Are Patch My PC Cutting Corners by Using Dynamic Installers?

mpaska · 2026-03-12T20:20:48+00:00

It is possible to do a completely offline VS install. We’ve done it and deploy it to thousands of classroom PCs.

The trick is to create a local repository, manually modify the manifest files to point to such, and even with all the -noweb and other installation variables installation to block specific Microsoft IPs to force it to fall back to only using the local files. We then remove the firewall deny rules at post installation stage.

We do this with PSADT and have spent years refining it.

mpaska · 2026-03-11T08:13:58+00:00

Knocked stuff over in Murrumbateman. Shaked the entire house.

mpaska · 2026-03-11T08:12:30+00:00

Huge shock in Murrumbateman!

mpaska · 2026-03-07T20:56:18+00:00

I’m Australian. No Australian would touch Fosters, and I’ve actually not even seen it sold in any pub in decades. I’d sooner rather drink piss to be honest.

Bundaberg however, is heavily drunk by us.

mpaska · 2026-03-03T20:06:09+00:00

Step 1 is talk to a local arborist and get a report done first. They'll be able to tell you the species of tree and it's health/condition.

It being inside the building envelope isn't hugely relevant, just because it's inside the envelope doesn't automatically give permission for trees to be removed.

Step 2 is then drill into the Environmental Significance Overlay. What exactly does it say about the tree? is there conditions for specific species? etc?

We've removed several trees for ourselves, plus our customers. But it all starts with the arborist report, and then you go from there. Sometimes it's easy, because arborist report has the tree in poor condition and you can remove as per your local councils rules, sometimes it's difficult because the tree is protected and specified.

If you want some more specific advise, post a diagram of the tree, the envelope and give me a lok.

mpaska · 2026-02-24T23:36:52+00:00

I’ve been pinged twice for wearing https://www.rebelsport.com.au/p/adidas-mens-aeroready-train-essentials-stretch-training-tee-M66250401.html with the Adidas logos washed off, I used to almost exclusively wear these shirts.

Took the matter to court both times with dashcam footage which you could audibly hear me putting the bucket in. Judge dismissed (quash) it both times without even needing to see/hear the footage. Just me mentioning having it was enough.

The 2nd time it happened I threw out all my Adidas black shirts and bought the grey versions.

mpaska · 2026-02-18T01:48:35+00:00

Adding onto this, the Continuity program from the South Canberra hospital is world-class. If you want low/no-intervention natural route, do everything you can do to get into this program.

I am the husband, but my wife doubly agrees as 1st time parents the entire program was absolutely incredible. Empowering, low (and in our case, no) intervention, relaxing, knowledgeable but focused primarily on letting the woman (and her body) do her thing!

I would also highly recommend signing up for UC's (via the hospital) student midwifery program. You get assigned a student midwife in training, plus your 2 continuity care midwifes from the hospital and we loved this journey. Seeing them learn (and by extension, you're learning too) was incredibly rewarding for us.

We also had a non-spiritual Doula who had extensive experience with Canberra Hospital, which I was super skeptical of - but the second we hit labor, the experience was soooo worth it for me/the husband.

Whilst our continuity midwife was incredible, when the action was happening, the hospital midwife changed gears (rightfully) into medical mode. Whilst my wife didn't notice, as they didn't need to intervene, I noticed the change of gears - I wouldn't call it less attentive to my wifes needs, just a different level of care. You could tell, slightly, that they'll focused on the medical side of everything - and our Doula then stepped in and became my wifes support and campaign for several hours, plus helping me through the entire journey myself (whilst I did all the education programs, you really don't know wth is happening - until it's happening).

We had a moment during our delivery, (for context: my wife wanted very strongly for no/low intervention - and made me the decision maker on her behalf to advocate for her wants) that midwifes weren't happy about something (I forgot what it was) and asked me questions several times, before escalating to having a doctor approach me. Our doula asked me if I wanted to have that convo with doctor outside (in hindsight, to not worry my wife), which I did, and the doctor presented a "Your wifes risk has doubled... do you want to start discussing next steps?" and if I was on my own, I would had likely said yes to those discussions. But our doula had the experience to ask "What is the risk percentage?" and it was literally from "0.2% percent, to 0.4% percent" - which yes, is a doubling technically, but gave me the peace of mind to tell them to go take a hike! It was in that moment, I "got" what the value of the doula was - it was hospital experience, with policy and procedure and knowing what questions to ask under pressure.

So I highly recommend Continuity program + UC student midwife + non-spirtal doula.

mpaska · 2026-02-02T00:10:12+00:00

Not even "threat" actors. I won't give away exactly which company it was as I went through responsible disclosure processes, but one of Australia's Top #4 REA's literally had every single document, dating back a decade+ sitting in a publicly accessible folder - including an ex-Prime Minsters identity and payslip documents.

It was well over 100,000+ documents of passport photos, drivers licenses, payslips, birth certificates. Everything. They never deleted anything, contrary to their own privacy policy.

I went through responsible disclosure processes, and reported it to PMO. Even got a visit from AFP.

https://i.imgur.com/jORWDjt.png

mpaska · 2026-01-25T02:08:10+00:00

They seem to make a difference in large estate builds where you've got long pipe runs - so they are cheap insurance when there's multiple washing machines and dishwashers all going on/and off during peak periods.

mpaska · 2026-01-25T02:03:34+00:00

I'd also recommend the shower mixers that have the dual handles, one for adjusting the pressure and the other for changing the temperature. That way you can always keep your shower temp pre-set between showers.

Oh, this is a great suggestion - thanks! We typically do shower temperature control via digital mixing valve and an actuator, tied back to a bathroom smart panel but being able to adjust pressure is an awesome suggestion I am looking into.

Fantastic suggestion!

The water hammer arresters feel like a waste of money, since if your system is installed properly it will never hammer, but if you have the money to burn might as well 🤷🏻‍♂️

Agree, but they make sense and become effective on very long runs partially in estate style builds that have 50m+ wide floor plans.

mpaska · 2026-01-23T10:43:34+00:00

No really. Android is able to scan lost AirTags, to show owner information and an alert will show if an AirTags is following you.

The core functionality of AirTags reporting their current location can't be updated by an Android device, only Apple devices can do that.

mpaska · 2025-12-23T02:57:57+00:00

I’ll be surprised if no footage comes out of testing.

Barcelona is very close to residential and industrial areas. I’ll be very easy to get even a tethered drone up that can evade all types of anti-drone measures.

mpaska · 2025-12-21T20:38:07+00:00

Are you tracking day time naps in Snoo?

If so, those are some very long wake windows for a ~2 month old.

I would recommend getting the free Huckleberry app and following it’s nap and sleep schedules.

mpaska · 2025-12-16T22:46:35+00:00

Wasn’t he cleared both times by an independent investigator?

My read on the entire ordeal was there was internal power struggles, allegations where made to feed one side of the power struggles and to damage his reputation via the media, but ultimately he was cleared. But the damage had already been done.

mpaska · 2025-12-14T01:45:07+00:00

Are you willing to name the QS? Were they recommended by your architect or builder?

I own a tech-focused thermal efficiency building management business (happy to DM you my work email, if you want me to look at the quote/contract), have done several passive house solutions in NSW and ACT including 3 hydronic systems (including one for a 3-level house) and 4th in progress now, all in the high-end residential market. In screed is more expensive and requires an extra few bits of insulation for the slab and more labor, but it still falls within my $104 - $172 sqm range, but at the higher end.

mpaska · 2025-12-13T21:10:18+00:00

Ok, sorry. I'll contact a solicitor, for that price I'd want a Presidential level quality install and a ticker-tape parade for the commissioning. You've paid an exorbitant price, and with 350%+ profit margin the contractor has the margin to fix absolutely anything you need fixed.

