I Will Hate My Alarm No More Forever
With apologies to Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce tribe
I thought I mentioned here, but apparently did not, since I wasn't a member here until two months after the last time I had been angry with my alarm clock, that I have been in the market for a new alarm clock for some time now (shortly after I bought it 6 years ago). It bothers me that no alarm clocks seem to be designed to actually be used. Even the ones that are only alarms (and not cd player/weather station/coffee maker/remote car starters) are infuriatingly poorly designed.
I didn't think it would be so hard to find a good alarm clock, even given my laundry list of picky ui and usability quirks. I was wrong. After numerous and continued failures in stores and on the internet, I even went so far as to ask a question on askMetafilter (which is the best website ever for getting advice, opinions, or a specific question answered,).
However, no help in my case. I poked around a little more and gave up, disheartened, and convinced that usable alarm clocks simply didn't exist.
Last week, I went to work at a number of different times between my usual 8am and 9:30 am, so I had to reset my alarm clock for a different time every night. In those five days I slept in twice because my alarm clock is poorly designed and I can't tell whether the alarm is (1) set for am or pm or (2) actually turned on at all. Now, by slept in I don't mean slept 'til noon when I was supposed to be at work at 9. My internal clock is pretty awesome, so I mean sleeping until 7 when I meant to get up at 6:30, but still, it's annoying.
Not nearly as annoying, though, as the terrible electronic approximation of birds singing (which sounds more like weasels being tortured), to which I awoke on Thursday morning because my alarm switch is a tri-state switch that goes:
[off]<->[beep]<->[annoying electronic approximation of nature]
(the actual nature sound to approximate is chosen by a separate tri state switch, which reads [birds]<->[ocean]<->[brooks] but really should read
[tortured weasels]<->[television static]<->[tortured weasels and television static])
Three annoyances in a week of using it 5 times and last night, wasting time before manray, I was on the hunt again for a new alarm clock ...
and found it.
The alarm clock of my dreams (or, at least, the nearest thing on this planet) is the RCA RP3720 . It's much bigger than it needs to be, and the curve of the front plate reflects light in weird ways, but it's got everything I want and more.
Generally well designed interface(no row of 8 identical buttons) Automatic time set and battery backup Adjustable snooze time from 1 to 30 minutes (I snooze for 4-8 minutes in the morning and I'm ready to go) Progressively loudening alarm Two separate alarms (with indicators on opposite sides of the display to avoid confusion about which is set) Time/Alarms set via a scroll wheel so you can go up or (get this...) DOWN!
Also, something called an AM/FM Radio... I don't know what it does, but it doesn't get in the way of the alarm stuff, so I don't mind it.
But the real kicker: A Daylight Saving Time switch on the bottom.
How crazy is that?
A switch.
For Daylight Saving Time.
And on the bottom, since you only use it twice a year.
Awesome.
</nerd>
With apologies to Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce tribe
I thought I mentioned here, but apparently did not, since I wasn't a member here until two months after the last time I had been angry with my alarm clock, that I have been in the market for a new alarm clock for some time now (shortly after I bought it 6 years ago). It bothers me that no alarm clocks seem to be designed to actually be used. Even the ones that are only alarms (and not cd player/weather station/coffee maker/remote car starters) are infuriatingly poorly designed.
I didn't think it would be so hard to find a good alarm clock, even given my laundry list of picky ui and usability quirks. I was wrong. After numerous and continued failures in stores and on the internet, I even went so far as to ask a question on askMetafilter (which is the best website ever for getting advice, opinions, or a specific question answered,).
However, no help in my case. I poked around a little more and gave up, disheartened, and convinced that usable alarm clocks simply didn't exist.
Last week, I went to work at a number of different times between my usual 8am and 9:30 am, so I had to reset my alarm clock for a different time every night. In those five days I slept in twice because my alarm clock is poorly designed and I can't tell whether the alarm is (1) set for am or pm or (2) actually turned on at all. Now, by slept in I don't mean slept 'til noon when I was supposed to be at work at 9. My internal clock is pretty awesome, so I mean sleeping until 7 when I meant to get up at 6:30, but still, it's annoying.
Not nearly as annoying, though, as the terrible electronic approximation of birds singing (which sounds more like weasels being tortured), to which I awoke on Thursday morning because my alarm switch is a tri-state switch that goes:
[off]<->[beep]<->[annoying electronic approximation of nature]
(the actual nature sound to approximate is chosen by a separate tri state switch, which reads [birds]<->[ocean]<->[brooks] but really should read
[tortured weasels]<->[television static]<->[tortured weasels and television static])
Three annoyances in a week of using it 5 times and last night, wasting time before manray, I was on the hunt again for a new alarm clock ...
and found it.
The alarm clock of my dreams (or, at least, the nearest thing on this planet) is the RCA RP3720 . It's much bigger than it needs to be, and the curve of the front plate reflects light in weird ways, but it's got everything I want and more.
Generally well designed interface(no row of 8 identical buttons) Automatic time set and battery backup Adjustable snooze time from 1 to 30 minutes (I snooze for 4-8 minutes in the morning and I'm ready to go) Progressively loudening alarm Two separate alarms (with indicators on opposite sides of the display to avoid confusion about which is set) Time/Alarms set via a scroll wheel so you can go up or (get this...) DOWN!
Also, something called an AM/FM Radio... I don't know what it does, but it doesn't get in the way of the alarm stuff, so I don't mind it.
But the real kicker: A Daylight Saving Time switch on the bottom.
How crazy is that?
A switch.
For Daylight Saving Time.
And on the bottom, since you only use it twice a year.
Awesome.
</nerd>
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
re: BBQing emersonians: as i said to your heterolifemate, noshing on all the fake tan and cologne toxins residing in their skins could prove dangerous to us.
and dude, the welsh can't help being welsh.