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The World's Most Devious Alarm Clock
Posted by
Hemos
on Thu Mar 24, 2005 11:37 PM
from the snooze-bar-with-a-mallet dept.
from the snooze-bar-with-a-mallet dept.
wired_parrot writes "If you have trouble waking up, try this: MIT media lab has created an alarm clock that, when you press the snooze bar, runs off into a corner, a different hiding place every day. Try hitting the snooze bar again now!"
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Entertainment: When the Alarm Clock Runs and Hides 212 comments
bbbbryan writes to tell us about the commercialization of the elusive alarm clock prototyped at the MIT Media Lab a couple of years back. This alarm clock actually runs, hides from you, and beeps to ensure that you'll be awake enough not to go back to sleep by the time you find it and get it shut up. Detroit News has a writeup on the device, which you can buy from the inventor's site for $50.
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The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Funny)
"Why not just get up when the alarm goes off the first time? I always wake up and face the day with a smile."
"I disabled the snooze button on my clock so I always have to get up"
Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Interesting)
fsck dat. I got a wind up alarm clock years ago and stick with it. It's devious enough that it has the deviousness to get faster during the damn night (change in spring temperature?) Can't say I've ever missed a wake-up that I've really needed. Take these windup clocks on trips too, can't trust power and such.
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Funny)
Everyone knows that.
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Funny)
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best alarm = glass of water before bed (Score:5, Funny)
if you absolutely HAVE to get up - the most reliable
alarm clock is a glass of water before bed.
j.
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Re:best alarm = glass of water before bed (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:best alarm = glass of water before bed (Score:5, Funny)
Wow. In what bizarre alternate universe did you think we'd want to know that?
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:4, Interesting)
Now when the alarm rings, I turn it off, take a caffeine pill, and go back to sleep. After 20 minutes I slowly wake up again, and after 30 I get out of bed with no effort. I used to snooze snooze snooze for at least an hour, but I never hit "snooze" anymore. And it's cheap! No-name brand caffeine tablets are about as cheap as aspirin.
Falling asleep at night is another matter. That's a much harder problem- not just a matter of sustaining willpower like the problem of continually waking up on schedule. I found an OTC solution for that too. I take a 3mg melatonin tablet at about 11 PM and by midnight this vague feeling comes over me that it's late- I'm not exactly tired, but it "feels late". Falling asleep once I'm in that state takes 5 minutes. It doesn't work for everybody. Some people complain that they feel the effects of melatonin all through the next day, but that hasn't been my experience with it. I have a completely regular sleep schedule now. Melatonin is also very cheap.
Over the long term I'm more nervous about the melatonin than the caffeine. The long term effects of melatonin supplements are not as well known. But otherwise I'd be spending 90 minutes in bed every night trying to fall asleep. That adds up to some serious time- a significant chunk of your life! And you avoid a lot of health problems by sleeping normal hours. So I'm willing to accept a certain amount of risk, because this was a serious problem in my life that now appears completely solved.
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Funny)
However, I then found that the sudden dread that she might've smashed the crap out of my $5000 laptop made me get up right quick.
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Funny)
2)In Soviet Russia, You run away from alarm clock.
3) ??
4) Profit!
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Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: (Score:5, Funny)
(was that already done? I hope not...)
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Hey, it's much bettter... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, I stand up and face the day with a smile.
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You know . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You know . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
The 'alarm' sound consisted of the most annoying recordings of your mom nagging you in her most obnoxious tone to get out of bed.
But not just that - there was no snooze or power off. The only way to turn it off was to get onto the connected exercise bike that came with a heart monitor. You then had to pedal until your heart rate hit some critical value to turn off the alarm, at which point you wouldn't go back to sleep.
A funny skit, but totally brilliant as well.
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Luckily my Boss doesn't read slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
My universal snooze button: (Score:5, Funny)
I don't need it if .. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I don't need it if .. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I don't need it if .. (Score:5, Informative)
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You missed one (Score:5, Funny)
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I already have a good solution (Score:5, Insightful)
The smell of fresh brewed coffee makes me want to get out of bed to get my fix.
It would never make it (Score:5, Funny)
Wait (Score:5, Funny)
That way, you don't get a chance to hit the snooze button.
Heh, or make it run around WHEN it's alarm is on..
That would be very annoying and would wake you up faster with moving sound
Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Seems strangly apt here.
A simpler solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Wouldn't it be easier to just set the snooze button to give you a slowly increasing electric shock?
Re:A simpler solution (Score:5, Funny)
"In this isle we have the Guantonimo Bay model..."
