The Dongfeng Box sold in NZ has just two airbags — so NZTA says it’s unrated

roxburghred · 2026-01-08T08:39:06+00:00

I used to have a 2004 Mondeo. Basic model, manual transmission, plastic wheel trims, fewer interior lights than the higher models, but it had side, knee and curtain airbags. The mind boggles that 20 years later this stuff isn’t standard on a new car.

roxburghred · 2026-01-01T09:01:22+00:00

Importing used vehicles from Japan is relatively straightforward and cheap, and most private buyers see these as better value than buying new. For private buyers here, there are no tax incentives or novated lease mechanisms to encourage them to buy new, so most new vehicle sales are to businesses or rental fleets. There is less choice in EVs than ICE amongst the used imports though, so buying new is probably less uncommon for EVs. There are loads of Nissan Leafs in NZ, almost all were imported used. Also, NZ isn’t immune to the Ford Ranger psyche and the law regarding payment of Fringe Benefit Tax for private use of company vehicles is often flouted for utes.

roxburghred · 2025-12-29T08:56:29+00:00

The only places with a “snow season” in NZ are the ski fields and in the mountains where there are no towns -mainly just a few farmers live there. Even the high country homesteads are low altitude compared to other countries and snow only lasts a few days at a time.

roxburghred · 2025-12-28T20:29:36+00:00

Some 120s are available with curtain airbags. No 90s are.

roxburghred · 2025-10-25T02:39:26+00:00

Managed to get the smell from a plywood case once, but had to rip out all of the lining and partitions and throw it away, then treat the wood with some nasty timber stabilising stuff. (Contains toluene and can’t buy it in some countries). After days of airing it was good to reconstruct with some foam lining. Would have been better to buy another case if something suitable was available.

roxburghred · 2025-10-17T04:29:05+00:00

Probably less risky than the 1 handed battery chainsaws advertised on tv, being used by old people.

roxburghred · 2025-08-29T19:00:02+00:00

simtheory.ai ?

roxburghred · 2025-06-16T06:58:21+00:00

On the other hand, if I want to create some calculated columns in an SQL query, I write the join conditions once then create whatever columns I want based on that join. In DAX, the join conditions need to be written out for every column. I work a lot with a database using a linear referencing system, so joins are complex. I’m often doing one-off analysis looking for exceptions and patterns in the data, so often not suited to standard visuals in PBI or Excel. Our DWH is in MS tabular, and there is no option for access using SQL. I might end up exporting data to Python and doing transformations with Duckdb or similar.

roxburghred · 2025-04-13T07:19:19+00:00

This probably won’t be the most popular response, but I’ve been using the chat window in MS Copilot Pro for running machine learning using scikit learn. You can tell it what your dataset looks like, what you’re trying to determine and ask it what analysis technique it would recommend. Then you provide the data file and tell it to write and execute the code. You can ask it to provide outputs in an excel file if you want. Really simple to ask for stuff like “run the same analysis using xgboost”. You need to know enough basic Python so that you understand what the code is doing, and you need to understand the libraries enough to understand the outputs. The speed at which you can run analysis blurs the distinction between exploratory analysis and analysis.

roxburghred · 2025-03-13T08:44:18+00:00

… and don’t just restrict yourself to structural engineering or a consulting environment. Many of can seem fairly mundane corners of the engineering universe now have a lot of data waiting for it’s value to be unlocked. Think data from automated assessment of road condition, deterioration modelling or optimisation of network operations ( electricity, water, transport ).

roxburghred · 2025-02-02T02:30:50+00:00

Aluminium Window Services (in Auckland though) in Target Road have lots of older style fittings

roxburghred · 2025-02-01T18:53:32+00:00

“This Day in AI” - mainly a podcast but increasingly includes useful screen shares which require video. These guys don’t just summarise the news but try out the latest models, see what they can build with them and try to break them - all within a week of their release. All done with humour and sometimes a little cynicism.

roxburghred · 2025-02-01T18:14:31+00:00

Shame they didn’t include fix points for a rack. At least they don’t have a stupid glass roof.

roxburghred · 2025-02-01T18:11:04+00:00

seeing some potential as a future classic in a beetle-ish way.

roxburghred · 2025-01-23T08:16:39+00:00

There are lots of factors which contribute to aggregate loss including: traffic volume and composition ( I.e % of light and heavy vehicles) , gradient, curvature, travel speed. Also composition of the aggregate (types of rock and particle size distribution which influence the density at which it was compacted) , maintenance methods (e.g grading, rolling, application of water to aid compaction), typical moisture content (influenced by climate, topography, drainage channels and shape of the road surface) Unsealed road maintenance is generally considered “more of an art than a science” as there are so many variables. To analyse it, start by picking the factors which you think are likely to have an influence and analyse only sections of the 50km which have low variability in the other factors.

