

Minimal Ring Alarm Clock for Couples - dyscrete
http://mmminimal.com/minimal-ring-alarm-clock-designed-for-couples/

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zbyszek
At the risk of being patronising towards someone using English as a foreign
language, to my mind the best thing is the text accompanying the cartoon
story: "The piteous woman is disturbed. A sweet dreaming is broken. She is
feckless in the hospital". For some reason I find that utterly charming.

~~~
chris_wot
Funny, I felt the same!

My favourite Portugese to English phrasebook of all time, incidentally, is
_English As She Is Spoke_ , which I learned of in Stephen Pile's book, _The
Book of Heroic Failures_ , where he comments: "Is there anything in
conventional English which could equal the vividness of 'to craunch a
marmoset'?"

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lukeholder
I have one of these, which is more practical and a real product:
<http://www.lark.com/>

~~~
Groxx
I'm _still_ looking for one that gives me some kind of access to the raw data.
I don't suppose this does?

~~~
AhtiK
If you're fine by wearing a headband while sleeping then Zeo [1] is your new
friend with raw data.

After some soldering I even managed to get the live serial output to my laptop
with a python app.

[1] [http://www.myzeo.com/sleep/shop/featured-products/zeo-
sleep-...](http://www.myzeo.com/sleep/shop/featured-products/zeo-sleep-
manager-bedside.html)

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Toenex
Great! Now all I need are some products to allow me to get dressed in the
dark; quieten opening draws and wardrobes; silence the noise I make as I hop
around the bedroom trying to get my left foot in a sock; stop the floorboards
from creaking...

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mleonhard
Marpac Sleepmate can help with this. I've been using one for about five years.
Occasionally I go to sleep without turning it on and invariably my sleep is
interrupted by noise from outside or another room.

<http://www.marpac.com/>

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__alexs
Its not future if it has sockets. Even today this is almost doable with Qi
wireless charging and NFC.

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paul-woolcock
Looks like the design is actually from 2008, so it's actually the past

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run4yourlives
36 comments and nobody figures out that you could do this with the phone you
already have?

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chii
how do you do this with a phone without accidentally crushing it during you
sleep?

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michaelcampbell
I find the idea fascinating, and would do wonders for my relationship... but I
doubt I would be able to get a tension on the thing that would be soft enough
to not bother me during wearing it, but strong enough to keep it on all night.

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phatbyte
Kind of reminds me of this: <http://www.instash.com/ring-clock>

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amalag
Is it a real problem? My wife sets her alarm clock around 6am and i almost
never notice it. I sleep through till 7-8am.

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funkydata
Has anybody ever read "Quelqu'un d'autre" from Tonino Benacquista? This
directly stems from an invention in the book.

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circlefavshape
Husband and wife are never awake at the same time. Doesn't sound like a fun
marriage

~~~
ars
I don't follow. Because they don't wake up at the same time that means they
are _never_ awake at the same time?

Each of them would have to sleep more than 12 hours each day for that to even
be possible.

~~~
circlefavshape
Sorry, never awake and not-at-work at the same time

He gets home from work at 6pm, she's been at work since 2pm He goes to bed at
10pm, she finishes work at midnight He starts work at 8am, she's still asleep

There's always weekends I suppose :(

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eridius
Yet another concept product that's never going to see the light of day.

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noirman
It's thoughtful, useful and minimal. Why isn't this popular yet?

~~~
adrianhoward
Because it's a series of pretty picture - not an actual working product.

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lsiebert
2011, And yet it uses the phrase, "Deaf Mutes"

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cpeterso
What is a more appropriate term?

Also, I understand how this product benefit deaf people, but I don't
understand how it would be any more useful to _mute_ people than non-mute
people.

~~~
jayferd
"Deaf-mute" has mostly fallen out of usage, much like other once-commonplace
derogatory classifiers such as "colored", "oriental", and "savage".

Generally speaking, "deaf" = physically deaf, i.e. unable to hear, and "Deaf"
= culturally Deaf, i.e. part of a visual-culture / signing linguistic group.
Big-D Deafness does not necessarily imply little-d deafness, nor the other way
around. Children of Deaf adults, for example, often learn a signed language
before an auditory one, despite being physically able to hear. And sadly, many
physically deaf children are still deprived of language until quite late in
their development.

And, as always, if a Deaf person tells you something that contradicts me, that
person is right.

For more info, see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_culture>

~~~
freehunter
It's hard to keep up with quickly-changing political correctness, especially
if you're not a native English speaker (like the author). Words that were once
considered sensitive are now derogatory and new words invented to replace
them. In a decade or two, that new word will be insensitive and new words will
need to be invented. People will then forget the word was offensive. "Idiot"
was once the technical term to describe someone with severe mental
disabilities.

Colored can hardly be called derogatory, just ask the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People: the NAACP.

~~~
jayferd
I agree it can be difficult, and these things do change drastically over time.
The NAACP was founded at a time when "colored" was not considered derogatory,
and they haven't changed the name since, for a number of reasons. But if you
go around talking about "colored people", you will get lots of weird looks.

Beyond simple political-correctness, though, the most important thing is to
understand how our language affects people. A major problem with "Deaf-mute"
(and also with "colored" and "oriental") is that these terms are
oversimplifications at best, and drastic misrepresentations at worst. They're
not just words - they represent actual cultural misunderstandings.

With the Deaf, for example, the core misunderstanding is usually thinking of
deafness as a medical disability. It comes as a surprise to most people that
the Deaf do not generally consider themselves "disabled", but instead
possessing a different human experience. This is difficult, I think, for a
hearing person to imagine if they have not met and interacted with a Deaf
person.

Anyways, that was a very long-winded way of saying that it's not just about
finding the most politically-correct term to use - it's about finding terms
that describe the world as it actually is.

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webmonkeyuk
Don't try picking your nose at night...

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dlsym
August 29th, 2011 _yawn_

~~~
davidlumley
It's older than that - [http://techcrunch.com/2007/07/10/ring-the-alarm-clock-
you-we...](http://techcrunch.com/2007/07/10/ring-the-alarm-clock-you-wear/)

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csaba
Sh*t up, and take my money! Why this is not a real product? "Concept award
2008"?

~~~
montecarl
It appears that the effort and skills required to follow through with a
product vision and take it to market are greater than or equal to those
required for its conception.

