
Hacking Water - edward
http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hacking_water/
======
miki123211
Definitely a +1 for the image descriptions. This is a pleasure to read with a
screen reader. I haven't seen a website doing such a great job in ages. No
one, except the BBC (which sucks at accessibility in other ways) and
accessibility focused websites really does that. This guy deserves so much
respect for this.

~~~
Iv
Take note, UI designers: In same crucial areas, you are far behind people
writing HTML by hand.

~~~
tomjakubowski
I don't know where you get the idea there's a significant difference between
these groups with respect to their attention to accessibility.

~~~
Iv
My experience is that accessibility to a site is inversely proportional to the
amount of JS it contains.

And UI designers love having a lot of JS...

------
loeg
Ah, I've been doing a lot of plumbing with PEX lately as well. It's really a
pretty nice material to work with. As a total amateur I've done hundreds of
crimps with zero leaks. The 3/4" stuff is much tougher on the arms than 1/2".
Heartily recommend if you have any interest in DIY home plumbing, or, say,
legos.

Another link on the subject: [https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/11/23/how-
to-become-a-k...](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/11/23/how-to-become-a-
kickass-plumber-with-pex/)

~~~
heelix
Those sharkbite connectors are the bee's knees. So easy to bridge copper to
pex if you have piping that will evolve a bit. They are expensive, however.

------
simonebrunozzi
Joey is one of the oldest (and still active) Debian contributors. Patreon
page: [https://www.patreon.com/joeyh](https://www.patreon.com/joeyh)

~~~
markvdb
Joey was very active in Debian, but has retired from it in 2015.
[http://zgrimshell.github.io/posts/interviews-with-floss-
deve...](http://zgrimshell.github.io/posts/interviews-with-floss-developers-
joey-hess.html)

~~~
ncmncm
I never understood clearly why Joey left the Debian Project. It was right
after the SystemD Wars, but I didn't get the impression it was over the switch
to systemd itself. Maybe, the level of acrimony displayed by people he used
to, or would like to continue to, respect?

------
caseyw
I really enjoyed the read. I'd love to do something similar in the future.
Thanks Joey!

------
wideasleep1
Not likely the audience for this, but since I spent an hour hunting it down,
the spade tool is called Wilton Thinline spade tool, just ordered the 10 inch.

------
ngcc_hk
Water filtered? Or assume water is safe?

~~~
loeg
There's probably a macro level filter (dirt and maybe silt) sitting in front
of the pump. (Something like that would not filter microbial pests, which I
assume is your concern.) I hope the water is filtered or treated in some way.

~~~
snazz
With acid rain and other hard-to-control phenomena affecting water quality, I
would imagine that something pretty powerful would be required.

~~~
johncalvinyoung
The real thing to worry about is giardia parasites, spread by feces
contamination uphill (human or wildlife). It's the reason I wouldn't drink
wanter in the backcountry unless it's directly from high snowpack.

~~~
Mediterraneo10
> It's the reason I wouldn't drink wanter in the backcountry unless it's
> directly from high snowpack.

If you are at a certain elevation, and it is known that there are no villages
above you or mining going on, any flow coming down the slopes is likely safe
to drink, regardless of whether you know for sure that it comes from a
snowpack. It has been argued that filtering water in the backcountry is often
unnecessary, in spite of what companies like MSR suggest with their
marketing.[0] Certainly, if you visit mountain ranges like the Carpathians,
the Chilean side of the Andes, or the Pamirs, you can see that travelers and
locals alike fill their bottles from the waterfalls without incident.

[0][https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/filtering-stream-
water-...](https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/filtering-stream-water-or-
fresh-water-is-medically-unnecessary.html)

~~~
johncalvinyoung
Yeah, that's what I've read. I was mostly handling water in well-travelled
wilderness in the Appalachians and Rockies, though. And from what I understand
there's enough of a disease load in say, the deer population in the Sierras,
that you might not want to be doing it even if you don't think there's humans
upstream. _shrug_ Wasn't a huge amount of trouble, my brother has a pretty
high-end pump filter.

------
mhb
Why bury that manifold?

~~~
joeyh
Don't want the fittings to burst in freeze.

Also while PEX can survive being frozen, I have not seen much about total
number of cycles it might sustain before weakening.

Edit: Also I want to be able to drink water in winter.

~~~
loeg
I'd be curious to know how much water expands under freeze vs how much PEX is
compressed at a crimp fitting. It's not the same kind of force but the
relative magnitude might be interesting.

~~~
hcoyote
Matt Risinger (austin-based homebuilder) did a freeze comparison between
copper, pex, and sharkbite fittings some time back. It was pretty interesting.

At this point, I'd probably go for PEX-A (compression band) over PEX-B (the
crimp style) because of the risk of getting the crimp not completely correct.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOeBJ8mDr8Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOeBJ8mDr8Q)