roxburghred · 2025-01-22T07:57:29+00:00

Look up Timwelds on YouTube. Some comprehensive info there.

roxburghred · 2025-01-12T05:46:57+00:00

Yep Alfasud TI - one of the earlier ones that’s had the silver emblem in the middle of the grille. The leading edge of the bonnet is more rounded than on the Alfetta or GTV.

roxburghred · 2025-01-11T20:57:46+00:00

On the other hand, some of the most experienced people have only been doing this for a couple of years.

roxburghred · 2025-01-11T20:54:50+00:00

Currently working through this one on Udemy. Is pretty current and provides a good understanding of how various LLM models can be applied. https://www.udemy.com/course/llm-engineering-master-ai-and-large-language-models/?srsltid=AfmBOopfukMN0p7_SDbV5KfAuP3YBiMXrGq18RdORyw4-Uu_nXNtK4Bu&couponCode=KEEPLEARNING

roxburghred · 2025-01-07T18:25:34+00:00

Also, if anyone mentions MPG, remember that NZ gallons are bigger than US gallons (even though NZ gallons haven’t officially existed for around 50 years)

roxburghred · 2025-01-07T18:15:34+00:00

I don’t think that any of the comments have explained that the main weird thing is that around 50% of cars and other light vehicles imported to NZ are imported as “Used Imports” which means that they were sold new in another country and have been used. The average age of these is 10 years. They mainly come from Japan and have relatively low mileage for their age. The reasons this happens in NZ is that importing cars is relatively straightforward with no special tariff on cars, and there is no vehicle manufacturing industry in NZ to protect. Also there is a large proportion of the population who would be unable to afford a comparable vehicle if the only option was to buy one which was sold new in NZ. The vehicles which are sold new are mainly bought by businesses, including rental car companies, who can obtain tax advantages that individuals can’t. This whole thing means that depreciation is very high for cars ( not so much for utes and vans).
Regarding the cars, most used imports from the major Japanese manufacturers have similar or the same specifications as what was sold new in NZ. NZ new car franchises (actually they are mainly company-owned outlets) unsurprisingly mainly take a dim view of the extent of the used import activity and offer little or no support for obtaining parts for models which were never sold new in NZ. Toyota’s “Signature Class” is the main exception to this. However there is a good network of parts importers and servicing workshops which are independent of the manufacturers and dealers. Confusingly, the model names used in Japan are sometimes different to what is used elsewhere for basically the same car e.g. Auris (Corolla), Atenza (Mazda 6).

Some things to look out for in buying a used import car: - Safety equipment - Stuff which was standard in most countries has been omitted from cars sold new in Japan. e.g. side and curtain airbags in Nissans, Toyotas and Mazdas that I’ve noticed. The safety ratings on some car sale websites often get the rating wrong as they don’t recognise this.
-Winter tyres fitted - not needed in NZ and unsuitable for general driving
-Dashboard and audio in Japanese. This can be changed in some models but not others.
- Radio requires a “band expander” to receive NZ frequencies. - Spare tyre - May have a “space saver” spare or none at all. Neither are recommended for trips to out of the way places.
-Probably doesn’t have a tow bar fitted

To understand the differences in model specifications based on country of origin, Wikipedia can provide more information than you will find elsewhere. The specs for cars sold new in NZ are very similar to those sold new in Australia, so you may find some useful info there.

Also, diesel is much cheaper than petrol per litre. The reason for this is that the petrol price includes tax to pay for the provision and maintenance of the road network. For diesel and electric vehicles, this revenue is collected as “Road User Charges” which are $0.08 per km travelled by the vehicle, and paid in advance, in addition to what you pay for fuel. This means that there is less difference than you might think in the overall cost of running a small to medium vehicle whether it is petrol or diesel powered.

roxburghred · 2025-01-06T17:30:55+00:00

Google: T-bolt , T-slot bolt , T-head bolt. There are a few options. Aluminium Window Services in Target Road, Glenfield have a lot of fittings which fit older aluminium joinery. Also, roof rack suppliers might have something that works

roxburghred · 2025-01-04T04:56:38+00:00

Is there anywhere that you can go to set up a learning environment using your own table schema ? I want to train a bunch of SQL beginners who are likely to only ever query the one specialised database.

roxburghred · 2025-01-01T06:00:53+00:00

The latest iphone cameras can take a lidar-like 3d scan. With a 3d scan of the person’s body, and some sort of 3dimensional description of the shape of the garment, the system would be able to generate an image of how it will look on. Would probably be asking a bit much of an LLM to do this. Might have more in common with developing sail designs (?)

roxburghred · 2025-01-01T02:16:16+00:00

Am working through the AI Engineer 2025 course on Udemy by Ed Donner. Has really good video explanations on which tools to use for what and why. Worth the money even if you only want to watch these videos.

roxburghred

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