Alarm with fine-grained repeats?

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Begin zoara quote:

; I'm after something that pops up a normal Palm alert dialog, and if
; ignored gets added to the normal 'missed alerts' list.

Are you looking for a timer, an alarm clock, or a calendar replacement?

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

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Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Jeffrey Kaplan <cspp@gordol.org> wrote:

> Begin zoara quote:
>
> ; I'm after something that pops up a normal Palm alert dialog, and if
> ; ignored gets added to the normal 'missed alerts' list.
>
> Are you looking for a timer, an alarm clock, or a calendar replacement?

Either of the first two, I guess. Anything that goes "beep" and puts a
message on the screen, then waits N minutes before going "beep" again.
I'd like the alarms to be standard system alarms so if I ignore or miss
them they just appear on the standard missed alerts screen.

As an example, BugMe's alarms are good; I can set an alarm that goes off
every hour. But that's no good if I need to remember to check the food
in the oven every 15 minutes, and quite often the alarm goes off after
I've gone to bed because "every hour" means "every hour including right
through the night".

So; an example of something that might fulfil my needs is BugMe with a
"don't sound alarms between this time and that time", and also a more
configurable alarm repeat. The whole 'pictures' thing that BugMe does is
overkill for me. Just popping up "check potatoes" is enough for me.

Another potential solution would be an alarm/timer like Big Clock, using
the "alarm and loop" timer function - except that it doesn't have
standard system alarms (so I can't snooze the alarm, for example) and
there's no way to tell it not to sound the alarms overnight.

Thankyou for asking I hope I'm clearer on what I'm asking for. There
are hundreds of 'alarm' apps out there and I don't know where to start.

-z-


--
My lozenge is a full earthy herbal lozenge incorporating a miscellanea
of weeds known for advancing sexual longing and performance, causing
an increase in sexual craving, a betterment in your volume and
execution, besides as increased energy and joy during sexual activeness.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Jeffrey Kaplan <cspp@gordol.org> wrote:

> Begin zoara quote:
>
> ; > Are you looking for a timer, an alarm clock, or a calendar replacement?
> ;
> ; Either of the first two, I guess. Anything that goes "beep" and puts a
> ; message on the screen, then waits N minutes before going "beep" again.
> ; I'd like the alarms to be standard system alarms so if I ignore or miss
> ; them they just appear on the standard missed alerts screen.
>
> In that case, how about bSTimer? I use it to time my laundry and
> aerobic exercises.

OK, I've downloaded this but I can't figure out two things.

First off, I can't see how to have more than one alarm running at once.
Secondly I can't work out how to make the timer restart automatically
when it triggers (I have to start the timer myself).

Maybe I'm not making my needs clear; here's exactly what I want it for:

I have injured my arm and have to do physiotherapy exercises every hour.
I forget to do this often. I want an alarm that reminds me every hour,
between the hours of 9am and 10pm.

In a very similar fashion, I'd like to be able to throw some food in the
oven, then set an alarm that goes off every twenty minutes to remind me
to check up on it.

And I'd also like to use the timer to remind me to take a break from my
desk at work; a bad back means if I get engrossed and stay in my seat
for too long, I pay for it. So I want an alarm to tell me to 'stretch my
legs' for a moment, and I want this every 45 minutes, between the hours
of 9am and 5pm.

So, I'm after something that

1. lets you create and name several different alarms ('physio', 'check
oven', 'take a break').

2. has an alarm that repeats after it is acknowledged; when I tap OK on
my 'physio' alarm it starts counting down to the next alarm an hour
later, whereas tapping OK on the 'check food' alarm makes it count down
to the next alarm in 20 minutes.

3. allows for custom sounds for each alarm (ie they don't all have to
sound the same). That way, I can tell without getting it out of my
pocket what alert it is.

4. lets you set a 'quiet time' where no alarms will sound (ie at night).
Even better would be to give a time period during which the alarm will
sound (as per my '9am to 10pm' for physio, and '9am to 5pm' for taking a
break) but I suspect I won't find anything that does this (it seems hard
enough to find something that just has multiple alarms!).

5. has a 'global snooze' button that turns off all alarms for a
specified time (anything from 30 minutes to a day). If my arm is
painful, I'll leave the physio for half a day or so.


