When the Alarm Clock Runs and Hides 212
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.
Some youtube of the clock in action (Score:5, Informative)
Enjoy!
Re:Some youtube of the clock in action (Score:5, Funny)
Coffee for me I think. (ahahar)
Re:Some youtube of the clock in action (Score:4, Funny)
Try sleeping now, punk!
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Try waking up now, mr. head injury.
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Stand the thing on it's end, rather than on the wheels. It might spin round, but it isn't going anywhere.
Hell, you could even just trap it between two books. Or have I missed the point? *grin*
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US & Canada only (Score:2, Interesting)
But only if you live in the US or Canada.
Any Australian resellers?
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shock (Score:5, Funny)
For that matter... (Score:2, Flamebait)
And, much as I'm a gamer myself, the excuse better not be, "but my guild needed me for a raid"
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Not really (Score:2)
Heh. Not really. I've been called many names, but "morning person" is pretty far off the mark. My ideal day would involve working at night and sleeping from 6 AM to 2 PM. But, alas, you can't always have a pony.
What it has to do with, is, well, discipline and accepting your fate. If I must wake up at a given time, you know, I must. I might as well accept that and go get a cup of cofee. It takes less time than playing silly chase-the-clock game
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Hmm... how about this [bbc.co.uk]?
The real lesson is that people do differ in their characteristics and predisposition, and extrapolating from your own experience is often much less reliable than you might imagine. "Discipline and accepting your fate" is very Protestant and all that, but it doesn't necessarily alter your biological responses. Your simple prescription of just going to sleep 8 hours before you need to wake up
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Re:shock (Score:5, Funny)
You have to diffuse the bomb to stop the alarm. Gets your brain woring so (hopefully) you are wide awake by the time you turn it off and dont go back to sleep. I can't see this one surviving a bad hangover though.
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Re:shock (Score:5, Funny)
I claim prior art (Score:5, Funny)
Also known as kids. Though mine tend to scream rather than beep.
Re:I claim prior art (Score:5, Funny)
Odd... My kids only beep.
Perhaps I should look into that...
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Re:shock (Score:5, Funny)
You'd be surprised what a 'night person' is willing to sleep through. Electric shock? No problem. Much less painful than waking up before noon.
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run high enough voltage thru it - then it would be a capacitator.
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Mmm... Jolt [colawp.com]
Second Amendment (Score:5, Funny)
Lazyboy alarm clock (Score:2)
$50 per use will get expensive (Score:5, Funny)
Rather make one out of Lego Mindstorms. At lest then when you smash it, it only de-bricks and you can build it back together again!
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It's an alarm inside a tennis ball - you throw it against the wall to turn it off. I think tho' that it would be more useful if the throw activated snooze - as described here [freepatentsonline.com]:
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The alarm didn't survive either...
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Sounds like a great business model that ensures a steady revenue stream for the manufacturer. :)
Would be only a matter of time.. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Would be only a matter of time.. (Score:5, Funny)
Version 2 - Will have GPS to finds it's way back to your room before the next morning.
Sounds like... (Score:5, Funny)
I was in a bar in Ensenada, drinking a warm beer quickly and trying to remind myself that I hadn't murdered anyone, when my alarm clock caught up with me. Little bastard.
More [randomhouse.com]
Why make it so difficult... (Score:4, Interesting)
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That box business sounds like the kind of thing I'd do. I once had a girlfirend who, while I was sleeping, tied the alarm clock (big brass thing with bells on top) over my head, suspended from the light cord, too high to reach without standing on the bed. By the time I'd finished hurling myself around the room to all the usual places while still 90% asleep, and finally been forced to wake up enough to work out what she'd done, she was laughing so loud I couldn't have got back to sleep anyway :-)
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A number of years ago, I wrote a BASIC alarm clock program, running on DOS, that would only shut off if I answer a multiplication problem correctly, and these are two digit by two digit problems. Nowadays a program like that doesn't work because there are simpler ways to shut it off:
Re:Why make it so difficult... (Score:5, Funny)
I wired a foundry alarm klaxon to it. 115DB of unmuteable BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAPBT! the alarm clock was mounted to the wall across the room and had only 1 big red emergency shutdown button. if he did not get out of bed to his alarm and go over and press that button it went off.
The alarm went off only about 6 times before he was up in the morning on a regular basis. He took the alarm with him to college last time back. his response,"I have a pair of roommates that are incredibly lazy and will not get out of bed, so I always end up late to class as we car-pool."
I mentioned it was his car, he grinned and said, "No, this will do fine."
if you get the frequency low enough and loud enough there is not enough pillows to mute the sound to an acceptable level.
cat (Score:5, Funny)
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Granted, somewhat less effective than sharks with fricking laser beams, but they'll do in a pinch.
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My cat is an alarm clock. Not really that precise, operates in the following way:
1. low volume meow (starts really low)
2. loud meow
3. touch, using his claws on our forearms
4. sharpening its claws on the side of
Prank Alarm Clock (Score:5, Funny)
He was studying computer engineering and doing stuff with embedded devices. He took a chip, a light sensor, and a small speaker and hid it in the room of one of his roommates. He programmed the device to sense when the lights went out and then it would sound off at full volume. The device would continue to sound until the lights came back on, at which time it would go silent. After the lights went out again, the timer would reset and the alarm would go off in another ten minutes...
-br
Re:Prank Alarm Clock (Score:5, Funny)
So it was written.
