Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Whats up with the search feature of the forum at the moment.

I tried doing a search for "mosquito" and "fish" with the search for all terms box checked and it said htat there were no results. I deleted the fish and got 85 hits but I could only view the first page. Clicking either the 2 or the next link got me to the no results page.

Whats going on? Grrr

Or is it just me

Just you I am afraid, my search works without a hitch.

Did you click on 'Display results as: posts' ???

SC - unfortunately it is a known problem:

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... php?t=2363

It's very annoying!!

Is it a particular browser that is causing the problems?

Nope... as explained before the php code the board is built upon was highly modified by the developer....

Unfortunately the modder is no longer available and what you see is what you get....

TimC,



No. To reproduce the problem, make sure you select the "Search for all terms" radiobutton.

Went to an urban development institute luncheon yesterday. My company (an engineering consultancy specialising in land development) sponsored the event. The speaker is professor of urban ecology at the uni of south australia, with a background of zoology and ecology.

The talk was great. I am planning to write some notes for others, and I might post some here as well, but the gist was that Adelaide has very little public open space, and especially hardly any native vegetation pockets remaining on the floodplain. However, biodiversity is still very high, mainly because most people have big backyards with plenty of dense trees down the side fences, which provide habitats for small birds and lizards etc.

But now every developer is responding to the public's 'preference' for smaller blocks with less private open space (read: people buy them, and developers decide it is preference because they get to sell more blocks for more money). So the image of Adelaide as a very green plain with houses in it is rapidly dissapearing, along with South Australia's biodiversity hotspot.

So my job is to design the subdivisions. I don't design the block layouts, but I do my best to work out the roads and drainage etc so that they can get them build as cheaply as possible with these tiny blocks and huge houses. Should I quit?

It's nice to think that engineers and architects can influence developers to make them greener and more biodiverse and sustainable. But the truth is that they will ALWAYS go for the cheapest and densest living possible within the development regulations, leaving the power for change with those who set the development guidelines, and leaving me just doing my job. So does that exonerate me? I'm not so sure.

Oh for a job that I believe in...

I spoke to some of my colleagues after the talk, and they said it was "very entertaining"...sigh...

Steem, some time ago I introduced a broad-acre developer to an eco-friendly hobby farm planning consultant (whose book I was editing). The idea was to market packages that included an individual farm design service. Now I believe it ought to include growing fish, too.

If you have more information, I'd be happy to look into it.
But the question most developers would ask is would it make as much money...did your developer go for it?

Steem, what would you do instead? How would you feed yourself and your family? *Is* there a job you can believe in?

It's only natural that settlements begin where the ground is most fertile and then grow to cover the very ground that supplies the food necessary to sustain that settlement. Adelaide is a prime example of that mistake - you only have to go back ten or twelve years to find that what were thriving market gardens only a few kilometres from the CBD are now crappy little suburbs, and that the market gardeners have been forced to try and make a living irrigating dry-land farming areas with treated sewerage water.
No bloody wonder we have to pay inflated prices for imported muck and eat tasteless tomatoes that have travelled 2000 km in a container to get to our tables.

DON'T GET ME STARTED !!....................

The developer did. By anticipating potential buyers' fear he was able to command a considerable premium.

Big Mick, I forgot about the market gardens! The best part is that premium market garden soil is terrible to put houses on - Adelaide has some of the most reactive soil for housing in the world, yet we all want concrete slabs on the ground, and we have to build the ground up to do it so that it doesn't flood...

Adrian, I would like to hear more. Is the book for sale ?

Jaymie, there are options. I know one guy who's going to run a business doing small public works projects in remote areas that big companies won't touch because the travelling destroys their profit margins. Apparently the main thing that is lacking is the prelim design concepts that enable local governments to get funding which for projects.

I'm into disadvantaged community development in my spare time, and some day I might do a dthawk or a travis and just up and leave to a developing country.

But that's escaping the problem, and while I'm here I'd like to be part of the solution. The first plan is to keep a lookout for jobs in companies who market themselves as wanting to do sustainable, intelligent developments. Most engineering companies are to a large extent at the mervy of their clients' wishes, so it helps to attract the right clients.

Thanks guys, rant partially satiated for now.

Steem, later this year. I'll post when. Provisional Title "Heavenly Hectares."

crikey Steem, sounds like you need a holiday and a few days puddling around in clay and AP at the fish farm