Computer Program/Utility Useful for Alarm Clock Purposes?

[Staff Sergeant]

Apologies if this belongs in the hardwares/technical forum.

So my situation is that I go to bed every night at 12-1AM and have to get up at about 7:30-8AM. My "bleep-bleep" alarm clock has started to fail to wake me up (although it does a terrific job of waking up any house-guests), and I usually just slap the snooze button or completely disregard it (I slept through it from 7:30AM until 1PM one day, mercifully it was accidentally set and I didn't have to be up that day).

I'd like a program for my computer that I could run and would wake my computer up out of hibernate or snooze (or not if I can't have it in snooze, I know ASUS has a BIOS configuration that would allow me to turn it off and set a time for it to turn on but it's too late to install that, I have to wait for my next wipe/reinstall), and start playing some of my music to wake me up.

P.S. I know I can just buy some sort of specific clock radio but I don't have any portable music devices (lost my iPod), and replacing my iPod and buying some sort of iPod alarm clock is plan B if this doesn't work out.

P.P.S. The radio would be the short term solution if I have to move to plan B while I wait to get an iPod and iPod alarm clock, I just don't want to wake up to a radio personality telling me the weather or some crap like that, I'd prefer to choose my own song to wake up to.

[Acid]

Something like this (http://www.softempire.com/peter-s-ultimate-alarm-clock.html)?

I haven't actually tried it; this is what my google-fu turned up. I'm going to give it a try, though. I'm a frequent insomniac and sometimes, after I've been awake for 72 horus straight and I've finally gone to sleep, it's near-impossible to wake me.

I figure some really loud and obnoxious MP3 tune might do the trick better than a beep-beep alarm with a snooze button.

[Staff Sergeant]

Hmm, a likely candidate, thank you! I certainly wasn't expecting to get anything free and $10 isn't so bad (certainly cheaper than the iPod option).

[Machfive]

Years ago, I used a Winamp 3.x plugin to wake me up to Dream Theater's "the Mirror." It was able to start the playback and any volume level, so when the alarm went off, those crunching guitar chords came out with no mercy.

That was one alarm I never slept through.

It won't wake up your computer though, you'll have to run the thing through the night, so it's probably not what you're looking for.

[WarrenM]

Go to bed earlier? :)

[Staff Sergeant]

Haha, an option some nights but not when I work, that's unfortunately when I have to go to bed then.

I might be willing to run my computer through the night, I'd have to figure out how much power it consumes and see how big a deal it would be to leave it on for 6 more hours.

[Lunch of Kong]

If your computer and speakers use 200 watts at idle, and you pay $0.20 per kWh, well, that's $0.04 per hour for 6 hours.

= 24 cents.

[nutsak]

P.S. I know I can just buy some sort of specific clock radio but I don't have any portable music devices (lost my iPod), and replacing my iPod and buying some sort of iPod alarm clock is plan B if this doesn't work out.


Oddly, I have an iPod dock that has a little clock radio built in. I was going to do the whole "plug the iPod into it" idea but actually decided against it because I found I can sleep through music I know.

I've now got it turn to "auto on" at a certain time where the snooze button doesn't work and I have to actually turn it off. I also have it tuned into a station that plays shit I'm not familiar with ( Hooray Triple J ).

However back in the day when I slept in the same room as my PC I did have Windows Scheduler set up to play the Deftone's song Root (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABDea0ySu_U) which did a pretty fucking good job of getting me awake.

[krayzkrok]

...I usually just slap the snooze button or completely disregard it

My solution to this was putting the alarm clock on the other side of the room away from the bed, forcing me to actually get out of bed to switch it off. Works every time when I absolutely must get up.

[eliandi]

My solution to this was putting the alarm clock on the other side of the room away from the bed, forcing me to actually get out of bed to switch it off. Works every time when I absolutely must get up.

This is how I use my cellphone, esp while travelling. The key is making it a combination of annoying and distance

[Acid]

My solution to this was putting the alarm clock on the other side of the room away from the bed, forcing me to actually get out of bed to switch it off. Works every time when I absolutely must get up.
I tried that. In fact, my alarm clock currently resides across the room. I get up, turn it off, and go back to bed...without actually waking up.

[Scrax]

I tried that. In fact, my alarm clock currently resides across the room. I get up, turn it off, and go back to bed...without actually waking up.

Yea, same here. It's gotten so bad that I have 3 alarm clocks placed at various locations in my bedroom. Cell phone, clock radio, and good ole alarm clock. I usually snooze them all, but eventually the relentless beeps wake me up.

[RobotPants]

I just use a combination of a Vista alarm clock gadget that will play an mp3 and my cell phone for my alarms. I have to keep changing the song I wake up to, though, else I'll sleep right through it.

[Omniscia]

I used to use the Windows Task Scheduler to open an MP3 (or some such file) at a certain time when I needed to wake up. It worked great and didn't require any further software than that which is already built in.

But then, it wasn't hibernating beforehand.

[krayzkrok]

The best alarm clock I ever had was some ancient tea-making device that my gran gave me. It was truly bizarre (and yes, it would brew the kettle for you so that you could grab a tea - or rather coffee - as soon as the alarm went off). I thought the only improvement would have been a direct arterial feed of caffeine 10 mins before the actual alarm so that you'd bounce straight out of bed.

But quirkiness aside, the thing that made this effective was the alarm itself. A very bright light would start flashing, and what sounded like a swarm of gigantic mutant wasps trapped inside a jar would blare at ear-melting levels. I used to wake up 30 seconds *before* it went off just so I could switch the damn thing off before it went off. Truly terrifying.

[Staff Sergeant]

I'm sure if I wanted to abuse myself I could jury rig some sort of contraption to drop a brick on my chest, I'd probably start waking up early to avoid that, too.

[Staff Sergeant]

Just wanted to thank everyone for helping me out. I awoke today to "Jerk it Out" by The Caesars blaring on my computer :)

I ended up using Windows Task Scheduler, my previous attempts at using it persuaded me that it was not meant for opening .mp3s, but Omniscia's post convinced me that it was possible, so I went in, declared Zune the default program for opening .mp3s (otherwise the computer would just wring its hands about what program to use instead of just running it), and set a password to my user account (this is required, which seems like a bug but according to Microsoft technical support it is "by design" /rolleyes), and it works perfectly well.

Having my computer on standby was an optional goal, I'm fine leaving it on all night since now it is my alarm clock.

[rei]

old cellphone is what i use.

[krayzkrok]

I'd have gone with the brick, EFG. Much less likely to CTD (unless you aim it incorrectly).