[geeks] Alarms, or why I hate computers

[Lionel Peterson]

--- jodys at helluin.org wrote:
> So, I haven't needed my alarm for awhile, and it's power socket is
> now being used by the monitor. Well I need to wake up at a certain
> time tommorow. So, stupidly enough, I decided that I should use my
> workstation (an Indy running Irix 6.5.16m) to wake me up instead.
> I decided to do this about 1:00AM, it's now 1:45AM and I need to
> be up at 9:00AM.

<30 minute rant deleted>

Jody,

What I found interesting was the amount of time you were willing to
invest leveraging off someones elses work (looking for an open source
solution - not a bad idea, IMHO), instewad of simply writing your own
single-use application, along the following lines:

while current_time < alarm_time
	sleep(15_seconds)
end while
play alarm_sound

This could have been in any interpreted or compiled language you
like...

Instead, you inflicted scope creep on your own time-critical project
and in attempting to find a solution to your new, bigger problem you
weren't able to solve your very small problem.

Honestly, it is time for multi-strip ;^), but there are manythings you
could do instead of having your monitor unplugged (a minor issue at
most!):

	1) have a friend call you
	2) use the alarm clock function in your PDA
	3) use the alarm clock function in your cell phone
	4) does your TV have an automatic power-on sequence?

etc...

Anyway, I have gone through similar "rube goldberg" wanna-be solutions
in my day, but now I have a small alarm clock that runs for nearly a
year on a AA battery (It has it's own UPS! Portable!)...



=====
Lionel

"Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten
programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software"
Bill Gates, in "An OpenLetter to Hobbyists" dated February 3, 1976

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