Nothing - A sixty minute video of nothing.

Every had an idea that seemed silly at first. Nothing is one such idea. A video of nothing for sixty minutes. Nothing on the screen, no sound, nothing.

At first I thought the idea was a waste of time, but then I started to think, perhaps that could be useful when testing computers or mobile phones. I checked the internet and 10, 12 and 24 hours of nothing had been done, so I thought what about an hour. That's a good period of time.

So I decided to go ahead and do Nothing, a video about nothing.

Remember those days when you'd quickly minimise the screen so your boss or others didn't see what you were doing and it wasn't work.  Have the Nothing video running in the background and now you can switch the screen quickly and when asked what you're doing, the truthful answer is Nothing.

At times when I find it hard to sleep I picture black, my mind drifts and I picture black again, but it's hard to picture black. But if you watch Nothing and then close your eyes, it is really easy to picture black.

A black screen makes it look like a computer or mobile is off, when it actually isn't.

Having a black screen running in the background puts your focus much more on what you're working on in the foreground.

The Nothing video makes a good timer. You know what an hour is up. You can check the elapsed time at any time, but it doesn't distract you.

Apart from the many puns I came up which gave me no end of amusement (that's worth it in itself), I'm sure others will have ideas with what they can do with Nothing.

You can find Nothing at https://youtu.be/UOCrsrvadS4, or should that be something!

Kelvin Eldridge

Top red light speed camera for NSW is located near Newcastle.

I must say I didn't expect the top red light speed camera in NSW for 2018/2019, when measured by the number of fines, would be located not in Sydney, but near Newcastle. The location for the top red light speed camera in NSW for 2018/2019 is at the intersection of Griffiths Road and Turton Road, Lambton.

As I was reviewing the data for the Speed Cameras NSW / Red Light Camera NSW one thing stood out that I felt worth investigating. If you look at the top red light speed cameras for NSW by value of fines, the location in the 6th position has the most fines by number. It really stands out. I decided to review this camera and location to see why it possibly gets so many fines.

To the credit of the NSW government the data provided is very good and quite detailed. Here's a summary for the 2018/2019 year for the camera at Lambton for the number of fines.

Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - 10 km/h and under: 6,937
Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - over 10 km/h: 2,803
Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - over 20 km/h: 112
Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - over 30 km/h: 20
Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - over 45 km/h: 1
Proceed through red traffic arrow: 8
Proceed through red traffic light: 304
Total number of fines: 10,185

From the above we can see most of the fines were for speeding as opposed to going through the red light. Around 68% for under 10 km/h and 28% for over 10 km/h.

As to why people were speeding I have some ideas, but really they're just my thoughts and not research based. Your opinion is just as valid so I'll leave it up to you to ponder.

For those interested in this intersection and red light speed camera the following link is for a YouTube video. I start the video at the 13 minute mark near the roundabout at Newcastle Link Road and Transfield Avenue, Wallsend. The red light speed camera is around the 16 minute mark.

This video is sped up so if you want to watch it in near real time I'd suggest changing the speed in the YouTube settings to 0.5 and muting your sound.

YouTube video of location at 13 minute mark.

YouTube video at 16 minute mark just before red light speed camera

In the video you'll noticed at the 13:28 mark the speed limit changes from 90 to 60. 

If you check Google maps and Street View, the view taken February 2017 the speed limit dropped to 70. In the view in May 2018 this had changed to 60. It is interesting to note in 2017 the speed limit for this red light speed camera was 70 km/h, although what the speed limit was a few years ago isn't really relevant, but I still find it interesting. The real result in terms of safety is when you take the change in speed limit and then check the corresponding road statistics for this section of road. Have the fatalities and injuries reduced, or have the fines simply increased with no corresponding benefit?

2016-2017 Fines: 1,872, Value of Fines: $443,896

2017-2018 Fines: 4,505, Value of Fines: $885,124

2018-2019 Fines: 10,185, Value of Fines: $1,898,150

For the section of road after the Main Road and Newcastle Road roundabout, heading east along Newcastle Road/Griffiths Road, to after the Griffiths Road and Turton Road intersection, the following are the crash statistics for 2014-2018.

