zecg - Slashdot User

Comment Re:And DRM in the fucking headphones. (Score 1) 379

by zecg on Saturday March 14, 2009 @01:26PM (#27193621) Attached to: iPod Shuffle Finds Its Voice

Yes, the "video lockout" chip was the same deal as Nintendo and their custom chips in old NES cartridges. It was a response to crap flooding the market - from Chinese knockoffs these days - and such knockoffs even caused damage to the iPods. It's to control their licensing, yes, but how does that really affect you moving forward, other than what hooks up to your iPod is guaranteed to work and be of decent quality? I haven't seen a single example of Apple denying the chip to a company who has requested it, so I don't see the big deal.

That's bullshit. Just look at the prices of Apple accessories and tell me that $30 for a cable is because of its superior quality. Apple can protect their brand name and offer official licensing, but I should be able to choose. I'd rather take a risk and buy a cable that's 10 times cheaper.

Submission + - How to improve a water distribution system?

Submitted by ildefonso on Sunday February 18, 2007 @09:14AM

ildefonso writes: Hi!

I live in an small community which have a "rural" aqueduct, and I would like to improve it. Currently, it is just a pipe from the river to a tank, and a 2" pipe down the mountain and 1/2" pipes to each house. In summer time, when water starts to fail, they close the main valve in order to allow the tank to fill, and then open again for some time. But due to the lack of some kind of control, when the main valve is open, the only houses that receive water for a long time are the ones that are at the lowest height, the ones that are higher receive water for a short period of time, and sometimes doesn't receive anything at all.

Anyway, here are my ideas:

My "normal" idea: I think that if I add some valves at different heights and adjust them correctly, I can get an improvement in the fairness of water distribution.

Now, my geek idea (sorry, it can't be helped, I'm a geek): I have also thought about adding volumetric flow meters to each house, and have an automatic cut-off valve, centrally controlled, to cut the water when the house have consumed it's daily quota.

The system could be implemented using a ZigBee mesh (geek), or an RS-485 network (not so geek) and some hardware that is not so expensive (around US$20-US$30 electronics per device), but if you add each of the about 500 houses, then you have big bucks, I can go with the electronic design and building myself, but I don't have enough knowledge as to choose valves, flow meters, and that kind of stuff.

My geek solution can lead to a "never-ending" supply of water to the houses that save water, but can probe to be expensive, even by building the system myself.

I would appreciate any suggestion on how to improve a water distribution system. (yes, even the fun ones). Also, any opinion on my normal and geek idea, is also welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Ildefonso Camargo

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