Perpetual Ruminations

Tuesday

I'm even later getting in here tonight, but only because of a very full day. Today was day one of my days off this week, and it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the temperature was warm, and the winds were mild. I woke up at eight thirty, to no alarm and then enjoyed my first cup of coffee in bed. I know if I was up how could I still be in bed. For that matter how did I get up at eight thirty, when the alarm was set for, if I didn't get up to an alarm?

First, lets look at the alarm issue. I have an application on my netbook that turns it into a very nice alarm. It's suppose to wake the device from sleep, if it's set right, but since the setting pertains to a tablet, I don't have the capacity to use this function on my netbook. The application does, but the netbook does not have the required settings to make this possible. So, what I do is set the application up for the various times we need to get up. This is the nice part, I can set multiple alarms, so I set one alarm to go off at three in the morning on Monday, Friday, and Saturday, of each week. I have another set to go off at five thirty on Sundays, and yet another set to go off at three in the morning on every other Thursday. These take care of the days I work, and I don't have to fuss with anything for the every other Thursday I have off, or for the Tuesday and Wednesday of each week that I have off.

I just make sure the application is set, then switch it over to night mode, which dims it down to a low pitch, and I'm set for the night. However, since my netbook still provides ample screen illumination, even with it turned down very low, it lights up the bedroom quite a bit. It would make a fine night light, only I don't need one. Enough light filters in from the rest of the house to provide just the right amount of light for me to make my way when I wake up, yet it's dark enough not to disturb me. I tend to sleep pretty light, and sounds and light can keep me up, or make my sleep even lighter. I have a difficult time falling asleep as well, if it's too light or too much noise.

This means the netbook keeps the room to well lit for me to fall asleep easily. But, if I put it to sleep, the device is not capable of being woke up by the application. Instead, I set the display to turn off after just a few minutes. Problem solved, right? Wrong. For some reason, the monitor will not turn off when the application is running, either. I can switch to another application and it turns right off as set, but not to the alarm application. And, even if the application is running, once it's not in the forefront, it will not trigger the alarm. Weird, I know. I also realize there may be some settings I can tweak to get around some of these, once I better understand the device and the Windows 8 system it came with. It may even work better with the Windows 8.1 upgrade, but my particular device is not supported at this time for the upgrade. I had problems with my device not starting Windows after an upgrade and had to utilize the extended warranty to replace it.

Instead, I have found another manner of getting around these issues, and that is to create my own power plan that does not put the computer to sleep at all. Then, with the application running, I switch it over to night mode and when I'm ready to go to sleep, I manually turn the display off with the key designated this function. I have a small piece of tape just above this key, so I can find it by feel in the dark, if needed. With everything set, I turn the display off, but the device is still running. When the time comes, the application sounds the selected alarm waking me from my peaceful slumber. I then reach up and locate the touch pad and with the movement of my finger the display turns itself back on, showing the application screen so that I can turn the alarm off, or snooze, if the function is selected.

I don't set a snooze function, but do have a second alarm set so if we desire to snooze we can either use the secondary alarm or set the function. Now, everything is set, and I have a very nice, programable alarm application and don't have to mess with any changes for different days, or days off, etc... When not in use the application runs quietly in the background, and if I do turn the device off, with a swipe of my finger and a slight tap on the screen, it's running again, still set and ready to go. But, the power setting I set up for using with the alarm does not let the computer sleep. The only way to put it to sleep is to push the button or close the lid. The power button puts it into hibernation, and to turn it off, I have to use the on screen control. This makes it almost impossible to mess anything up. But, and here's the only weakness to my set-up. All this is set for the device being plugged in. When the device is on battery, the power plan will let the device go to sleep after an hour, and it will hibernate after two. This is to prevent the battery from being drained too far if I'm running on battery and forget to shut it down.

This is why the alarm, which was set to go off and wake me this morning at eight thirty, didn't go off. I wanted to get up and get a full day in, but I forgot to plug the compute in when I put it in the bedroom. I checked the weather, then set the application up, from where it was running in it's background mode. I don't quite understand how it all works, but with Windows 8 the application can be open, but once it's not in the front, it kind of hibernates so that it doesn't draw power and resources. Sure it does require a minimum amount to keep it running in the background, but it's not active and does not require much. So, I bring it to the front, knowing this must be done to ensure it will go off at the required time, then I turn the display off, and go to sleep.

This morning I woke at eight thirty to no alarm, which was fine. But, I wondered why the alarm application had failed. That's when I realized the compute was turned off. It had been used on battery for quite a while the day before, and then I had forgot to plug it in that night to charge it and to make sure the alarm would work. It had gone to sleep but must have run out of battery power before it hibernated, and shut down as a result.

Tonight it will be different, and tomorrow the alarm will sound. But, if I don't finish this entry and get to bed, it may not do much good.