2014 Non-casualty (towaway): 20, Minor: 4, Major: 19, Serious: 7, Fatal: 0, Total: 50

2015 Non-casualty (towaway): 10, Minor: 7, Major: 9, Serious: 5, Fatal: 0, Total: 31

2016 Non-casualty (towaway): 8, Minor: 5, Major: 7, Serious: 8, Fatal: 1, Total: 29

2017 Non-casualty (towaway): 6, Minor: 7, Major: 9, Serious: 0, Fatal: 0, Total: 22

2018 Non-casualty (towaway): 9, Minor: 5, Major: 7, Serious: 1, Fatal: 0, Total: 22

Keeping in mind the speed of the section of road was reduced in late 2017 from 70 to 60, the total number of accidents hasn't changed, there's an increase in non-casualty (towaway), an increase in serious, but there is a decrease in minor and major accidents. It would be interesting to know what happened in 2014-2015 as that was a period of significant change.

I hope others find this information interesting.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au/nsw/

Speed camera locations / red light camera locations in NSW now show number of fines and value of fines.

It's taken many thousands of copy and pastes, but after a few days of work, I've now added the number of fines and value of fines to the NSW map on the Speed Camera Locations site at www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au/nsw/. Selecting a camera will take you to a detail page where you can see the number of fines and value of fines for fixed speed cameras and red light speed cameras in NSW.

Knowing the number of fines and value of fines in an easy to view format, helps people to know which cameras are collecting the most revenue because more people are making the same mistake. Generally that means there's more chance one of those cameras may catch you when you make the same mistake.

The majority of people drive according to the road rules, some don't, but most do. Most of us however make mistakes and if that's recorded by a camera, it can be very costly indeed. Knowing where more people make mistakes can help you identify what mistakes they may be making and help each of us become a better and more compliant drivers.

From my own experience in the past, I know for example after driving on a higher speed roadway such as a country road and then dropping down to a lower speed limit, your perception of speed is really put off. It is very easy for your speed to creep up even though you have no intention of speeding, but the result is the same. You get a speeding ticket. Whilst taking videos of red light cameras/speed cameras in the CBD area of Melbourne, where the speed limit is 40 km/h, it was exceptionally easy for the car's speed to creep up. You really have to focus far more on your speed than in the past which is a concern, as it takes your concentration off the road.

I've read with speed cameras and red light cameras there can be an increase in injuries from rear end accidents. For a few of the cameras I read about in NSW, this was sometimes the case.

There are quite a few differences between cameras in NSW and Victoria and it really is interesting to know. For example in NSW there is more warning of an approaching camera and best of all, you're  advised in the warning sign what the road speed limit is. In Victoria it's often hard to tell what the speed limit is for a road and often there's no speed limit sign for quite a distance before a camera.

In NSW there's quite a lot of fixed speed cameras (including in school zones) on regular roads, whereas in Victoria there's mostly red light speed cameras with only a few fixed speed cameras on freeways.

In Victoria if you're flashed by a camera facing you it's unlikely it's you being booked. In NSW there's many speed cameras (and one red light speed camera) that will record an offence from the front of the car.

In Victoria most cameras record one side of the road in the direction the car is travelling and from behind. In NSW many cameras can take pictures covering both directions from the back of the car, or the front of the car.

What is amazing is that even though in NSW there appears to be far more warnings and information provided to the driver, there's still a huge number of people being fined.

When I read the statistics on the number of fines, what concerns me for us as drivers, is in our parents' day, if I recall correctly, there was a tolerance of 10% when it came to speeding fines. If you read the statistics, if that tolerance remained today, most people would not be fined (possibly greater than 80%).

Hopefully the updated NSW map of fixed speed cameras and red light speed cameras highlighting the number of fines and revenue for each camera is useful to others.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au/nsw/

Eastlink Southbound Video and Eastlink Northbound Video.

As I was taking videos of speed cameras for my site www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au on the Eastlink and surrounding area, it occurred to me that some people may like to see the video of the full length of Eastlink in both directions. If this interests you, can find the Eastlink videos on YouTube using the following links.

Eastlink Southbound Video - From Springvale Road, Donvale, through the Mullum Mullum Tunnel down to Seaford.

Eastlink Northbound Video - From Seaford, through the Melba Tunnel to Springvale Road, Donvale.

Hopefully you'll find the videos useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Red light speed camera locations in NSW

The Speed Camera Locations site was built to cover Victorians, to help people who had erred and received a red light camera fine or speed camera fine. By finding out more about the location, understanding what may have led to the fine, we can modify our behaviour to ensure we reduce the chances of receiving a future sign. Not everyone who gets a fine is a lead foot out doing the wrong thing. The majority of people are like you and me.