I'm after something that pops up a normal Palm alert dialog, and if
ignored gets added to the normal 'missed alerts' list. This is so when I
go to the loo and come back, I can see that I have missed the alarm. Of
course, because it's a standard Palm alert dialog, if I'm in the middle
of something I can hit Snooze and it will remind me again a few minutes
later.

There *must* be something out there like this, surely?

-zoara-


--
My lozenge is a full earthy herbal lozenge incorporating a miscellanea
of weeds known for advancing sexual longing and performance, causing
an increase in sexual craving, a betterment in your volume and
execution, besides as increased energy and joy during sexual activeness.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Begin zoara quote:

; > In that case, how about bSTimer? I use it to time my laundry and
; > aerobic exercises.
;
; OK, I've downloaded this but I can't figure out two things.
;
; First off, I can't see how to have more than one alarm running at once.
; Secondly I can't work out how to make the timer restart automatically
; when it triggers (I have to start the timer myself).

Then bSTimer isn't what you're looking for. It's a simple timer, and
you are looking for something a lot more complex.

; 1. lets you create and name several different alarms ('physio', 'check
; oven', 'take a break').

I honestly don't think you're going to find any one clock/timer to do
everything you want. You will probably have to use a combination of
specialty applications. I know there is at least one at PalmGear
specifically for your "take a stretch break" needs. Or a calendar
replacement, perhaps. DateBk5, with some creative use of the alarms,
can do it. I think no one mentioned it because you said you were
specifically looking for a clock/timer. But no clock that I know of
will do what you want, but a calendar can.

; 2. has an alarm that repeats after it is acknowledged; when I tap OK on
; my 'physio' alarm it starts counting down to the next alarm an hour
; later, whereas tapping OK on the 'check food' alarm makes it count down
; to the next alarm in 20 minutes.

You want something that can snooze in blocks up to an hour.

; 3. allows for custom sounds for each alarm (ie they don't all have to
; sound the same). That way, I can tell without getting it out of my
; pocket what alert it is.

You will still have to take it out to acknowledge the alert regardless.
But DateBk can use different alarm noises for each event, chosen from
your installed system alert set.

; 4. lets you set a 'quiet time' where no alarms will sound (ie at night).
; Even better would be to give a time period during which the alarm will
; sound (as per my '9am to 10pm' for physio, and '9am to 5pm' for taking a
; break) but I suspect I won't find anything that does this (it seems hard
; enough to find something that just has multiple alarms!).

With a calendar, set a daily alarm for the first notice of the day for
each item, snooze it for an hour (or whatever) each time it goes off,
except for the last one where you dismiss it.

; 5. has a 'global snooze' button that turns off all alarms for a
; specified time (anything from 30 minutes to a day). If my arm is
; painful, I'll leave the physio for half a day or so.

No can do, here.

; I'm after something that pops up a normal Palm alert dialog, and if
; ignored gets added to the normal 'missed alerts' list. This is so when I
; go to the loo and come back, I can see that I have missed the alarm. Of
; course, because it's a standard Palm alert dialog, if I'm in the middle
; of something I can hit Snooze and it will remind me again a few minutes
; later.

DateBk uses its own alert dialog, but it's modeled on the Palm Datebook
alert with a few more features. If you miss an alert, the dialog will
still be visible on the screen when you next check your Palm.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

"The Superior Book Of Words", by Peter Bowler: EPHEMERAL: Short-lived,
lasting but a day. Note that this does not mean trivial - a sense in
which it is sometimes used. A devastating explosion is an ephemeral
event.

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zoara wrote:
> So, I'm after something that
>
> 1. lets you create and name several different alarms ('physio', 'check

> 2. has an alarm that repeats after it is acknowledged; when I tap OK on

> 3. allows for custom sounds for each alarm (ie they don't all have to

> 4. lets you set a 'quiet time' where no alarms will sound (ie at night).

> 5. has a 'global snooze' button that turns off all alarms for a

Well, you might look at TikTok. It doesn't do precisely everything
you want, but it can have multiple named alarms going (up to 32
of them at once). They way you create an alarm (instead of a stopwatch
timer) is to write a *negative* time into the time field, then click
the checkbox on that line to start it. So for example, you write
"check food" into the first field in a row, and then you write
"-20:00" (or "-20:" for short) into the second field, then click
start. Then it'll count down (or up to 0, actually), and beep at
you 20 minutes later and tell you that the "check food" timer has
expired.

