Anyone got any good resources for a 'solidworks 101' type thing? I want to design a range of simple automotive products to be cnc machined out of polyoxymethylene.

RQ, whats your thoughts on a separate greywater system for a house? I looked at setting one up when building mine, but the drainage designer and council both thought it wouldn't work...

The inbuilt tutorials in solidworks are very very good, I have a pretty good understanding and ability to model and i've only done the tuitorials with a mild amount of tutoring from my brother.

Aquire a copy and go through the tutorials, see how you go, you'd have a pretty good understanding of these software packages to start with (photoshop, cads etc.) so that'll give you a good start.

I plan on seperating my grey from blackwater when i design and build my house (few years off) I think its an absolute shame that they didn't support you in trying, it should not only be supported but subsidised, re-using grey water is hugely effective, economical and enviromentally sustainable, considering the amount of organic matter thats in grey water (about 1%) the fact that we throw it away is stupid. If we want to be a 'green country' it'd be a damn good start with subsidising it.

I'd say that a decent primary settlement tank with scum and sludge scraper would work wonders, have the scum and sludge either treated on drying beds for fert (bit more $$ outlay) or dispose of it traditionally useing field tiles or a simple wetland hydro system (wetland plants growing in a porous media with the effluent trickled through it for nutrients) Failing that, dump it to sanitary sewer if you don't have the land. The volume dumped to SS would be reduced by 80-90%.
The treated grey water could then be re-used for showering, laundry, toilet flushing and general duty around the house, i'd be debious about re-using it as a drinking water without a tetiary treatment like UV or disc filters at the least.

The set up costs, other than the treatment process, would be double what was normal, as you'd literally need twice as many pipes. Outlay would be fairly pricey, but i think NZ should get behind it, its a really good idea. IMHO.

I remember looking at these guys www.ebode.co.nz when I was thinking of building; they offer it as part of their package.

They omit the details :p.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...i-control.html

*bang*
'Fuck you, Nintendo'
*dies*

Pretty much as fun as the wii anyway.

in which area do you wish it to be accurate? a region? a city? a city block? what time of day? going by the tone of your post, you must realize the dynamics behind cloud formation - ie. if the conditions are there for showers, then they can form anywhere in a given area.

it amazes me that people assume that "rain" equals overcast from horizon to horizon and for the rest of the region that they live in. i was once watching discrete thunderstorm cells spawning in the hauraki gulf from atop mt eden, on an otherwise cloudless night, and a number of people came up to my group and asked "what is that!?". when we said thunderstorms, they couldnt believe us.. "but its not raining here!". nuff said.

Since learning that the dashboard of my car has a little arrow showing which side the petrol cap is on (and in other cases which way the pump diagram is facing), I have lost the ability to remember which side it is on and have to check every single time I drive up to a petrol station. Might of course be early onset of dementia.

Simon - bastard. You'll keep :D

I'm sure I have established this doesn't work, or I just can't remember what side the arrow is pointing to. The side the pump should be, the side the tank is???
It has confused me more than before I knew that.

Well I thought the theory was that the handle was on the side that the cap was on - but I might be wrong... My car has the handle facing one way and an arrow pointing the other way. The arrow in this case is right.

Surely those are both the same?

Fucken idiots (the step father for leaving the loaded gun in the first place, and the mother for being a total dimwit as well).. :mad:

Thats wrong, i've seen it with me own eyes.

Good thing my dashboard has an arrow _b

I just had a telemarketing call from I think the first Australian I have ever had any trouble at all understanding. We got there in the end though.

Yea, the handle thing works for my three cars, but its just a coincidence, i took it for gospel but have since found several cars which disprove(?) the rule.

hell yeah my 'eazy-e' locs sunnies arrived today.

Too true.
It should have been. ... ahh, who gives a fk. People know what I mean

Pics, bitch!

How hard is it to get them to understand "Fuck off, we don't want any!"?

I have 5 acres, its zoned Rural Residential, so no town water or sewerage, have to use rainwater and septic tank, so plenty of room.
Would have been interesting to try, not even to reuse, but reduce the load on the septic, and use for watering garden etc.

Final plan that we came up with is everything into Septic > Siphon > Sand Filter > Siphon > Irrigated to plantings. Email (in profile) me if you'd like details, interested in your feedback.

^^ sent.

Oh yeah generally speaking thats no problem. At work though I tend to get a lot of calls from companies like Adobe (as it was in this case) and its best to determine whether or not it is actually a call about something in particular or just "do you find your company faces one of the following challenges...blah blah whitepaper".

Wellington is not ok. A storm has just hit with such ferocity that I thought a tornado had hit. The wind is probably up there with the strongest I've felt. That being said, I love stormy weather...as long as I don't have to leave the house.

^ http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3441...al-New-Zealand

might go sit outside in the sun with a beer.

We know a guy who basically does nothing else. He's a consultant environmental engineer who specialises in flood management, drainage, and the like. I never had any idea it was so interesting :)

What fun!

Very cool. Kind of thing I want to be doing 5yrs+

why the fuck is this on the front page of nzherald.co.nz ?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news...ectid=10631638

fuck off

There was a 2min segment on Lady Gaga arriving in NZ on the news last night. They told the story within the first 10minutes of the news starting _b

ffs - just chased down 2 young guys - pricks had nicked the battery drill out of my garage!

wtf! did you get it back? was your garage open?

If he chased them down, then yes, he got it back :p

Did you beat their faces bloody?

I hate this sort of stuff:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/ed...tiv es&st=cse

I understand that what is taught has to be carefully considered, but you can't go around teaching bullshit.

FTA
How the fuck can a Doctor of any sort push party politics into education!? And secondly, how is academia "skewed" to the left?

Edit: ahahaha, he's a fucking dentist, not a doctor!

Rince, you badass!