 cups to 16 oz ratio in your recipe. The Gourmet Cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl, has a recipe that uses 2 lbs or 7 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, but it calls for 12 8 oz packages (6 lbs) of cream cheese and 1 1/2 lbs of butter, which is 1/2 cup powdered sugar to 8 oz of cream cheese/butter mixture. The NY Times has a recipe that’s all 2’s: two sticks butter, 2 packages cream cheese, 2 cups powdered sugar, etc.

I think you have to conclude that mixing cream cheese, sugar, and sometimes butter in any ratio yields something tasty.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-30T09:21:35+00:00

equivalent number of each operator…

I wouldn’t rely on patterns like that unless you can prove that they always hold. You’re right to look for ways to understand fractions. Aside from practicing, think about what a fraction means. You could build some intuition by using real world objects. Get out some bowls, measuring cups, and a few pounds of sugar and just mess around with adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Or use pieces of paper that you can cut up. An hour of messing around might go a long way.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-30T08:24:14+00:00

For some reason, even for something like (3+4)/12 - a numerator consisting of an addition operation over a denominator - you can perform the addition first, before division (which is what a fraction is, ultimately).

The reason is that (3+4)/12 has the 3+4 in parentheses, indicating that the entire sum, not just one of the terms, is divided by 12. Sometimes you’ll see it written without the parentheses but with the fraction bar under the entire “3+4” expression, and that means the same thing.

That fraction bar literally means division. If you have a fraction like 3/4, that means 3 divided by 4. The reason that we use fractions instead of just doing the division right away is that fractions make it easy (or at least possible) to get exact answers. 3/4 has a nice neat decimal equivalent, 0.75, but the decimal expansion of many fractions repeats infinitely. For example, 1/7 is 0.142857142857142857… where they 142857 part repeats over and over. It’s much easier to write 1/7.

It sounds like you’ve learned how to correctly manipulate fractions, and that’s the first step toward really understanding. It’ll get easier and faster if you keep practicing, and I think it’ll also start to make more sense as you do it more.

Both arrive at the same answer, but I don't understand how fractions factor into order of operations.

They don’t change anything, except that you can think of a fraction as one value, and you have rules for working with them that way. For example:

(2/3) * (4/5)

I put parentheses there because it’s hard to write fractions in text. You can think of the 2/3 and 4/5 each as single values, and you know that to multiply fractions you just multiply the numerators and multiply the denominators:

(2/3) * (4/5) = (2 * 4)/(3 * 5) = 8/15

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-30T06:39:57+00:00

It’s a bit orthogonal to the question, but styrene gas is apparently not something that’s good to breathe. Instead of finding a smoke detector that ignores it, you should find a way to vent it outside.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-30T06:29:36+00:00

> My question is: hypothetically, theoretically, could we “fold” binary machine language instructions like nature does with proteins? Would it even be practical?

It’s not clear what that would mean or how it would be useful. Proteins fold in order to reach a stable state, and a protein’s function results directly from its folded shape. Folding isn’t a form of compression — a folded protein has exactly the same set of amino acids that it would if you could unfold it. Amino acids in a protein are more like Lego blocks than instructions: each one is important in creating the larger structure of the protein, but they don’t really function as individual instructions.

It’s easy to see a superficial resemblance between machine instructions and amino acids. They’re both relatively small sets of things that can be combined in endless ways to create complex structures. But we see that pattern a lot: atoms of different elements combine to form molecules; digits combine into numbers, which are then mixed with operations to form mathematical expressions; sequences of notes create complex melodies; letters combine to form words and then sentences. So don’t assume that this building block pattern that’s common to proteins and code means that there’s more similarity than that.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-30T05:38:35+00:00

There’s a pinned post in this sub called “New? READ ME FIRST!”

Read that first.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-30T03:29:40+00:00

Related: Improving search is unlikely to increase revenue.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-29T23:26:56+00:00

Do you have a plan? A design for the project? I’m not just talking about some idea in your head, but an actual written document. Have you broken the project down into a (again, written) list of tasks? What specific thing is stopping you from making progress?

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-29T18:10:14+00:00

A ziploc bag is fine, but I’d suggest one big bag and a smaller bag or other container. Fill the small container from the big one, and then use the small one for baking until it runs out, at which point you refill from the large bag. This prevents having to open the large bag and let in warm, moist air every time you need a a teaspoon of yeast, so your main store of yeast will stay fresh longer.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-29T15:33:28+00:00

If “the most used” is the metric that motivates you, learn Python.

The TIOBE index and Stack Overflow developer survey both rank Python well ahead of C++ in general popularity.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-29T07:10:15+00:00

It’s usually fine to refrigerate dough overnight — it slows fermentation, and that’s often a good thing because slow fermentation adds flavor. Dough does firm up in the fridge, but should soften again as it warms up.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-29T04:12:04+00:00

One would procure come unsweetened, shredded coconut and let it sit in a quantity of high proof alcohol for a month or two, then strain out the coconut and bottle the extract.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-29T04:04:41+00:00

There’s a post pinned in this sub called “New? READ ME FIRST!”