The "check food" timer will then reset itself to "-20:00", and if
you click on its checkbox, it will start counting down again.
(Note that you need to have "Visual Alarms", "Start Time Memory",
and "Stop Timer On Alarm" checked in the preferences to have the
behavior I'm describing.)

So, it won't automatically restart the timers after you hit OK,
but you can restart them yourself with a single click.

It also doesn't do custom sounds per alarm, or a quiet time (but
you can just elect not to restart a timer, and you can do a
"stop all timers" function), or a snooze. But it might still
serve the purpose relatively well.

- Logan

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Jim Anderson <fro2750@frontiernet.my_finger.net> wrote:

> On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 03:19:16 +0000, zoara had this to say...
>
>
> > I have injured my arm and have to do physiotherapy exercises every hour.
> > I forget to do this often. I want an alarm that reminds me every hour,
> > between the hours of 9am and 10pm.
>
> <http://www.freewarepalm.com/clock/chime.shtml> Chime or VOICE (OS5)

This one only allows me to set one reminder (which I cannot name), and
only does reminders on the hour (plus half hour or 15 minutes for
"Chime" ) and it doesn't use the standard Palm alert dialogs.

So I can't set up reminders for "every twenty minutes from now", and if
I want to do hourly reminders they have to be on the hour. If I miss the
alarm (because I'm in the other room or it's noisy) then there's no way
I'll be able to tell.

The single advantage it has over my current solution (BugMe!) is that it
allows me to set a quiet time. It doesn't answer any of the other
requests I made in this thread though, apart from the small section you
quoted.

> <http://www.freewarepalm.com/clock/cuckoo.shtml> Cuckoo or chime

This has a "Windows Installer" so I cannot install it. From the
description it does even less than Chime does.

> <http://www.freewarepalm.com/clock/towerclock.shtml> Big Ben, chime or
> alarm

This suffers from the same shortcomings that Chime does.

> All will chime on the hour (or 1/2 or 1/4) between hours you pick,
> during days you pick.

Uh huh. That's not what I asked for though. Please read the rest of my
post which you snipped.

> Only took 10 minutes to find these, reading the descriptions at
> freewarepalm, clock/calendar section.

Your ten minutes might have been better spent reading my post properly.
It would have saved you the effort of writing a condescending reply.

-z-


--
My lozenge is a full earthy herbal lozenge incorporating a miscellanea
of weeds known for advancing sexual longing and performance, causing
an increase in sexual craving, a betterment in your volume and
execution, besides as increased energy and joy during sexual activeness.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Jeffrey Kaplan <cspp@gordol.org> wrote:

> Begin zoara quote:
>
> ; > In that case, how about bSTimer? I use it to time my laundry and
> ; > aerobic exercises.
> ;
> ; OK, I've downloaded this but I can't figure out two things.
> ;
> ; First off, I can't see how to have more than one alarm running at once.
> ; Secondly I can't work out how to make the timer restart automatically
> ; when it triggers (I have to start the timer myself).
>
> Then bSTimer isn't what you're looking for. It's a simple timer, and
> you are looking for something a lot more complex.

It's not that complex, is it?

I mean, I'm making do with BugMe!, and all I'm really asking that's
different to that is:
1. The ability to repeat the alarms at less than hourly intervals
2. The ability to set a quiet time
3. (bonus) Different alert sounds per alarm.

BugMe isn't that complex, as far as its alarms go. And I don't need the
fancy image/notepad thing anyway, just a name (just text) for my alarms.

> ; 1. lets you create and name several different alarms ('physio', 'check
> ; oven', 'take a break').
>
> I honestly don't think you're going to find any one clock/timer to do
> everything you want.

As I say above, BugMe is nearly there; it just offers more than I need
in one field (the whole full-colour doodling with clipart thing) and
lacks a little in what I find important (setting repeats to intervals of
less than an hour).

But I suspect that I'm being overly fussy.

> You will probably have to use a combination of specialty applications.

I already do, and it's a mess. That's why I'm looking to find something
that will work for all my little "keep bugging me" needs. BugMe! was
such a promising name, but it's more a note-taker than a reminder
application.

> Or a calendar replacement, perhaps. DateBk5, with some creative use of
> the alarms, can do it. I think no one mentioned it because you said you
> were specifically looking for a clock/timer. But no clock that I know of
> will do what you want, but a calendar can.

