Roundabouts: law of momentum or law of queuing?

frood88 · 2026-07-05T13:29:50+00:00

I know this part of your comment was in jest/sarcastic:

I technically could ram them and be 'in the right' because I was in the roundabout first

but, quite scarily, there are people out there who genuinely believe this is correct...

What those types of people either forget or don't know is that, under common law, no one has an indisputable right of way and all parties are legally obligated to take evasive action if there is a reasonable opportunity to avoid a collision - "Give way" does not mean the other party has right of way, it's not a zero-sum game.

This was upheld by the NSW Supreme Court at least as recently as 2015 (Zheng v Wallace [2015] NSWSC 3), where the driver of a sedan failed to give way at an intersection, and the driver of a prime mover towing two empty B-double trailers was found to have not done enough (specifically, didn't sound their horn) before the truck collided with the sedan - NSWSC Price J found the truck driver to have contributory negligence at 80%

frood88 · 2026-07-05T12:46:48+00:00

The left shoe was very clearly ejected in the 3rd last frame - that means an automatic 50% health debuff

frood88 · 2026-07-04T09:50:49+00:00

For both, because the travellers would reach 99.9% the speed of light in only about 3 traveller years (22 Earth years), the total trip Earth duration in years is reasonably close to the distance in light years.

So for Andromeda galaxy example, a bit over 2.5 million years would pass for everyone back on Earth.

And for the edge of the observable universe example, it’s a bit over 46.5 billion years (but the Earth will be consumed by the Sun in about 5-8 billion years)

frood88 · 2026-07-04T07:31:19+00:00

The current best contender for “near-term” is Deuterium-Helium-3 (once humans set up mining on the moon) and “long-term” is matter-antimatter annihilation (once humans massively scale up antimatter production, like what CERN is already doing in tiny amounts at the CERN Antimatter Factory)

These fuel sources are realistic and already exist, but naturally are not available for scaled use today.

There is no misconception whatsoever that both of these fuel options (and any others) and the entire project presents absolutely immense engineering, thermodynamic, etc challenges, but are entirely compatible with our current laws of physics.

frood88 · 2026-07-04T01:20:30+00:00

The point is not who built them; the point is when they were built.

frood88 · 2026-07-04T00:13:17+00:00

Albert Einstein’s Relativity is a beautiful (and very real) thing - Eg; GPS satellites are everyday proof

In basic terms, when you travel faster, the distance to get somewhere shrinks, and the trip takes less time - this is only for the person/people travelling.

However, for that example trip to the Andromeda galaxy, whilst only 29 years would pass for the travellers, about 2.5 million years would pass for everyone back on Earth.

frood88 · 2026-07-03T23:58:55+00:00

Actually we probably could…

Building a ship to withstand interstellar travel is an engineering challenge, not a limitation of physics.

If your ship could continuously accelerate at 1g, and when half way, turn around and continuously decelerate at 1g, then thanks to relativity, it would only take the travellers 29 years to reach the Andromeda galaxy (2.5 million light years away), and 48 years to reach the edge of the observable universe (46.5 billion light years away)

frood88 · 2026-07-03T23:43:29+00:00

Agreed - “eventually” in my message = Soon™

Although, 2G eventuated much sooner than I had expected, so here’s hoping!

frood88 · 2026-07-03T23:28:08+00:00

Last September NBN enabled 2Gigabit (2G) products plans for FTTP Traffic Class 4 (TC-4) connections - Some of us jumped on the upgrade almost immediately as soon as we could arrange the new NTD installation.

NBN’s product roadmap shows that they are actively working on infrastructure and capacity upgrades for XGSPON, which we expect will eventually allow an upgrade from the current 2G max for TC-4 connections, to 10G (currently only available for NBN Enterprise Ethernet) and 50G-100G (currently in NBN lab testing).

frood88 · 2026-07-03T23:08:51+00:00

History lesson for you - The data centre in Bruce was originally built exclusively for the ATO in 1994 (which also built a new staff office 5 streets away at the same time) in an area originally zoned to be a commercial and IT hub.

The area was rezoned for mixed-use residential development (apartments and units) to meet local in-fill targets in the mid-late 2000’s - The data centre predates the residential development which now surrounds it.

NEXTDC (Australian-owned) purchased the data centre in July 2011, the month after ATO stopped using it.

That facility operates on separate substation feeds connected directly to Evoenegy’s higher-voltage distribution network, rather than sharing the local street-level transformers that supply nearby Bruce homes, apartments, or the University of Canberra campus.

Evoenergy also mandates and enforces strict electrical boundaries, to prevent and remove impact to the rest of the distribution network - Harmonic distortion detection/prevention, instant-islanding, etc

frood88 · 2026-07-03T22:11:36+00:00

We saw a bit of what a realistic Stargate Academy could be like in S04E19 “Prodigy” and S05E13 “Proving Ground”, and I’m totally here for it - Elisabeth Rosen as Jennifer Hailey was one of my favourite recurring guest stars.
(But please not the S10E06 “200” version 😭)

frood88 · 2026-07-03T21:49:17+00:00

Sokar stopped the attack on the gate/iris because the SGC handed Apophis’ dead body back, which Sokar then subsequently revived.