I couldn't help feel the same technology could be used for our neighbours to the north in New South Wales. We all drive on similar roads, make the same mistakes, so perhaps the technology I've put together for Victorians could also help those in NSW.

As can be expected it will take some time to determine and map all the speed camera locations and red light camera locations in NSW. Rather than wait for all cameras to be determined I've made the NSW section of the site live with the first type of cameras. Red light speed cameras have now been uploaded for the red light speed cameras in NSW.

The next type of cameras, fixed speed cameras in NSW is currently being worked on and will be progressively uploaded.

You can find Red Light Camera Locations NSW and Speed Camera Locations NSW at www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au/nsw/.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Petrol price alert: Petrol prices in Melbourne increasing to 175.9

A couple of days ago I noticed the Woolworths Clarinda petrol station put their unleaded petrol price up to 179.9. I thought this was a bit steep as the average gate price was going down. The average gate price is currently 133.9 for unleaded petrol. To go up nearly 45 cents seemed a bit steep based on previous prices hikes.

Today a number of petrol stations have put up their unleaded price to 175.9 which we can now expect to be the current hike price.

It's hard to say if prices will go up before this coming weekend for the first wave of holiday makers returning from holiday, but it's almost certain the prices will be up for the following weekend for the rest of the holiday makers.

For a couple of years the price hike was between 25-30 cents above the average gate price, but recently that has increase to around 40 cents per litre. Since nothing been said by the powers to be about excessive price increases, we can only expect the price hike each time to now be around 40 cents per litre.

It's time to keep an eye on prices and fill up as and when required. Then if you're using the 7 Eleven fuel app, wait until you feel you can lock in the low price for another week. Last month I managed to save over $17 for a tank of petrol using the 7 Eleven fuel app. Makes the $2 saving I make using discount vouchers look tiny, but every bit helps.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

New kilograms to pounds web app now available.

Recently I needed to convert kilograms to pounds, or so I thought. But actually what I really wanted to do was to convert kilograms to pounds and ounces.

Using Google you instantly get a kilograms to pounds converter which isn't always what you want, particularly if you want pounds and ounces. I decided this was an opportunity to create a simple calculator which converted kilograms to pounds and also kilograms to pounds and ounces.

The Kilograms to Pounds calculator can be found at www.KilogramsToPounds.com.au

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Qantas Anniversary Celebration Giveaway - scam

This morning I received an email which I thought was worth sharing. The reason is unlike other scam/fraud emails, the offers in this email weren't too far from being what you'd expect, given all the promotions happening at the moment. That's a long way from the scams where you could get part of millions of dollars from a prince wanting your help to transfer money out of the country.

In the past the ridiculously large sums were used to find the easily tricked people. If you thought you could make millions, you were easily tricked. However, this email pretending to be from Qantas makes the offers good, but not unrealistic. The more realistic an offer appears, potentially the more likely reasonable people may fall for the scam.

Don't be fooled, this is a scam.

There's quite a few clues. One being the email address the email is from. The other is the link you click on, but it is hidden by a URL shortening site, which makes it easier for people not to realise the scam.

For me it's easy. I copy the link, then I open the search page I've created for myself (www.AdvancedSearch.com.au/SearchGoogle/). I type in "virus" which takes me to a site that I can paste the link I've copied. That site then lets me know the link to takes me to malware. Final proof the email is a scam.

The lesson here is no longer, "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't", doesn't apply. The lesson is, "even with offers that sound reasonable, you still need to be very careful".

Kelvin Eldridge

Petrol prices in Melbourne hiking to 175.9

A couple of nights ago I noticed the first signed of petrol prices starting to hike. The price hike will take the price of petrol to 175.9.

The average gate price on Wednesday was 135.6 cents per litre so a hike to 175.9 is what would be expected based on recent price hikes.

At the moment prices around Melbourne down to around the 130-133 mark. So far around 20% of petrol stations have put their prices up. Last time the price hike took some time to roll out, perhaps it will be the same this time.

It's time to keep an eye on petrol prices and fill up before the petrol price cycle peaks. Also don't forget to lock using the 7 Eleven Fuel app to give yourself an extra week of lower priced fuel.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

Medicare Near Me?

Ever asked the question, "where's the Medicare near me?" I have and I'm sure many others have as well.

