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The World's Most Devious Alarm Clock

Posted by Hemos on 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!"

27 of 639 comments (clear)

  1. The typical things Slashdot users will say: by RaguMS · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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"

    1. Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Interesting
      "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.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: by ikkonoishi · · Score: 5, Funny

      I replaced my snooze button with a small perl script.

    3. Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: by Wavicle · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

      --
      Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
      Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
    4. Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: by Heem · · Score: 5, Funny

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

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

      --
      Don't Tread on Me
    5. Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: by ikkonoishi · · Score: 5, Funny

      In Soviet Russia programmers replace Perl scripts with you!

    6. Re:The typical things Slashdot users will say: by Seumas · · Score: 5, Funny

      In Soviet Russia, SNOOZE button hits YOU!

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

  2. You know . . . by lavaface · · Score: 5, Funny

    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)

    --
    harmonious design
    1. Re:You know . . . by Quantum+Fizz · · Score: 5, Interesting
      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.

  3. Luckily my Boss doesn't read slashdot by Jjeff1 · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  4. I don't need it if .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    1. Re:I don't need it if .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

    2. Re:I don't need it if .. by wavelet · · Score: 5, Informative

      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

  5. It would never make it by strateego · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    --
    Got Extra Money?
  6. Wait by killa62 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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

  7. A simpler solution by the+packrat · · Score: 5, Interesting

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

    --
    Nihil Illegitemi Carborvndvm
    1. Re:A simpler solution by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      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..."

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  8. They'd be wise not to include a warranty by Illserve · · Score: 5, Funny

    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"

  9. Thank you, MIT. by jesdynf · · 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

    --
    Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
  10. Re:Cheaper alternatives are available by Illserve · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  11. This is new? by thogard · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  12. My Alarm Clock by HexaByte · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!

    --
    HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
  13. best alarm = glass of water before bed by johnrpenner · · Score: 5, Funny


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

    1. Re:best alarm = glass of water before bed by Clay+Pigeon+-TPF-VS- · · Score: 5, Funny

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

      --
      Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
    2. Re:best alarm = glass of water before bed by greyhoundpoe · · Score: 5, Funny

      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?

  14. I already have something like that... by triffidsting · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --
    Non, je ne veux pas coucher avec toi ce soir.
  15. Another option by Tom · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org