MetaChat - Need a stupid timer on my computer.

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30 April 2007

Need a stupid timer on my computer. I need something on my computer that will go off about every 3 minutes, preferably noisily. I'm googling, but so far all I've found is things I can set for one particular time. I want it to ping every 3 minutes, all day long. [no, I'm not playing a joke on anybody, hehheh] Any ideas?

post by: JanetLand at: 08:18 | 15 comments

Sounds like a simple enough program. Know any programmer friends who could whip something like that up for you? I would do it except as far as I'm concerned little pixies are what make my computer go.

posted by LunaticFringe 30 April | 08:29

Which operating system, Janet?

posted by danostuporstar 30 April | 08:33

There's Minutaur, if you have a Mac, but I've always found the best timer is a good old-fashioned kitchen timer.

posted by Brittanie 30 April | 08:39

Oh, sorry, I should have said -- it's Windows XP here. And yes, if I don't find anything software-oriented I will go buy a kitchen timer at lunch. Basically I'm very very annoyed at my supervisor, who seems to think that those of us in the back of the room don't get up and look at the work queue often enough. The work queue is right in front of her face, so of course she sees every folder the minute it's delivered, and if it sits there longer than 10 seconds she gets bitchy. So, in my annoyance, this timer idea. What I really need is a new job, but I can't fix that today. Hmmmm, maybe I should have turned this into A SHOUTING THREAD.

posted by JanetLand 30 April | 08:52

If you do get a kitchen timer, be sure to use the office label-maker to label it "Stupid Timer" across the top. ;)

posted by BoringPostcards 30 April | 09:10

Assuming you have sufficient privileges to do so:

Start > Control Panel
Scheduled Tasks
File > New > Scheduled Task
name your task
double-click on it to set properties

Task > Run: "%UserProfile%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" http://www.mycompany.com/workqueue
Task > Run only if logged on
Schedule > Schedule Task: Daily
Schedule > Start time: 9:00 AM
Schedule > Advanced

Repeat task
Repeat task: Every: 3 minutes
Repeat task: Until: Time: 6:00 PM
OK

OK

If your work

posted by grouse 30 April | 09:16

Forget the "If your work." Oops.

posted by grouse 30 April | 09:16

I guess your work queue is something physical in the room. Well you could replace the Task > Run bit with something like "%SystemRoot%\Media\tada.wav" instead of Firefox.

posted by grouse 30 April | 09:19

Here's a crude possibility. Save the following in a file on your computer with an .html extension and then open the file in your browser and keep it open. It should pop an alert every three minutes.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Check that queue!</title>
<script type='text/javascript'>
function timer() {
  var minutes = 3;
  alert('Yo, JanetLand, check the work queue');
  setTimeout("timer()", minutes*60000);
}
</script>
</head>
<body onload='timer()'>
<h1>Hi!</h1>
</body>
</html>

posted by danostuporstar 30 April | 09:19

Schedule > Advanced ... Repeat task: Every: 3 minutes

Thanks for this. I figured Scheduler was the way to go, but didn't know how to get more granular than "daily".

posted by danostuporstar 30 April | 09:35

Every three minutes? Seriously? Goodness, that would drive me nuts. (After awhile, I imagine you'll develop an internal timer.) Any other possible solution? Could an additional "work queue" (I, admittedly, am not sure what that entails) be made more visible for those "in the back," as you say?

posted by Pips 30 April | 09:55

make sure to get one of those air-horn-in-a-can, blast if off every three mins so everyone knows "it's time to check the queue!!!", I mean how can your supervisor complain about THAT?

(just kidding.... sort of)

posted by edgeways 30 April | 10:29

Micromanagement!! Argh!! *flees from the thread*

posted by deborah 30 April | 11:12

Actually, I like your suggestion, edgeways -- I'm doing this as a snark, not as something helpful. :) It's just an angry angry day for me. But thanks everyone for the suggestions -- the Scheduled Task thing should work just fine.

posted by JanetLand 30 April | 11:27

You know, there are treatments for narcolepsy. Ask your doctor.

posted by stilicho 30 April | 16:17

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