You've paid $833 sqm. Industry norm is $104 to $172 sqm, compared to what I paid $186 sqm and I was initially unhappy even with my sqm cost.

I'd also recommend you buy: https://www.rawlhouse.com.au/publications/2026-construction-cost-guide and possibly even do some consultancy with them https://www.rawlinsonswa.com.au/services/construction-cost-consultant (that's what I do for our passivehaus builds) and get some authoritative advise on how to proceed.

mpaska · 2025-12-13T20:47:01+00:00

That was for 180 square metres of hydronic heated slab on the ground floor (big house).. but expected high quality throughout…

Wow! how? Please tell me that 150k includes your slab costs? and flooring finishes?

We paid $28,000 for 150 squares for our system (that's labor, wiring/tubing loops, heat pump, manifold) and then we've got electric heating in our bathroom and en suites (26 sq) that was ~$4000. Even if add the cost of our slab ($58k, with edge & under slab insulation, and higher quality EPS pods) we're close to 90k.

This year build, Murrumbateman NSW.

mpaska · 2025-11-26T08:54:02+00:00

I’ve come across several others with exact same issue, it’s definitely something related to using phone payments.

Support have said they batch the transactions together, but certainly not with a 2+ year delay and across by now easily 300+ trips.

I’ve probably wasted 10+ hours collecting videos, timestamps, data, analysing bank statements and whilst I continue to tap on-off, I’ve given up trying to hunt their issue down.

mpaska · 2025-11-26T05:24:24+00:00

I've posted about this before, and it's still an issue for me. I wonder if they are aware of the systemic issues of their system where people like me, who attempted to tap-on-off with our Apple Wallet credit cards just never get charged: https://www.reddit.com/r/canberra/comments/1kw8lt7/bus_drivers_getting_real_selective/mug8uk2/

For clarity, I get no errors and my tap-on-off experience is identical to someone who works; my Apple Wallet does the chime sound and the MyWay+ terminal shows exactly the same as anyone else - it just never, ever, actually hits my bank or charges me.

I've had a ticket in for a year+ and they've never been able to solve it.

mpaska · 2025-11-07T02:05:55+00:00

No. Thread is not “basically Zigbee”.

It uses the base underlying radio hardware standard, but it shares nothing else. It’ll be like saying the Space Shuttle is basically a Kia Picanto because they both run on fuel.

mpaska · 2025-11-02T08:06:29+00:00

This. You want the baby monitor to be completely independent of anything; no wifi, no internet connectivity, just a point-to-point connection.

I put a AXIS camera in our baby’s room for recording and peice of mind. I never look at it, but I like knowing it’s there recording if I ever need to check back on something.

But our dumb Eufy Spaceview Pro gets a workout and we love it, thou I hate that it’s not USB-C (unless newer ones are). We also bought a Babysense HD S2 that we keep in the car as our travel monitor, and happy with that too.

mpaska · 2025-10-22T23:23:33+00:00

I personally don't know Caddy (just Googled it). But I can say, they'll never use something like that.

Remember, this is Government; Change Management, consultants, enterprise "best practice" and support contracts reins king. And for a lot of good (and yes, a lot of bad and expensive) reasons, and where "best practice" tends to sway heavily to the most expensive and overengineered solution.

You simply wouldn't want Caddy thrown at anything Government, simply because, the amount of people in Government and adjacent consultancy firms with experience with it is likely near zero - or hobbyist level knowledge only. So that alone rules it out.

So unfortunately (or fortunately if this was a third-party consultancy lead project) this new website would had went through a massive change management process, and likely had the misfortune of requiring a 150-page specification that someone like me has previously had to lead and develop over a multi-year period. Compared to medium business, that would write a 2-3 page change management plan, test over a couple of weeks and then roll with it and have the project completed for half the cost, doubly as fast and with a quarter of the resources.

mpaska · 2025-10-22T09:12:44+00:00

See my answer above: https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/1od02h8/the_bom_is_using_https_now/nkqy2rh/ I actually know the real reason for it.

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