Work with local business to build a mesh network. You could also use empty pay phones like new York did, if there are any left. You can branch them off the libraries.
For now there is thisā¦if people have a deviceā¦
Yeah loaning out Mifis/hotspots seems a bit dubious? That will likely rack up a bill quickly and still doesnāt really solve the problem of the end user not having a device of their own. That is, a hotspot without something to connect to it seems kinda of silly.
Too bad netbooks arenāt around anymore. You could put a cell modem inside, loan them out and wipe them when they were done. Maybe something similar with tablets? Those might walk off easily too so then we come back around to the age old concept: the computer lab or internet cafe. 
I am still in the procurement quagmire, navigating politics and the telecom cartel. Lovely.
On the job competition front, I botched the interview. I went in burnt out. My brain did not work well to organize my responses and highlight my strengths. Fortunately, I have another job competition with the City. It is for a position that is even more entry-level and not at all interesting. It does not require post-secondary education per se. But the competition will be fierce in the sheer number of candidates (500-1000) because of the low bar. Still, it is a way in, so I am not complaining. 
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Thank you, still not sure when or if it will be happening, but i have now successfully claimed Adult Disability Payment Adult Disability Payment - mygov.scot due to having a long term health condition, which is a bit of extra cash to help with cost of living. Plus this will link to other disability related benefits when / if I do get made redundantā¦
Good to hear that there is some help available!
I signed up a public library online class (first time): 3D Animation with Blender. Will let you know how it goes. A couple on Python to sign up in a few days. Perhaps I shall, to catch up with 3ā¦
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@afre thatās exciting, I hope it goes well. Iām sure youāre already ahead of the class with the knowledge you have already
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I did a Autodesk Fusion 360 workshop today via the public library. The hardest part was finding the obfuscated personal licence download link and signing up. The instructor was a good teacher.
The model railroading forums I frequent have a lot of folks using Fusion 360, easy-to-use and powerful. Iād probably be one of them, 'cept their free version has restrictions on the use of CAD you create. I donāt have any commercial ambitions, just donāt like being told I canāt do somethingā¦ 
If you have simple model specs (or whatever they are called), send them my way. I need exercise. I am busy as usual, but having opportunities motivates. 
Iāve been building this thing:
Hereās the CAD model so far:
And printed to date:
I used OpenSCAD to CAD all this, so itās an amalgam of scripts. Some of the parts are easy; smokestack and domes are simple rotation extrusions, headlamp is a collection of cubes and cylinders. Boiler is a couple of cylinders, the tricky part was the tapered course in the middle. Actually, not so tricky, just a tapered cone tilted to make the bottom edge level.
However, the bell was a horrid mess of tapered path extrusions. Not even sure I could decode what I did thereā¦
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Looks fantastic, Glen. I imagine the cow-catcher was tricky to model also?
Is your CAD software able to suck out the dimensions directly from the scan of the scale drawing? It would be a long labour indeed to have to measure and input numbers yourself. Then again, if it is your hobby and you enjoy it ā¦ why not?
Are you using your own printer?
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Cowcatcher was a bit fiddly, the tines are cubes where I subtracted a flat cube from them to get the bit of taper.
Since I believe everything can be solved with a program (
), I wrote one to take measurements directly from such drawings. Load the image, then take a calibration from a known dimension (thereās a scale on there somewhere), then I can take measurements to my heartās content.
I bought an Elegoo Mars 3 printer to puke out the parts, after I got the domes printed at Shapeways for a pretty penny. Using it kinda reminds me of darkroom work; print, wash, cure. A bit messy, but the results are satisfyingā¦
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Amen, Brother!
Excellent! The epitome of the boy building a robot to tidy his room for him!
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3D Animation with Blender wasnāt as engaging as the Fusion 360 workshop, with poor preparation and technical difficulties. I was falling asleep. If the latter was a 10/10, this one was a 4. 
My low screen resolution made it so that I had trouble finding GUI elements. I failed to follow along around the last third of the session when they addressed textures, camera and rendering.
I will review their video to see what I can salvage.
PS - I havenāt had the chance to touch Blender much over the years, so at least this activity got me to install the newest version and play around with it.
Today was a snow day starting late morning. After work, I had a long journey home. I am safe at home now. It took me 4-5 hours. If not for my creativity, it would have taken 6. It usually takes 2.
I took a random bus because the buses from my route werenāt coming. It is a priority road with 3-4 regular bus routes and 3-4 express ones. How can there be no buses!
The random bus I took got stuck 2 times and detoured twice. Then, I trail ran the rest of the way in 2-3 ft deep snow along a ravine through the blizzard. Fun stuff.
My route passed a massive newly-built bus garage. The sight didnāt surprise me: it was full of parked busses (see next post for clarification). Those cowards! They abandoned their posts and the thousands of passengers waiting at subway stations and bus stops!
It was also like this last year (no buses) when snow was forecasted but never came. I wasnāt able to confirm until today. However, I applaud the bus drivers who didnāt abandon their posts and the one who got me within 5-10 km of my home.
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You could make a thriller out of the experienceā¦
But seriously, well done! Respectā¦
I wonder, would that be up to the individual drivers, or the company?
They are in a union. I suppose they could all have called in sick. There have been almost daily attacks on transit staff here (Iām in Toronto too), so I imagine the idea of dodging work presently has more appeal than usual.
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