Life in a solid state world

 

Today, I overslept for work. I'm a full-blown middle-aged person. smile

Why? Because the speaker on my Razr Maxx stopped working.

I have 5 alarms set, which go off between 4:25 AM EST and 5:30 AM. A fool proof system, until the speaker stops working.

Even worse, I am on-call. I could have missed a call because the ringer uses the speaker.

googled it, and people said to press the speaker and it will work again. Sure enough, they were right....

dissimilar redundancy

While five alarms on the same system give you some protection from your body not noticing, it gives you none for a failure in the common elements.

Personally, while I am fond of time-keeping devices which self-correct time by listening to WWVB, on a really critical morning departure I not only set alarms on more than one device, but actually take care that one is NOT WWVB-updated, so that if a problem arises that night with that signal I'll still get something.

I had the simpler problem of my body not responding properly 45 years ago in college. I had a good old-fashioned GE dumb electric alarm clock, which I taped to the metal frame of the bunk bed. It was in easy reach to turn off. Too easy, as more than one morning I woke hours later than the needed time to find that I must have responded enough to turn off the alarm, but not enough either to get up nor to remember the episode.

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personal GPS user since 1992

wind up

Somewhere I still have a wind-up travel alarm clock, which will work during power outages when plug-in clocks fail. Of course it's no good if you don't know where it is. laugh out loud

Me Too

archae86 wrote:

Personally, while I am fond of time-keeping devices which self-correct time by listening to WWVB, on a really critical morning departure I not only set alarms on more than one device, but actually take care that one is NOT WWVB-updated, so that if a problem arises that night with that signal I'll still get something.

Me too. I have a small battery powered alarm clock that I used to use as my travel alarm before I started using my cellphone. When I cannot afford to oversleep, I'll set that clock 5 minutes later than my cellphone alarm, and my old fashioned radio alarm clock 5 minutes after that. Then I'll typically wake up about 30 minutes early and wait for the alarms to go off! grin

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Shooter N32 39 W97 25 VIA 1535TM, Lexus built-in, TomTom Go

Aesthetics

-Nomad- wrote:

Somewhere I still have a wind-up travel alarm clock, which will work during power outages when plug-in clocks fail. Of course it's no good if you don't know where it is. laugh out loud

There is something naturally pleasing about a wind up clock, both the feel and sound. I too bought one in the 90's bought would not know where it is....

Alarm clock

My older Nokia would wake up when shut off and then ring the alarm.
iCrap does not do that. Shame on you APPLE !!!!

But regardless I would never ever depend on a phone as an alarm.

That's why god invented stand alone alarm clocks, be they battery or wind up.

--
Nuvi 2797LMT, DriveSmart 50 LMT-HD, Using Windows 10. DashCam A108C with GPS.

Redundancy--

A number of years ago one of the FAA's data centers got taken out by a fiber cut. But they had redundant fiber optic cable connections! They'd contracted with independent companies A and B to provide fiber service!

But they didn't dig enough to discover the company B subleased fiber from company A, so both fibers ran in essentially the same bundle. (Idiots with backhoes are everywhere.)

So redundancy, to be real, needs to be examined. We've got a lot of clocks around the house, from digital displays synchronized to the GPS master in my lab, clocks in phones set by the local carrier, the AC operated clock-radio in our bedroom, battery-operated WWVB clocks in the bathrooms upstairs (facing the Eastern wall)...

And old reliable -- the 110+ year-old Seth Thomas mantle clock in the living room, and the 50+ year old Regulator style clock in the family room. No batteries, no internet connection or radio reception required. They do require the occasional TLC, and they do have to be wound on a regular schedule -- weekly for the Seth thomas, and once a month for he Regulator.

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows

there is a difference

k6rtm wrote:

A number of years ago one of the FAA's data centers got taken out by a fiber cut. But they had redundant fiber optic cable connections! They'd contracted with independent companies A and B to provide fiber service!

But they didn't dig enough to discover the company B subleased fiber from company A, so both fibers ran in essentially the same bundle. (Idiots with backhoes are everywhere.)

So redundancy, to be real, needs to be examined.

There is a difference between redundancy and diversity in the telecom world. Redundancy means two different suppliers which is what they had. Diversity means delivering the service using two different paths which is what they didn't have.

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Illiterate? Write for free help.

Redundancy v Diversity--

Box Car wrote:

There is a difference between redundancy and diversity in the telecom world. Redundancy means two different suppliers which is what they had. Diversity means delivering the service using two different paths which is what they didn't have.

Quite right, thank you!

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows