troyunrau
@troyunrau@lemmy.ca
Centrist, progressive, radical optimist. Geophysicist, R&D, Planetary Scientist and general nerd in Winnipeg, Canada.
troyunrau.ca (personal)
lithogen.ca (business)
- Comment on Rockstar has some of the most restrictive mission design I've ever experienced 4 days ago:
A good contrast is something like Outer Worlds, where there is usually multiple possible outcomes. I think it comes from their Fallout lessons learned and GURPS background. Love the game design. (Dislike the combat, but that is a separate thing.)
- Comment on Doppler 4 days ago:
It’s very possible. Napkins are notorious for stealing orders of magnitude.
- Comment on Doppler 5 days ago:
I ain’t doing hyperbolic equations on my napkin ;)
- Comment on Doppler 5 days ago:
Instructions unclear, car stuck in dick.
- Comment on Doppler 5 days ago:
Okay, napkin math… his nose is about 20cm long, and assuming it rotated about a perfect circle. The car moved say 10m. At the speed the car is moving, it covers that distance in ~120ns. So he has to move the end of his nose around a quarter circle of radius 20cm in 120ns. Let’s say 30cm total movement, for easy math. 0.25cm/ns or 0.00025m/ns. The speed of light is 0.300m/ns, so we’re talking about ~0.001c at the tip of his nose. Which is incidentally very close to the speed of sound in air.
So, probably not quite a sonic boom off the end of his nose. Assuming my math is correct. Very strong neck muscles. Also, he’s been vapourized.
- Comment on Doppler 5 days ago:
Okay, just back of the envelope math. Assuming the car is truly 550nm, so the blue car is 400nm, and the red car is 700nm… How fast is the car going?
Napkin math says 0.27c.
Δλ=λ(V/c)
Now someone else can figure out the kinetic energy of the car and why the whole continent just exploded…
- Comment on Mobius tape 5 days ago:
You have the technology!
- Comment on Reddit Blames Google Algorithm Changes For Not Hitting User Growth. 6 days ago:
I use old.reddit in desktop mode still, on occasion. Today I clicked on a screenshot of a game cause I wanted more detail. I was directed to the new Reddit interface. I right clicked on the image and chose “open image in new tab” and got the new Reddit interface. I tried CTRL-scroll to zoom in the image, and it made the UI elements larger and in the process shrunk the image. I left the site.
- Comment on Driver caught doing 122mph on 30mph road as UK’s shocking speed records revealed 1 week ago:
Did they think they could drive faster than the radar who catch them or something?
- Comment on Reddit Blames Google Algorithm Changes For Not Hitting User Growth. 1 week ago:
Or, hear me out, they went public and now they are making their product worse as enshittification takes its toll.
- Comment on Yeah I'm Bi, how did you know? 1 week ago:
Mercury feeling excluded
- Comment on SimCity Classic in RetroArch - Who needs Windows 11 when you can play on Windows 98? 1 week ago:
Just use wine on windows ;)
- Comment on Gold 1 week ago:
Aww, shucks
- Comment on Say it. 1 week ago:
- Comment on Humans included* 5 weeks ago:
We can’t even agree on the definition of life (within the context of the search for life). Largely we’ve settled on: whatever definition helps win grants!
- Comment on Free Spot! 5 weeks ago:
Land whale. My new favourite phrase
- Comment on Meta Deletes Trans and Nonbinary Messenger Themes [404 Media] 5 weeks ago:
It begins. Fascism requires enemies within and without.
- Comment on The Lost Art of Fancy PC Game Installers 1 month ago:
A 32 but integer can store a number up to four billion. If measuring RAM size in integer bytes, 32GB would be 0 bytes, because that integer would wrap around four times.
Assuming windows, if you right click on the executable, you may be able to choose to run it in a compatibility mode of some sort (like XP mode or something) in which case it should report smaller memory to the game, probably.
- Comment on Is there any (single player playable) game under $10 or equivalent which has made you point any go "ha" or given you an equivalent feeling because it was that enjoyable for every moment you played it? 2 months ago:
Only games I’ve passed 100 hours on:
Pokemon (multiple versions)
No Man’s Sky
Many Paradox games: CK2, CK2, EU4, Stellaris
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 15th 2 months ago:
No Man’s Sky. Again. It keeps sucking me back in.
EU4 with Anbennar mod – update just released with a bunch of new stuff.
- Comment on MMO interplanetary crafting adventure SpaceCraft from Shiro Games (Northgard, Wartales) announced 2 months ago:
Well, the trailer makes it feel like a cross between NMS and Factorio or something. No indication of actual gameplay loop. Cautiously optimistic.
- Comment on Survival game The Long Dark gets a big update with a deep Safehouse Customization system 2 months ago:
I know one of the developers on this game. They would call me to ask about the science of Aurora Borealis while working on the game, and other similar things. They decided that they were going to reject some of the science in favour of gameplay, and fair enough. The game is quite good.
- Comment on I will admit I had a nerdgasm at the portable pilet mini consoles from soulscircuit 2 months ago:
This is how I imagined “decks” when reading old cyberpunk (Snowcrash, etc.)
- Comment on Scientists suck at naming and abbreviating stuff 2 months ago:
Definitely absurd. But if you were a sci fi author trying to make a consistent world building thing, it would actually be a useful video.
… I see you Neal Stephenson, hiding behind the couch.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
He doesn’t. He is lower density after transformation. Basically inflated. Also, he doubles as a life raft.
- Comment on ambition 2 months ago:
Because no one does any actual engineering in space. At best you’re a technician running other people’s projects; at worst, you have to MacGyver something. But every ISS crew needs a medical specialist on it, and a backup specialist in case they need to work on their medical specialist. So it gives you the highest odds.
Now if you wanted to work at JPL designing probes, that’s a different story. But you’re not going to space.
- Comment on ambition 2 months ago:
Spain is part of the ESA. If you have citizenship there, there’s a nearly-zero (but not actually zero) possibility of getting into their astronaut selection class. But more likely SpaceX starts taking passengers and the whole question is moot.
I decided that my own path was also unlikely, but I chose a field of study that would take me to some pretty fun places on Earth. Can’t explore Mars, so might as well do the high arctic, the Atacama desert, etc. :)
- Comment on ambition 2 months ago:
Not true, really, presuming we’re talking about “working for a space agency” versus “becoming an astronaut”. There are at least 100x more opportunities if you’re willing to sit in a desk and review regulations for a living – but at a space agency.
Really, the minimum barrier is being good enough to get into a STEM focused undergrad program, and qualifying for student loans. Assuming you make it through and are smart enough, grad school is typically wholly funded by the universities (or their funding agencies). Which means the barrier of requiring wealth was already passed.
Source: I made it to grad school and I am from a farming family that went bankrupt when I was a teenager.
- Comment on YEET 2 months ago:
I don’t think melting is the issue here. I think it literally disintegrates at those speeds. Like, this is Mass Effect mass driver level of impact with the atmosphere.
For reference, RICK ROBINSON’S FIRST LAW OF SPACE COMBAT: “An object impacting at 3 km/sec delivers kinetic energy equal to its mass in TNT.”
Assuming the lid is travelling 55km/s, it’s well beyond that point. The atmosphere it’s travelling through is basically a solid at that speed. Even if it isn’t heating due to the friction (and waiting for heat flow), it is heating due to the compressive force of being slammed into the atmosphere. It’s very likely the whole thing vaporized.
But I could be wrong, and some alien SOB is going to have a bad day when the manhole cover slams into their ship in interstellar space.
- Comment on Cats are Healers 2 months ago:
You can’t tell me what to — oh, a pretty cat!
