End of an era.

[feren]

After more than a decade of service, my Sony "Dream Machine" clock-radio has finally ceased to function. I suppose everyone will think I'm a lunatic for saying this, but this makes me feel rather sad. Part of that is sentimental, as the alarm clock was a gift from my father a long time ago. That clock saw me through high-school, my first job and four separate moves. Part of it is a little less sentimental and a bit more anal-retentive: it's been a part of my morning routine ever since I received it. In any case it had been a fathful companion for over ten years, and now it's gone.

This also leaves me in a lurch for how I'm going to get up tomorrow. Due to the weather I need to get up at 5:30 to make sure I have a lot of time for the drive in to work... but I have no way to wake myself up (My body's "internal alarm clock" got reset from 5:45 AM to 8:15 AM during vacation). I guess I'll pull down an application for my PC and use it along with my speakers to act as a makeshift alarm until I can buy a suitable replacement.

Comments

[amichele2.livejournal.com]

That's not cool. It's hard to lose something, even as simple as an alarm, after all these years.

[roho.livejournal.com]

Too late for this morning's wakeup, but don't forget that Hiptop os 1.1 has an alarm clock built in, now.

[feren.livejournal.com]

I briefly considered that, but there were two factors that prevented me from utilizing the alarm on the SideKick:

When recharging at night the SK sits on the safe at the foot of my bed, far away from my head.

It takes the sound of a train wreck to wake me up. I don't think the SK can be as loud as necessary, although in all fairness I didn't actually give it a try.

[feren.livejournal.com]

Actually, I told a half-truth. Normally it takes the sound of a train wreck to wake me up, but thanks to my Spooky Cat-Daddy Powers I can also snap awake at the slightest hint that Ra might be harfing.

[roho.livejournal.com]

See, this is why T-Mo needs to let us create our own alerts. I don't think they'll be offering the 'heaving cat' sound file through their proprietary catalog anytime soon.

[feren.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't predict that particular alert receiving any sort of demand from the public.

[posicat.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for an interesting versitile alarm, one of the various X10 alarm clocks work wonders. Not only can you set two different alarm times, but you can also add modules and schedule lights to turn on to signal when snooze time is over.

RadioShack has them for a decent price.

[feren.livejournal.com]

That's... a pretty darn nifty idea. I like hte idea of having the lights turn on, because I'm just lazy like that.

[posicat.livejournal.com]

I had one since I was young (Highschool, or Gradeschool age). A friend of my parents had X10 in the entire house, and I picked up on the technology. It's pretty neat stuff, lets you control lights with signals over your household wires. I have a computer interface so the computer can control lights, and also see light control signals. This means I press a button on the side of the bed, and the computer understands it, and can start whatever process you'd like it to.

Each light requires a module to control it, the alarm clock and computer interface are individual modules as well.

[feren.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm a big X10 geek, I was turned onto it by a friend of roho's a few years ago. At one point almost everything in my place had a module -- I even managed to get Firecracker ported over to Solaris enough that I had a cron job on my Sun box that turned the lamp on and off for my fish tank every morning. I'm using X10 in my current place of residence to a limited degree right now, actually. I just didn't know they made an alarm clock. :)

[posicat.livejournal.com]

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=61-2470

This is the one I have I think. Might not be the radioshack model, but it's similar.