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Ask Slashdot: Best Tools To Aid When "On Call"?

Posted by samzenpus on from the hi-tech-wake-up-call dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Since most readers of slashdot are IT'ers, I assume this is a familiar story: when working in IT, it often happens you need to be standby or 'on call' during a certain period. That may mean you can receive phone calls or text messages from a monitoring system in the middle of the night. I've been looking for a way to have those alerts wake me in the middle of the night but not my partner, who is sleeping right next to me. Are there hardware aids out there that can alert a person without troubling their close environment? I'm thinking armwrists, vibrating head pillows, ..."

15 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Significant Other? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clearly the Poster is not in IT.

    1. Re:Significant Other? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm in IT and I'm married, but we hate each other and she sleeps in a different room. So there ya go.

  2. Normally I'd recommend a BFH by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny

    .. to settle down that monitoring system call. But, yeah, the smashing to bits of a phone might wake a light sleeper. So I see your point.

    I used to put my phone on vibrate and put it under my pillow.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Normally I'd recommend a BFH by CrudPuppy · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm deaf and I use the AlertMaster AL10, but it could work well for anyone oncall. I simply plug my land-phone line into my alarm clock. The alarm clock controls a vibrator and can also flash any light/appliance that can plug into a normal outlet. As long as you pick up the phone quickly, it shouldn't severely irritate your partner.

      I have everything call my google voice number, which rings my home phone (connected to alarm clock) and also rings my iPhone so I can actually stop the ringing since the landline has no phone connected.

      --
      A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
  3. For Android phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Klaxon (http://code.google.com/p/klaxon/) is a must have. It's an on-call app for text message receiving. You can separate out your on-call texts from personal ones and set separate alarms and everything. It's fantastic.

    1. Re:For Android phones by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny

      Klaxon (http://code.google.com/p/klaxon/) is a must have. It's an on-call app for text message receiving. You can separate out your on-call texts from personal ones and set separate alarms and everything. It's fantastic.

      That would be pretty sweet...

      Text includes words 'emergency' 'urgent' 'system' 'down' -> (Zzzz)

      Text includes words 'down' 'hours' 'hardware' 'failure' -> (Zzzz)

      Text includes words 'panic' 'weeping' 'wailing' 'praying' -> (Zzzz)

      Text includes words 'payroll' 'not' 'running' -> (WAKEY! WAKEY!)

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:For Android phones by sqldr · · Score: 4, Funny

      funny you should say that. At one place I worked, they only paid us if we got called out. So we wrote a perl script called "cha-ching.pl" which created a fault then fixed it. We got paid.

      --
      I wrote my first program at the age of six, and I still can't work out how this website works.
  4. My wife takes crazy amounts of call... by Psychofreak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I learn to sleep through it. My wife is on call very nearly 24-7 and gets called multiple times every night.

    Her phone vibrates, then does a loud alarm, sorta like a Hollywood submarine dive alarm. The vibrating phone on the nightstand usually wakes her, but not always. She reacts to her phone immediately, but not to other noises. If I need to wake her up for some reason it is easier to call her phone, then get her attention.

    The key is you need to pick an alarm that you will respond to immediately, but your partner will tend to ignore. Then have the alarm become something that will wake the dead so your partner can kick you out of bed.

    Phil

    --
    Laugh, it's good for you!
  5. Re:Hmm.. by grantek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Give her some nyquil?

    Honestly, after a few weeks you won't even need that. I can be called with a loud ringtone, have a discussion with the helpdesk about the problem, stumble out of the room to go work on it, stumble back into bed a few hours later, and my partner doesn't even realise I was called the next day. Now that she's on call as well the same thing happens to me - if you wake up and you're tired, and your subconscious knows you don't have to get up and work, you can fall back to sleep as soon as your head relaxes back into the pillow.

    I remember watching a recent Bond movie (I think it was Quantum of Solace) where Bond calls M in the middle of the night and she logs onto a workstation built into the bedside, if you look you can notice she has a partner in bed that doesn't budge an inch :)

  6. Resume by Aladrin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The best tool for on-call duty is a resume. And a list of jobs to apply for.

    Even if you don't normally get called while on-call, it likely prevents you from going about your life. You can't go to a movie, go out of town, etc etc. They should be paying your for those services. If you aren't getting paid well for it, don't accept a job with on-call duties.

    And besides all that, a job with on-call duties is a job that has need of them. That means they either have an unstable system or they aren't staffed properly. It's a huge sign that things are not right, and that company is best avoided.

    I didn't realize all that until I got a job that didn't involve it. I kept making excuses for the company, and for myself. I'm so glad I'm not there any more.

    --
    "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
    1. Re:Resume by thisnamestoolong · · Score: 5, Insightful

      THIS. I used to work in an on-call capacity (not IT, mind you, but the idea is the same). Being on call ruined 5 years of my life. It destroys relationships and makes it so you can never truly relax. I took a huge pay cut to get off of on-call duty and I couldn't have been happier about it.

      --
      To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
  7. Wire your toes to the phone line. by blair1q · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wire your big toes to either side of the phone line, and disconnect the phone's bell.

    That sucker pumps 90 volts AC to ring your handset.

    To stop the on-hook 48 VDC from giving you the crawlies, put a small capacitor in series with each lead.

  8. Re:Deaf alarms. by similar_name · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's basically a big vibrator you put under your side of the bed.

    Like the one on her side?

  9. Light sleeper by gnugnugnu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait until you have children. You'll get much better at sleeping.

  10. Re:sleep? by swordgeek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You're missing a major point here: Rotating on-call.

    I'm on call right now, 24/7. I'm required to be available and functional (i.e. in town, sober), and must answer the pager within ten minutes.

    For one week out of six.

    That means that for about nine weeks a year, I'm a slave to the company. That also means that in a telecom company with >>2million customers, I can completely shut off my mind to work at 17:00 for the rest of the year.

    And yes, I get paid well during those nine weeks.

    --

    "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban