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The Best Way to Cook Beans

Beans (also known as legumes) are an excellent source of protein and fibre, and are also one of the lowest GI (glycemic index) foods available. They are also relatively cheap.

However, legumes contain sugars known as galactooligosaccharides (GOS) which are non-digestible, and hence ferment in the gut. While they have benefits, such as being a prebiotic (stimulating the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut), the fermentation process can cause gassiness, bloating, flatulence and even nausea.

On Attractiveness

Recently, in my country, there has been a spate of politicians getting involved in extramarital affairs. This got me thinking more deeply about how we rate other people in terms of attractiveness, and whether a total order of the individual's ranking exists.

Music Management with Navidrome, DSub and Beets

Previously on Windows, I was using MediaMonkey to manage my music. It offered wireless syncing (over LAN) for the associated Android client, and worked well.

When I switched to Linux, I had to look for a replacement. I wanted a solution that was free and open-source, could be self-hosted on a server, and supported features such as bookmarks, playlists and transcoding (for clients not supporting certain formats).

Self Hosted VPN with Tailscale

Having your own VPN can be useful for bypassing geo-restrictions and censorship, as your IP address is that of the exit node. Your traffic is also encrypted and this protects you against sniffing attacks when using public WiFi.

However most VPN services are paid. So if you have a physical server/VPS running somewhere, why not use that?

Tailscale is an awesome open-source VPN service which lets you create a secure peer-to-peer network between your devices. It's built on the open-source Wireguard protocol which is faster than the IPsec and OpenVPN protocols.

On The Measure Of Intelligence

ChatGPT solving a math problem
ChatGPT solving a math problem

ChatGPT was recently released and has been taking the world by storm. In the online space, there is much discussion about whether we are close to general purpose AI. There is no doubt that better and more capable models (e.g. GPT-4) will soon be released, which will overcome the flaws of its predecessors.

Club Med Tomamu Skiing

Mt Tomamu Ski Map
Mt Tomamu Ski Map

I skied here during December 2022 with my family. Most of the slopes were closed due to insufficient snow (we were here before Christmas, early in the season), and so we spent most of our time on a few slopes (Silver Bell, Twisting Forest, Knaster).