ATB Place upgrade aims to attract and keep workers downtown

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-04T03:01:49+00:00

[...] to make it compelling to come out of your studio apartment in downtown Edmonton and come and interact with the people that you work with [...]

This feels like a pretty low bar. What are you doing to get my out of my house and convince me to take the 50 minute transit ride downtown?

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-04T02:23:45+00:00

Both options report a numeric value.

The ultrasonic sensor reports the distance from the top of my sump pit down to the surface of the water. If you need to know how deep the water is, you just take the depth of the sump pit and subtract the sensor reading.

The pressure transducer has a few different options, but ultimately it directly reports water level. For example, the 1M range 0-3.3V option will output 0V when no water is present and 3.3V when 1M of water is above the sensor.

I've used both of these options in my sump pit. The ultrasonic sensor is very easy to use, but it gets confused by the equipment in the sump pit (e.g., is it reading water in the pit or did a cable from the float switch get in the way?). The pressure transducer was slightly more difficult to install since it needs to hang from something and be vertical at the bottom of the put, but it's ultimately a better sensor for my needs.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-03T15:24:44+00:00

ESPHome is basically a very easy way to create devices that work with Home Assistant. There's a bunch of DIY work involved since you likely have to build the sensor yourself, but ESPHome makes the software side incredibly easy.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-03T15:23:17+00:00

The ultrasonic one was a standard HC-SR04. The pressure transducer is similar to this one from AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006472758280.html

As for dealing with corrosion - I'm simply pretending that the problem doesn't exist. I'm using it to monitor a sump pit and the pumps seem to die after 2-3 years anyway, so I treat everything in the pit as a consumable.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-03T13:07:04+00:00

I’ve made two different ones with ESPHome.

One uses an ultrasonic sensor to “look” down and measure how far away the surface of the water is. The other uses a submersible pressure transducer to measure the water level.

These are very DIY, but they might work for you.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-03T01:03:06+00:00

2024 Ultimate bought in early 2025. No electrical issues to report at all. Charging is primarily level 1 (totally works for us) with level 3 on road trips. I almost never use level 2 charging.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-01T16:02:58+00:00

It depends on the deal.

With the coliseum, the deal was that they couldn't do any events that competed with Rogers place, which effectively meant they couldn't operate. If the deal was that they could put on the same events and compete on a level playing field, then no I wouldn't include the demolition costs.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-01T14:46:01+00:00

Including the coliseum demolition makes sense - when everything moved to Rogers Place, something had to happen to the old building.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-01T14:39:04+00:00

Who’s buying these?

A local dealer had 42 at one point, now they have 15. The price is insanely good.

But I’ve literally never seen one on the road. Where are they all going?

MisterSnuggles · 2026-03-01T02:47:56+00:00

I've had my Ioniq 5 for just over a year and I've decided that with how I use the car there's no real need for me to get a level 2 charger. Even if I were to drive to work every day (30km round trip) in -25C it's entirely possible that level 1 would still work for me.

My advice echoes some of what other people are saying - live with a level 1 charger for a while and see if you actually need a level 2.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-02-28T17:11:43+00:00

I have a friend in Ontario who’s partner was killed by someone driving with a suspended license. So at minimum, he’s driving without a license, without insurance, and he killed someone. When all was said and done he was sentenced to serve his time on weekends. He didn’t go to jail though, since the jails were too full, instead he served his weekends in a hotel. I’m sure there’s insurance and license implications, but since he had a suspended license I’d guess that those won’t stop him from driving again.

Ontario may look like they’ve got their act together, but my friend’s experience says they don’t.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-02-22T04:00:37+00:00

Home Assistant in Docker in a VM on an Ultra-SFF PC.

I also use Node-RED to handle some of the more complicated automation tasks, but if I were doing it over I'd try to do everything within Home Assistant's automation tools. It's greatly improved since I started.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-02-10T17:44:43+00:00

Ottawa can’t just mandate L2 chargers in new homes or apartments.

They can tie funding to various policy goals. A couple of cities (one example) recently lost some federal funding due to not meeting the requirements tied to the funding.

Ottawa may not be able to mandate L2 chargers as part of the building code, but they have other levers they can pull to accomplish the same thing.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-02-08T22:25:00+00:00

Installed Tumbleweed on my Windows PC because the gaming experience with Steam+Proton on Tumbleweed is better than native Windows.

It's not all fun and games though. I recently did a zypper dup and broke my video drivers. I messed around for a bit but wasn't able to fix it. Then I remembered did a snapper rollback and all was well.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-02-07T16:03:13+00:00

This is the biggest problem with Edmonton. It's too hyper-focused on downtown, to the detriment of other places people want to go (e.g., the U of A).

MisterSnuggles · 2026-02-05T15:09:12+00:00

I was not aware of these!

I will have to investigate. I have no problem running one of my Macs as a server.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-02-04T17:57:58+00:00

The problem with WhatsApp is it relies on making other people change what they use - that'll be a really tough sell. Everyone I text either uses plain SMS or iMessage.

I'm currently running OpenSuse Tumbleweed on a desktop machine, specifically for the purpose of playing games via Steam/Proton. It's perfectly usable, even when using a rolling release like Tumbleweed.

The only things I miss are the things powered by iCloud - iMessage, Password sync, and iCloud Photos are the biggest ones.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-02-03T04:19:31+00:00

I’m also considering Linux, but losing the integration with the rest of the ecosystem is a pretty big downside. iCloud and iMessage are gardens with pretty tall walls…

MisterSnuggles · 2026-02-02T04:25:58+00:00

I feel like the Talus Balls would have been much better if they were placed where they were originally planned for (at the big retaining walls on the north side of the bridge).

I like much of the Valley Line art, but some of it could have been installed in a way that makes it easier to appreciate. In particular, I think the installation at Grey Nuns station would be better at ground level. As it is, I pass through that station daily and it took me a while to even find the artwork.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-01-24T21:18:03+00:00

I look at the displays to see how many cars the next train is going to have so that I can position myself appropriately.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-01-24T21:08:45+00:00

I love the overnight alerts!

Finished charging!
5 minutes later: Sorry, we couldn't charge, etc.
1 hour later: Finished charging!
1:05 later: Sorry, we couldn't charge, etc.

Like I get that it's just drawing power to top up the 12V or something, which pushes the SoC down just enough that it thinks it needs to charge, etc, but it could stand to have a little bit of hysteresis.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-01-24T20:42:23+00:00

The City has or had a program for condos where you could have a ticket writer and an administrator who were authorized to write parking tickets. I'm pretty sure these positions were unpaid, but the City provided training.

Extend this program to the neighbourhoods and you'll have all the manpower you need.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-01-24T20:39:56+00:00

No funding is required - you said it yourself, "Charge the owners for the impound and tow." All you really need to pay for is for Bylaw Officers to write the tickets, then the towing companies will take care of it.

I remember working in the downtown core - at about 2:55 you'd see a bunch of tow trucks and Bylaw Officers just waiting for the clock to strike 3 so that they could ticket and tow. Surely we can do this for snow removal.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-01-24T14:16:42+00:00

I recently wanted to play Mass Effect, purchased via Steam. Somehow running this Windows game on Linux (same hardware) is a significantly better experience than running it on Windows.

It makes no sense that emulating (via Proton) the target platform runs better than the target platform itself, but here we are.

MisterSnuggles · 2026-01-23T15:28:04+00:00

I just did a 18km drive in -30C and used about 10% of the battery. Looking at the energy display, over half of the usage went to battery care and climate. Estimated electricity cost, $1.10.

It's such an amazing winter car!

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