The World's Most Devious Alarm Clock

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!"

The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[RaguMS (149511)]

"Just don't press the snooze button and keep your current alarm clock!"

"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:

[ackthpt (218170)]

"Just don't press the snooze button and keep your current alarm clock!" "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"

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.

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[ikkonoishi (674762)]

I replaced my snooze button with a small perl script.

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[Wavicle (181176)]

Boot into single user mode, using a kernel >= 2.6.9, use vi and edit /etc/conf.d/alarm changing snooze from "1" to "0" for AlarmClock 1.1 and later. AlarmClock 1.0 works with kernel 2.4 but doesn't contain a snooze option, however the snooze has been back ported to AlarmClock 1.0 with the CloxSnooze patch, but then you must edit /usr/share/AlarmClock/config and add the option "snoozeParm = true" and "snooze = no" between the "UseGMT" and "LEDDisplay" options.

Everyone knows that.

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[cooley (261024)]

I have suffered the very same afflicion friend. You know what has helped me? Age. For some reason, when I hit my late twenties, I just started getting up earlier. Now, I'm usually up around nine, or even a little before, whether I have the alarm or not. I don't know why; I go to bed about the same time I always have (around 2:00am), so it's not like I'm getting more sleep or anything.

You know . . .

[lavaface (685630)]

It wouldn't take me long before I broke that fucker's legs off (no, I didn't RTFA but I'd bust it's wheels if that be the case)

Luckily my Boss doesn't read slashdot

[Jjeff1 (636051)]

Or I'd have 9 of these things roaming my house.

My universal snooze button:

[earthforce_1 (454968)]

http://www.winchesterguns.com/prodinfo/catalog/det ail.asp?cat_id=535&type_id=973&cat=001C

I don't need it if ..

[by Anonymous Coward]

If the inventor [mit.edu] is around, I bet I will never sleep. Geek girl folks .. there is a hope for all of us.

Re:I don't need it if ..

[by Anonymous Coward]

yea she looks pretty hot, but remember, not matter how beautiful she is, someone somewhere is tired of putting up with her BS, so go for it.

I already have a good solution

[WormholeFiend (674934)]

Programmable automatic coffee maker.

The smell of fresh brewed coffee makes me want to get out of bed to get my fix.

It would never make it

[strateego (598207)]

My room has so much crap in the corners anyway, the thing would never make it. I can't even get to the corners of my room.

Wait

[killa62 (828317)]

I don't get it, why don't they just make it roam around before the alarm sounds...
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...

[grasshoppa (657393)]

Who was it that said, "Those who fight and run away live to fight another day"?

Seems strangly apt here.

A simpler solution

[the packrat (721656)]

Wouldn't it be easier to just set the snooze button to give you a slowly increasing electric shock?

Re:A simpler solution

[Tablizer (95088)]

Wouldn't it be easier to just set the snooze button to give you a slowly increasing electric shock?

"In this isle we have the Guantonimo Bay model..."

They'd be wise not to include a warranty

[Illserve (56215)]

I can guarantee I'd be bringing it in for repairs every day.

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.

[jesdynf (42915)]

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.

[merdaccia (695940)]

I have the same problem with my girlfriend. If I make any attempt to touch her in the morning, she runs off and I can't find her the rest of the day.

Cheaper alternatives are available

[Helpadingoatemybaby (629248)]

This is a complicated solution. The easy method is to simply tie your alarm clock around the body of your sleeping cat.

Not only will you not hit the snooze button, but you get to hear the doppler effect each morning!

Re:Cheaper alternatives are available

[Illserve (56215)]

What kind of ninja are you that you can tie something to a sleeping cat?

Heh

[NanoGator (522640)]

Well, I really don't have anything interesting to say about this particular article. I gave up on snoozing.

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?

[thogard (43403)]

Last year I bought something that does this at the local pet shop but it doesn't have a snooze button. Its also seems to be permanently set to about 1/4 hour after sunrise or whenever the traffic starts picking up in the morning, which ever is earliest.

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

[Barlo_Mung_42 (411228)]

When I lived in Anchorage Alaska for a winter I found that I was really affected by the lack of day light. I had to put a second wind up alarm clock on the top shelf in my closet across the room.
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

[HexaByte (817350)]

My alarm clock's snooze button only works if you get up and make her a bottle. By that time you're wide awake, but after you feed her SHE goes back to sleep!