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They'd be wise not to include a warranty (Score:5, Funny)
Me: "It uh... broke"
Clockly Repair Man: "it rather looks as if it was smashed with a hammer, repeatedly"
Me: "well it fell... into... a bag of hammers"
Thank you, MIT. (Score:5, Funny)
You've now created a robot that opposes the will of carbon-based lifeforms by design.
It's sole purpose, bringing suffering to humanity.
AND THEN YOU BOOBY-TRAPPED THE OFF SWITCH.
Buncha friggin' geniuses./P
Prior art. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Prior art. (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Prior art. (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Prior art. (Score:5, Funny)
I think you're screwed.
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Cheaper alternatives are available (Score:5, Funny)
Not only will you not hit the snooze button, but you get to hear the doppler effect each morning!
Re:Cheaper alternatives are available (Score:5, Funny)
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Heh (Score:5, Interesting)
Instead, I figure I'll talk about what I do use for an alarm clock. I have a Nokia 3650 that I have retired. (Battery is toast...) I set up reoccuring appointments on it so it wakes me up on weekdays. Okay, that's pretty boring. However, when I have to wake up for special circumstances, I set up an alarm with a text message telling me why I need to get it. (i.e. You've got a flight at 6 am!!!) Why does that matter? I always read the message. If it's something really important, I simply don't snooze.
Again, not sure if anybody really cares but I thought I'd share anyway. Knowing why should wake up helps deal with the whole snooze problem.
This is new? (Score:5, Interesting)
For an project for an Engineering class, I built an alarm clock based on an a 6811 board. It could decode a signal from WWV so it never needed setting and it had some advanced alarm features such as figuring out when the lights went out to decide how much to advance the wake up time. It also could cope with the later classes on Tue and Thur and beep in a non threatening way around noon or so on Sat and Sunday.
It also had a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor so it if it was very cold or raining then it would go off about 10 minutes early. If it was real dark and wet and cold, then it wouldn't go off at all. For some reason, the professor didn't like that feature.
Wind up alarm clock in the closet (Score:5, Informative)
Even then I woke up one morning on the floor in front of my closet with the clock in my hand, late for work again.
Not long after that I moved back down South.
My Alarm Clock (Score:5, Funny)
Another solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Have an alarm clock with a keypad and a multi-digit display. When the alarm goes off, display a randomly generated multi-digit code. The user must enter the correct code to stop the noise.
I think the ability to read and correctly key a code requires a level of consiousness similar to searching a room. The complexity of the code could vary depending on the user's ability to handle numerical data entry when half asleep.
The unperfect alarm clock... (Score:5, Funny)
First they yell at you. "Daddy, it's time to wake up!"
Then, they start beating on you.
Finally, they pry your eyes open.
Just dandy fun at 6am on a Sat or Sun morning.
I already have something like that... (Score:5, Funny)
Snooze button? Pah, get a 2 year old (Score:5, Funny)
Then, he starts hitting me. I've had my alarm clock disconnected for months. Waste of electricity.
Has a Snooze Button Though (Score:5, Funny)
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Another option (Score:5, Interesting)
Until I bought a "dawn simulator". here's one [toolsforwellness.com], there are many others.
Essentially, it's just a bright light, with a matte glass so it spreads out a little (you can actually look into it without hurting your eyes, even though it's bright enough to light up the room).
What it does is dim it up slowly. Really slowly. Mine can be programmed to start at 90, 60 or 30 minutes prior to "wakeup time".
So I need to get up at 7 am. At 6:30, it will start to slowly dim up the light, reaching full brightness at 7 am, at which time it also sounds a soft alarm. By that time, however, I'm usually already awake.
I was a bit reluctant until I said "what the heck" one day and just tried it (found a vendor with a 21-day money-back-no-questions-asked policy).
The concept is that it simulates dawn, triggering your natural processes of waking up. A normal alarm clock just shakes you out of bed, and leaves it to you to become awake over the next few hours or so.
Snooze buttons waste time (Score:4, Insightful)
And if it turns out to be not enough sleep, I just sleep through the alarm anyways. And if I'm late, I'm late, and it doesn't matter if you're late by 10 minutes or 2 hours - I still have to lie about dog ate my homework, or buy new plane tickets, or whatever, right?
Life is short. I don't have time for snooze buttons.
Re:Wow! (Score:5, Interesting)
When I used to wake up to music on my alarm clock I actually noticed a big difference in my attitude depending on which station I had it preset to. Classical music woke me up slowly, gently and left me in a very agreeable mood. Pop music or Rock music was not nearly as pleasant to wake up to but it was highly dependent on the particular song playing. Country music was the worst. I don't mind hearing it in the middle of the day, but waking up to 'Achey Breaky Heart' made me want to spit bile and kill something.
I quit waking to music though because sometimes the station would drift and I wouldn't be woken up at all. The buzzer never lets me down.
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