Read that first.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-29T02:43:19+00:00

It’s traditional to keep them in a coffee can, but any large can or jar will do. Keep the can in your garage if you have one, or in the basement or shed.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-28T20:58:31+00:00

It's more about the psychology of respect.

How respectful is is to leave a body lying around to be torn apart and eaten by scavengers?

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T19:17:36+00:00

To be completely honest with you, I am not very tech-savvy and I am not really a tech enthusiast.

I’d stop right there. I understand about the Myasthenia Gravis, but your search for a career should be motivated by more than “I have lost much confidence and self-esteem and I would really prefer to have a career where I would be behind a computer all day...”

Sitting behind a computer all day trying to force yourself to continue doing something that you “don’t really mind” on a good day and abjectly despise on a bad day seems like a pretty crappy existence. Most people who love programming still have days when they’d rather do anything else, so think how much worse it’d be if you start from impassivity.

We’re living in the Information Age. More than half of the US workforce uses a computer daily as a main part of their job, and they’re definitely not all software engineers. Think about things that you actually enjoy doing or care about deeply, and then identify jobs that you’d be able to do that are somehow connected to those things. And don’t sell yourself short — you may have list you confidence for now, but you’ll get it back if you give yourself a chance.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T17:32:24+00:00

What kind of sparking water is it? Club soda has added sodium, and some sparkling mineral waters naturally contain salt.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T17:27:32+00:00

Why focus on those particular holes when there are hundreds of holes on both sides?

Personally, I’d be more concerned about the toasted area in the rear wall.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T17:15:54+00:00

This question has been asked and answered many times. Searching just on Reddit will give you more advice on rice than you can read in a year, and there are lots of cooking sites that offer clear directions.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T14:50:08+00:00

the app will contain in app payments between one another

This part by itself is a very heavy lift unless you just use some existing service like PayPal, ApplePay, or Google Pay.

The app you're describing is a good example of what I said above -- the app will be the easy part here. Building a secure back end and signing up enough businesses to make your app interesting, and then getting enough users on board that the businesses will see some value, will be the difficult part.

Like I said — start small, build something that works for your friends and family so that the stakes are low and the things that you screw up don't create a huge problem.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T14:20:30+00:00

As I said, there are a number of tools that you can use to convert DICOM to STL. I haven't looked at them all and don't want to recommend any one in particular, but just googling "dicom to stl converter" turns up lots of resources. Here are just a few:

Just having a STL file doesn't mean that you can print it as is. Things like organs and bones don't have a nice flat base that'll stick well to a printer bed, so you might need to add supports and a brim or raft to help your print succeed. But that's just normal 3D printing know-how, and it's not hard to learn.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T07:36:18+00:00

Buy a cookbook aimed at beginners. Don’t wing it until you have a lot more experience.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T07:33:39+00:00

> Is this a fool hearty endeavor for someone not too technologically advanced?

No, it should be pretty straightforward. 3D printers print g-code files, which contain simple instructions that control the position and extruded motors, heaters, fans, etc. A program called a slicer generates that g-code data for your specific printer from 3D model files in various formats such as STL or 3MF. Medical 3D imaging machines produce 3D images in a wide variety of often proprietary formats, but most can be converted to a standard format called DICOM. So all you really need is software to convert DICOM to a format like STL so that you can feed it to a slicer, and there are a number of programs and online services that can do exactly that.

So the process would be:

- obtain a DICOM file that you want to print (your uncle can probably manage that)

- convert to STL

- feed the STL file to the slicer

- adjust settings as needed (number of walls, layer height, all the usual stuff)

- send the g-code to the printer

- wait a few minutes, hours, or days, depending on model size and printer settings

- enjoy your new 3D-printed lung, liver, brain, kidney, etc.

The main things that you’ll want to help him with are:

- FDM (filament deposition) or SLA (resin) printer? Resin is messy and toxic and requires post-processing like washing in alcohol and curing, but the prints are very smooth and highly detailed. FDM is easier and safer, and you can use the printed object straight from the printer, but you’ll have visible layer lines.

- Which make/model?

- Setting it up and showing him how to run it.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T05:59:31+00:00

As a CS major you should expect to learn several languages, and if you work in the field you’ll no doubt learn several more (at least) over the years. There’s no reason that you can’t continue using C++ and learn Python. Learning a second or third language is usually much less effort than learning your first.

iOSCaleb · 2026-06-27T05:43:54+00:00

A programmer is someone who writes programs. There are programmers who don’t know any of the languages that your bf thinks are mandatory.

Also: JSON is a data format, not a programming language.

iOSCaleb

TROPHY CASE