Bob Cassette Rewinder: Hacking Detergent DRM

It is very heavy on the jargon indeed. Just in case someone's wondering, the author isn't being facetious it really is a very simple thing. If you google 24C02 you'll get a PDF that probably has this exact schematic in the application examples section.

If you want to take up electronics design as a hobby, you'd probably be at the level where you could have this designed and manufactured within a month or two of evening/weekends studies.

edit: Just for fun, let's go through the jargon. 24C02 EEPROM is the name of a popular chip that stores a tiny bit of persistent memory. Mouser at the moment has more than 80 variations of this chip with hundreds of thousands in stock and hundreds of thousands more in back order. 4.7k pull-ups, this means there's a small resistor between the signal lines and the positive voltage rail. This enables the chip to communicate by pulling the signal low (by shorting it to ground) this way of signalling is very common, someone told me it's because how the telegraph worked but I'm not sure if that's true. I2C is a simple communication protocol that works if chips are really close together (i.e. I think guideline is within 10-15cm). A bypass capacitor is a component that blocks continuous voltage but lets oscillating voltage through. Most chips don't deal well with oscillating voltages on their power supplies so the manufacturer will recommend you (through that PDF I mentioned before) to put a bypass capacitor between the power supply line and the ground, so that the dirty oscillations go directly to ground instead of into your chip. A diode is a component where current can only go in one direction, in this case that's handy because chips usually break if you wire them in reverse polarity. If a user would force this cartridge in backwards, instead of the chip blowing up, the diodes will simply block the current from coming in the wrong way and the device won't work.

And that's it, I think all you need to understand how this cartridge is designed.

> people probably want a washing machine that can keep track of it's duty cycles and let you know if water quality is affecting it's performance or if a part is getting close to end of life

Sounds good, but you can do it with a few sensors leading to an LCD screen (and a manual in a yellowing clear plastic bag taped to the back of the machine.) And you don't have to disable the machine if that microprocessor burns out, or god forbid put an entire computer in there.

> and organize purchase of the part and an repairer to do the fix.

Not only do I not need any appliance to do this, but

1) if they cared about parts and service, they could have a nice website for this stuff, and they don't. So judging them based on that, this will also be neglected (after being marketed.)

2) this would really be a way to prevent people from getting parts who don't have a current service contract, and to screw them on the prices. It would also be a way to take a huge cut from the repair companies who participate in the program, who would also be large rent-seekers (who could make a deal with device manufacturers to be included in the software) skimming just as much by farming out the work to subcontractors.

End result: single thing goes wrong, repair and parts cost more than the device. Don't worry, they're running a promotion that gives you credit towards buying their latest model.

And yet you haven't decided to move to a remote bush village, which you could easily afford to do.

> If depression rates in children and young adults are anything to go by, younger people absolutely cannot ignore adds.

There's some reason to think that this has already happened to some extent. In particular, many of the changed purchasing habits of millennials vs genX and boomers are usually attributed to ad-blindness. You'd expect this to go even further in the next generation.

> I remember my grandfather in Vegas lamenting that allowing people to wear trashy street clothes or anything less than formal wear / suit and tie into the casinos, or on airplanes, would lead to more and more bad behavior. This seemed incredibly uncool and old-fashioned at the time, but it turns out he was right.

I don't agree at all. A huge amount has changed since airlines enforced formal wear - for example, I can fly to Prague/Budapest/Amsterdam for under €30 from most of Europe, and I can fly return to New York from London for less than weeks wages of minimum wage.

> This struck me with full force when I was invited to the Magic Castle in LA, one of the last venues to require formal wear at all times. One of the most magical things about that place is how it transforms a whole range of everyday visitors who might be people you wouldn't want to hang out with at their local bar into highly civilized men and women on their tip-top behavior.

What makes you think that the dress code is what made them behave, and not that they were invited by someone who put their neck out for them, or the $50 cover charge, or the $20 drinks? Anecdotally, I've seen plenty of people behaving terribly in formalwear over the years.