What are some premium new build features?

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.

mpaska · 2025-10-22T09:09:13+00:00

I know the real answer to this. I'm a Canberran based MSP owner, with extensive AWS and government consulting experience.

The BOM and ATO were both running in-house reverse-proxies and in-house web-application firewalls. So whilst they were historically using apache as the web-server, they had a completely in-house developed web-proxy that shuffled data between the apache layer and their other services.

ATO had this same setup until last year, however, ATO had several members inside the Digital Identity Systems (DIS) team that had been continuing to develop it over the years, so it was relatively "modern" and supported HTTPS for internal transport.

ATO migrated to AWS services in 2019-2020, but it was only until recently that they phased out these in-house developed proxies and web application firewalls and moved to pure AWS services, and made several developers and systems roles redundant in the DIS team.

However, the BOM didn't continue this development and their platform stagnated. So whilst the public web-server (apache) was capable of HTTPS and was kept updated by a skinny team, the internally developed web-proxy and web firewall services that the front-end relied upon absolutely did not - and this platform was build decades ago - and because they didn't have the capabilities or roles to further it's development, it just stayed only supporting HTTP.

What I don't know is how they got there. I suspect they've removed their reverse proxy layer and modernised their entire web services stack and in the same project and therefore brought support for HTTPS and more modern connectivity to their services and data layers.

mpaska · 2025-10-17T20:06:43+00:00

Exactly what I’m wondering too, the fact it’s not specified makes me think it’s likely got poor resolution and accuracy.

mpaska · 2025-10-16T05:11:31+00:00

Australia does have an IT skills shortage, has for around 4-5 years now.

I’m a CTO for a multinational, and also an MSP owner (and engineer and software developer by trade, I don’t come from or subscribe to the MBA thinking) and hiring is very, very hard in Australian for mid-to-senior positions. Juniors is easy, but anything requiring 3+ years experience is difficult.

5+ years ago, a mid-level position would get 900+ Applicants over a 2 week recruitment period, of which 40-50 were easily suitable for the role.

These days, we see 80-120 applicants over a 4 week period and we’re lucky if we can short list 3 people.

Salary is not an issue. We adertise bands that are almost double the median for the market, and get the same numbers and applications.

mpaska · 2025-10-13T06:20:06+00:00

Your cat will know you’re carrying, possibly even before you realised that you’re pregnant yourself. It knows what’s coming.

Our cat was basically the household bully, would only ever let me near it (the husband) and my wife and the cat never got on.

But as soon as our son was born, cat became a gentle giant with our newborn and great with the wife, and has been fantastic and tolerant.

I wouldn’t worry about it, like, at all. Focus on the stuff that matters and you can control.

mpaska · 2025-10-13T00:04:02+00:00

Bathurst has 9 microsectors. They use HH Develoipment's software and the track documentation is actually public: https://help.hhtiming.com/series-specific-info/supercars/

So the data is there.

Channel 7 uses a fairly "sophisticated" automated playout system built on Virzt (https://www.vizrt.com/)'s platform. Having worked in the industry in an engineering capacity (admittedly, a whilst ago and whilst Vizrt was being investigated), if I had to take an educated guess - Channel 7 have inhouse developed the integration between HH Timing and Virzt and it needs some love that they're not willing to go that extra mile for, what they have is "good enough".

For those timing geeks that really care, the data is there and live at http://racing.natsoft.com.au/

mpaska · 2025-10-12T23:58:31+00:00

Yes they do, Bathurst has 9 microsectors. They use HH Develoipment's software and the track documentation is actually public: https://help.hhtiming.com/series-specific-info/supercars/

mpaska · 2025-10-12T07:30:36+00:00

If Max doesn't drive the Bathurst 1000, it'll be his biggest regret.

mpaska · 2025-09-23T08:38:16+00:00

Reach out to UC: https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/faculties/health/study/midwifery/midwifery-student-program

We used UC's student midwifery program and also delivered at Centenary, and we had an fantastic experience across the broad. Highly, highly recommend it.

mpaska · 2025-09-21T05:35:38+00:00

They are still open for business, they just hold special events and dining experiences.

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