How do I get my mac to wake me up tomorrow morning?
November 26, 2019 2:27 PM   Subscribe

I left my phone at work and therefore have no alarm clock. Is there a way to get my mac book pro running Catalina to reliably wake me up tomorrow, without installing specific software or using a web app? This seems like it should be straightforward but I am stumped.
posted by roolya_boolya to Technology (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
You can use the calendar app for this, which should be on there even if you don't use it. Details are here. Or you can use the free internet alarm clock here.
posted by beagle at 2:36 PM on November 26, 2019


Response by poster: Sorry to threadsit but I tried exactly the process in the techwalla article and on my mac there is no option to set a custom alarm sound so it just makes one tiny reminder sound and that will not wake me up. I also tried asking Siri to play a particular song at a particular time but had no joy with that either.
posted by roolya_boolya at 2:53 PM on November 26, 2019


Best answer: Make a Spotify playlist consisting of repeated plays of 4'33" by John Cage followed by Territorial Pissings by Nirvana.
posted by caek at 3:33 PM on November 26, 2019 [15 favorites]


Having looked into this myself recently... I got concerned about my MacBook being able to wake itself up from sleep...so I barely slept night #1. For night #2 I purchased an alarm clock from my nearest Rite Aid... so I slept much better.
posted by oceano at 3:47 PM on November 26, 2019 [4 favorites]


I might just order a taxi tonight to knock at the door tomorrow. When you're up, tip the Cabbie $5-10 (depending how long Cabbie was waiting for you to wake up, put on a robe, and answer the door), and then send them away.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 4:18 PM on November 26, 2019


Best answer: You can do this under power settings (sorry "energy saver"), to ensure the mac is on and awake. Make sure you have your account set up for auto-logon. Then set a Ministry MP3 as a startup item for the account, turn up the volume and wait.
posted by pompomtom at 4:34 PM on November 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


(oh, and turn off the machine...)
posted by pompomtom at 5:13 PM on November 26, 2019


Alternate solution: do you have a portable digital kitchen timer?
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 5:17 PM on November 26, 2019


Best answer: Do Macs have the 'at' command? Can you make them stay awake (even if the screen dims)? Can you play an MP3?

$ at 06:30
warning: commands will be executed using /bin/sh
at> mpv Music/Ram\ Jam\ -\ Black\ Betty.opus
at> ... hit Ctrl-d
job 36 at Wed Nov 27 06:30:00 2019


Now, at 06:30 I'm going to drift out of sleep going WTF who's playing Ram Jam at this hour of the morning.

Alternatively, also if you can make the machine not sleep...

$ sleep 8h; play Music/something


This you set right before bed, make it 'sleep' however long you want to sleep, and then 'play' your wake up call.

These are Terminal sorts of things... but, if Mac can stay awake it's pretty easy to get it to wake you up.
posted by zengargoyle at 8:28 PM on November 26, 2019 [2 favorites]


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