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!"

Comments

The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[RaguMS]

"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]

"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]

I replaced my snooze button with a small perl script.

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[cooley]

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.

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[Wavicle]

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:

[AndroidCat]

"I see you're trying to wake up. Would you like me to fsck off, keep chattering, read you the news, read you the weather, read you a daily fortune cookie, or let you go back to sleep and snooze? Note that the snooze feature is only available to registered users. You can register right now for only $49.95 via Palpal or credit card and I will stop talking. Please groan or scream to accept this transfer from your account or I ... Thank you. Would you like to purchase the extended warranty...?"

(Did you think I was kidding? Bwahahaha!)

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[Heem]

1)In Korea, only old people use robotic alarm clocks

2)In Soviet Russia, You run away from alarm clock.
3) ??
4) Profit!

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[ikkonoishi]

In Soviet Russia programmers replace Perl scripts with you!

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[eremitic]

"So I messed around with it for a bit and now it boots Linux!"

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[Seumas]

In Soviet Russia, SNOOZE button hits YOU!

(was that already done? I hope not...)

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[Jose]

I was replaced by a small perl script, so I have no reason to get up anymore you insensitive clod!

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[MrAndrews]

I used to do that trick too until my wife realized she could just slam the lid on the PB shut and achieve the same basic effect.

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.

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[darkpixel2k]

The first time that bastard clock tried to hide, I'd find it and rip it's wheels off for waking me up.

During the whole de-wheeling process I would have a grin on my face...because I'm a morning person.


...then I'd crawl back in bed.

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[MillionthMonkey]

I used to have real problems with sleep. For years I couldn't wake up in the morning or fall asleep at night. During the summer especially, my schedule would crank around the clock until I'd be waking up at 2 PM and falling asleep at 6 AM, and I'd periodically "fix" it by pulling an all-nighter which is really hard on your brain, especially when you're growing up.

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.

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[sh00z]

I once had a girlfriend with serious "wake-up issues." I got her something like this, which seems to accomplish the same goal as Clocky, but does it by launching a projectile across the room, and requiring you to re-insert it to turn off the alarm.

Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say:

[cooley]

That's better than "Daddy, Look where I went potty!"

You know . . .

[lavaface]

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)

Re:You know . . .

[Quantum Fizz]

Kids in the Hall (IIRC) had the best idea for an alarm clock, as a fake commercial.

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.

Re:You know . . .

[Lumpy]

Nahh...

I had a "baseball" alarm clock in the 80's. the only way to hit snooze was to throw it. next time the alarm went off you HAD to get out of bed to hit it, and that typically would wake you enough to stay up.

Unless you left your bedroom door open and you threw it out into the hall where it rolled downstairs and you finally woke 2 hours later after 1st period exams were finished....

Luckily my Boss doesn't read slashdot

[Jjeff1]

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

My universal snooze button:

[earthforce_1]

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

I don't need it if ..

[Anonymous Coward]

If the inventor 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 ..

[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.

Re:I don't need it if ..

[wavelet]

man that thumbnail size is really annoying. its so small its useless. how am i supposed to efficiently goto through and virtually stalk her to find good pictures like this , this , this or this

I already have a good solution

[WormholeFiend]

Programmable automatic coffee maker.

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

Re:I already have a good solution

[geekychic]

my solution is my roommate..

if i hit the snooze button too many times, she takes my covers and occasionally hits me with her pillow.

it's a good system.

It would never make it

[strateego]

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]

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

Heh, annoying alarm clocks..

[Eric(b0mb)Dennis]

The more annoying the alarm clock, the eaiser they tend to... mysteriously break...

I reckon this here alarm clock would mysteriously shatter into many pieces after one to many attempts to try and hit the snooze button again

Great...

[grasshoppa]

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]

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

Re:A simpler solution

[Tablizer]

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]

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]

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]

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.

Re:Prior art.

[uncqual]

Your probably touching the wrong button.

Re:Prior art.

[merdaccia]

How many buttons are there?! Damnit, now I have to RTFM.