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Now, I have a bit of a mean streak so I would like to suggest the following modification: instead of a fixed inteval it should be random, say between 5 - 20 minutes, coupled to how fast the pranked person responds... just to throw him of her off their rocks a bit. And finally... there shouldn't be a full volume alarm... I think a combination of gentle coughs or throat clearing sounds would be most effective.
Of course this is not recommended for US citizens un
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Re:Prank Alarm Clock (Score:5, Funny)
Note: one of you. I'm older, married, and when married you discover that practical jokes on the roomie have different consequences than when in college.
nice, but... (Score:4, Informative)
Similar ideas [gadgets.dk] have been in production for a while...
A flying alarm clock accomplishes the same task, plus: IT'S FLYING
WOOHOO!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Can you imagine the mischief potential?!
Modify it so it goes at high speed, and NEVER STOPS moving...
I can't wait to unleash a bunch of these annoying little bastards in the nearest shopping mall!
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Re:WOOHOO!!! (Score:5, Funny)
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...damn (Score:2)
Flame Fest. (Score:4, Interesting)
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If it happens to someone, it's their own damn fault.
Going to sleep with candles lit.. That's just asking to get crispy-baked in a fire..
NEVER LEAVE FIRE UNATTENDED! Fucking DUH!
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Runs and hides...? (Score:5, Interesting)
This being
o Learns the layout of your bedroom
o Jumps off the locker before it goes off
o Hides in the optimum place
o Doesn't hide in the same place twice
o Has a proximity sensor - runs away as you try to pick it up.
Based on the Yew-Toob clips, I reckon this gadget would last about 5 minuted in my house. It's simply too easy to hit with a stick.
Re:Runs and hides...? (Score:5, Insightful)
IT has its perks. I doubt I could be such a slovenly bastard in any other position.
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Off-Topic, but this is what sucks about my position. If I try to use this excuse, my boss will say "I don't care, this position is scheduled, you are supposed to leave at 5, which means you have to show up at 8 sharp."
Then again, I don't have to do much overtime, and I get paid by the hour, so I really can't complain. It's just the snooze button f
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Easy Job (Score:2)
Which is the very reason I don't need to spend $50 TO lose something, when I seem to be doing a damn fine job myself.
Great if you have a totally tidy room (Score:5, Insightful)
Cool (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, great, cool and all, but .... (Score:2)
Just asking.
The 0$ alternative (Score:2, Insightful)
Water Butt (Score:2)
Or a bucket over the bed (Score:2)
It seemed promising, but the lawsuit potential killed it - what if the pilot light on the central heating had gone out overnight, and you actually tipped a block of ice onto the user's head? He'd definitely sleep in, then.
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...a couple of years ago... (Score:2)
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But it would have required you to actually read the thing instead of immediately switching to the "you suck this is old news I've seen this 50 years ago" mode.
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If the article is forecasting a future product, it is obviously "vaporware," but anything that actually exists has been in the works for at least long enough to build it, making it "oldnews."
Whatevs.
Imagine... (Score:4, Funny)
Somehow, it reminds me of this - http://junkfunnel.com/sld/ [junkfunnel.com] - possibly one of the most irresponsible products on the market!
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One of the funniest gadgets I even saw... At least one time I'm sad I'm not at the US to leave one of them at an airport :)
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Here is a cheaper alternative (Score:2)
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I could get up, climb out of the bunk, walk across the room (avoiding the random piles of debris on the floor), turn off the alarm, and climb back into the bunk without really waking up.
It doesn't help that my "natural" sleep cycle seems to be from 8am to 4pm...at least that's what ends up happening if I don't have anything trying to regulate my sleeping hours.
Dollar Store Jacks (Score:2, Interesting)
I got one of these (Score:2, Funny)
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It is called a 2 year old.
This is the 3rd reference to children I've seen in this topic, so far. Either the /. crowd is getting old, or being a geek is losing its appeal...
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2YOs were a good Alarm clock - when they get to be 10, they have stopped being good alarm clocks, and have started the teen groggies - My daughter sleeps through an alarm that wakes me in the next room - that said, she will wake up the instant I tap on her door and say "time to get up" - because the knows the next step is me getting a gallon bag of ice cubes and tossing it under her covers...
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It's depressing how if you don't have the obnoxious geek genes (the birth-control personality famed amongst hackers and violinists), that the personality traits that get you marked as "boring" at 20 makes you "stable and reliable" post-30, by which point you're too tired to take advantage of the change.
laptop bags from same source (Score:2)
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The Gadgeteer.... (Score:2)
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/clocky [the-gadgeteer.com]
Personally.. (Score:2)
The funniest clock ever (Score:2)
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The gadget in TFA is neat, but what I'd really like is a coffee-maker with a timer.
Re:Best idea EVER (Score:5, Funny)
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I'm a night person - I always have been. When it gets dark, I become more active, I think more clearly, am more creative, and generally more productive.
It's really hard for me to sleep at night, but it's easy for me to sleep through the early morning. So I know that it's not that I'm unable to sleep. If I have no schedule demands, I will normally stay up until about 5:00am and then wake up
Re: Night Birds vs. Faux Morning Games (Score:2)
Put a coffeemaker and headphones beside your bed. If you're torched in the morning, drink some triple strength BeanJuice with the light on. Might as well get some good tunes in - skip the silly robot clock.
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The circadian rhythm runs on a ~25 hour cycle without any external stimulus. However exposure to sunlight will cause this cycle to resync on our typic
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