A few years ago you could find a Medicare office at far more locations than you can today. I seem to recall Medicare offices could be found in the local shopping centres. However, a few years ago that all seemed to change and now if we need to find a Medicare office, there's none where they used to be.

From what I can tell the Medicare offices were merged with other government offices. For example we now find our local Medicare office is located at the Centrelink office.

Since it was confusing for me I decided to create a web app based on the government's provided data dated the 9th of October 2019, and use the mapping software I've created, to provide a convenient map of the Medicare office locations near where a person is located.

If you need to find your nearest Medicare office then give Medicare Near Me a go. You can also go to the web site www.MedicareNearMe.com.au.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MedicareNearMe.com.au

Petrol prices in Melbourne are on the rise to 174.9 cents per litre for unleaded.

Late Wednesday night I noticed the first signed of petrol prices starting to hike. The price hike will take the price of petrol to 174.9.

For the past couple of years when the petrol price hiked it would consistently jump between 25-30 above the average gate price (think wholesale price), but now for the last few months the price jump is closer to the 40 cent mark. I'm quite surprised the media hasn't caught on and nothing is being said from the ACCC. The average gate price on Wednesday was 135.5 cents per litre so a hike to 174.9 is what would be expected based on recent price hikes.

At the moment prices around Melbourne can go as low as 127.9 at Woolworths Caltex in Patterson Lakes, less with a discount voucher. There's plenty of places in the low 130's. Woolworths tends to be better value with a discount value than Coles Express, but sometimes Coles Express can surprise you.

It's time to keep an eye on petrol prices and fill up before the petrol price cycle peaks. Also don't forget to lock using the 7 Eleven Fuel app to give yourself an extra week of lower priced fuel.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

Videos for Speed Camera Locations site now listed on a separate page.

As I've been adding videos to the Speed Camera Locations site I've found a few ways to help let people know a video has been added for a particular location. For example, the red light camera / speed camera icon for a location with a video available has the lens coloured red.

You can also find on the detail page for a red light camera / speed camera a link to the video.

I kept thinking however, it might also be handy to have a list of locations where a video is available. As the number of videos available grows that list could also grow. To achieve this I've now added a Videos page to the Speed Camera Locations site.

https://www.speedcameralocations.com.au/videos/

I hope others find this useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
Speed Camera Locations
www.speedcameralocations.com.au

New red light cameras / speed cameras on Rosanna Road and Darebin Road / Banyule Road Heidelberg

Recently I've been updating the Speed Camera Locations site with more recent government data covering the 2017-2018 period. Previously the site covered 2014-2015 period. In addition previously the cameras were averaged when there were two or more cameras covering a section of road or intersection. Now if there's a camera covering say the left lanes and another covering the right lanes, the camera locations are separate. In addition for red light cameras instead of using the camera location, the location is being updated to be the stop line and the middle of the lanes covered.

I'd also recently noticed four upcoming (or pre-commissioned) camera locations. These are camera locations that may flash but tickets are not yet being issued. They will be in the near future. Two of the cameras were located on Rosanna Road and Darebin Street Heidelberg. One for northbound traffic and one for southbound traffic.

By pure chance I was driving along Rosanna Road, Heidelberg and saw the new cameras as well as videoing them using the dashcam. Not only were there two new cameras at the intersection of Rosanna Road and Darebin Street, but there were also two new cameras at Rosanna Road and Banyule Road, Heidelberg.

The new cameras have a modern design that I've not seen before. One person on the internet described them as spaceship looking. What I felt was odd was not only was there the usual arrangement of the camera and separate flash, but facing the car on the other side of the intersection was another pole and device. At first I thought could this be taking a front on picture. However checking the site for the group company site that provides the cameras (Sensys Gatso Australia) their demonstration video makes me think the additional camera is a radar which is used to locate the position of the car instead of the in-road induction loops. That means the road didn't need to be cut to lay loops into the road. In time I'll check to see if my hunch is right.

For those interested in more information, the contracts for the work for the cameras was worth around $900,000. That's about $225,000 per camera. In addition there's an interesting letter published on Facebook I found which I thought I'd share. You can see the letter by clicking on the pictures.

Videos of all four cameras can be viewed using the links provided in the detail page for each camera (click on the icon) on the Speed Camera Locations site.

