Computers & Technology: March 2005 Archives

This is an MIT student's project, an alarm clock that runs away from you and makes you get out of bed to turn it off. Isn't it cute?

Clocky is, quite simply, for people who have trouble waking up.

When the alarm clock goes off and the snooze button is pressed, Clocky will roll off the bedside table and wheel away, bumping mindlessly into objects on the floor until it eventually finds a spot to rest. Minutes later, when the alarm sounds again, the sleeper must get up out of bed and search for Clocky. This ensures that the person is fully awake before turning it off. Small wheels that are concealed by Clocky's shag enable it to move and reposition itself, and an internal processor helps it find a new hiding spot every day.

I don't like being told when to wake up but I've come to terms with the idea that I have to. In designing Clocky, I was in part inspired by kittens I've had that would bite my toes every morning. Clocky is less of an annoying device as it is a troublesome pet that you love anyway. It's also a bit ugly. But its unconventional look keeps the user calm, and inspires laughter at one of the most hated times of the day...

...Having the alarm clock hide from me was just the most obvious way I could think of to get out of bed.

I want one! Even though I'd probably try to kill it.

I ordered a computer item on March 8 in the afternoon when I realized I wasn't going to be able to get to the store in time to pick it up directly. Amazon's confirmation message to me indicated that the item would probably ship on the 13th.

I used SuperSaver shipping, which is free, but not supposed to be particularly fast.

It's now five minutes past noon on March 10, and one of my coworkers just walked in and handed it to me.

Wow.

(Yep, just another one of the many fascinating insights on my blog!) 

No, but he is a "Mac Genius." He (or possibly she) works at the "Genius Bar" at one of Apple's stores, and he (or possibly she) blogs anonymously no-holds-barred posts over on LiveJournal.

Why do so many people want to be Mac Geniuses? It is a prestigious role, to say the least. I regularly bask in the prestige of removing popsicle sticks, coins, and Yu-Gi-Oh cards from CD drives. It really is the job that everybody wants - the customers want this job, the Mac Specialists want this job. The upside of being a genius is that you are granted the opportunity to be the "face" of Apple tech support. The downside is that, in the eyes of many customers, you are personally responsible for anything which might go wrong. While this is the case with all tech-support, it seems like everybody coming to the genius bar either lives on a remote island, or they run their entire business on a single 400-mhz iMac which just had its hard drive fail. If I can make a recommendation to those applying to become a mac genius - get some student loans and apply for Stanford instead. Having "Genius" in your job title can be cool, but not as cool as an MBA.

I also learned that their store system is not so easy to use.

Meanwhile, I'm trudging through replacing an iPod - a process which takes one minute to find out that it needs to be replaced, and eight to twelve minutes to navigate through our cumbersome reporting system. I'm often greeted with messages telling me that I need to click the "get quote" button before I can click the "get quote" button.

From the "You're kidding me, right?" department we have:

While many Apple retail employees may be boiling with contempt on the inside, it is key that this is never apparent to customers.

Ouch! Stop it, before I bust a gut laughing!

Update: as of March 10, his website seems to have been taken down:

Journal has been deleted. If you are themacgenius, you have a period of 30 days to decide to undelete your journal.