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Want to develop the greatest alarm clock software of all time.

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prototype_angel:
Hi, I'm a 20 year old developer who's into usability. I go to college and have to wake up using an alarm for a computer.

I want to write a program in visual C++/C#.net to trump all the other alarm clock softwares and release it as open source/donationware. I've tried every alarm clock on the market, but nothing satisfies me. Here's my dream program to do the job:

1. An intuitive interface for setting alarms at any time and for any number of alarms.
2. Several effective default alarm sounds, along with option to play back fading in music.
3. A strong snooze option
4. A "wake up" mode. When this mode is enabled, the screen is blacked out and the time is shown in large legible letters, along with a small message. Pressing space will snooze the alarm by a small amount, but to disable it will require a pin number, password or a special code.
5. Antimute: I've had instances when I sleepily mute the volume whenever I want to sleep in, but this should check the volume levels and automatically undo that.
6. A simple timer option. For example, pressing the winkey and pressing a button will bring up a window, on which you can enter a number and after that many minutes it'll give you an unobtrusive reminder.
7. A grandfather clock mode: this will ring a bell every 15 minutes/1 hour so you know that time's flying by.
8. Syncing with the time server, with support for daylight savings
9. A small taskbar launcher which also shows which alarms are enabled.
10. ability to set alarms based on the day of the week or custom alarms for particular dates.
11. Outlook/calendar integration. Prolly if an appointment is appended by an (A), there will be an alarm for the same.

I've seen alarm clocks with too many crappy useless features. I want the ultimate anti-sleep software of all time. I'm posting on this nice forum to get any suggestions, feature requests, advice, etc. Any good programming resources which you feel might help is also appreciated.

Thanks in advance
prototype_angel

nosh:
Just in case you haven't already, check out:

* Clocktick (now discontinued IIRC) for the interface and
* Alarm++ for the features.
* Good luck merging functionality with simplicity, I've never found a tool that had the best of both.

vegas:
I think I like what you are onto.  I have never found the ultimate light weight clock program I would have liked.  Tried many, stuck with none.  It needs to be anti-bloated, very customizable (including playback of custom sound files, wav, mp3, ogg without launching an external player), usb portable would be a plus, remember favorite alarms, etc..  Love the recurring grandfather clock option to remind of passing time.  I've seen a couple that looked like they could be good as well, but had given up looking at that point. If I find their links I will post them, along with some more key features.

tinjaw:
Administrative Note: Should this be moved to the coding snacks?

This does sound like an interesting project. I have added it to my list of candidates for future coding snacks I attempt.

jgpaiva:
Administrative Note: Should this be moved to the coding snacks?
-tinjaw (January 05, 2008, 06:37 AM)
--- End quote ---
You read the top post the other way around ;)
prototype_angel wants to do it himself, he's just asking for suggestions on how he should to it :P

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