https://r3ai.dev/Posts from r3ai.dev https://r3ai.dev/blog/rivers-fire-escape-plan/https://r3ai.dev/blog/rivers-fire-escape-plan/Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeRiver's French class sent home a fire safety project for the weekend. We made our family escape plan in French, and then I had it animated with River in it. https://r3ai.dev/blog/river-and-the-nightjar/https://r3ai.dev/blog/river-and-the-nightjar/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeA storybook game in eleven chapters. A train that lays its own rails of light stops on our street, and River rides it north to a city of lanterns. Here is what is in it and where it falls short. https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-typo-on-the-front-of-the-bus/https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-typo-on-the-front-of-the-bus/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workOne of our route signs had an extra L in it. The editing software was long gone. AI read the sign's raw file, found the two bad spots and swapped the letters without disturbing anything else. https://r3ai.dev/blog/rivers-rocket-works/https://r3ai.dev/blog/rivers-rocket-works/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeA rocket game I built for River. Design a rocket, fly twelve missions from first launch to a wormhole, and race the whole family around the solar system. https://r3ai.dev/blog/live-bus-positions/https://r3ai.dev/blog/live-bus-positions/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workHow I turned the GPS units already on our buses into a GTFS Realtime feed, and a live map for the public. https://r3ai.dev/blog/sunfish-speed/https://r3ai.dev/blog/sunfish-speed/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeMy tuning notes for the Sunfish: the four sail controls, a few ideas I want to test, and the only class-legal way to rig a vang. https://r3ai.dev/blog/transit-simulator/https://r3ai.dev/blog/transit-simulator/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workA 3D driving game in the browser built from real route data, real streets and about 40,000 real building footprints. It started as a trolley simulator and kept growing. https://r3ai.dev/blog/sailing-simulator/https://r3ai.dev/blog/sailing-simulator/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeA browser sailing game that watches your hands through the webcam. Pick a Sunfish, an Optimist or a pirate ship. https://r3ai.dev/blog/driver-dispatch-board/https://r3ai.dev/blog/driver-dispatch-board/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workAn eight-week driver rotation in a spreadsheet, plus a one-page board that works out who covers which route when someone calls in. https://r3ai.dev/blog/paratransit-scheduling-app/https://r3ai.dev/blog/paratransit-scheduling-app/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workA small web app for booking paratransit rides, assigning drivers and producing the reports, built with Node.js, Express and SQLite. https://r3ai.dev/blog/bus-stop-display/https://r3ai.dev/blog/bus-stop-display/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workCommercial e-paper bus stop signs cost thousands of dollars each. I'm building a single-stop prototype around a $32 e-paper board and a long-range radio. https://r3ai.dev/blog/procurement-wizard/https://r3ai.dev/blog/procurement-wizard/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workA single-page tool that asks plain questions about a purchase and produces the right determination form, with the checks that are easy to forget. https://r3ai.dev/blog/bus-coloring-story-app/https://r3ai.dev/blog/bus-coloring-story-app/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workA printable coloring page and a small story app that puts a kid's own hand-colored bus into an adventure, ending with a certificate. https://r3ai.dev/blog/learn-to-sail-week/https://r3ai.dev/blog/learn-to-sail-week/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeI'm the commodore of our local yacht club, and every June we teach people to sail for free. Here's what the week is and why we do it. https://r3ai.dev/blog/portsmouth-scoring/https://r3ai.dev/blog/portsmouth-scoring/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeClub races put fast boats and slow boats on the same course. The Portsmouth yardstick is the simple math that makes it fair. https://r3ai.dev/blog/f1-wings-for-the-go-kart/https://r3ai.dev/blog/f1-wings-for-the-go-kart/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeRiver loves Formula 1, so the Thunder Kart I'm rebuilding is getting a front wing, a rear wing and sidepods. Plywood, PVC pipe and about $50. https://r3ai.dev/blog/f1-everywhere/https://r3ai.dev/blog/f1-everywhere/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeA kart racer, a go-kart with wings and a Grand Prix hidden inside a bus simulator. A short tour of how one kid's favorite sport took over my projects. https://r3ai.dev/blog/comics-and-books-for-river/https://r3ai.dev/blog/comics-and-books-for-river/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeTwo picture books about our family and a three-part space comic that sneaks in relativity and quantum mechanics. https://r3ai.dev/blog/how-this-site-got-built/https://r3ai.dev/blog/how-this-site-got-built/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeA domain, a free host, no framework and four rounds of me saying "I don't like it yet." Notes on building r3ai.dev with Claude. https://r3ai.dev/blog/ways-i-use-ai/https://r3ai.dev/blog/ways-i-use-ai/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workA list of every kind of thing I have used AI for, at work and at home, with a short post on each. Start here. https://r3ai.dev/blog/straight-answers-on-regulations/https://r3ai.dev/blog/straight-answers-on-regulations/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workFour small federal funding and accessibility questions that can each eat an afternoon, and how I ask them now. https://r3ai.dev/blog/sanity-check-before-the-attorney/https://r3ai.dev/blog/sanity-check-before-the-attorney/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workA church invited us to bring a bus to a community event. I used AI to understand the question before I took it to legal. https://r3ai.dev/blog/field-experience-into-a-business-case/https://r3ai.dev/blog/field-experience-into-a-business-case/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workWe keep meeting riders we cannot talk to. Here is how a real problem at the bus door became a funding memo Finance could approve. https://r3ai.dev/blog/asking-what-a-document-is-missing/https://r3ai.dev/blog/asking-what-a-document-is-missing/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workI had a morning meeting about an old scope of work for a backup generator. I asked one question: what is wrong with this, and what is not in it? https://r3ai.dev/blog/everyday-email/https://r3ai.dev/blog/everyday-email/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workI asked AI to make two emails funnier. It did, and it also noticed that one of them never answered the question I was