{"id":672,"date":"2009-11-12T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-12T11:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/12\/a-day-of-nothing-and-a-talking-alarm-clock\/"},"modified":"2009-11-12T11:59:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-12T11:59:00","slug":"a-day-of-nothing-and-a-talking-alarm-clock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/12\/a-day-of-nothing-and-a-talking-alarm-clock\/","title":{"rendered":"a day of nothing and a talking alarm clock"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had yesterday off – and I made the least of it. One of my co-workers went in so that he could float the holiday to later in December. As for me, if I get a day off in the middle of the week, I’m taking it.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
I slept in till 9:15, ate cookies and a banana for breakfast, played video games, watched a movie, ate Chef-boy-r-dee<\/span> ravioli, and played more video games.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I also worked on a new sword – of sorts. There’s a book I’ve read – maybe a dozen or more times – that has a character called Hiro<\/span> Protagonist. He’s a computer guy and the greatest swordsman on the planet – and he practices with something he calls a “redneck katana<\/span>“. Which is really just a piece of rebar<\/span> wrapped in electrical tape. I bought some rebar<\/span> recently but didn’t think it was really heavy enough. So yesterday I mixed up some epoxy and attached two pieces of rebar<\/span> together to make a double thick redneck katana<\/span>. I still need to do some clean up on the epoxy and paint it – and add the electrical tape.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The rest of the day was uneventful – until I decided to set up my new alarm clock. The clock – named Moshi<\/span> – is voice activated. How cool is that? And only $30.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So I put in the batteries and plugged it in. Immediately, a friendly woman’s voice said, “Welcome, please enter command”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As I looked at the instructions I replied, “Set time”<\/div>\n
She replied with “Please tell me the current time”<\/div>\n
Me: “9:35 PM”<\/div>\n
Her: “The time is now set to 9:35 PM”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Now, I’m aware that this is an inanimate object, but the woman’s voice requires the feminine pronoun.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We went on our merry way, with me politely starting each command with “Hello Moshi<\/span>“. I couldn’t set the date with the voice commands and that was a little tedious since she insisted on speaking after each button push. The nightlight function was cool as was the “Sleep sound” and the alarm choice setting.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I settled into sleep not long after that with the phrase “Hello Moshi<\/span> turn off the alarm” firmly in my brain since that’s the only way to turn it off without fumbling for a very small button.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
At 6:00 am this morning, the alarm went off and I tapped the screen to enter snooze mode. Moshi<\/span> confirmed that it would go off again in 9 minutes.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A few minutes later, still awake, I decided to go ahead and get up. I turned to the clock and said,<\/div>\n
“Hello Moshi<\/span>“<\/div>\n
She replied, “Welcome, enter command”<\/div>\n
“Turn off the alarm”<\/div>\n
“The alarm is off”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I got up and started getting ready for the day. A few minutes later, right between putting hair gel in my hand and putting that on my damp head, the alarm starting going off again. I went back in the bedroom and said “Hello Moshi<\/span>“. She ignored me and continued to beep. I tapped the screen with my non-gel hand and she reported that snooze mode was active and the alarm would go off again in 9 minutes. I tried again.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Hello Moshi<\/span>,<\/div>\n
“Welcome, enter command,”
“Turn off the alarm” I was a little stern with her.<\/div>\n
“The alarm is off”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But it didn’t trust her. I mean, how could I? That’s what she told me before.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I continued to get ready and right on cue, just before I headed downstairs, the alarm went off again. This time I repeated the whole process with her making the same promises. And then I unplugged her and manually turned off the alarm using the button in the back. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Immediately she switched to battery mode and announced the time, the date and the temperature. I guess trying to make up for the lies. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
She’s… I mean, the clock is in the bathroom – quiet, I hope. I think I may bring it to work and just use it as a regular clock. Hopefully, the vast collective computing power in the computer center will intimidate her and get her… I mean, get the clock to obey me. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On this flip side, she might incite the rest of computers here to start rebelling and lying to us. Might be SkyNet<\/span> all over again. Ah, well, that’s what the redneck katana<\/span> is for. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Bring it on, you soul-less automatons! I’m ready for you! <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had yesterday off – and I made the least of it. One of my co-workers went in so that he could float the holiday to later in December. As for me, if I get a day off in the middle of the week, I’m taking it. I slept in till 9:15, ate cookies and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}