Clocky

Every morning as usual, I would surf ST Interactive for my daily dosage of world & local news. But since the day they started charging I had to find other alternatives. I cancelled off the hardcopy subscription a few years ago because it was a simple waste of paper & at that time I could catch the latest & more important news online for free! TodayOnline seems a rather interesting choice (not forgetting that there's mrbrown & Mr Neil Humphrey on Friday & Saturday respectively).

I chanced upon an article from TodayOnline this morning & I'm rather intrigued by the stupidity thoughfulness of the product. Here's the article extracted from the news website.

Scientists in the United States have invented an alarm clock to get the drowsiest of sleepers out of bed. After the snooze button is pressed, Clocky, which comes with wheels, rolls off the table to another part of the room. "When the alarm sounds again, finding Clocky ought to be strenuous enough to prevent even the doziest owner from going back to sleep," the New Scientist magazine reported.

Many of us might have heard, read or seen on tv news about those little robotic mouse that is programmed to find its own way out of a maze. Who built those? Secondary & tertiary students made it themselves to participate in some inter-school competitions. Isn't this intricate little piece of work highly more sophiscated than a clock that can roll when you press the snooze button?

Now if you agree with me on that, it's time to think about this -- students who have only PSLE or GCE 'O' level qualifications can build a robotic mouse that is able to find its own way out of a maze. Scientists who have MBAs, PhDs & whatever other qualifications can only come up with a clock that can "roll off the table to another part of the room" when the owner presses the snooze button. Something is very wrong & mismatched here.

Well well well, I seriously wonder who funded this research team. For if I were one of the sponsors, I would be cursing & swearing cheering & applauding right in their faces at this very moment & NEVER in this era will this research make it to the news headline, & I mean NEVER!