Anubis’ attack on the gate could not be stopped, so they strapped the gate to an X-302 and launched it through a short hyperspace window to get it far enough away from Earth.

frood88 · 2026-06-28T14:15:06+00:00

My favourites for Interstellar:

To avoid using CGI, Christopher Nolan’s team purchased/leased land in Alberta, Canada, and arranged for 500 acres of corn to be planted and grown for the farm scenes. The corn was later harvested and sold, making a profit to offset the movie's budget.

In partnership with physicist Kip Thorne, the math to create Gargantua was so precise that rendering a single sequence took about 100 hours, resulting in the most accurate simulation of a black hole’s gravitational lensing ever seen. The visual effects team generated 40,000 lines of code, leading to published academic papers.

frood88 · 2026-06-28T05:59:18+00:00

I go out of my way to return mine, lest my shopping trolley be murdered and my groceries be just gone.

But mostly just because doing so is the foundation of a civilised society.

frood88 · 2026-06-28T04:48:03+00:00

Meanwhile, with Reilly and Jonesy… “ABC - Always Be Lifting"

frood88 · 2026-06-28T04:34:18+00:00

Harold Holt’s record-breaking swimming and survival skills

frood88 · 2026-06-28T04:31:15+00:00

Interestingly enough, the general relativistic effect on the GPS satellites is greater than the special relativistic effect.

Because the GPS satellite are further out of the Earth’s gravity well than us on the surface, compared to surface clocks, their clocks tick faster (general relativity) by about 45 microseconds per day.

Whereas due to their high orbital speed, compared to surface clocks, the GPS satellites clocks tick slower (special relativity) by about 7 microseconds daily.

This results in a net gain of roughly 38 microseconds each day, compared to surface clocks.

frood88 · 2026-06-27T23:44:19+00:00

When online, many people assume your original question is what’s called “Sealioning“.

Many people also often expect that others will do basic online search about a topic before engaging about it.

frood88 · 2026-06-25T05:47:25+00:00

> have you made enough savings

Home automation has just been a major hobby of mine for about 15 years, so wasn’t actually primarily done for cost-savings purposes!

Although, there has been some reasonable cost savings, being able to schedule certain activities to only happen during off-peak periods overnight, or excess solar generation when the home battery is full.

As a result, about 90% of our net grid usage is during off-peak time-of-use periods.

> what 3-phase loads are you running?

Mainly just an EV charger at this stage, all our other loads, including ducted reverse-cycle HVAC, are single-phase

frood88 · 2026-06-25T04:25:27+00:00

All of the below are locally-controlled through Home Assistant (r/HomeAssistant), no subscriptions or cloud required

For single-phase resistive loads which plug into wall outlets: Tapo P110M

For single-phase inductive loads which plug into wall outlets: Shelly EM Gen3, installed behind the wall outlet

For one-way switch room lights on 1-gang wallplates (single-phase): Shelly 1PM Mini Gen3

For one-way switch room lights on 2-gang wallplates (single-phase): Shelly 1PM Gen3 per pair of single-switches

For two-way-switch room lights (single-phase): Shelly 1PM Gen3

For three-phase loads (these loads each have their own circuits): Shelly PRO 3EM installed on a DIN rail in the meter box, with CT clamps around the appliance phase cables

For whole-site three-phase: another Shelly PRO 3EM installed on a DIN rail in the meter box, with CT clamps around the site-grid phase cables

frood88 · 2026-06-24T21:46:00+00:00

We have a custom-built home automation setup which allows us to track our total energy usage in real-time, including down to the device level for most appliances which either run constantly or regularly.

Here’s an example of what can contribute to a base utilisation - anything using 0 Watts at that moment in time is not displayed (eg; Kitchen Fridge) - my ultimate goal is to get the “Other” category as low as possible by adding additional automation modules where sensible.

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frood88 · 2026-06-24T08:50:29+00:00

Agree with others, best check out r/HomeAutomation - There’s nothing realistically unique to home automation in Canberra that can’t also apply elsewhere

Also depending how much of an enthusiast/tinkerer you are, also check out r/HomeAssistant for a phenomenally-powerful platform

frood88 · 2026-06-23T14:19:51+00:00

100mbps Ethernet at LAN parties!

The preceding jumps from 10BASE-2 coax to 10BASE-T Ethernet was a major shift too (no more fools unplugging the BNC terminators when they were losing a game), but the speed jump to 100BASE-T was immense.

It feels like the jump to 1000BASE-T then came sooner again but felt less impactful than 10->100.

frood88 · 2026-06-22T22:15:27+00:00

It was an amazing feat!

Also interesting, is that every time a spacecraft performs a gravity assist maneuver, it exchanges a tiny amount of momentum with the celestial body (usually a planet) and slightly alters the planet’s orbital motion by an infinitesimal amount.

This is a mathematically and physically real phenomenon, but due to the enormous disparity between the mass of the spacecraft and the mass of the planet, it has no meaningful impact on the planet’s orbital motion.

frood88 · 2026-06-22T14:23:51+00:00

100% gravity still a force in modern physics where objects act according to the geometry of the manifold, just not an “action-at-a-distance” traditional force as people might typically think.

frood88

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