I’ll start by plugging Harvard’s free courses catalog as well as Udemy
Edit: Gonna add 2 more I remembered-
Blender - I wish I had more time to learn it, but I did start the infamous “Donut Tutorial” once!
Watch Cartoons Online - Lots of good older stuff!
Libraries. Most even rent video games, power tools, audio/video hardware, baking utensils…SO MUCH STUFF. All free.
Technically not free, but because so many people think it is it’s a great poster child for proper use of tax dollars and socialist programs. Libraries rock.
On a whim I googled my city’s library and “tools” and I found a non-profit society that specializes in lending of hand and power tools! This is incredible and I wouldn’t have known about it without this prompt: thank you!
Can you share the name of this non profit society, is it a part of your local public library or it’s own independent thing?.
I need a spanner for like single hex nut and I don’t want to buy one for it to collect dust in my drawer lol
Yeah mine was called the [City Name] Tool Library, and it was a non-profit that was independent of our local library. I imagine that they receive donated tools from contractors and companies around the city.
As an example, I googled a random city name (Calgary) and found one for them as well: https://calgarytoollibrary.org/
There are likely tons of similar organizations throughout Canada (and probably your country as well!)
Thanks I was able to find one in Chicago called The Chicago Tool Library
My local library loans dongles! Now if I can just manage to check one out without snickering …
Adding the library-libby nexus. Most libraries have an eBook collection connected through Libby. I’ve got a Kindle and zero books bought from Amazon. It’s great.
Protip, if you went to any form of formal education (college) then you probably have alumni library account access. My Libby has three library cards logged in. I never wait for a book.
Nope. 15 Euro a year (Freiburg, Germany), which doesn’t automatically renew and it’s a bloody pain.
Yeah, Germany is quite backwards in this aspect.
Even if you don’t go to the actual library the ebook apps are great.
Our library loans out state parks passes for a month so you can go to parks for free. It also loans out hiking gear, provides immigration resources, and oddly, a ukulele.
Ours lends them out for all the city museums! And my old local library had a seed library, the deal is that you saved seed from whatever you grew and gave some back.
This is amazing, I had no idea.
I have questions
I once rented a whole reflector telescope.
That is…fucking crazy awesome.