alarm clocks

  Life isn't too difficult for the average alarm clock. Their job description is pretty simple - make a loud noise when you asked them to. You would have thought that, given that telling them when to make that noise is rather important, there would be an easy way to do it, but no. My alarm clock requires you to hold down a button for two seconds, and press the "hour" and "minute" buttons to cycle forward around the clock. If you overshoot by one minute, you have to press the minute button 59 times to get to the desired time, or hold down the button and wait for the minutes to slowly cycle on their own. Most of the time it's actually quicker to jab wildly and repeatedly at the button. Why is there no way of cycling backwards? A "backwards" modifier button would have been acceptable, although not the best option. Also, if you think too long about the time you want to set it to, it leaves the alarm set mode, meaning you have to hold the button down for another two seconds. Minor annoyance, but an annoyance, and an avoidable one at that.

  Having said all of this, I have seen some nice designs - rotating knobs instead of buttons to set the time gets a thumbs up from me. You have control over both the direction and the speed of advance (or retreat, if such a word can be used for time). I quite like the clocks where you hold down the "set" button to set the alarm, as well. There is no waiting around, and you can't accidentally leave it on the alarm set mode, because once you remove your finger, it goes back to the current time display.

  There are some nice clocks out there. I don't think mine is one of them. Having said that, it doubles as a radio, and a pretty nice one at that, and it's nice and loud, so I think I'll let it off.