NOTE: What will catch people out is there also appears to be a speed limit change to 40km/h coming to Rosanna Road, Heidelberg between Banksia Street in the south to Brown Street in the north according to the VicRoads site.

The combination of the speed camera and the lower speed limit is one that in others location raises a lot of revenue and will probably do the same at Rosanna Road and Darebin Street, Heidelberg.

Probably a common mistake people make is thinking they are in the intersection if the front of the car is over the stop line. They aren't. There's an imaginary line which goes from the kerb of the road to the other side of the intersection. You need to be over that line to be in the intersection. That means fully over the stop line and the pedestrian lines. For those turning and waiting for pedestrians, there's even a greater chance of getting booked. If you check the northern approach to Darebin Street the stop line has a huge angle and probably two cars can be over the stop line, yet still not in the intersection. Combine that with slowing down to turn and there's going to be a lot of cars being booked. Perhaps the new technology may make it fairer to those who think they're in the intersection when they're over the stop line. Only time will tell.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Update: 13/11/2019
My earlier thought these cameras might be the new laser based, not requiring induction loops in the road was wrong. I checked the road and the road has induction loops placed before and after the stop line. The additional camera as you exist the intersection may be a camera and flash unit to take a picture of the driver. In time no doubt people will find out.

Update: 19/08/2020

Thanks to the feedback from Traders Secret Sauce there's confirmation fines are now being issued for this camera. The government's Cameras Save Live sites has not yet been updated to reflect this change.

The Cameras Now Enforcing sign is on an angle and nothing showed on the sign until you were very close. Be careful. It could be easy to miss, particularly if there's a lot of traffic/trucks.

Update: 14 Jan 2021

The following are more recent videos of Rosanna Road for those wishing to check the more recent speed signage changes.

Rosanna Road southbound

https://youtu.be/k4iPrQq2gMs?t=861

Rosanna Road northbound turning right from Jika Road

https://youtu.be/DMUGCuu-xME?t=447

Rosanna Road northbound turning right from Banksia Street

https://youtu.be/5NXtGbny_I4?t=491

CityLink speed camera locations added to Speed Camera Locations.

I've been updating Speed Camera Locations to correspond with Victoria's data for fines, which details in some cases the individual lanes. The CityLink speed cameras have data for each lane, but identifying the actual location was more difficult since the location is underground.

Google maps is good for above ground and Google Street View shows you the view underground, but given the poor light, seeing where the camera is located wasn't possible. However, fixed speed cameras generally work using sensors in the ground. It took a while, but if you know what you're looking for, you can find the sensors and thus the location. The following screen capture from Google Street View shows the in-ground sensors for one set of CityLink cameras.

I hope you find this as interesting as I did.

Kelvin Eldridge
Speed Camera Locations

List of locations for videos added to the Speed Camera Locations site.

The Speed Camera Locations site www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au is now being updated to provide a link to videos for the following locations. As time and opportunity permits it is hope to produce a video for each location.

Canterbury Road and Mitcham Road, Vermont
Cemetery Road West And Royal Parade, Parkville
Elgar Road And Arnold Street, Box Hill
Fitzroy Street And Lakeside Drive, St Kilda
Flinders Street And William Street, Melbourne
High Street And Verene Avenue, Templestowe Lower
Hoddle Street And Victoria Street, Abbotsford
Lonsdale Street And Webster Street, Dandenong
Manningham Road And Macedon Road, Templestowe Lower
Maroondah Highway and Mount Dandenong Road, Ringwood
Maroondah Highway and Ringwood Bypass, Ringwood
Maroondah Highway And Springvale Road, Nunawading
Middleborough Road And Eastern Freeway, Box Hill North
Peninsula Link Freeway, Frankston, Northbound, Skye Road BridgeP
Peninsula Link Freeway, Moorooduc, Northbound, Eramosa Road West Bridge
Peninsula Link Freeway, Moorooduc, Northbound, Loders Road Bridge
Ringwood Street And Maroondah Highway, Ringwood
Royal Parade And Gatehouse Street, Parkville
Springvale Road And Lower Dandenong Road, Braeside
Station Street And Thames Street, Box Hill
Stud Road And Ferntree Gully Road, Scoresby
Stud Road And Heatherton Road, Dandenong
Victoria Street And Doncaster Road, Doncaster
Warrigal Road And Batesford Road, Chadstone
Whitehorse Road And Elgar Road, Box Hill
Whitehorse Road And Surrey Road, Blackburn
Williamsons Road And Doncaster Road, Doncaster

Previously I announced by clicking on a speed camera, a detail page will be displayed and on that page is a direct link to the location using Google Street View. This is great for looking around the location. Now by adding videos people can also see from a driver's perspective what they see as they approach and leave an intersection, which has a red light camera/speed camera.