Re:Prior art.

[natrius]

$ man woman
No manual entry for woman

I think you're screwed.

Cheaper alternatives are available

[Helpadingoatemybaby]

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]

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

Heh

[NanoGator]

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]

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]

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]

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!

MY room...

[nsaneinside]

...only has four corners.

Holy Crap!

[ABeowulfCluster]

Could you imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these?

best alarm = glass of water before bed

[johnrpenner]

if you absolutely HAVE to get up - the most reliable
alarm clock is a glass of water before bed.
j.

Re:best alarm = glass of water before bed

[Clay Pigeon -TPF-VS-]

You might just dream you are swimming in a warm ocean. Or hot tubbing. Yeah, hot tubbing...

Re:best alarm = glass of water before bed

[greyhoundpoe]

I can have five glasses of water before bed, wake up, and not notice I have to piss until 3 PM the next day (assuming I wake up early, about 11 AM). Even then I'll wait until 4 PM or 5 PM until I do something about it, even though the bathroom is one door down the hall on the right.

Wow. In what bizarre alternate universe did you think we'd want to know that?

Another solution

[erice]

While an alarm clock that hides is, admitedly a lot more fun, the same effect could be achieved with only electronics.

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...

[Forbman]

...has got to be a curious 2-6 yr old child.

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.

Re:Wow!

[Radical Rad]

"The Macarena" (what better way than to wake up to a HORRIBLE song)

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.

I already have something like that...

[triffidsting]

I could swear my keychain already exhibits similar behaviour, clearly MIT stole the design from me.

Snooze button? Pah, get a 2 year old

[Zerbey]

"Daddy. Wake up. Wake up Daddy. Daddy. Wake up.... Wake up! DADDY. DADDY!!!! WAKE UP!!! DA-DEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!... WAKE UP DADDY!!!

Then, he starts hitting me. I've had my alarm clock disconnected for months. Waste of electricity.

Another option

[Tom]

Not only do I know the problem (I used to need almost an hour to get out of bed), I also was wasted for the first 2-3 hours of every day.

Until I bought a "dawn simulator". here's one, 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.

Re:Another option

[Rangsk]

I'd just roll over and pull the sheets over my head. There's no way this would wake me up. I frequently sleep through the real sun shining right into my (closed) eyes. I also sleep perfectly well with the light on.

When I wake up, I generally have no idea who I am, where I am, what I'm supposed to be doing... I sometimes have the feeling that if I could just get out of bed, things would become more clear, but I can't remember how to do that. I've slept through about anything you can think of, including fire alarms and earthquakes.

As for naturally waking up with the sun rise, I think my wires are crossed. I generally start getting tired at sunrise, and wake up at sunset.

My internal clock also likes to play pranks on me. Like if I have something really, really important and I have to be there at 10:00, then I'll sleep through my many alarms and wake up naturally at 10:00 sharp. Except it takes me 30 minutes to actually get there. Gee, thanks internal clock.

I also can't use any method of tricking myself. I just can't do it. I'm much more witty at finding excuses to stay in bed than I am at tricking myself out of bed. On top of that, if I sleep naturally I frequently sleep for 16 hours straight. I don't even wake up to pee - I manage to hold it in somehow.

I've seriously run out of options, short of hiring someone to come into my room, drag me out of bed, and stick me into a tub of freezing water. Even then, I'd probably manage to fall asleep in the tub of water.

Has a Snooze Button Though

[Greyfox]

You just haven't been hitting it hard enough...

You missed one

[billybob]

What about this? kekekeke ^______^

Snooze buttons waste time

[khrtt]

My usual method is, set the alarm so late I can barely make it even if I don't snooze. Then I won't have any illusions about using the snooze button. Plus, I get maximum sleep.

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.

Hey, it's much bettter...

[marcus]

...to have your girlfriend wake you in the morning. No alarm clock needed, nor snooze button. She knows how to get me up.

Yes, I stand up and face the day with a smile.