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When the Alarm Clock Runs and Hides
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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvNGnkY_S6I
Enjoy!
wouldn't it be cheaper to wire a capacitor to your snooze button?
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
A very valid reason for preserving the second amendment.
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!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
before I punt that motherf**ker out the window.
"To be is to do." -Socrates
"To do is to be." -Jean-Paul Sartre
"Do-be-do-be-do." -Frank Sinatra
MMS' sentient alarm clock.
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
"And then I visited Wikipedia
I have an alarm clock for when I really really need to get up. There's no going back to sleep afterwards because you're either in cardiac arrest or wide awake, it lacks any concept of gentle wake-up and is only slightly less annoying than the smoke detector. To avoid the former I use my regular cell phone first, so I'm only slumbering or in light sleep when it goes off.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
This might be more practical than strapping my alarmclock to my cat.
A combination of this idea could be combined with a prank a friend of mine pulled not too long ago.
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
Then you might like this clock :)
Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock with Bed Shaker:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/8f1a/
Similar ideas have been in production for a while...
A flying alarm clock accomplishes the same task, plus: IT'S FLYING
I CAN'T WAIT to buy a bunch of these things, and modify them!
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!
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
How long before, like the flaming mouse, one of these knocks a candle over or runs into a fireplace, and burns a house down?
...falls off the bedside locker and rolls about aimlessly more like.
/. I was expecting some real smart features such as:
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.
Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
In our room it would fall straight into a pile of clothing and stay there. This will be great for the sorts of people who have a hard time getting up but somehow manage to keep their bedrooms 100% tidy, but I suspect that the intersection of those two sets is small.
Xenu loves you!
A Segway for my parakeet.
What?
"which you can buy from the inventor's site for $50."
But only if you live in the US or Canada.
Any Australian resellers?
ISO certified == THX certified
Don't put your alarm clock next to your bed, but at the other end of the room. But of course, useless gadgets are cool.
>>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.
Also known as kids. Though mine tend to scream rather than beep.
...seeing one of those go off in an air-port check-in.
Somehow, it reminds me of this - http://junkfunnel.com/sld/ - possibly one of the most irresponsible products on the market!
throw new NoSignatureException();
It is news because now you can buy one.
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.
I once bought a pack of jacks, you know the old jacks and bouncy ball, from the dollar store. I would put my alarm clock on the other side of the room and throw them down on the floor around it. When I would get up to turn off my alarm, I'd either have to wake up enough to step around them or suffer the bloody feet consequences.
I'm pretty sure they still make automatic timed coffee makers. I say "still" because I remember a while back (probably 10 years ago, now that I think of it) there were a few incidents with timer-equipped Mr. Coffee machines that helped you get up in the morning by burning down your house. Unfortunately they may have phased out that added functionality, and now you have to settle for waking up to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee in the morning without that pleasant furniture-roast aroma. The good features always disappear.
It is called a 2 year old.
You forgot the rule that says, "It's never ok to post a story about any new product or technology on Slashdot."
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.
Why not combine the two? Hit the snooze bar once, it runs away. Second time it scalds you with hot coffee.