Kelvin Eldridge
Speed Camera Locations
www.SpeedCameraLocations

Free Victorian Seniors Card off-peak travel vouchers changing from 2020.

I received my free Victorian Seniors Card off-peak travel vouchers this year but this time there was a noticed included. From 2020 you need to register. This is pretty easy to do and only takes a few minutes.

The site to go to is www.ptv.vic.gov.au/vouchers.

I've blogged about this because when I talk to others they're often not aware of their seniors' perks and this page will enable me to quickly provide the link.

I hope you find the link handy.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Red light camera / speed camera at Boronia Road And Wantirna Road, Wantirna

The Speed Camera Locations site www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au is now being updated to provide a link to a video for the location. It will take me a long time to produce a video for each location. The following is a link for:

Boronia Road And Wantirna Road, Wantirna

Previously I announced by clicking on a speed camera, a detail page will be displayed and on that page is a direct link to the location using Google Street View. This is great for looking around the location. Now by adding videos people can also see from a driver's perspective what they see as they approach and leave an intersection, which has a red light camera/speed camera.

Kelvin Eldridge
Speed Camera Locations
www.SpeedCameraLocations

Woolworths Qantas points or Woolworths Rewards. Which is better?

Woolworths recently changed the conversion rate of Woolworths Rewards point to one Qantas point for two Woolworths Rewards points. So which is better value? Is it better to convert the Woolworths Rewards points to money off your shop, or is it better value to convert the points to Qantas points?

The value of Woolworths Rewards points is easy to calculate. For 2,000 Woolworths Rewards points you get $10 off your shopping.

If you wanted to you could even double the value of Woolworths Rewards points by only buying products that are half price meaning 2,000 Rewards point could potentially get you $20 worth of groceries.

How much is 1,000 Qantas points worth?

Working out how much Qantas points is worth is much harder. The fares for flights can vary considerably. You may even use Qantas points for upgrades or buying products from the Qantas store.

Let's check the value of buying products from the Qantas store.

Logging onto the Qantas store the first item shown was the Tefal UltraGlide Steam Iron for 14,780 points.

A search of Google gives the following prices. Keep in mind the online sites will probably charge postage.

ClearanceOutlet $58.90
Catch.com.au $64.48
Billy Guyatts $62
The Goodguys $69.95

Worst case then the iron is worth around $70. At 14,780 points that gives us 1,000 Qantas points is worth around $4.74 or using Billy Guyatts price of $62, the value of 1,000 Qantas points is $4.19.

Selecting a second item I picked a Fitbit Charge 3. No particular reason except it's a product I recognise. The number of Qantas points required is 36,020.

Officeworks $168.00
Myer $179.00
Bing Lee Electronics $168.00

Using the above the value of Qantas points is from $4.66 to $4.96.

This gives us a guide that buying a product from the Qantas stores isn't good value as 1,000 points is worth $4 to $5. Better to spend it on groceries at $10 or better if spent on specials.

What about Qantas flights?

From the first page we see the following and then I checked the points for a long distance flight.

Melbourne to Sydney for 6,400 points plus $32.37.
Melbourne to Perth for 14,400 points plus $27.42.
Melbourne to London (Heathrow) for  55,200 points plus $199.

NOTE: Return flight taxes and charges are quite a bit higher at 212GBP (approx $398AUD).

The real problem with flights is there's such a range of prices and if you're paying with money you'll probably pick a cheaper flight, but with points the price doesn't change. Changing your day and luggage also can change prices. Qantas isn't the only airline so you have choice of cheaper options.

Let's take a flight over the next couple of days to each location.

Melbourne to Sydney Thursday 24/10/19
Cheapest Jetstar - $131 @ 5:35am
A more reasonable time plus luggage could cost $200-$300.

Melbourne to Perth
Cheapest Qantas - $350 @ 7:10am
A more reasonable time plus luggage could cost $400-$500.

Melbourne to London
Cheapest Virgin - $697 @ 8:00am
Other reasonable prices could range $800-$1,000.
However one way flights from London to Melbourne start at $1,333.