Right. I will investigate calendar replacements (though I do want to it
be independent of - and use a different database to - the standard
built-in one, so it might be tricky). If I gave the impression I was
after a clock/timer specifically, then that was unintentional; I'm after
anything that beeps at me and puts a message onscreen, and repeats at an
interval I decide. Whatever does that is fine, whether it's a calendar,
a clock, a timer or anything else.

> ; 2. has an alarm that repeats after it is acknowledged; when I tap OK on
> ; my 'physio' alarm it starts counting down to the next alarm an hour
> ; later, whereas tapping OK on the 'check food' alarm makes it count down
> ; to the next alarm in 20 minutes.
>
> You want something that can snooze in blocks up to an hour.

No; I want 'snooze' to be different to 'repeat'.

If I'm on the phone and checking whether I'm free for a meeting, and
then the alarm goes off, I want to 'snooze' it, so it goes off again
when I finish the call. Conversely, when I 'OK' an alarm, that says
"I've done it, remind me again after the repeat period is up".

Additionally, I think that the 'hour' thing was best not mentioned - it
seems to have set people on the wrong track. For the wide range of
things I have in mind, I'd like to be able to have something bug me
repeatedly anything between 5 minutes and 5 hours; possibly more.

> ; 3. allows for custom sounds for each alarm (ie they don't all have to
> ; sound the same). That way, I can tell without getting it out of my
> ; pocket what alert it is.
>
> You will still have to take it out to acknowledge the alert regardless.

That's true.

> But DateBk can use different alarm noises for each event, chosen from
> your installed system alert set.

I'll look into DateBk, but IIRC it's expensive, (too) complicated and
uses the built-in Calendar database, which could cause issue. But I'll
check it out.

> ; 4. lets you set a 'quiet time' where no alarms will sound (ie at night).
> ; Even better would be to give a time period during which the alarm will
> ; sound (as per my '9am to 10pm' for physio, and '9am to 5pm' for taking a
> ; break) but I suspect I won't find anything that does this (it seems hard
> ; enough to find something that just has multiple alarms!).
>
> With a calendar, set a daily alarm for the first notice of the day for
> each item, snooze it for an hour (or whatever) each time it goes off,
> except for the last one where you dismiss it.

Yeah; I use a similar method with BugMe! but if I forget to dismiss it
(or in BugMe!'s case, set it to next go off the next morning rather than
the usual hour) then it's likely to sound just as I'm dozing off. And
I'm quite good at forgetting to do that.

> ; 5. has a 'global snooze' button that turns off all alarms for a
> ; specified time (anything from 30 minutes to a day). If my arm is
> ; painful, I'll leave the physio for half a day or so.
>
> No can do, here.

I guess this is too much to ask anyway.

> ; I'm after something that pops up a normal Palm alert dialog, and if
> ; ignored gets added to the normal 'missed alerts' list. This is so when I
> ; go to the loo and come back, I can see that I have missed the alarm. Of
> ; course, because it's a standard Palm alert dialog, if I'm in the middle
> ; of something I can hit Snooze and it will remind me again a few minutes
> ; later.
>
> DateBk uses its own alert dialog, but it's modeled on the Palm Datebook
> alert with a few more features. If you miss an alert, the dialog will
> still be visible on the screen when you next check your Palm.

OK.

Thanks for the valuable feedback.

-zoara-


--
My lozenge is a full earthy herbal lozenge incorporating a miscellanea
of weeds known for advancing sexual longing and performance, causing
an increase in sexual craving, a betterment in your volume and
execution, besides as increased energy and joy during sexual activeness.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

s h e h u <invalid.address@address.invalid> wrote:

> me3@privacy.net (zoara) wrote in
> news:1gnvj1f.k0b29wm2hy0tN%me3@privacy.net:
>
> > Despite Crony lacking a standard Palm alert dialog (with 'OK' and
> > 'Snooze'), and adding missed alerts to the Missed Alerts screen, it
> > looks like it might be good enough for what I'm after.
>
> There's an improved OS5 version of Crony.
>
> Here: http://oleg.belousov.com/palm/
> Direct download: http://oleg.belousov.com/palm/crony3.zip

Oh, thanks!

-z-

--
My lozenge is a full earthy herbal lozenge incorporating a miscellanea
of weeds known for advancing sexual longing and performance, causing
an increase in sexual craving, a betterment in your volume and
execution, besides as increased energy and joy during sexual activeness.