asked. https://r3ai.dev/blog/careful-public-replies/https://r3ai.dev/blog/careful-public-replies/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workWhen a resident asks whether a rumor is true, the wording matters. Here is how I draft those replies, including the time the AI got ahead of the facts. https://r3ai.dev/blog/checklists-flyers-and-forms/https://r3ai.dev/blog/checklists-flyers-and-forms/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workCleaning checklists, a fare flyer, a staff reference sheet, a fillable form and an anonymous suggestion box. None of it is glamorous. All of it used to wait. https://r3ai.dev/blog/procedures-and-audit-findings/https://r3ai.dev/blog/procedures-and-audit-findings/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workA federal review left us with findings and a deadline. Here is how AI helped turn scattered old documents into procedures we can actually follow. https://r3ai.dev/blog/untangling-grant-money/https://r3ai.dev/blog/untangling-grant-money/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workSeveral older grants, a handful of invoices and a date after which the money goes away. AI did the matching and found the invoices that did not fit. https://r3ai.dev/blog/turning-a-policy-into-a-tool/https://r3ai.dev/blog/turning-a-policy-into-a-tool/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workI wanted to save our purchasing staff some work on small purchases. That turned into a memo, then a form, then a wizard that writes the paperwork. https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-plan-from-documents-on-hand/https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-plan-from-documents-on-hand/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workA consultant asked for our transit plan. We did not have a stand-alone one. Here is how the documents we did have became a 14-page plan. https://r3ai.dev/blog/building-the-case-for-a-new-service/https://r3ai.dev/blog/building-the-case-for-a-new-service/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workI spent weeks on a presentation about on-demand transit. Then one of my assumptions turned out to be wrong, and the whole thing had to be rebuilt as something else. https://r3ai.dev/blog/preparing-for-a-hard-meeting/https://r3ai.dev/blog/preparing-for-a-hard-meeting/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workI had a disagreement over how a written policy should be read, and a meeting in sixty minutes. I asked AI to argue the other side. https://r3ai.dev/blog/checking-the-numbers-before-you-reply/https://r3ai.dev/blog/checking-the-numbers-before-you-reply/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workSomeone sent me a total. Before I agreed or disagreed, I had AI read the rulebook and recount. https://r3ai.dev/blog/custom-software-without-being-a-developer/https://r3ai.dev/blog/custom-software-without-being-a-developer/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workI taught myself to build web pages. With AI doing a large share of the typing, I now build the tools my division needs when nothing off the shelf fits. https://r3ai.dev/blog/organizing-the-work-itself/https://r3ai.dev/blog/organizing-the-work-itself/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workBefore my assistant manager and I sat down to sort out everything on our plates, I asked AI how to run that meeting. https://r3ai.dev/blog/community-partnerships/https://r3ai.dev/blog/community-partnerships/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workTransit is a public service, and the public should like it. Two small examples of using AI for the community side of the job. https://r3ai.dev/blog/when-ai-is-wrong-and-when-it-says-no/https://r3ai.dev/blog/when-ai-is-wrong-and-when-it-says-no/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workThe most useful post in this series. The mistakes I caught, the ones I nearly did not, and the requests the AI turned down. https://r3ai.dev/blog/building-games-for-my-kid/https://r3ai.dev/blog/building-games-for-my-kid/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeI am not a game developer. Here is how one request became a twelve-mission space game with our whole family in it, and what I learned about directing an AI. https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-hometown-bus-simulator/https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-hometown-bus-simulator/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeIt started as a toy trolley on a made-up grid. It became a driving game on our real streets, with real routes and tens of thousands of real buildings. https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-father-son-comic-about-physics/https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-father-son-comic-about-physics/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeRiver wrote a space adventure about the biggest unsolved problem in physics. We are turning it into a real printed comic book. https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-website-in-a-weekend/https://r3ai.dev/blog/a-website-in-a-weekend/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeThis site is brand new. Here is what I did, what the AI did, and why I could not load my own website the day it went live. https://r3ai.dev/blog/pure-fun/https://r3ai.dev/blog/pure-fun/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeNot everything has to be useful. A 30-second movie trailer made from one photo, and a running joke about my dad's car. https://r3ai.dev/blog/small-life-questions/https://r3ai.dev/blog/small-life-questions/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeA benefits document, a scraped bumper and a strange name on a restaurant. Three everyday questions and what I learned from asking them. https://r3ai.dev/blog/hobbies-and-volunteering/https://r3ai.dev/blog/hobbies-and-volunteering/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeI race small sailboats and help run a yacht club. AI now does the race arithmetic and some of the homework a volunteer board never has time for. https://r3ai.dev/blog/chasing-a-big-idea/https://r3ai.dev/blog/chasing-a-big-idea/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeI have a concept for helping local governments modernize. The most valuable thing AI did was make my own numbers smaller. https://r3ai.dev/blog/following-curiosity/https://r3ai.dev/blog/following-curiosity/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeI am not a mathematician. I spent many hours with an AI on one of the most famous unsolved problems anyway. https://r3ai.dev/blog/sloth-rocket-grand-prix/https://r3ai.dev/blog/sloth-rocket-grand-prix/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt homeI asked an AI for a kart racer themed on Formula 1, rockets, pirates, libraries and sloths. Here is what came back, how to play it and where it falls short. https://r3ai.dev/blog/notes-from-the-transit-side/https://r3ai.dev/blog/notes-from-the-transit-side/Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTAt workA short note on what I plan to write about from the transit side, and what I'll leave out.