The boy clearly doesn't get it. Yue Fan, a junior in engineering at the University of Michigan, won a grant for what he calls a "pattern" alarm clock, a device that forces the user to do a memory test before they can turn the alarm off. Talk about over-thinking simplicity; apparently this (obviously Asian) kid isn't aware that Americans, at least, regard alarm clocks as a necessary evil. You don't want to f*ck with them, you don't want them to play games with you at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, you want them to be persistent enough to get your butt out of bed at the right time. The old Westclox Big Ben was the eternal protoype for the correctly-thought-out alarm clock; no snooze, just two big ringers on top, both about the size of your head, and a mallet in between the two big enough to get the entire neighborhood going. And God forbid the night before was rough. I suspect that if the young Mr. Fan's creation ever did make it onto store shelves, it would either be resoundingly ignored, treasured by engineering students like him, or just have a very short life expectancy, thanks to hammers, walls, or whatever consumers could find to destroy them. And my advice to Mr. Fan himself? Discover caffiene, and leave the games for the right time.
And, yeah, okay, I could probably insert at least one joke about this being the way that U-of-M students think, but the kid could just as easily have been a Michigan State student, so we're gonna leave that part of it out of the equation, and focus on the over-thinking that this device embodies. It wouldn't be the first time an engineer ever took a basically sound, simple concept, and deformed it beyond recognition, (sorry, Joe, if you're reading this, I know it hurts, and, well, present company excepted.) but it happens. Concentrating on fixing the existing problems, there's a novel idea.......

Speaking of happiness......
Denmark Is World's Happiest Country
Reuters
WASHINGTON (July 1) - Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday. Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.
See Full List: Happiest and Least Happy Countries
Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the U.S. government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists.It found increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries analyzed."I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness," said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, who directed the study. (BOY HOWDY, YA THINK?! Now, if ever there was a U-of-M student or employee who--never mind.)
"Denmark is the happiest country in the world in our ratings," Inglehart said in an audio statement released by the National Science Foundation, which paid for the analysis."Denmark is prosperous -- not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous."Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden.
"Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the United States looks pretty good," Inglehart said. "The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom."The survey, first done in 1981, has kept to two simple questions:"Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"Writing in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, Ingelhart's team said they have surveyed 350,000 people."Ultimately, the most important determinant of happiness is the extent to which people have free choice in how to live their lives," Inglehart said.
I'm crushed--Neither Walt Disney World or Milwaukee after a Brewers game is no longer the Happiest Place on Earth. Sigh.