To make things easy lets take the cheapest flight option.

Melbourne to Sydney Jetstar @ $131. That means a 1,000 Qantas points is worth $15.41. That's good as it's better than the $10 for Woolworths Rewards. It only gets better as the prices for flights go up.

Melbourne to Perth Qantas @ $350. That means a 1,000 Qantas points is worth $22.40. Again better than Woolworths Rewards points.

Melbourne to London Virgin at $697. That means a 1,000 Qantas points is worth $9.02. For the return flight 1,000 Qantas points is worth $16.93. Given these are the lowest prices, using Qantas points for long distance flights is looking better than Woolworths Rewards.

Overall using Qantas points for flights is looking better than using Woolworths Rewards points for groceries. I have to admit that was something I didn't expect especially as you have to pay money as well as use points using Qantas Classic Rewards.

This doesn't take into account whether or not you can get a flight sometime around when you want to fly.

The other thing to consider is how long it will take you to build up points. We purchase around $100-$150 a week in groceries. That's $5,000-$7,500 a year. With one point for each dollar spent that's potentially 5,000-7,500 Woolworths Rewards points a year or 2,500 to 3,750 Qantas points. Not even a one way trip to Sydney. That's pretty sad. About two years to get a one way trip to Sydney. Perhaps best to stick with buying half price specials, at least I'd get that reward up to four times a year.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Speed Camera Locations site updated to link to Google Street View for red light camera and speed camera locations

Let's face it, most of us make minor mistakes on the road and the ones we notice the most is when we get fined. Ouch. It really hurts to have to pay and often we don't even know what we've done wrong.

I've been caught out once with an unusual school zone that ended at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. Luckily I was travelling at 45 km/h or otherwise it could have been a very costly mistake. A mistake that costs others millions each year at the same intersection.

Another costly and common mistake are turn arrows on higher speed roads. Few people realise the timing on the turn arrows is much shorter than if going straight ahead and people are required to brake harder on many turn arrows when lights start to change, than on lanes going straight ahead. One can't help feel this is revenue raising as all it takes is to make the amber turn light last as long as the amber light for going straight ahead lane and many people would not get booked. I read once for every half a second the amber is reduced increases the number of bookings by 50%. Since amber turn arrows can be around 1.5 seconds shorter than straight through lanes and people are travelling much slower, it's very easy to get booked when turning. The real irony is when people brake because the light changes to amber they actually increase their risk of getting booked significantly as they now take longer to enter the intersection. Of course many people push the boundaries when turning as well.

When you've received a red light camera or speeding camera fine it's often handy to be able to easily check the location and Google Street View enables you to closely examine the location. Sometimes checking the location can help you see what you may have done wrong. Knowing what you've done wrong and why, can help make sure you don't make the same mistake again.

The Speed Camera Locations site shows the majority of red light cameras and speed cameras around Victoria. When you click on a camera icon you'll go to the details screen which provides further information. I've now added Google Street View as an option so you can easily view the intersection.

It should be noted the location is an average where there's a couple of red light/speed cameras in the same section of road, such as lanes going straight ahead covered by one camera and lanes turning covered by another camera. This was done to provide a better indication of the total value of fines for all cameras in a section of road. In the future I hope to update the Speed Camera Locations site with the individual camera locations. This will help in proving a better location and provide options for further development of the site.

I hope you find the update of including Google Street View handy.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Sorrento to Queenscliff ferry High Tea online booking system error shows cost of failing online system.

A person contacted me letting me know they couldn't book the Sorrento to Queenscliff ferry High Tea for Sunday at 2pm. Perhaps it was their debit card so I decided to use my credit card in case that was the problem.

I also received the following error message.

That got me thinking, at $330 for six people that's a lot of business lost as a result of their computer system. I decided to let them know their system was failing using their online form. That also failed with a reCAPTCHA error message even though the reCAPTCHA feature (where you enter letters or numbers to show you're human) wasn't displaying.

It makes you wonder just how much business is lost as a result of failing or faulty systems.

Apart from the spelling error in the error message, it does make me wonder if perhaps they shouldn't provide a phone number in the error message people can call if their system isn't working. That might help retain some business.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support

Update: 22/10/2019
Calls to the telephone number to the book the high tea were also not answered on the Sunday morning. Had a good day at Arthurs Seat instead. Great views and good to try the new chairlift.