The Zen Clock

Like those seen on http://www.now-zen.com/, you can create your own Zen-Alarm Clock with your PC for free! I'm sure that you've heard about them. I've been wanting to do this for a while to see if the Zen clock really does make a difference. You can try it for yourself, as I have timed the sounds to the web site's specifications for the optimal ultimate wakeup call. If this works, I may buy the real thing.

Download the .ogg files and the m3u for making your own Zen Clock. I added a task into the Task Scheduler so that my alarm starts going off at the exact time so that I am awake by 8. Try it yourself, here are the files:

• ZenClock5sec.ogg - Set of 3 tones, 5 second separated (15sec)
• ZenClockTimed.ogg - The Variably timed tone file
• ZenClockOgg.m3u - Standard Play list File
• ZenClockOgg.xml - Vista Task Scheduler Task XML File (setup for an 8am wakeup)
• This task launches Windows Media Player with the m3u above. Of course, you'll need to either edit the XML or load it into Task Scheduler and edit the argument to have it point to the location of your m3u.
  

Make sure your media player supports ogg audio files. If not, just convert them and use find/replace to change the ogg's in the m3u to mp3 or whatever. Ogg was just the smallest file size for uploading.

**UPDATES:
Jan 30, 2007 - Last night, I tried my Zen Alarm. It worked almost as advertised. While, I think I woke up after the first tone (perhaps due to the volume), I was still able to wake up, less groggy than normal AND I can remember most (?) of my dreams from last night. I say, overall, it was definitely successful and this will be my alarm clock permanently. I'll try finding the sweet spot for the volume.
Feb 2, 2007 - Media Player freaked out this morning and kept repeating the bell sound in about .5 sec intervals from the beginning. I woke up groggy and tired. I got the same amount of sleep as before. This shows that the placebo effect is not in place as I expected to be woken up by the gentle alarm, but instead what I got was essentially, a regular annoying alarm clock.

If you've had success, post your results in the comments.