Abstract: A water processing system provides prevention of scale formation in both interrupted and recirculating flow operations. The system includes an inlet for receiving an inlet water flow, a magnetizing chamber, and an outlet for providing an outlet water flow. The magnetizing chamber is included in a device that has at least one permanent rod/bar magnet at least partially disposed within the water flow. The magnet has an axis extending between the poles thereof in a direction perpendicular to the flow, so that the magnetizing chamber exerts a magnetic force on scale suspended within the inlet water flow, and so that the suspended scale remains in suspension in the outlet water flow.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for scheduling entities in a system, such as, but not limited to a computer or communications system. Typically, calendar scheduling is used as a primary scheduling mechanism, with spare time allocated to a secondary scheduling mechanism. The secondary scheduling mechanism can use a round robin technique or variant thereof, or any other scheduling methodology. A calendar entry is examined to determine whether to process a calendar scheduled entity corresponding to the calendar entry or to process a secondary scheduled entity. Which scheduling entity to process is typically determined based on an eligibility of an entity corresponding to the primary scheduled event, a scheduling mechanism indicator, and/or an entity indicator. These combinations of scheduling mechanisms can be used to identify which packets to send, queues or ports to access, processes or threads to execute, or for any other purpose.